Well every domain registrar that I know of lets you keep your identity, as the owner of the domain, anonymous for a small fee. So the distinction between domain-associated email addresses and "anonymous" ones is non-existent.

Writers2beware winding people up reminds me of Lucy, Charlie Brown, and the football.

Mighty bold prediction. Sure you want to go that far out on a limb?

You can find tons of people on fiverr who will distribute flyers for you at campuses all over North America. Kind of doubt it will drum up much business, though.

Maybe, but the average student/customer not going to be able to track down the origin and ownership of a website, especially if the Whois data is blocked. The fact that someone has a website doesn't indicate anything - could just be a scammer with a site, or a company acting like an individual writer. If having a site equated to being trustworthy, we could trust the ESL companies out there that have untold numbers of sites. Do you trust them?

I don't know, are you guys even part of the EU anymore? Weren't you voting to split off and sail away or something? Are you taking Scotland or just leaving it lie?

Wordsies, you're not implying that the parties posting in this thread are somehow connected to those two sites, are you? I had assumed that they were objective observers just trying to help people out. Is that a reputable, well-established website, Major? A member of the Better Business Bureau, perhaps?

Personally I think the Ukrainian companies have been so aggressive in their SEO efforts, they're sucking up all the orders. Rather than finding, say, EssayChat, a potential customer finds a Ukrainian company if they do a Google search. If you want steady business, you have to get it through word of mouth or other non-Google means.

Building an internet-based business on only one source of traffic is never a good idea. A lot of essay companies are finding that out the hard way.

A freelance writer can rely a lot on word of mouth, as you well know. As far as I know, a lot of essay companies are highly dependent on Google search.

I have only just skimmed this thread, but as I understand it, you guys are proposing a standardized referencing method using Esperanto. Or would the entire paper be in Esperanto?

I'll be happy to give it a try as soon as we all agree on the details. It can be like a pilot project.

You can't draw accurate conclusions that way. There are plenty of non-academic freelance writers out there making a good living.

It depends on what your denominator is. All people who would kinda like to be freelance writers? People who have actually tried it? People who are in some way at least remotely qualified?

People can make a good living* if they are:

-Qualified for the work (the specifics here depend on exactly what kind of freelance work you want to do -- journalistic vs. corporate vs. technical writing vs. etc.)

-Willing to work hard.
-Willing and able to market themselves.

For people with these attributes, the chances of success are high. For those without them, the chances are probably closer to the 5 percent figure you mentioned -- perhaps lower.

*(This also depends on your definition of "good" -- it's going to be hard to exceed six figures with most types of freelance writing.)

Major: Here's what people seem to miss when they are promoting companies as the best (or only real) option. A lot of customers do want to know their writer and be almost like "friends." It's true that they might not want to be friends on Facebook, because of the privacy issues you mentioned. But they want to be able to reach the writer immediately and discuss things in a detailed way if necessary. It's a trust element that isn't adequately captured with discussions of the BBB and security certificates.

There have been times when I couldn't take something on, and my only choice was to refer the customer to someone else. The customer often says: "I want an individual writer, not a company. Do you know anyone good?" I guarantee that those customers would not be impressed if I put them in contact with a company and promised that it had X, Y and Z security protocols and was a member of the BBB, because that's not they want.

On the other hand, I'm sure there are also students of the opposite variety, who only want to deal with established companies. But those aren't the types I've tended to deal with -- they don't get in touch with me in the first place.

What I think would be useful is to get involved with the messaging apps that college students tend to use. Then you can be available and in touch in a way that's relevant to them, and they can maintain privacy.

I was counting that under "willing to work hard" but yes, it bears emphasizing. If you want to get to six figures as any type of writer, you are going to have to work like a rabid badger.

I actually don't offer the customers a psychological evaluation or Freudian deconstruction.

That said, pretty cool how it all works, isn't it? If a writer goes the extra mile on customer service, he or she will have a stable of loyal clients who keep him/her in the money year-round.

Believe it or not, there are actually people who use social media for purposes other than scaring up some tail. Not many, and certainly not me. But I've heard that it happens.

I bet you get really upset when young fellers step on your lawn, too.

I was laughing about the tone of your comment, not your literal age, which I have no idea about. Read it out loud in an old man voice - you'll see what I mean.

Something like this guy: youtu.be/YMJPrNQxPNA

Topic: Social media marketing - is it effective for freelance writers?

Right. No hidden agendas or undisclosed affiliations on this forum *eye roll*

I suspect Mister Will knows how to do his job.

Then stop sucking up to me.

But you're right. This is probably Will's first story, and he's probably never encountered shysters in the course of his reporting before. We should tell him how to do his job.

Evidence?

Um, I'm pretty sure just about everybody uses social media at this point. Wordsies' strategy of figuring out how to work social media advertising to his advantage sounds like a clear winner to me. It's better than relying too heavily on search traffic.

A lot of people, if they are working on something besides academic papers. Technical writing and such.

When you factor in marketing, buying your own health insurance, self-employment taxes, etc., you need to be making well over $100 per hour from your writing, in most types of freelance work. Many academic writers can get by on much less per hour because they write a lot of company papers or have regular clients, meaning that most of their working hours are actual paid hours. (Also, most work far more than 40 hours a week during the busy seasons.)

But if you specialize in, say, writing book reviews for magazines, then you're probably going to spend at least 50 percent of your time digging up new assignments -- and not getting paid for that time. Thus you need higher rates.