The legal side

You might think that writing jobs freelance is somewhat akin to your dream of becoming a famous writer; that is, someone pays you to write what you want in the way that you want it, and everyone in the world loves to read it and then you win the J.K. Rowling award for getting everyone to read.

The reality of writing jobs freelance is far different from what most of us imagine before we really get started, and this can lead to some very common temptations for shortcuts when you are writing a piece, particularly if it is for use online. Let’s take a look at some of the temptations that arise for a lot of freelancers; hopefully forewarned is forearmed and you will be able to avoid some very common mistakes.

Plagiarizing other people’s work

This is by far the most common complaint I have had from clients who have already hired writers to create content for their sites. It seems that ripping off other people’s work by copying and pasting it into your own article is very, very common among web writers.

I can understand the temptation; sometimes it is very hard to write article number ten on the big advantages of a car that runs on hydrocarbons. Still, you have to buckle down and do your own work. First of all, copy and paste is cheating another writer out of their due. Second, there are plenty of copyright watching software programs that are employed by clients, and they seem to do a fairly good job. (Copyscape is probably the most widely used application)

Now on the other side of the copyright coin is the concern that you will accidentally “plagiarize” material. You might scoff at the notion, but it is a very real possibility; with so much content on the web it’s hard to think of an original way to say something like “Britney Spears needs to take better care of her children”.

Still, the idea of copyright violation is that large portions of a piece have been copied; it seems to be okay to have a few similar lines or even paragraphs, but you need to be sure that you are writing in your own words. Here are a few pointers I have picked up:

• If something appears in more than three other articles, it’s considered common knowledge. This is more to do with academic writing which focuses on research, but it applies to everyday Internet copy writing as well.
• When in doubt, credit the source. If you find a piece that you really like, don’t be scared to say “I got this from so and so”. The idea behind copyright and plagiarism is that credit is given where it is due, to the furthering of the career of the original author.
• Copyright does not apply to pieces over a certain age. This is great if you want to write about Ye Olde Wagonne, but might not be so helpful when it comes to hybrid cars. Still, you might be able to find some really good material.

Disappearing on a Client

Some writers will find that they are very tempted to just disappear on a client. I admit this is a problem that I have had when writing jobs freelance. One way I overcome it is by asking for a deposit; I find it’s much easier to complete what I say I will if I know someone has already paid me, because it becomes more of a question of integrity than anything else.

When the temptation to jam out on a contract starts to make itself felt, you might also want to remind yourself that it is far easier to retain a client than to find a new one. In fact, I would say that is how you will gain success when writing jobs freelance.

If it wasn’t for several repeat clients I would not be making a steady and reliable income month after month. They are also almost always the clients that are willing to pay realistic prices for pieces.

Contracts for writing jobs freelance

You can also avoid these common temptations by making sure that they are in any contracts that you and your client work out. Most of the time your client, if he or she has been in web development for a while, will know to make it very clear that work found to violate copyright will not be paid for.

It’s also a good idea to set up a contract which includes some milestones, so that you have good guidelines as to where you should be from date to date. That way the job is broken down into smaller chunks. And if you fall behind you won’t be quite as tempted to just drop the whole thing.