I usually see the result of foreign Web writers on the actual sites that bought the $3 articles. But this time I ran across the work before it happens. This is the blog of an Indonesian Web writer. He has plenty of fantastic advice for people wanting to get into the field. For instance, “Many freelance exchange websites have openings for this kind of projects with an increasing trend.” Good to know.
The sad part, sports fans, comes at the very end. That’s when it’s revealed that this Indonesian writer who gives out advice on writing didn’t even write this piece of junk. He scraped it from Articlecity and reprinted it without the resource box. Not being a native English speaker, he evidently thought it was a high-quality article that would bring him business. It won’t. But if he offers to write content for $3, I’ll bet you cash that some idiot will hire him.
Ebooks are big business these days. They’re expensive, they’re helpful and they can make a writer a heck of a lot of money if they are marketed properly. The problem is, getting that marketing can be expensive. A good sales letter for an ebook can easily cost over $1K. So, of course, a lot of people outsource the work overseas. The result is often like this.
In describing the ridiculous pointlessness of this site, it’s important to note that the site makes it sound like they’re selling The Secret, which they’re not. Copyrights and bait-and-switch techniques aside, this outsourced gem has brought us such classics as:
“If you learn the answers to these two questions you will infalibly get rich, get a loving couple, a new house, a luxury car, or whatever it is that you want in your life.”
and
“The powerfull people of the world have been using The Secret for centuries in their benefit, now you can have access to it because there’s a system, there’s an explanation, there’s a secret formula, and with it… YOU CAN BE, DO OR HAVE ANYTING YOU WANT”
If there’s anything I want it’s an end to crap like this. Apparently they don’t have spell check wherever that writer is from. Sad. Just- sad.
Taking a break from the foreign-generated crap that outsourcers often use, let’s take a look at mid-priced domestic content. Don’t fool yourself. If you pay mid-price, you will not get top quality. There are no exceptions, no matter what you keep telling yourself. Anyone you would want as a customer (educated people with money to spend) can spot poor content from a mile away.
Take a look at this mid-priced site. It’s actually cheap as content goes, but since there are so many people who think $5 articles are reasonable, let’s just call this mid-priced. They’re selling $10 articles in bulk quantities to anyone who wants them. And, all of the articles are supposed to be written by Americans. Great! So, you can go there anytime and get cheap articles. But wait- there’s a catch. There always is, isn’t there?
The copy of any site has to be as good as possible in order to get customers. And, what these guys are selling is words. So therefore, the best of those words will probably be on the site, right? On the index page I found 17 grammatical errors, not including the testimonials. That is an enormous amount of errors for such a small amount of copy. I can imagine what the actual articles look like…
Unfortunately, a higher price doesn’t always mean higher quality. These guys have some of the highest prices I’ve ever seen. The prices are so outrageously high they are beyond the realm of even the copywriting greats that have dozens of books under their belts and get paid just to look at you. These people want hundreds of dollars per page, but take a look at their index page.
Yeah. Not only is the first sentence ridiculous, the page is full of grammatical errors. It also blends styles, suggesting a lack of professional training. From the trainwreck of a first paragraph to a nonsensical list of colleges with no indication of whether any of these people graduated from them or even attended them, the whole situation is a mess. It’s just my opinion, but I’d rather not pay for sub-par writing. But, given a choice, I’d rather pay $10 for it than $200. Just saying.
I doubt that this needs any further explanation. If it does, take a look at the product name. I’ve written a lot of product descriptions in my time, and I have never let one go out without a careful examination of the specs to make sure everything is correct. But then, I’m not an idiot. With a bad product description, no one is going to buy it. Will anyone buy this? I would worry about anyone who does.
Someone who loves buying cheap content recently pointed out this article as being one that’s a great writing example. Seriously. It’s such a great writing sample, apparently, because the writer obviously knows so much about the topic.
What he knows is how to read the back cover of The Millionaire Next Door and then to slap together an article as fast as possible that barely touches on the back cover content. Aside from the patronizing and offensive rhetoric being espoused here, it also contradicts itself and gives no actual information of any kind. Great sample. If that guy gets any business from this article I’ll eat my own head.
