New articles and content fees

[3babies4me]

Is there anyone here that will be ending their relationship with Articles and Content due to their new proposed fees? If you are staying, do you think that it will help to leavemore assignments open for the rest of us as the owner suggests? Do you think that it will also help to weedout those who "abuse the system"? Just wanted to see everyone else's thought on this.

[dpenna]

I have to say that I think it's wrong for an employer/contractor to charge a fee for them to work for you. Take the already low pay for the articles, added to the PayPal fees, and think seriously about how much you will be making if you pay the A&C fees and stay. I think it sticks. I suppose if you're making hundreds of dollars there a month it may be worth it. I still think that it's bad business for them to charge, though.

Diane

[homesheart]

I just don't like that company..lol..as you know if you have read my previous posts! Fees!! Good Grief!!!!!

[mayadevi]

I panicked when I got the email this morning, LOL


I've been waffling on this one, ButI think I'm going to try it for a month and see how it goes. IfI can pull it off, we will know that just about anyone can :P


Mayadevi (calmer now, thanks to folks on this board, and more caffienated

[dlrm425]

I just sent an email about writing jobs yesterday and got this email back stating there are monthly fees. I was really surprised by that. I pay 15% to RAC, but here, I'd pay that $10 whether I complete a fair amount of work each month or not. Seems strange to me. How much work is there ... those of you who have written regularly for them... do you think it's worth it??


deb

[debng]

Why would anyone pay to work for someone? Shouldn't it be the other way around?

[writerwoman]

I just got this email too. I'm out. There are better ways to make money and charging a monthly fee is just slimy.

[kaywinslow]

I wrote a few articles for them over the holidays, but quit because the
owners kept sending out these blanket "you guys suck" e-mails to all of
the writers, apparently annoyed because a few were turning in work that
didn't meet their (rather vague) expectations. I thought it was
unprofessional to be nasty to all instead of firing a few. The pay was
also embarassingly low.



But I'm still on their e-mail list, and still read a lot of their
messages. They go back and forth between yelling at the writers for
turning in substandard work and begging writers to take on
immediate rush assignments.



This latest thing just makes them seem scammish. If they want better
writing, they should pay their writers or their editors professional
rates, screen their writers better, or explain more clearly (and with
fewer exclamation points) exactly what they want. Saying they're
charging their writers so that they'll turn in better work is totally
backwards.



Just in case anyone's interested, here's the e-mail:



Hello all.



Some important changes are about to happen at ArticlesandContent.



We have decided to make the service a subscription service. Before you
all dismay please be patient and let me state the reasons for this
change.....



(1) We are continually having writers let us down over timelines, some
writers simply taking assignments and not even returning them. We
estimate that we have to date lost over $5000 worth of clients directly
due to stuff like this happening. Generally its the writers that only
take a couple of articles a month that abuse the system this way. This
ultimately not only effects us as a company but also the genuine
writers that are making a decent return from ArticlesandContent. We
figure that the serious writers that use ArticlesandContent as a
business are the very writers that will benefit, as a subscription
service will weed out the casual user and free up more assignments.



(2) Our costs are rising but our income is not. As a company we work on
a very small margin after writers fees, Paypal commissions, advertising
costs and editing costs.



(3) We are certain that after this change is implemented, the serious writers that subscribe will get more work.



(4) The extra income will allow us to increase our advertising budget and ultimately secure more work.



(5) We have on board many fine writers and most regularly earn in
access of $200 a month. We would expect this to easily increase.



Companies such as Elance and others charge a minimum of $85 per month
to register and even then its a bidding & luck process as to
whether you get work or not. I think by now you will have evaluated
what we have to offer and hopefully that will keep on improving. We
also pay out weekly which most others do not.



We plan to have a $10 per month subscription which will give you
unlimited access to the writers panel. All the previous rules will
still apply.



How will it work......

We will send you a Paypal recurring demand for $10. This will be taken
from your account in advance monthly until you cancel it. You have the
right to cancel at anytime. This change will be in place within the
next few days and you will be notified. If you feel that this change is
not acceptable then we respect that and wish you luck in your future
endeavours and thank you for your efforts. Please notify me and you
will not receive such a notice, (you can still refuse it if you do)



I can promise those of you who choose to stick with ArticlesandContent
will benefit from the extra work that will be available due to others
withdrawing.



I hope you can see the logic behind this, as we need to stay afloat and
there would be no point in continuing without some sort of change. We
are on track to making ArticlesandContent one of the most reliable and
prestigious companies of its type available and we can only do that
with your help. I can tell you also that we have an ever increasing
waiting list of over 120 writers applying to come on board but as
stated we need to be certain that we only take on genuine writers. This
is one move that will help.



Thank you everybody and I would certainly be interested in your reactions and thoughts if you would like to reply to this mail.



Regards

JohnT

[Wendy]

Wow, thanks for posting that Cheri, as I'm not on their mailing list and didn't know what you guys were referring to.


Is this customary? I've never heard of companiescharging writers a fee to write for them. He mentions elance, but in that caseyou're just paying for a membership to bid on jobs from OTHER companies, right? Just like I pay a yearly membership to Writers Market so I have access to more publications than I have time to hunt down myself.


Well, I guess if A&C is guaranteeing enough work to make the fee worth it, some writers might go for it.

[dpenna]

Originally Posted by kaywinslow

I wrote a few articles for them over the holidays, but quit because the
owners kept sending out these blanket "you guys suck" e-mails to all of
the writers, apparently annoyed because a few were turning in work that
didn't meet their (rather vague) expectations. I thought it was
unprofessional to be nasty to all instead of firing a few. The pay was
also embarassingly low.



But I'm still on their e-mail list, and still read a lot of their
messages. They go back and forth between yelling at the writers for
turning in substandard work and begging writers to take on
immediate rush assignments.



This latest thing just makes them seem scammish. If they want better
writing, they should pay their writers or their editors professional
rates, screen their writers better, or explain more clearly (and with
fewer exclamation points) exactly what they want. Saying they're
charging their writers so that they'll turn in better work is totally
backwards.

I have to totally agree! Before I got upset about the article Emma wanted me to rewrite (for free), I was getting a little disturbed by the rude emails she was sending everyone. I thought it was very unprofessional to threaten docking pay for horrible work - and to send it to everyone instead of the few who are doing so bad. I'm glad I am already out of there.

BTW, there is a big difference between paying for a service like RAC and paying a contractor/employer to work for them.

Diane