Remove me from your list!
That was the subject line I used yesterday when I wrote the editor of Worldwide Freelance. The e-letter had been coming to my inbox for quite awhile and like most of these newsletters aimed at writers (with the exception of writersweekly, freelancedaily and fundsforwriters) that are more about the ads then what writers can take away, I usually skimmed it and deleted. Yesterday, however, I was cleaning out my email box while on hold for a source and something about the first ad caught my eye. My scam alert awakened and I clicked on the link. Sure enough, it was an ad for a get rick quick copywriting scheme. Quit your job in a week! - and other related non-sense. So, without further thought, I wrote the following to the editor of the newsletter:
I'm not sure how I got on your email list, but given that your newsletter starts with a paid advertisement from a get rich quick scheme whose website says:
"You Don’t Need to Be a Writer to Be Successful,"
I can't take the rest of your newsletter very seriously. But that's coming from a writer who believes you do need to be a writer to be successful as one.
posted by Kerri Fivecoat-Campbell at 7:01 AM
2 Comments:
Oh boy, I get that newsletter too, and like you, it's routinely a scan-and-delete deal for me. The ads are atrocious but what's even worse is the onesidedeness of the publication. Once, they ran an article praising to high heavens a freelance-bidding site I'd long been a member of. I wrote them and asked if they'd be interested in running another article from a different perspective, you know to balance things out like real journalism is supposed to do. I never heard a word back. To make matters even worse, the earnings claims the "sources" were making did NOT match the earnings they showed in their freelance-bidding profiles. Of course, I can't verify it to be true, but I'd be willing to bet the publication probably gets a lot of kickbacks from the products/services it promotes not only in its ads but also in its articles. I take everything I read (peruse) there with a huge grain of salt.
I get that newsletter too and I have been pretty disappointed with what they have to offer. It doesn't look like they put a lot of effort into making each newsletter. The guy that runs it seems to be based in South-East Asia (I think he said in one issue that he was in Indonesia) so it makes me wonder what makes him qualified to speak about freelance writing opportunities in the US and Europe if he isn't based in one of those locations doing it himself?
Oh and I have tried to unsubscribe three times. Each time I thought I was successful but the next issue arrived nonetheless. So either the automated "unsubscribe" link isn't working or he is adding people back onto the list. So now I mark all his emails as "spam".
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