Constant Content

I've sold a few articles and was recently contacted by a client requesting a specific piece of writing. If we agree on the content, length, price and deadline via message, what happens from there? Will they put the money into escrow through CC? What protection do I have to ensure I get paid for the work I do for them (it is very specialized and would not likely be purchased if it went into the public catalogue). Thanks!

There used to be a rule I think where the PMs made the customer put money into the account. At least, when I used to do more private requests I was always told that they have plenty of credits.

Now, I'm not so sure it works like that. I never got burned on private requests, but have been the last couple years. My personal rule is that I won't do branded content anymore so only things I think will sell in the open market. I just did a private request though and it worked out fine.

So, it's possible you won't get paid and AFAIK there is no escrow or anything. I feel bad for that one writer who spent a long time on content and months later was never paid. At least I've only been burned for an hour or so.

The client has to make a job for you, and that's really the only difference.

Just to make it crystal clear, you have no protection at all. Don't invest more time in a private request than you are willing to lose.

Like Lysis suggests, it's become increasingly common to get burned on them. I don't do them anymore unless it's so quick it's worth the risk or I think the content has a good chance of selling from the general catalog... although if you check other threads here, you'll see that even those sales have slowed down quite a lot in the past five months or so.

bridger wrote:Just to make it crystal clear, you have no protection at all.

I emailed Support but didn't hear back. Could someone from C-C confirm that there are no protections in place to make sure I get paid for this writing job? Because if there aren't, I will definitely cancel.

There isn't. If I were you, I'd tell them that you'll do 1 and see what happens. I wouldn't spend too much time on it before testing it out. I had one person buy something from me in my catalog and then ask me for a custom article and never paid me.

I know at Upwork there are a lot of writers who don't demand escrow and get burned. Kinda seems what happens here. At Upwork, I won't lift a finger until I see escrow.