How to Protect Yourself as a Freelance Writer

With the internet becoming more influential on society with each passing day, it's no surprise that freelance writers have a great opportunity to get work. Websites need content to fill the space. E-zines are becoming more popular and bloggers are in demand. Even though there's money to be made, there are risks of not being paid for your work. You take the time to do the work and then it takes forever to be paid, or you don't get paid at all.

So is this just the way it has to be? No. There are certain things that you can do that will help protect yourself. First, you can contact them by email. Make sure that you keep a record of any correspondence that you have with the company as this will be your "paper trail." Ask them if they'd mind signing a contract so that you have a legally binding agreement to hold them to. Note that this would require faxing papers back and forth.

Not everybody wants to be that formal so another way to guarantee you'll be paid is by asking for payment up front. While most companies won't be willing to give full payment, some will consider partial payment as an act of faith. This is slightly better than doing all the work just on their word that they will pay. If the piece that you're writing is an extremely large project, it would be smart to at least ask if they'd be willing to partially pay you in advance.

Even after doing these things, if you're still having problems getting your money then it's time to take another step. Send an invoice through Paypal or a similar site. Making a third party aware of your troubles will help legitimize your claim. It takes away the he said she said problem by letting another party have records of what happened.

Should these steps not help you, remember that it is still your work. Under copyright law, until you receive payment they haven't bought rights to use your work. You are free to sell it to somebody else.

Also, remember to tell your fellow writers about this experience. It'll save them the hassle of dealing with this company. In turn, you'll hear about their experiences--both good and bad. You'll find out after awhile that this will save you a lot of time and effort. It will be worth it in the long run. It will also encourage the companies to pay up because they won't want the bad press getting out about them.

Just try to remember that even though it's the internet, it's still a business. You have to protect yourself, but there are ways of doing this.