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Payment Options for Indian freelancers: Tips and Warnings

8/11/2008 7:26:20 PM

sanjaysett

6 posts

Payment Options for Indian freelancers: Tips and Warnings

In every sphere of life you will find both the good and the bad person. It is the same in the field of content writing too. A budding newcomer to this field will hardly know anything the work providers, nor do they have any idea about the payment options. They have just joined a dream world and are interested in earning money from the comfort of their home.

You can be rest assured that for every good work provider, there are ten cheaters too. Their modus operandi is simple. They will send you small batches of work, 1-2 articles at a time, and pay you for the same every weekend. Before you have any idea of what is going one, they will increase the frequency. The payments will still be maintained. Now comes the clincher. They might tell you that 2 other writers of their panel are sick and if you would want to do all their work.

Dreaming of riches, you slog out the entire day to provide 20+ articles. By the end of the week you have completed nearly 150 articles and this is the time these cheaters make their presence felt. They will fall ill; they might have to visit a new client. There will be many excuses, but all of them point to one fact… the payment might be delayed since they do not have the time. By the time you realize it, these cheats might have recovered more than whatever they have paid to you till now.

If you are a freelancer and are submitting your articles to an individual, you should demand for daily payments via bank-to-bank transfer. If the quality of your work is decent and if the provider is genuine, there is no reason that they will not accept this understanding. You might also accept payments via PayPal. Do not opt in for their merchant or business accounts instead opt for the basic one. While the latter might have some restrictions, the former might get your money to be blocked unless you are conversant with their rules. Maintain records of all your transactions since they might be required while you file your income tax returns.

Always demand the phone number of the individual provider and try to contact him at different hours. This is to make sure that he has provided you with his number and has not called up from someone else’s connection. If your provider changes his email account, be wary. Insist on communicating through a single email account. Gmail has the bad habit of stacking up emails in stacks. Request your work provider to use a new message for each new work that they send to you. Once you have become experienced enough, you will have a sixth sense that will warn you of danger before the same can cause harm to you. If required join some forums that discuss about content writing.

8/12/2008 1:35:08 PM

Raghav

24 posts

Re: Payment Options for Indian freelancers: Tips and Warnings

Excellent tips Sanjay. I've had some terrible experiences with clients performing the vanishing act just when the payment is due. Experience is a hard taskmaster but it has taught me a valuable lesson of double checking and verifying authenticity of the client. I prefer working with content firms that have established processes and relaible payment options.

8/13/2008 8:27:06 PM

sanjaysett

6 posts

Re: Payment Options for Indian freelancers: Tips and Warningsnks for the encouragement

Thanks for the encouragement. The problem is compounded by the use of `Gmail', the `de facto' choice of webmails by these scoundrels. One just cannot see any `smtp' details of the sender in the expanded header. The only way to authenticate these people are via their phone numbers. I too have been cheated a lot, but have ended up being wiser ;)

8/16/2008 7:56:16 PM

EKNAATH NAGARKAR

137 posts