₦airaland Forum

cleverseo:
Offer to pay per article or at least weekly, you'll be making your pick from among the best writers on this platform.

And @KulgEr, I second your opinion of creating a dedicated thread meant for writers hunting for jobs.

It would help everyone to prevent all these shady .50 kobo guys flocking around NL.

About same time last year, I got a surprise email with a N10-per-word long-term gig offer - FROM A NIGERIAN blogger.

On my first delivery, he mentioned almost giving up on NL writers, but thought to try one last time; then found my contact.

Lately, he needed some other gigs somewhat outside the scope of our regular engagements, and I recommended NL again. Baba declined. He say e no fit snake through the “too much noise” on the platform. LOL

Sadly, [Like Baba and BoarderlessTrade ],many still de recount their bad experience with writers wey them jam on NL.

In the search for budget-friendly rates, some prefer ‘Indians’ on foreign job boards and platforms like Indeed, Reddit, Quora, etc to NLers.

Na statement of fact say Nigerians are among the most dominant and top-performing freelancers on popular foreign job boards.

NAiraland, being naija’s biggest brand, [shey I correct?] should be a sure plug for A-class freelancers — from writing to graphics, and everything between. But, apparently, we never ready for that conversation.

See Reddit, for instance. They have well organized threads with detailed rules for hirers/hirees ( including minimum rates etc).

If we replicate that pattern on NL, it would be a shoo-in!

Truthfully, initial set up and consistency might be somewhat tricky, but If achieved, it’ll turnout a small reliable community many would appreciate, eventually; both the for-hire and hirer.

But then, it starts with interest:
1. Cleverseo
2.
3.
4.
5.

Who else thinks it’s worth it?

Kul3ger:
About same time last year, I got a surprise email with a N10-per-word long-term gig offer - FROM A NIGERIAN blogger.

On my first delivery, he mentioned almost giving up on NL writers, but thought to try one last time; then found my contact.

Lately, he needed some other gigs somewhat outside the scope of our regular engagements, and I recommended NL again. Baba declined. He say e no fit snake through the “too much noise” on the platform. LOL

Sadly, [Like Baba and BoarderlessTrade ],many still de recount their bad experience with writers wey them jam on NL.

In the search of budget-friendly rates, some prefer ‘Indians’ on foreign job boards and platforms like Indeed, Reddit, Quora, etc to NLers.

Na statement of fact say Nigerians are among the most dominant and top-performing freelancers on popular foreign job boards.

NAiraland, being naija’s biggest brand, [shey I correct?] should be a sure plug for A-class freelancers — from writing to graphics, and everything between. But, apparently, we never ready for that conversation.

See Reddit, for instance. They have well organized threads with detailed rules for hirers/hirees ( including minimum rates etc).

If we replicate that pattern on NL, it would be a shoo-in!

Truthfully, initial set up and consistency might be somewhat tricky, but If achieved, it’ll turnout a small reliable community many would appreciate, eventually; both the for-hire and hirer.

But then, it starts with interest:
1. Cleverseo
2.
3.
4.
5.

Who else thinks it’s worth it?

I know it will be worth it.

As a person that has benefitted multiple times from job boards on Reddit and nairaland altogether. I can say the difference is glaringly clear.

How do you think we can go about it?

cleverseo:
After this guy don claim SEO agency

5 naira per word and company

The werey has ghosted the Google Chat Space he created

I interacted with some of the writers and he obviously stole their work and ghosted them

Thank God this was just a short-term stuff

Imagine if they actually worked till October for him

Nigeria is a very terrible place to work online

I remember a writer on Google Chat asking the guy to give his Linked In profile, Upwork, or website name

Baba dutifully and stylishly ignored

Writers in Nigeria are always underpaid, shortchanged, and now frequently scammed of their pay

Please let this be a lesson, never work for anyone who wants you to complete many tasks before paying

Freelance writing isn't company work where I can call my boss when it's time for my payment

You can easily get duped, I'm a living testimony

I never touched the article they assigned to me, I was just observing to see what would happen after the first submission

And to no surprise, werey ghosted

Talmbout 5 naira and 10 naira per word for almost 60 days

Imagine how much the writes would have worked if they worked for him

He would have been owing each writer at least 300k and he claimed he needed 15 writers, ----

He would be owing about 4.5 million

Where is he going to see that kind of cash?

And to you, next scammer planning to scam the hardworking writers, pray that you don't leave many traces online

I will personally work to track you down, you frauds can't keep extorting writers and going free

I once wrote a 3k word sample for an "agency" on this platform,

After submitting, I just got a one sentence reply, "sorry the article doesn't meet expectations"

I decided to check this article with plagiarism checkers almost 3 months later, only to see that they published it to their site

Don't worry, keep scamming

It's no longer everyday for the thief, one day for the owner,

The owner will soon catch you

You guys aren't smart enough to identify an impossible task. If you were, you all should have ignored him. Someone was paid $50 and in anticipation of more pay, they opened an employment portal and you all ran over one another for #10. Now let me tell you what really happened. Your over excited would be employer realized that his website wouldn't be bringing in more $50 notes and developed cold feet. Next time, you all should use your brains.

BorderlessTrade:
Watch your words. The few of you who submitted a test article should keep checking online to see if it ever gets published. Use the plagiarism checker Quetext.com. It's one of the strictest and allows checking up to 500 words free. I'm going to write a more detailed reply to all your accusations and share the Google Docs links to the articles many of you guys submitted. No reputable site will publish such articles. I won't stoop so low as to trick people into writing free articles for my website. A very few you did well, and those are the guys I'll continue with.

