Friday's Tonic for Freelance Writers

As a freelance writer, your brain is your office. Without a sound brain, you wouldn't be able to write anything meaningful.

But how often do you stop to think about your mental health? When last did you do something speciak for that brain of yours?

Here are 10 unique ways to improve your mental health as a freelance writer.

This article was written by Eleboda Olajumoke of www.astutewriter.com.

As freelance writers, our major tool for the trade is our brain. Some other
professions may rely on computers and other automated processes to
perform their jobs but a freelance writer would always need his brain first
before anything else. We rely on it for almost everything from researching
topics to writing compelling content as well as processing and
implementation of feedback. The nature of a freelance writer’s job also
requires that he works very hard as he strives to beat deadlines and multiply
his income.

But how many times do we really stop to think about our mental health?
Sometimes, when I’ve been working for too long probably because I have a
very tough deadline to beat, my eyes become red and watery and my fingers
begin to feel stiff and painful. When this happens, I immediately know that’s
my body telling me it desperately needs a break and I usually have no other
choice but to comply.

But then, I always wonder what happens to the brain at such times since i
can’t see it and cannot really determine what’s going on up there. But the
truth is that if our backs, shoulders, fingers and other parts of the body can
feel so sore from overworking, then our brains can also become stressed and
worn out.

Make no mistake, your brain needs just as much care as any other part of
your body. The fact that you can’t see it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t take a
beating once in a while.

Do you know that the brain never sleeps?

Yes, even while you are sleeping at night or taking a nap, your brain is still
actively conducting several other activities in the body. The brain only rests
when the body is dead. This is why it is very important to take the following
steps to improve your mental health and ensure that your brain is always
well taken care of just like other parts of your body.

1. Proper body care is important
Proper body care starts with consuming the right types of foods and
incorporating exercise into your daily regime. Yes, I know the world of a
freelance writer is an extremely busy one and there isn’t so much time for
gym appointments and elaborate dinners. But still, you shouldn’t fill up your
body with junks all the time and turn yourself into a couch potato. Once in a
while, get up to exercise your body in order to improve blood flow to your
brain. This would ensure that your brain gets the right supply of oxygen it
needs to be at optimum performance.

Consumption of a balanced diet is also important. Eat foods that are rich in
proteins and vitamins B-12, Omega-3 fatty acids, Amino Acids and healthy
minerals. You should also look into taking food supplements to make up for
nutrients that are insufficient in your diet.

2. Take out time to relax
I never truly understood what it meant to be a workaholic until I became a
freelance writer.

Freelance writing is a profession that could easily turn you into the proverbial
Jack who only works and never plays. With clients on your neck trusting you
to deliver their projects on time, where is the time to relax? But it is essential
that in between your crazy schedule, you find time to relax.

Relaxation doesn’t have to be something elaborate or time consuming.
Sometimes, watching TV, listening to music, reading a novel or taking a
short evening walk could help to calm your brain down in readiness for the
next round of work.

3. Eliminate bad clients
Let’s face it, not all clients are good for you. I used to have a particular client
that almost wrecked my nervous system. He was the unusually anxious type
who had about 10,000 ideas to incorporate into one project. He could send
about 10 mails in a day to change project details. My nights were not spared
either. At a point, I decided he was stressing me out and distracting my
work-flow so I had to let him go.

If you discover that a particular client is not good enough for you, let them
go. It’s like having a job; not all jobs are good and if you find yourself
working a bad job, wouldn’t you quit?

4. Set realistic goals
Goal setting helps you to be focused and calms down your nerves. This
consequently helps to improve your brain performance.
When you have too many distractions, your brain is unable to perform
optimally therefore, it is important to have clearly outlined goals with details
on what you want to achieve and how you would work towards achieving
them.

I usually start my day with my diary in hand. In it, I make a list of all the
projects I want to work on and generally create a time schedule for all my
activities for the day. This also includes time for rest, exercise and siesta. I
also do the same thing at the beginning of every month and at the start of
the year. I make a list of all the things I need to do ad try as much as
possible to incorporate them into my weekly schedule. This helps to give me
a mental balance and reduce nervousness and agitation.

