Freelancing and More - Part 3

No ethics or morals either

By Doreen Martel

No ethics or morals either

I am pretty outspoken about how I feel about academic writing I’ve written about my feelings (and shared a conversation with someone) regarding this practice. Not only do I consider this type of writing intensely dishonest, I find it far worse when I see some of the ads for this type of work. Let’s talk about a post that recently cropped up on LinkedIn. Unfortunately, the “free” version of LinkedIn is somewhat problematic since any idiot can set up an account and claim they are anyone they want to be. That aside, I wouldn’t pay to use LinkedIn, but that’s…

Spammer: Kizi Games

By Doreen Martel

Spammer: Kizi Games

Seriously? I get all kinds of spam comments but this one has to take the cake. This guy is from Isreal and is on a number of blacklists. You can see the on this blacklist check that the IP address 212.117.143.69 is where they are coming from. Now why they pick a freelancing site to try to promote a gaming site beats the crap out of me, but so be it. I deleted most of the comments but here’s the general gist: kizi kizinew.net 212.117.143.69 Submitted on 2013/01/05 at 3:03 am kizi… Almost all of what you point out is…

Another spammer hits my blog

By Doreen Martel

Another spammer hits my blog

As usual, I’m always on the lookout for spammers and scammers. However, the latest spammer is really getting on my nerves! This bozo is trying to show that they can post their crap anyplace they want and they’re posting 8-10 comments daily on my blog Freelancing and More. Here’s what their comments look like. They are pretty clever too since they have managed to purchase a ton of URL addresses and add their crappy content to them. They were also smart enough to use a masking system so you can’t tell who owns them. So, if you see anything…

Academic writing dishonesty

By Doreen Martel

Academic writing dishonesty

I have spoken before about academic writing and have made it pretty clear that I consider it one of the lowest forms of writing found anywhere on the net. In fact, I would rather starve to death than actually engage in academic writing. As far as I’m concerned, if you are writing student’s school papers, you’re helping them cheat their way through school. Today, I found a batch of spam comments on my blog Freelancing and More and decided to see where it went. Well, lo and behold, it went to an essay writing service with a small disclaimer on…

Dishonest Vendor

By Doreen Martel

Dishonest Vendor

Since I have been refused any help either from the company or from Microsoft in over a month, it’s time to warn you about purchasing Windows 8 from this vendor: Arvato Digital Services. Here’s my story: On November 12, I purchased an upgrade of Windows 8 using the software update shown on the Microsoft home page which tests your system for compatibility issues. Since there were none, I went ahead and I upgraded to Windows 8 with no problem. The upgrade cost me $39.99. This was on my primary laptop which I use 99.9% of the time. However, I do…

My own worst enemy

By Doreen Martel

My own worst enemy

You know there are sometimes you cannot help but shoot yourself in the foot. I’m particularly good at that and tend to be my own worst enemy. Remember when I wrote the post on setting goals for 2013? I made this observation early in the post Finally I got around to deciding what I should set up for work-related goals for 2013. One of the first things I need to do is learn to not be so snarky when commenting on things that annoy me. This of course will take all of my self-preservation skills since stupidity makes me crazy…

Writing Site Updates: Media Piston

By Doreen Martel

Writing Site Updates: Media Piston

One of my most “popular” writing site reviews was the one I did on Media Piston. Admittedly I was fairly new to the site when I wrote it and to be honest, I’ve had sufficient amounts of work that I really have not spent much time on the site. I was aware that as an oDesk contractor, I could sign into Media Piston with my oDesk login but never did it that way because this change seemed to occur after I signed up. After a couple of weeks, I discovered that oDesk users were confused about Media Piston as you…

Recapping January 2013

By Doreen Martel

Last month I was determined to set out some attainable goals for 2013 and see if I could do everything possible to meet them. Well, January was a mixed bag of success and failure, some controllable, others not so much. Because I feel the best way to meet goals is to hold my own feet to the fire, I figured I should see how I did on those goals for the month of January, especially since some of them were monthly goals. So let’s take a look at the good, the bad and the not so good. The blogs This…

Helium vs other writing sites

By Doreen Martel

When writers are considering writing sites, it is often helpful for them to compare Helium to other online content sites. Some writers prefer to submit content to content sites that pay upfront payments, others prefer to submit to sites that pay residual income while others prefer a blended approach. Initial comparison There are two separate models that must be compared when you are comparing Helium and other content sites. The first model has to do with upfront payments. When searching for sites that are comparable to Helium for upfront payments, it is challenging to find them, especially since Helium changed…

Why write for Helium?

