Have you ever accepted a ghostwriting job, completed it, looked for payment, and then heard nothing? This can happen to us all but the way we handle it is what matters.
Just recently I accepted a ghostwriting job that involved writing 50 keyword articles with the first payment due after 25 articles and the remainder on completion. This was a new client and being the trusting person that I am I accepted the job and started work. The articles were to be forwarded in batches of 5 as they were completed and I received the first 25 keywords.
I completed these and forwarded them to my client and waiting for the next lot of keywords to arrive. A week passed and I heard nothing. I contact the client telling him that I needed the remainder of the keywords to complete the project on schedule. A couple of days past and still I heard nothing. I contacted him again and this time I used his actual email address which I was able to get from Elance.
Two days later I received an email stating that the client had been out of the country and that he was reviewing the articles and would make payment and forward the next 25 keywords later that day.
Another week passed and still nothing. I have to admit I was getting very frustrated at this stage. There was very little that I could do and I was ready to admit defeat and the fact that I had been conned but there was one more thing to do first.
I opened up google and in the search bar I typed in the title of one of the article in inverted commas. To my surprise there were 2 listings for this article. Both were from the same website. I clicked on the link and there was my article on a health blog. I scanned the rest of the blog and discovered that there were in fact 10 articles on this blog. I looked for some contact details for the owner of the blog but there was nothing. I eventually found a contact us link at the bottom of the page and I clicked on it.
I sent the owner a message stated that the content on his blog had been stolen and that it was in fact copyrighted and as the owner of this content I would like an explanation as to why he had published my work on his blog. I informed his that this was illegal and that if a reply and explanation was not issued within 24 hours I would be taking the matter further.
To cut a long story short, I received an e-mail from my client later that day along with payment for the 25 articles stating that he had been away on business. He also included the remaining 25 keywords.
It just goes to show you that there are those out there who will con you but if you know what to do you can make sure they don’t get away with it.
Whatever you write belongs to you and is copyrighted by you until you receive payment. Bear this in mind if anything like this ever happens to you.
Needless to say I won’t be working with this client again.
If you have ever had anything like this happen to you be sure to share it and how you managed to resolve it if you did.
Until next time,
Amanda
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