By Holland Webb @WebbHollandLyle

You’re a writer, and writers should get paid, right? Yes, they should! If you work diligently enough, you will probably find people and publishers who will pay you for your work.

Unfortunately, you may also run into a scammer along the way, someone who is more than happy to enrich themselves at your experience. Freelance writing scams are a common internet swindle, and they can take many forms.

Let’s take a quick look at the top five most common writing scams and how you can avoid them.

Scam #1: The Fake Writing Platform

How it works: The scammer wants you to be part of a team of writers who create articles for their clients. If you pass their test — and you will — you’ll be allowed inside a locked job board. You’ll have to pay to play, though, and once inside, you’ll likely find no actual work available.

 How to avoid it: Some writing platforms are legitimate and will pay you decent money for your work. These often have reviews from their existing writers or editors on third-party sites like Glassdoor or Indeed. They also have an active social media presence with recent content. Scammers either haven’t set up these things or have done so sloppily.

Scam #2: The Scummy Writing Coach or Course

How it works: You sign up for a writing course or pay a coach to help you improve as a writer. But the course provider or coach isn’t actually qualified. Once you pay your fees, you discover that the course is overpriced and unhelpful or the coach has no valuable insight.

 How to avoid it: Courses can be a boon to your freelance writing career, and a good writing coach is worth their weight in gold. Just make sure the person you pay to learn from has considerably more experience than you do before you send them money.

Scam #3: The Fake Job Post

How it works: The scammer posts a job or reaches out to you with an offer to interview. You send a resume and complete the interview process. You get hired, and onboarding paperwork comes to your inbox. You just need to fill out your contract and a form with your bank’s routing number, your account number, and your social security number. The scammer uses the numbers you send to rob you, and the “job” goes up in smoke.

 How to avoid it: This one scares me because the process mirrors that of getting a real freelance job offer. You can usually tell the scammers because they contact you out of the blue, offer you a salary that’s too good to be true, and rush the hiring process.

Scam #4: The Illegitimate Publisher, Marketer, or Agent

How it works: Anyone can call themselves an agent, a marketer, or a publisher. There’s absolutely no barrier to entry for these professions. Sometimes scammers impersonate legitimate professional services. At other times, they just tell you they can do something they can’t.

 How to avoid it: Remember that real agents don’t charge up-front fees, and publishers and marketers should have top-notch websites with case studies and testimonials. If they are going to market your work, they should be able to market themselves.

Go to a conference like Blue Ridge. Meet the agents and publishers who are there. Listen for the names of their friends and colleagues. If another professional approaches you, ask your Blue Ridge friends to give them a reference before you trust them.

 How can you recognize a freelance writing scam when one comes your way?

Try looking for these hallmarks:

• Get-rich-quick lures. No one pays beginning writers big fees for their content. If you’re being offered higher-than-market rates, it’s likely a scam.
• Poor grammar, spelling, or sentence structure. Anyone can make a mistake, but if the person sounds like they don’t speak English very well, look hard at their offer.
• Big promises. No single site can possibly deliver terrific gigs to thousands of writers every week. A legitimate client will make few if any promises about the volume of work they can send you.
• Early bonuses. You generally get paid by the project, by the hour, or by the word. Nobody gives a bonus to a freelancer unless you’ve worked for them for a long time and they love you.
• You have to pay. When a client hires you to write for them, they pay you! In some cases, you can buy a column space on a nationally ranked site such as Forbes or Entrepreneur. And of course, you can publish a book with a hybrid publisher or a self-publishing company. In those cases, you should expect to pay. For everything else, it’s generally not a good idea to send someone money now in the hopes that they will send you more money later.

I want every writer who wants to be paid to get paid. I just don’t want you to get scammed. Keep an eye out for freelance scams, so you can put your efforts toward better opportunities.

Holland Webb is a full-time freelance writer and editor whose clients have included High Bridge Books & Media, Sweet Fish Media, Compose.ly, and RedVentures, and his articles have appeared in Focus on the Family, Influencive, Devozine, and Keys for Kids. With his friend Carlton Hughes, Holland co-authored Adventures in Fatherhood: A Devotional. Almost 20 years ago, Holland adopted two boys, both now grown, and he recently married for the first time at age 45.