Top Sites You Should Not Write For

I'm always on the lookout for new writing sites that pay me to write, to add to my "List of Freelance Writing Sites". While most of them are legitimate, some of them have been unworthy of my list. Here are those sites and the reasons why you should not write for them.

Daytipper

In my search for paid to write sites, I came across the site Daytipper being mentioned a few times. I went to visit it, to find that it only pays the top 3 writers of the month $100, $75, and $50 respectively. That didn't sound very attractive to me, but there were all these articles touting Daytipper as a writing opportunity, so I did some digging around on the web.

A search on the web about Daytipper reveals that it used to offer $3 per tip, which got cut down to $1, which got cut down to cash handouts to the top 3 writers of the month. On top of that, lots of writers during the $3 per tip period didn't get paid for tips that were published, due to Daytipper's "unique" way of defining "published". My searches also revealed that an article by a Susan Corbett from Associated Content, saying that Daytipper was a scam, had been called a scam by Nathan Preheim, the founder of the site. Huh? That is also a new definition of the word scam for me.

Stay away from the site.

EssayWriters.net (and Other Sites Affiliated with It)

While their website claims that they accept applications by people with a Bachelor, Master or PhD degree, they do not actually require you to provide proof of your qualifications. Their website is peppered with grammar errors and broken sentence structures. Grammar errors on a freelance writing site? I can understand if a site has one or two grammar errors due to oversight, but the errors can be seen everywhere you look. Even the testimonials are the same. Which leads me to suspect that the testimonials aren't real as well, given the way that they are written is in the same way as the rest of the site. And what does having a Bachelor, Master or PhD in "unspecified" have to do with writing? OK, time to search the web.

Whoa! Numerous non-payment issues, payments that were a mere pittance compared to what was promised initially, and countless other issues. And here I was thinking that what I had read about Daytipper was bad. They also own

• BestEssays.com
  
• SuperiorPapers.com
  
• DissertationsExperts.com
  
• RushEssays.com
  
• BestTermPaper.com

Stay even further away from these sites.

Children's Literary Agency (and Other Affiliated Sites)

This site is notorious enough that my searches actually turned up complaints about it before I came across the actual site itself. Similar to EssayWriters.net, they belong to a group of websites. This list I got from www.sfwa.org lists the sites that are (or were) under the same group as Children's Literary Agency.

• Sydra-Techniques
  
• ST Literary Agency
  
• Stylus Literary Agency
  
• Children's Book Publishing Agency
  
• WL Children's Agency
  
• Christian Literary Agency
  
• Global Book Agency
  
• New York Literary Agency
  
• Poets' Literary Agency
  
• Poetry Book Publishing Agency
  
• WL Poet's Agency
  
• Screenplay Agency
  
• Screenplay Writers' Agency
  
• WL Screenplay Agency
  
• Writers' Book Publishing Agency
  
• Eloquent Books (a "joint venture" publisher)
  
• Strategic Book Publishing (a publisher)
  
• Strategic Book Marketing (a marketing company)
  
• My Editor Is A Saint (an editing company)
  
• Writers' Literary & Publishing Services Company (an editing company)

Some of these sites no longer exist as they were the previous names of current companies, which were changed to avoid bad publication. And yes, My Editor Is a Saint was really one of the company names that was used before.

Again, stay far away from these sites.

I have saved the best for last. And by best, I mean best as in better than the rest in terms of better returns on investment, not best as in outdoes the rest of them in sheer evilness.. And that site is

Thisisby.us (or TIBU)

TIBU does pay, it employs a votes system to determine payout for articles. Votes x the day's views of an article gives you it's Daily Goodness (DG) . While the specific formula for payouts isn't disclosed by the site, the general consensus is that you get paid according to this formula. DG of an article divided by total DG generated for the day x writers' share of revenue generated for the day. The problem with the site is that moderation can be said to be non-existent there. Swear words, cussing, sex exploits, blatantly bad writing, all these can easily be published there. While genuinely good articles can be found taking the top spots, it's not unheard of for articles depicting graphic sex taking the top spot. For those who have ever written at Helium, imagine a Helium without any moderation and no repercussions for bad rating and you'll get an idea of what TIBU is like. Like I said earlier, TIBU does pay, but why join this site when a similar but better site like Helium exists. Helium pays better too.

So there you have it, my list of sites you should not write for.