5. Stop Procrastinating
I used to be the queen of procrastination until I realized how badly I was
hurting my physical and mental health with excessive procrastination. When
you put off things that you ought to do and can afford to do now until
another time, your mind unconsciously holds on to that activity until it is
completed. So wouldn’t you rather get up, complete the task and set your
mind at ease once and for all?

6. Spend time with loved ones
Don’t just sit behind the computer, communicating virtually throughout the
day. Once in a while, get up, go out there and relate with people. Nothing
beats being in the midst of friends and family, chatting away, sharing
laughter and learning new things.

7. Don’t try to do it all
While I would not encourage you to sub-contract your client’s jobs without
their permission, it is important that you know your limits, understand them
and respect them. If you find yourself at that point where you cannot handle
projects alone, try to get help.

I do not outsource jobs except when the orders are quite bulky and the client
has agreed that I outsource. But what I do to ensure that I don’t get stressed
out is to hire a typist. I have a typist who types for me so that when I can’t
handle jobs alone, I just scribble the words on a notepad and she goes on to
type them for me. I find it easier to write with pen and paper than to type and
my typist is very fast so at the end of the day, we both complete twice as
much work as I would have if I was working alone.

8. Shake up your schedule
Don’t try to do the same thing the same way over and over again. Monotony
might not help your brain to function optimally. Therefore, you should try to
do things differently from time to time. Instead of writing your schedule
weekly, write them daily so that each day poses a fresh challenge and a new
schedule of activities.

9. Manage your finances
Things like bad credit, debts and other financial issues are capable of
stressing you out mentally. Therefore, you should ensure that you come up
with a proper budgeting system to suit your lifestyle, income and expenses
so as to ensure that financial problems are avoided.

10. Help Others
In-depth satisfaction and happiness comes from lending a helping hand and
offering assistance to people in need. The emotional satisfaction that comes
from helping others can help to promote your mental health and well-being.
Most importantly, you should ensure that you eat right and healthy and
exercise daily so that your brain receives enough supply of oxygen and
healthy nutrients for optimum performance.

Come on BBM joor. Lol.

tooltip:
Nice one, i want to categorically state that i have missed the impact of this great woman.I looked through your blog and it's cool, even though a better WP theme and colour scheme will increase your page engagement

(mbok, emabinu, biko)Aunty please reconsider your stance on your writing course.....

Tooltip

Thanks Tooltip, I actually built the website myself and I'm still learning the ropes. The theme is exactly what i wanted- a magazine theme. I'm not done yet, reason why it kinda looks tacky. I'll talk to you personally; seems you are a pro with websites. I could use your help.

As for the training, i already said it in the beginning that not submitting assignments would be grounds for getting kicked out of the program. BUT I WOULD RECONSIDER.

Sorry, i was trying to edit and make the post look nice but i ended up making a big mess of things .

You can read it clearly here

http://www.astutewriter.com/?p=110

Todays Tonic

Dear Freelance Writers, please stop focusing all your time and energy on Freelancer. There are other ways to get clients who would pay you what you deserve for your time. This is both for newbies still trying to find their feet and for expert Freelance Writers who need ways to improve their earnings and profiles.

This article was written by Eleboda Olajumoke of www.astutewriter.com; you should find this helpful.

10 Cheap Ways to Market Your Freelance Writing Business[/size][size=8pt]

Just like every other business out there, your freelance writing business also needs proper advertisement and promotion in order to increase your credibility and income.

If you are tired of writing for content mills that only sap your energy and skills while paying you less than you are worth, then you need to start taking proactive steps towards creating awareness for your freelance writing business.

Many freelance writers overlook this important aspect of their business and instead, settle for the crumbs that drop from the table.
Personally, I gave up on freelance writing several times before I was able to finally discover this secret. I started my freelance writing business on Freelancer; a freelance job website that adopts the bidding system. Due to the heavy traffic on Freelancer, the competition is usually very stiff and new freelance writers find it very difficult to survive.

For more than a month, I continued to bid without getting jobs and when I eventually scored a gig, it was an extremely low-paying one at about $2 for 700 word articles. I accepted it initially because I felt that if I could get some positive reviews from this low-paying client, I would be able to attract better clients in the future.

