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Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Danger, Will Robinson! (Or: How I Learned to Spot Job Posting Red Flags, Part 3)


To read Part 1, visit here. Part 2 here.

Let's talk about money ... your money. More specifically, throwing your money away. And chances are that's what you'll end up doing if you pay to obtain "secret" job listings.

These kinds of ads prey upon our desire to get the jump on our competition by giving us access into an all-exclusive enclave. Don't be fooled. There is no such thing as a super-duper-ultra-suede-Doppler-5000-double-dog-dare listing of secret freelance jobs. If you receive anything for your money, it will be recycled listings from job sites that are easily available to anyone for free.

And of course, you should never -- EVER -- pay to have something you write be considered for publication (contests are another animal). That's called a rip-off.

4 comments:

  1. I've enjoyed your series about job postings. Recognizing the scams is, like you say, easy to spot if you know what to look for. I often go on Craig's List to look for writing gigs. (haven't found a worthwhile one, yet, but I remain ever so slightly hopeful.)
    There is a site, however, that really puzzles me. Do you know anything about paytopost.com?

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  2. I am not familiar with that one. But if it represents what the name suggests (paying to have your work posted on a Web site), I'd run the other way. But I'm just supposing.

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  3. Oh, no, it's called payperpost.com and they supposedly pay "you" for your post. My question is, how can they accept every post they receive? Or do they? Or do they send them out to sites they think will like them? It's all so very confusing and there's very little concrete information on their site.
    Anyway, I loved your series.

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  4. Hmm. Do you know how much they pay? Is it a pay-per-click deal?

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