Fewer academic paper orders this year?

AND you have to go at it non-stop, full-tilt boogie to earn this much.

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.

"Rabid badger" made me laugh. Dave Barry (my hero) uses this animal to good effect:

PROSECUTOR: Mr. Barry is badgering the witness!

ME (coolly): Your honor, as these documents clearly prove, Rex here is a wolverine.

Students have less money or they start writing essays themselves after unpleasant experience with scam writing companies.

I think the that the continued downward trend for academic paper orders continues this year because of the overall state of the world economy. It is just too expensive to hire a ghost writer for academic purposes when that money can be better used for other things. Students are also on a tighter allowance this year and as such, need to prioritize their expenses. After all of their bills are paid, there may not be enough left over for the payment of academic help with their papers.

Whether some students like it or not, they are forced to do the paper themselves in order to meet their class requirements due to tight finances. If this truly the case then, in most instances, this trend is not such a bad thing. I don't mean to demean or insult present company but, if the students are actually doing their papers themselves these days then that can only be a good thing. They are learning more by actually doing the work themselves rather than just attending classes then passing off the additional learning material to the hired help for additional grades. Even if they learn from reviewing the work done for them, it still doesn't have the same effect as the student writing the paper personally.

In the meantime, it behooves freelance writers to find new and creative ways of earning from our writing talents. Those writers who still work for an academic company, should best find a new line of work in the writing industry or join the freelance writer pool as well. Freelance writers can better diversify their writing skills based upon the needs of their direct clients when compared to those who work for academic companies.

Hi,
Tough times for sure although I'm in the U.K. so may not be exposed to the same factors regrading student's disposable income. I hadn't really noticed the same trend here but then I have only written in the nursing and public health fields and in the U.K. there appears to be a shortage of writers in that area. Long may it continue lol.

I wish you all well. I hope that delivering high quality work will bolster your referrals and repeat business. I was also thinking about diversifying too - whenever I look at other freelance writing jobs - article writing, etc - there appears to be 1,000s of freelancers applying. Slight exaggeration perhaps lol. I then realize that I might be better to increase/improve my self-promotion although I don't really like that side of it.

So that's cleared nothing up lol

David

Hi David, I hope that the dwindling student need for freelance writers never reaches your shores. It would not hurt for you to somehow slowly diversify your writing portfolio just in case. It's better to be prepared than to be caught unaware right? I will admit that this business is cut-throat and not for the fainthearted or onion-skinned people. You need to be tough as nails to survive in this business. See the trends coming and then respond in a timely manner. It is good that you are somehow, trying to think ahead. While advertising will help your current business, it will not help your business grow. As a freelance writer, you would benefit from being able to write in a wide variety of formats. You need to be able to go after corporate clients if needed, work with advertising agencies if that is the work that is available, and be able to ghost write the next Fifty Shades of Grey, if required. I know, I exaggerate the last part too. LOL. Seriously though, those are the methods by which freelance writers can stay relevant in a field that for now, seems to be limited to the academic area. Hence the problems for freelancers when the dry season comes around.

I have to disagree. Compare what clients pay us and what they can earn before and after. It's no contest.

@ProfessorVerb I am not saying that our services have become too expensive. I guess I did not make myself clear enough in my statement. What I was trying to explain is that the cost of living and basic services have increased on a year to year basis while the income or allowances of the students have not increased. Therefore, their expenses have an increased value this year. The payments for those expenses have to come from somewhere. Hence students are forced to make spending adjustments where they did not previously have to.

Their priority will of course be making sure that they cover their living and school expenses, before they look into paying someone to help them with their assignments or research work. If their expenses don't line up in a certain manner, then they can't afford to hire the (extra) assistant as they normally would. I wasn't talking about their future earnings in this discussion. I was referring to their current financial situation. While hiring us would be good for their future, if it will cost them too much (due to inflation) for them to hire the extra hand then they will try to do the work themselves first in order to allot the allowance for academic writing to some other, more important expense that will affect their immediate life.

You are better written than most in here ... but I think your "guns and butter" argument (i.e., "students are forced to make spending adjustments where they did not previously have to") is misplaced. Clearly, no one is forcing anyone to do anything in here (or elsewhere if I'm involved). As I've emphasized elsewhere, some people just want to buy their way through college. Who am I to argue? That cost-benefit analysis is highly personal and is incredibly subjective. If I can help, fine. I may be a w****, but as my wife emphasized to me many years ago, I'm the kind of w**** you have to save up for...

I guess they have to do the math....
.

Don't get me wrong, I know that we are not forcing the students to work with us. They would all willingly do so if it meant that they would not have to face budget balancing problems at a certain point. If anything, the students are "being forced" to NOT use our services despite their actually wanting to. If there are enough clients out there who represent students who are willing to buy their way through college then we would all be too busy working with the students at this point in time. The cost analysis for the service doesn't come from our end in terms of discussion points. The cost analysis instead comes from the student's side. They are the ones with more financial considerations to prioritize. We just sit back and wait for them to contact us so we can begin working. Lucky is the freelance writer who comes across a student who says "Money is no object. Just get my paper done!" From the sounds of it, you are one of those lucky few @ProfessorVerb

The slowdown, the downward trend, these have all become irrelevant because, for a major part of the year, schools were shut down. Students passed without having to complete examinations, pass written work, or submit projects. The writing field was officially in a coma for a majority of 2020. It is slowly coming back to life with the slow rollout of the school year. However, that does not assure the writers or academic companies of a return to normal. Everyone is starting from zero. We need to rebuild the industry. Repricing of the paper orders would be the first move towards stabilizing the industry. Promoting the writing services under a new normal would also help. We have to figure out how to get clients in a new academic field. If we don't figure this out soon, we will all be out of a job or business.

AI has really done a number on the available academic orders for both the company based and independent writers. The students tend to trust AI more to develop their papers, working very slightly on it to improve the content, if at all. Other companies have decided to jump on the AI bandwagon by offering AI writing services alongside their human writer services. The students, for some reason, are opting for the AI writer instead of the human writer for some reason. The number of academic orders have not changed nor slowed down. What has changed, is the appetite of the clients for hiring human writers. Until the AI trend comes to pass, we will see fewer and fewer writing jobs available for human writers.

...until they get their essays back with a grade...