After writing about 30 of these articles, I discovered that the work I was putting in was more than I was getting paid for, so I decided to quit.
But I was too much in love with freelance writing to give up on my career as a freelance writer so I started researching ways to get better clients and that was when I discovered that the key to scoring high-paying clients as a freelance writer is marketing and promoting your freelance writing business.

The more awareness you create for your business, the better the Calibre of clients you would get.

Here are some tips I have found to be very effective for attracting better clients for your freelance writing business:

1. Guest Blogging
Guest blogging is one of the best kept secrets of high-earning freelance writers. It is the fastest way to establish your credibility as a freelance writer and draw traffic to your business. When you feature on high-traffic blogs as a guest blogger, you would be able to get traffic back to your own website by adding a link to your website at the end of your write-up.

Action: [/b]Make a list of high traffic blogs that accept guest posts and write a unique and engaging piece with a link that leads back to your freelance writing website and send to the blog owner or editor. Sometimes, you might have to contact the editor or blog owner to pitch your ideas before you go ahead to write the content. This would make it faster and easier for you to get approvals and have your contents published.

[b]2. Social Media Marketing
Social media platforms are very good for promoting almost anything. There are good numbers of people on social media who may be interested in your skills.
Action: [/b]Make sure your freelance writing blog/website is linked to your social media pages. Then start sharing engaging content on your website. You should also encourage your followers/friends to share your posts with their friends as well so that your posts can reach a lot more people.

[b]3. Online Forums and Communities

Another place where you can find potential clients for your freelance writing business is on various online forums and communities.
Action: Make a list of 5 online forums where you can find a lot of webmasters, internet marketers and business owners; register on them and become a very active poster. Help other visitors solve some of their challenges and answer questions while subtly drawing attention to your own writing business. You can do this by including links to your website in some of your posts.

4. Question& Answer Websites/Forums

You can also find a lot of clients on Q &A websites like Quora, Ask.com, Yahoo Answers, etc. A lot of people visit these forums in search of information and may be able to spot you and hire you when you answer questions related to your field. For better results, make sure you have an impressive profile page with details of your skills and services and make sure you include a link to your website. For instance, my profile on Quora reads ‘Freelance Writer at www.astutewriter,com, Business Consultant and Professional Accountant’; this way, I am able to drive more traffic to my website.
Action: It’s very easy to register on these platforms and start answering questions related to your field.

5. E-mail Marketing

E-mail marketing is another effective and relatively inexpensive tool for promoting your freelance writing business. Some E-mail marketing service providers even allow you to use their services for free if you have a limited number of subscribers. E-mail marketing helps you keep in touch with your past/existing clients and also helps you get new clients.
Action: Look for an e-mail marketing client (Aweber or Mailchimp works just fine). Register an account with them and start building your list and sending out newsletters to your subscribers regularly.

6. Create your own Blog/Website

Most potential clients would want to see samples of your previous works to assess your skills and expertise and see if you have what they are looking for. The best way to showcase your writing skills and talent is to own a website or blog where you can display your portfolio and showcase your writing skills.

7. Network with Other Freelance Writers

I have truly lost count of the number of jobs I have gotten through other freelance writers. Networking helps you learn more about the business and become privy to information, tips and tricks which other freelance writers are using.
Action: Check out social media platforms like Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn for freelance writing groups that you can join.

8. Spend some money on Advert Campaigns

I have never done this personally but I have seen a few writers get great results from advertising on Facebook and Google Adsense.

9. Pitch to Clients Directly

From time to time, look for business owners or webmasters whom you feel would be in need of the services you offer and send out your proposals to them. You may be able to get one or two clients that way.

10. Article Submission Directories

Article submission directories get a lot of traffic, which is exactly what you need. You could spare some minutes in a week to write articles to article submission directories with link-backs to your website and a very impressive author bio.

If you want to be in the league of 6-figure earning freelance writers, then you have to be a proactive freelance writer. Don’t wait for the jobs to come get you; instead, go after the jobs and position your business in such a way that it would be easier for potential clients to find and hire you and most importantly, pay you what you are worth.[/size][size=8pt]

Happy Birthday LadyWriter of Live!

