Hi Trevor,

No there isn't really much of a difference if you manage to find the right writer. It's just that the more established companies have more marketing power and more writers working for them, so in theory they'd be able to find the ideal writer for the job more easily.

If you can find a good, reliable writer on the subject you want, I'd go directly to them. But bear in mind that established companies tend to give you more rights if your essay isn't up to scratch.

Academic Knowledge can charge a lot of money to clients because they can get away with it. I think they've done pretty well with the marketing side of the company and don't know how much they spend on this, as they do get a lot of work through despite the price and the numerous ethical criticisms posted here. I work for a few companies and Academic Knowledge definitely give me the most work.

Despite the 300% difference between writer's pay and client's fee, I don't know how much the company spend on marketing etc. and I figure I get paid reasonably well for the work I've completed so I can't complain *too* much. If anybody is being shafted here, it's probably the client, so it's probably best to take it up from their side.

First, here are a few faults with the company. I'm kind of hoping that a representative from the company will read this and take these criticisms into account.

I agree that the 300% fine is out of order. I've questioned them multiple times about this but they seem to be unbudging about imposing it and don't want to change their policy. This is a shame because it reflects badly upon the company. I'm sure they'd get better writers if they didn't treat some of them like crap.

Also, they are pretty hard to get in touch with. Sometimes it takes a few days to get a simple email request from them. Although they've just got themselves a new (very glitchy) system installed, I don't see this changing any time soon. Again, this is a shame, because it detracts from the more positive aspects of working for this company.

The good points are that the pay is pretty good, the company are very reliable with making payments, and *most* of the staff working there are polite and friendly.

Personally I find that they've always been fairly lenient with amendments requests. If an amendments request doesn't reflect the original briefing, they always pay me extra money and give me the option of not writing it.

Finally, I thought I'd post up some rules that seem to apply with this company in particular when you're writing for them.

First, its completely essential that you hand in the essays to the deadline, otherwise they'll try it on with fines and so on. I think they usually throw a 25% fine for every 24 hours, but sometimes they try to scare you into handing the essay in with a 300% fine. If they do this, I do believe that they will retract the fine if you are insistent. I understand exwriter's concerns about their profit motive, but don't believe that this company are total scammers like that.

Secondly, the company seem to focus on accurate references, word count etc. so make sure that these are up to scratch and they'll have less to complain about in their initial proof reading.

Its pretty essential that you check your emails daily for a few days after handing in an essay. Although I don't receive amendments requests too regularly, they only give you 24 hours to make those amendments, so it's best to be prepared. Normally you can stall them for a few days if you send them an email.

Hmm, that's all I can think of. Hope this has been helpful and not just a mindless rant!

Yes I've seen a lot of Jennifer's ramblings on here. She isn't too great at her sales patter is she?

That said, I wouldn't say that I've suffered as a result of this company as such. They pay quite well and I've never had problems receiving payment from them. Like I said, some of the staff working there are very supportive, while others are pretty hostile and arrogant. It's a mixed bag really. Plus their automated fining system just doesn't work and tends to make writers angry and disgruntled. In my experience you can complain about this and they apologise and get rid of the fine. Regardless, it's not ideal.

I suppose I'm quite an established writer for them though so they know that if they alienate me they're also alienating a major source of their profits. I guess that gives me some leeway when I'm ranting at them and can only presume from the comments on here that they treat other writers differently.

Hi,

Yes I've recently applied to write for this company, so thought I'd send an update. I sent them my CV and they got back to me after a couple of days looking for sample work. I sent them a couple of dusty old University essays and then they got back to me asking me for a "test" essay. It was 3,000 words, and was about the recent credit crunch, and was so obviously a piece of work they'd just received from a client. Of course I refused and they soon got back to me saying that I had failed their application process.

I presume this is how they get most of their work completed.

It was an English Literature essay about an Italian writer that said explicitly in the brief that it was OK to write in English. I presume the client (probably a foreign language student) couldn't understand the essay so wanted a translation to compare it against or something. It is weird that some clients seem to presume that the essayist is some kind of all-seeing, all-knowing deity, but there we are. Unfortunately I had to explain that my knowledge of Italian only stretched to rudimentary pasta shapes and phrases from The Godfather.

I explained this to the company and they thought it was all quite amusing. I was paid in full for the essay anyway.

On another note Academic Knowledge have recently updated their very temperamental communications system, something which appears to be a constant source of misery for writers. First impressions aren't too good - it's taken me three days to contact them through their new website so it seems to be business as usual on that front. I'll send an update in a couple of weeks when they've fine-tuned it all though.

Yeah they've sent me those 300% fine threats so many times now its kind of lost its edge. I think they're pretty hollow anyway; I'd imagine it'd be difficult legal ground for the company charging you money to complete work for them. I think they just use it to try and coerce writers into meeting their deadlines more regularly.

I don't really mind about making those small, niggling amendment requests about formatting etc. Although it's against the company policy, I don't really have a problem with students handing in my work. I figure they pay through the nose for it so they can do what they like with it once its done.

Its the massive amendment requests that I worry about. Once I got an amendments request to translate an essay I'd written into Italian! Then there's those clients that think you've got psychic powers, and talk about how you failed to mention some specific book or whatever that they'd just looked at and didn't bother to mention. They're annoying because they never seem to go away.

On the plus side though, I get extra payment for larger amendments if it wasn't in the original brief.

I understand that this company really should work on their attitude towards writers at times, but mostly they've been pretty nice to me. I think you just have to argue back at them when they overstep the mark.

Hi,

I've written for academic knowledge for a number of years and they treat me OK. I'm always paid on time and I get quite a bit of work from them. Also, the pay is pretty good and its put into your account at the beginning of the month. Its very reliable.

Their I.T. system is hideously constructed and throws out automated quality fines and threatening messages all of the time, but in my case if you send them a vaguely threatening email they seem to cancel it pretty quickly. I do agree that the 300% fine is scary and unnecessary. I complain to them all the time about that as I think it's deeply unethical, although they've always cancelled it in my case, otherwise I wouldn't be working for them now.

If you can get a successful bid in its worth spending a lot of time on the essay because then you'll probably get more to work on and then you can be a little bit less thorough. In my experience its worth the effort if you can blag a decent essay that will get a high grade. The pay is really good and I feel it justifies the more rubbish side to working for this company. I seem to get a lot of business and finance essays mainly, so if that's your speciality, good luck at stealing one of my main streams of income!

Cheers for the very useful website, by the way.