The second-worst line from this has to be, “Rich people, on the other hand, may not actually even have any money.” There’s a well-known wealth concept under there, but it’s not explained adequately for the audience. In other words, it’s not Web writing.
The worst phrase is, of course, “The rich can be horrible people, but not because they make so much money and they get to drive fancy cars, but because rich people poor, rude attitudes.” Not only does this guy write poorly, he is also judgmental and desperately jealous of the rich. And yet, he wants to teach others how to make lots of money and then presumably insult them for doing it. Great plan.
Oh yeah, this one was a $3 special, if they indeed paid even that much. Wow. Just- wow.
So many favorite phrases here, so little time to bitch about them. I do love, “For instance, green can render illumination to a darker shade of walling.” I’m thinking of having that one printed up on a t-shirt.
But, I might be persuaded to have an affair with, “It is an operation possibly more angst-ridden than your first time to do such task.”
Sign me up for some shelving! Or, if I need some, how about if I just go with someone who presents a professional image with sentences that make some damn sense? Nah, that would be too easy.
Wow, I hadn’t realized that I’d been away so long. It’s been awhile, but I’m going to try to update more frequently. Lately I’ve been involved in two large projects that did not involve researching through traditional Internet sites. Instead, I’ve been dragged through the depths of the wiki sites, most of which are written by drunk four year olds, apparently.
I did run across this, however. The owner of the site outsources through RentaCoder. He hires mainly from India but occasionally indulges the cheapest Americans he can find. It shows. His only criteria in hiring a “writer” is that they speak English and charge very little. That’s it. That’s what he’s basing his business on. I wish I could pick the brain of such a brilliant business mind. I imagine it would be something like South Park’s underpants gnomes. 1) Steal underpants. 3) Profit.
He has a great domain name, a good concept, a timely topic- and then pffft. It’s pretty hard to take a site seriously when it’s written so cheaply. It looks like something a jr. high school student worked pretty hard on, even asking her dad how to spell some of the words, but it’s simply not professional. Please, people. Hire a professional. You’re wasting your time and ours by pulling the $3 article crap.
I’m not buying from a site that spouts platitudes like, “Tell everyone you know, the huge benefit of this is that because people know about it, it will prevent you from failing, as no one can stand admitting failure of something they have control over.” How about telling everyone you know that hiring a competent writer is a huge benefit?
Ahh, incompetence. Will it ever fail to amuse? Maybe, but this article won’t.
The horror of this article is twofold, I’m afraid. Not only is it mind-numbingly bad in every possible way, it’s also included in a site that gives advice about depression. Giving medical advice should never be mixed with the $2 article crowd. This was obviously outsourced to India or another country in which English is not the primary, or even secondary, language.
Once the wave of lawsuits begins against these creeps, karma will begin exacting its just revenge. Until then, all we can really do is point and laugh.
My favorite bit has to be, “But at the time of online you must be secured with few thinks.”
Yes, that’s how far $2 goes, outsourcers. Great job.
This site has that magical mixture of poor writing, nonsensical sentences, a complete misunderstanding of punctuation and random capitalization. If there’s One thing that drives Me insane, it’s Random capitalization. That was taught in first grade, people. If you haven’t mastered it by now, I think it’s time to learn to feed yourself and tie your shoes before attempting to write anything.
A few quick highlights:
“While not one of the most profitable of home businesses, Paid Surveys are simple and easy to do and Yes, you can make money online with them.”
“If you write something interesting enough times, your readers will grow and so will your income. ”
“Make money online with online auctions is one of the 20th and 21st century’s most reliable, true and tested, home businesses.”
This site reeks of $3 articles. Next time, splurge and pay $3.50.
Obviously an inside job because the suppressive persons masquerading as human writers may be into mind control. The “writers” for this site and magazine are not exactly in the top tier. Of course, no amount of eloquence could possibly save this subject matter. I imagine that Dickens himself would come out of a project like this sounding like a whack job- and probably wearing a foil hat and talking to himself on the street while swiping at imaginary bugs.