CashdownNG:


first and foremost I'm not some old senile person like you are trying to paint here.

you said


first and foremost I'm not some old senile person like you are trying to paint here.

you said

"You do know that tax evasion and avoidance is
a crime in Nigeria right?"


the reeks of pride and aloofness... just keep quiet. I have a business to run perhaps why myself and the op can resonate but as you take a long epistle for a small reply that I make it is in my best interest to end it here after all, we can't be in the same circle in real life so let's keep this our dirty secret.

I leave with the words of El Rufai in conclusion from what I've discovered

"silence is the best answer for fools"

goodbye.

What's ur circle?

of course, i can't be in d circle of unemployed, frustrated fools.

And yes, i do have a business, it involves slapping some e-sense into uncouth nit-wits like u.

Now u realize that silence is a good answer? Was ur brain on sabbatical when u decided to attack me first and the second time even after i warned u off me?

I already dumped u in yesterday's trash bin but looks like ur so-called business is going through a period of recession so i'll gladly engage u and keep u busy.

I'm nice like that.

CashdownNG:


first and foremost my marital status is none if your concern
next, for all the crap spewed above, you acknowledge that you goofed and you're simply too pig-headed to admit it.

I'm a well educated dude by the way but that does not stand in my way to learn, which takes humility kindly note

instead of wasting your precious mb trying to save a crappy image of class you're trying to build here why not take to the romance section or any where you kids play.

being ignorant is not a crime, staying should be the greatest crime of them all.

Well educated my foot.

You are still being dumb. I'm too pig-headed to admit i goofed? What kind of glasses do u wear? Are you that broke that you cannot get a replacement and start reading correctly?

I clearly stated up there what i used to think tax avoidance was and even thanked the op for setting me straight.

Why are you so miserable? I'm not d cause of your unemployment so free me abeg.

You guys just come here to pour your frustrations on people. Even if i made a mistake, couldn't you have corrected me nicely instead of adding derogatory words like pig headed, dumb and all of that.

That speaks a lot about your person; typical frustrated, mannerless African man.

And even after warning you to stop quoting me and insulting me, you still decided to flex your muscles. Your education is a waste my dear friend. If you don't know how to communicate and act with civility in public, then you are no different from those agberos on d street.

Take your frustratIon somwhere else okay? Cos you are messing with the wrong person.

CashdownNG:


you attacked someone who might be enlightening someone out there ...I simply set you straight but If you think your threats in a faceless forum can faze me, then you're more deluded and beyond redemption than I earlier thought . get a life. or at least let those making use of theirs so so in peace.

As intellectual as you claim to be, u actually sound very stupid.

U are probably blind or in your bid to get cheap popularity and score stupid points, u decided to close ur eyes to d fact that my statement had a question mark.

The op was civil enough to set me straight and make me better understand the subject but a senseless old man like you who should be attending to his family's needs was quick to jump into the thread to start insulting me. God punish that your paralyzed fingers you used to type that shit.

Its a public forum, people have diverse views on stuffs and we are all here to learn. Be there forming mr smart know-it-all. If they ask you to produce your certificate now, shame no go gree you. Foolish ape.

Quote me again you here, i still they use me ipad reply you, when i carry my laptop, me and you no go sleep tonight.

Limit your verbal and physical abuses to your wife at home. Don't come here trying shit with me. Ar.se wipe.

ebamma:
no be me find u trouble oh

Why you come dey quote me? Lol.

Una too like to dey bully person for this Nairaland.

ebamma:
hmm

What?

CashdownNG:
.
this is what happens when etisalat gives free mb and the person is probably a minor..

any dumb as.s knows that tax shelters and evasions are two different things or did she say how to evade taxes in Nigeria?

Chai!! no wonder we have a country like this, we no dey read at all;!!!!

Now read this carefully CashdownNG, let this be the last time you quote my post and insult me on Nairaland or anywhere else. The next time you try it, i'll make sure we both get banned.

fourtuna:

Please understand this carefully.