I read your post. I really didn't believe you're a fraudster. Nevertheless, what's obvious is that you found out down the line that the money to make the payments won't be available. That's your reason for pulling out not that all the candidates submitted sub par content. As i said earlier, i knew you're not a scammer, but you should own up to disappointing these people.

BorderlessTrade:
I've read all the scam accusations. Time for a detailed and befitting reply.
Okay, so you expected me to pay N5 or N10 per word for crappy articles that don't even follow simple instructions. Most of you didn't even read my instructions. It's annoying to even check most the articles submitted.
I could overlook poor language with grammar errors, but certainly not outright disregard of instructions.
You don't just write to fill the word-count. You are writing to help someone solve a problem. Most of you guys were in a hurry to just finish the article and get paid. It doesn't work that way.
I specifically mentioned these requirements:
An in-depth research
Satisfying users' search intentions
Arranging ideas in a descending order of importance
Giving each paragraph a topic sentence and emphasizing it with relevant details
Using simple language
Here's a simple example of the type of article I wanted from writers. Compare this example with the article you wrote before calling me names on Nairaland.
https://proxypayee.com/webmoney-to-skrill/
You don't know how it feels reviewing a dozen worthless articles. You want me to pay N5,000 or N10,000 for a 1k word article that no body will read through. How could that help my website or drive traffic? I'd rather do this job gradually a lone and achieve my target in 10 months than publish dozens of low-quality articles in 1 month. Hence, I've decided to suspend it for now.
To the lazy writers on Nairaland who think writing is all about word-count, let me advice you. You won't get anywhere with that attitude and no high-value client will ever hire you long-term. So, if you really want to succeed in this trade, it's mandatory to develop your writing skills further. Follow these steps:
1. Download the free collocation dictionary of 5000 most frequently used words in America. Use the link below.
https://www.academia.edu/29501273/Word_Frequency_List_of_American_English
This will help you in building the 2500 core vocabulary need for native-style writing.
2. Use this online utility tool to whenever you finish writing an article. It'll show you the total variety of words used in that article and also flag unusual words that make comprehension difficult. The tool also shows how easy or difficult your is to comprehend. If you understand how to use this tool, it'll help you a lot in improving your articles.
3. Read a lot ... a lot. Read high-quality articles, buyer feedback on Amazon, and comments on U.S forums like Reddit. This will help you to develop a knack for fluency.
4. Use this grammar book by "TheFreeDictionary" to sharpen your writing.
https://www.thefreedictionary.com/The-Farlex-Grammar-Book.htm
It's available for free online reading but the PDF copy costs a few dollars. You can open each item on the table of contents page, copy and paste its contents in a word document and convert it to PDF.
5. Use this "Federal Plain Language Guidelines" document to further improve your writing
https://www.plainlanguage.gov/media/FederalPLGuidelines.pdf
6. Get a writer that you'll imitate, such as a foreign journalist. Copy and paste their best articles in a word document. Collect up to 10,000 words of their articles and use the tool below to convert the word document into an MP3 file. Download the MP3 file and be listening to it on your phone or laptop even when you are working on other things.
7. Use this plagiarism tool whenever you write an article. You can check 500 words at a time free of charge, and it's one of the best out there.
8. Last but not least, practice writing every day.
I like to help, but I don't tolerate laziness. Most of your submissions reek laziness.

So, for those who think I'm a scammer who got away with their sample articles, you are wrong. I'll definitely get back to the good writers among you.

Check the test article you submitted against the example I linked to at the beginning of this post and tell me whether I should accept it.

Isn't it paradoxical that you condemned low pay employers in your OP? Is it possible that the reason some pay lowly is because the output of most Nigerians is low quality jobs?

TheManofTomorrow:
I know it will be worth it.

As a person that has benefitted multiple times from job boards on Reddit and nairaland altogether. I can say the difference is glaringly clear.

How do you think we can go about it?

My brother, that’s the million-dollar question.

Cleverseo and co, any idea for a sustainable framework?

Kul3ger:
My brother, that’s the million-dollar question.

Cleverseo and co, any idea for a sustainable framework?

I might have some ideas we can run with regarding this. How about we set up a team to look more into this?

TheManofTomorrow:
I might have some ideas we can run with regarding this. How about we set up a team to look more into this?

Brilliant.

A 4-, 5-man team should do?

One of the instant messaging apps should work?

WhatsApp? Telegram?

I'll check around for your contact and shoot you a text. Alternatively, see my signature.

Cleverseo and whoever finds this interesting could opt in. Fine writers.

let's be hopeful

Kul3ger:
Brilliant.

A 4-, 5-man team should do?

One of the instant messaging apps should work?

WhatsApp? Telegram?

I'll check around for your contact and shoot you a text. Alternatively, see my signature.

Cleverseo and whoever finds this interesting could opt-in. Fine writers.

let's be hopeful

Way to go man.

A well-curated team of 4-5 will suffice.

We can settle for WhatsApp. Definitely looking forward to your DMs

Cleverseo, ku3ger

About making a freelance writing hub out of the nairaland job session, another guy contacted me, and we conversed.

If you are up for it, then I suggest we start taking some action.

My WhatsApp number is available on my profile.

Any other person that's interested in the initiative should indicate.