By Doreen Martel

Regardless of what writing sites that a writer uses, they typically set their own goals. Not all goals are financial in nature. Goals may change in response to changes that are outside a writer’s control, but they are seldom abandoned unless things are impossible. The motivation for writing at Helium will vary from writer to writer but generally will fall into broad categories. Diversity in writing Because so many paying sites have restrictions on the type of content that can be written, Helium draws writers who wish to expand their knowledge base. While writers may find that certain categories pay…

Mythbusters: I set my own hours

By Doreen Martel

Mythbusters: I set my own hours

Any freelancer who thinks they are setting their own hours is (in my opinion) only fooling themselves! We really love to think that we make our own hours, decide which days to take off and work at our own leisure. However, when was the last time you worked without a deadline? When was the last time that your pay didn’t depend on your meeting a deadline? Are all of your clients in exactly the same time zone that you are? Content mills even have deadlines Even if you are one of the hundreds of writers who depend on content mills…

Mythbusters: I am my own boss

By Doreen Martel

Mythbusters: I am my own boss

Laughable! One of the reasons so many people claim to enjoy freelancing or working for themselves is the claim they like the idea of being their own boss. Make no mistake about it, while there is some measure of truth to this, you really are not your own boss. Why? Simple! Here’s some of the reasons you cannot claim to be your own boss. Deadline matters Let’s face it when a client offers you an assignment, you have a deadline. If you fail to meet the deadline you may not be paid for your work. When you are working under…

Ready Set Go 2013!

By Doreen Martel

Ready Set Go 2013!

Finally I got around to deciding what I should set up for work-related goals for 2013. One of the first things I need to do is learn to not be so snarky when commenting on things that annoy me. This of course will take all of my self-preservation skills since stupidity makes me crazy and I can’t help but call it out when I see it. Step 1 I guess is going to be avoiding forums that piss me off But the real goals! First, this blog needs some TLC – I am worried that I’ve allowed this blog to…

An Update on Textbroker

By Doreen Martel

An Update on Textbroker

I have to admit that I’ve been a bit skeptical about Textbroker because too often, I feel that the ratings by the editors (or whoever does them) is far too subjective. While I am well aware of my propensity to either over or under use commas, I feel that for the most part, my writing is good enough to pass most editors. For the past several months, I’ve continued to work at TB even though I am squeamish about some of the rates. However, with that said, I am fairly confident that going into 2013, that TB will work well…

Your Emergency is NOT My Problem

By Doreen Martel

Your Emergency is NOT My Problem

As most of you know I work nearly every single day and I am actually pretty receptive to handling “fire drills” provided that I have the time to deal with them efficiently. I seldom (if ever) turn down an assignment if I have a fair amount of time to respond to it. But then there are morons like this one who seem to think that freelancers are sitting at their computers just waiting for clients to contact them. Yesterday (12/27) an email was sent to me at 3pm in the afternoon. Now keep in mind this is someone who has…

Year drawing to a close

By Doreen Martel

Year drawing to a close

Who would have thunk it? 2012 is drawing to a close and I’ve gotten around to reviewing what my plans were for 2012. While some of my plans came to fruition, it appears that they got somewhat thwarted around mid-year meaning I had to change course! Last year at this time I was planning on starting my new website, No Scam Work at Home to help identify and call out scams. For several months, this worked out pretty well. The problem of course came in that my site was hacked around mid-year and I had to rethink what to do…

Your Retirement – Your Business

By Doreen Martel

Your Retirement – Your Business

If you have been employed by a company for a long time, you may be wondering now that you’re self employed – and own your own business – what to do with your 401(k) or your 403(b) from your employer. You’ve been asking yourself “Can I roll over this 401(k) into another plan”? You can absolutely rollover a 401(k) to a secondary retirement plan, you just have to be careful what type of a plan it is!! When you have a 401(k) it has ‘tax preferential’ status and if you ‘blend’ funds from other non-preferred plans (such as a regular…

Spammer Alert: Kizi

By Doreen Martel

Spammer Alert: Kizi

I get so sick of these comments that it never ceases to increase my blood pressure. I’m happy to link to legitimate blogs and I’m also happy to have comments in them that contain links but when I get a never ending stream of posts from the same idiot who is trying to get links to a worthless website it never fails to piss me off. Kizi is a website with a bunch of garbage on it, nothing more than games and advertisements. Yet some worthless piece of shit seems to think that I might be interested in linking to…

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Another Disclaimer

Readers of this blog will see several posts regarding oDesk Some will be positive while others may not be so positive. I do need to make a disclaimer here about oDesk.

A) I was (and am) a contractor on oDesk - I accept various jobs at oDesk,

B) At one time during a very active period of time for me, I worked as a contractor FOR oDesk. They were one of the many clients who have hired me at oDesk

C) The advertisement you see here in various posts and in ad blocks are from Commission Junction. I am an affiliate for oDesk.

Note that none of this prevents me from sharing information. I am not violating any rules set down by oDesk and I am not sharing information that could not be found by users and non-users of oDesk.