Tax Avoidance is Legal while Tax Evasion is illegal. Where u arrange your affairs with a view of minimizing your tax it is called Tax Avoidance whereas where you deliberately avoid paying your tax obligation, you have committed a crime by evading tax and can be prosecuted.

So if u can use the loopholes in the taxing statutes to your own benefit with the aid of a Tax Consultant/ Lawyer, you are safe.

Thanks for clarifying. I used to think Tax avoidance meant under-reporting ones income as a way to reduce tax liability.

You do know that tax evasion and avoidance is a crime in Nigeria right?

Hi campustv, can you help to set up the internet tv?

Pavore9:
After reading this, some scammers will retire.

I hope they do. We won't sit back and watch them anymore.

Download Trucaller App

There's an interesting app you can download on your phone. It works with most operating systems; Android, Ios, Windows 8, JUST NAME IT.

IT REVEALS THE TRUE IDENTITY OF YOUR CALLERS.

So, if someone calls, hiding their number or pretending to be someone else, it immediately reveals their real names.

http://www.truecaller.com/services/truecaller

Look at some of what is written on their website to understand how it works.

So, with this APP, no more Emmanuel Awowhatever pretending to be someone else

Request for a Physical Meeting

This may not be possible, as most of us transact business online. But if you can, it's always better to meet with the seller face-to-face.

Don't Be Greedy

Nobody is going to sell a Blackberry Passport to you for N14,000. If it looks too good to be true, it probably isn't true.

Always verify deals and bargains and don't be in a rush to grab the 'awoof' make e no go run your belle.

Use Social Media

Check to see if you'll find Facebook accounts, Twitter handles, Instagram pages of the seller.

You can either make use of the account name provided or the e-mail address to search.

Most of them have fake social media accounts; check those accounts, are there any real comments and activities? Discussions from friends and colleagues?

You should be able to recognize fake/fictitious accounts especially on Facebook.

Verify and Re-verify Account Numbers

During the video cal, ensure that you verify a sellers account number. Do so again on the Nairaland thread used for advertising the product/service you want to buy and lastly, head over to the customer service section of your bank and present the account name and number to you for verification.

Emmanuel Awaritete's method is to place popular Nairaland seller's business names in front of his own name and then send his account number to you. The bank only needs two names to be correct so, would usually ignore the third inconsistent name.

For instance; he would send you an account detail that looks like this;

Cremeandchic Emmanuel A.
12354678910
or
Cremeandchic Micheal Awaritete
10987654321

Also, you should avoid sending internet money transfers to unverified bank account numbers.
He basically uses a name you identify and then adds his own name to it so that you don't suspect.

So, go to your bank's customer care section and ensure that the account name FULLY matches the account number. You could explain your reasons for wanting to know to them so that they can co-operate with you.

You can also try to ask them if there aren't any existing or past cases of fraudulent activities on that account.

Although banks are prevented from releasing private information about their customers to third parties without a court order, they are also mandated to protect other customers as well. So, don't be afraid to ask questions.

Also, avoid sending money online to unverified accounts.

Ask for Video Calls

Look, any seller that has something to hide is probably not worth your patronage. No genuine seller hides himself, instead, they are always proud to show that they are the ones behind their successful businesses.

Dangote dey hide?

Abi you no dey see Adenuga photo everywhere?

Any seller who would refuse to reveal their identity to you is probably not too confident in himself/herself.

With that being said, you should ask for a video chat; most phones these days can do it and while the call is on, make sure you take a screenshot of the sellers face and save it. That's your first weapon in case he decides to run away with your money. Even if he gets someone to make the calls for him, that person would still be in trouble if anything goes south. He would either answer for the thief, or produce the thief.

Avoid Sellers that Rush You

This is one of their strongest tactics. They try to create an artificial scarcity and try to rush you into taking actions so that they can quickly close the deal before you realize it's a hoax.

They use words like;

'The stock would soon finish so, pay latest by Tomorrow morning or i'll sell to someone else'

'I have only one piece left, if you're lucky enough to pay early, you can have it'

They try to push you to make spontaneous decisions without thinking deep. Try to recognize and avoid falling for this.

