Here’s another satisfying tale for my fellow freelance writers.
Freelance writing around the Internet often means creatively finding work. Since new gimmicks are constantly being invented for the Web, it isn’t necessarily difficult to find jobs as a content writer, especially when the particular gimmick, gizmo, service or whatever is brand new. However, early adoption is key, so try to keep abreast of Internet trends.
Muvas was a new social networking site. I think I found them by responding to a Craigslist ad that was looking for bloggers. I was already blogging for myself at the time, so getting paid for it seemed like a great way to supplement my income. When I contacted them, they agreed to pay me two bucks a pop. Yeah, I wasn’t going to get rich blogging for them, but money is always welcome.
The site was garbage. It had no understanding of what people look for in a social networking site. You couldn’t customize your page except by writing in your interests and answering the stupidest personality questions, like, “What would you bring if you were trapped on a desert island?” It was only much later and with my direction that they added the ability to at least change the color scheme and add music to your profiles.
Anyway, I blogged for them and wrote up about 50 small posts just to see if they’d pay me. Typically, they were Johnny-on-the-Spot with answering email, but when I started talking about payment, they mysteriously didn’t reply. So I deleted all of my blogs and blacked out my profile (since they didn’t build a way to cancel your membership). Only when they realized what I had done did they start sending me email again, explaining some BS about how they tried to send the payment, but it got bounced back to them. I chose not to dignify the excuse with a response.
On a whim, I went back back to their site to see how they’ve progressed. Muvas is no longer up, it seems. When I Googled them, I found the MySpace profile of one of the other Muvas paid bloggers. From what I recall, this guy was really prolific with his posts, easily topping 1000 words per. His MySpace blog talks about the end of his relationship with Muvas:
And Muvas.com has finally severed their relationship with me. For reasons unknown I still post on their site and feel fairly good. I think it was my incidinary (sic) use of the word “lawyer” and “legal conclusions” that ended it all, but they insist that they had tried months ago but I hadn’t received the e-mail… I believe they may have sent it to my bulk e-mail account and I do not check that ever. Well, now I know.
Anyway they’ve agreed to cut me loose with 100 dollars.
Well, it’s sad to see that Muvas used the same story with him and who-knows-how-many-others, but I’m glad he walked away with something.
The freelance writing world can really suck sometimes.