Also, don't expect to hear a jittery or scared person on the other end of the line when you call them; they always sound confident and most times, a little arrogant. They act like 'ogas at the top' that it would be hard for you to suspect them.

Some of them would take time to make friends with you and be all nice in a bid to make you trust them and fall for their cheap scam. As soon as the money exchanges hands, they vanish into thin air.

Use Search Engines

If a seller has been involved in a shady deal or scam in the past, the best way to reveal this is by using search engines.

First, use the Nairaland Search Engine on the home page to search for the sellers Nairaland username. Add phrases like 'fraud', 'scam' 'fake' and other similar phrases to the username and click search.

For instance, to find out more about Seuns business activities on Nairaland and if he had ever been reported for scam or fraudulent practices on Nairaland, you could use 'Seun Scam' 'Seun Fraud' etc. If Seun had been involved in any scam in the past, the search engine would bring up related results.

Next, if the person has a company name, do the same thing with the company name, still using Nairaland search engine.

Now, obtain the seller's account number and name and head to Google or any other reliable search engine. Type in the account name and number and add the phrase 'fraud' 'fake' 'scam', just like you did with the nairaland username and company name.

Trust Google to bring up related search results if any.

Look out for Cloned E-mail Addresses

This is another major tactic they use. They clone addresses of popular sellers on Nairaland. For instance, if Seun was a very known seller on Nairaland, and his e-mail address was say, seun@yahoo.com, the scammer goes ahead to create a look-alike e-mail address, something like seunn@yahoo.com; notice the double n? a person that is not very observant or an unsuspecting person would easily fall victim. So, look out for e-mail addresses used to contact you on sales information and compare it with the one provided by the seller on Nairaland.

Cloned Nairaland Usernames are not uncommon either. My Nairaland username is obviously, cremeandchic but a scammer who wants to pretend to be me and use my name to rip people off would just go ahead to create similar monikers like cremeandchic1 or cremendchic; notice the differences in spelling?
Be observant, look at usernames carefully and be sure you are dealing with the same person.

Ask/Search For Reviews

Another thing that helps is to always make sure the seller has a lot of REAL positive reviews. I said real reviews because a lot of these scammers are drama kings/queens. They register several fake Nairaland Usernames and start to chat with themselves, drop reviews about themselves, patronize themselves and even pay themselves.

You should be able to see through all that- Ensure that you can spot at least 5 REAL Nairalanders with positive reviews.

Real users would usually-:

Have registered an account for at lease three-six months before the sales thread was opened.

Would have made several posts and topics on various ideas and topics related to other subjects apart from the business being discussed.

May be very well known contributors on Nairaland.

May have 'friends' or 'cliques' he hangs out with on Nairaland who may also know him offline.

When you spot at least five of such members, you could try to obtain reviews from them via PM If you wish, or on the thread. Please, make sure you verify these users before sending the PM, because one of the methods V.I.P Scammer, Emmanuel Awaritete uses is to send a PM to an innocent Nairalander and obtain their real e-mail addresses when they innocently reply. He then goes ahead to clone popular sellers e-mail addresses and uses it to scam unsuspecting buyers.

Always Patronize Popular Sellers

There are some sellers here on Nairaland that are well known within and outside Nairaland. People have transacted businesses with them off-line severally and know a lot of details about them- where they have their office, where they live and what they look like in real life. These are the sellers you should patronize. it's hard for someone like InspiredAutos on the Autos section of Nairaland to run away with my money successfully because i know what he looks like and have enough details to fish him out. Plus, he has done businesses with a lot of people off Nairaland and has been around for a long time. This is just an example; i'm not saying Inspired is the only reliable or popular auto dealer on Nairaland,there are a lot of them, i just used Inspired as an example.

What I'm saying basically is that, it's always safer to deal with people who are well known sellers.

A lot of people have fallen victim of several scams on Nairaland and its quite unfortunate that this trend doesn’t look like it’s about to stop.
Nairaland has proven to be a very great place for business. Many millionaires have been born out of Nairaland and it’s quite unfortunate that some bad eggs are trying to ruin it for us all. Yesterday, I read a thread in the business section about a guy, Emmanuel Awaritete who has been scamming Nairalanders consistently and successfully since 2006! And is still doing so till today.

One of his latest victims, a student who collected money from his colleagues at school to help purchase 2 laptops, was duped to the sum of N300, 000. There are also dozens of other attempted cases by this guy, who seems to be omnipresent and untraceable and some other bad eggs like him.

It has now become necessary for all Nairaland users transacting business on the forum to protect themselves. Of course, you cannot stop transacting business on Nairaland completely; where else would you get al those cheap deals and services if not the largest online forum in Africa?

However, you must be very careful and also, follow this guide to avoid becoming a victim of cheap scams.

But first, a memo to Seun;
Seun, we really do appreciate you for giving us this forum that has changed a lot of lives. The truth is that you and your moderators are trying your best, but you must understand that Nairaland has gone beyond an internet hangout spot where we all come to chat, joke and make fools of ourselves.

Nairaland is fast becoming a major commercial hub in Nigeria. One of the reasons why people find it easy to transact business on Nairaland is because they trust the system therefore, Seun, you must take serious, practical and pro-active steps to protect your visitors as much as you can.

You may say that you didn’t create Nairaland to be a business forum or an e-commerce platform for exchange of goods and services, but remember, millions of Naira exchange hands on Nairaland daily. If you doubt me, check the autos section. I would also be right to say that a significant percentage of your advert subscribers are Nairaland business men who also transact business on Nairaland. So, this is a problem for us all and not just one person’s headache.

Therefore, I would strongly suggest an immediate verification exercise to be carried out on all existing and intending sellers on Nairaland.

They should all submit their personal details, e-mails and phone numbers and these should be verified.

An international passport, driver’s license or National Identity Card should also be provided.

Because it’s easy for people to clone these Identity Cards or make fake ones, real-time video call verification system should also be introduced. Skype is a very good one; the sellers should be called via Skype and a Video snap shot should be taken. The picture in the video snapshot (the face of the person calling) must match the one provided in the ID Card.

A NEPA Bill verifying the address provided in the I.D Card would also help.

The collected data would be uploaded to a Database for reference and action in case of any fraudulent activities.

Each Nairaland user that passes the verification process would have his/her name included in a verification thread that would be placed at the top of the business section on Nairaland and all market places on the forum; Autos, Technology, Phones etc.

You would then post a banner on the front page, warning members and advising them to only do business with verified members.

An e-mail blast to all members, informing them about this new development, wouldn’t be a bad idea either.

Any member who chooses to do otherwise, and transact business with unverified members, does so at his/her own risk and has no right to come and cry to us if they get scammed.

I’m sure your moderators can handle the verification process (please, only the trusted ones o). However, if they can’t, I’m sure there’ll be some willing Nairalanders who can volunteer to do it. However, these volunteers have to first go through the verification process themselves. This would help to ensure that the system is solid and reliable.

However, if you find it difficult to find someone to do it for you, contact me, and I’ll share some ideas with you on how to go about it without stress; I would be glad to help.

Seun, I’m not in anyway teaching you how to run your forum; I’m just a business consultant who is concerned about business men and innocent Nigerians losing their money to these idiots every time. Please kindly consider these suggestions.

Now with that being said, my fellow Nairalanders, this is how to spot and avoid scammers on Nairaland.

Check next post.

Cahi! See fine men! So proud to be a Middle-Belter. But una no dey dey faithful. Dat na d problem.

cremeandchic@gmail.com

Gracias

Interested

Jim241gidi:
WHEN TO APPLY FOR YOUR SCHENGEN VISA FROM
NIGERIA
Visas are usually issued three months from the
intended travel date so the best time to start your
application process is at least four months to your
intended travel date.
So for instance, if you plan to visit any Schengen
country in September, the best time to start
processing your visa is in June.

@OP_
Pls_explain_more_abt_this.

If you are still insisting you didn't copy, where did this come from? And all the excerpts that previous commentators quoted?

People make mistakes sometimes out ofnignorance when it comes to plagiarism but your actions show that you made no mistake and you weren't ignorant either; you willingly stole another person's intellectual property and tried to play a fast one. Not too good.