Protecting Yourself on Writing Sites

There are many writing sites out
there; the image doesn't begin to
encompass the field.

Most 'writing' sites, however are
NOT what they seem.

A large number of these sites are built for advertisements where your prose separates the Ads.

Writing sites charge advertisers for posting their Ads. You get a tiny fraction of this revenue, and must depend on the honesty of the siteowners for accounting.

Obviously, you could get 1000 hits, the site claims you got 100.

The site might pay you 3c for every 1000 hits; you don't know how much the
advertiser is paying the site for those 1000 hits.

You start from a position of weakness. As far as the site is concerned, you are not writer, you simply supply the 'wallpaper' on which the Ads are hung. You are given whatever pittance seems right to the owners of the site.

Copyright is another consideration.

Some writing sites claim you retain the copyright to your work, yet don't allow you to remove your articles. Others claim to have bought the rights for some pitifully low figure.

Some allow you to write about what you want while others give you assignments and demand you write about what they want.

Still others have one sided policies where you lose your basic right to be heard
for if you complain you are 'punished'.

And other sites have 'secret' agendas where they push particular views and use your work as a screen to hide their core purpose.

What do you do to protect yourself?

Have a copy of your own work posted on your Blog. You can find a list of Blog sites by a simple Google.

Use a different name on the Blog than the one you use on your writing site as well as a different Email address. Post your work there first.

Make your Blog Private, or have a private section. Consider the Blog your workspace where you perfect your article before publishing.

Another option is to use Hubpages as storage. By Bolding a few words or putting in Amazon Ads, the article will be Non-Featured, this means, it is invisible. This means it is NOT published.

Hence you can write an item on Hubpages, get it 'nonfeatured' and once you see that white circle, publish it elsewhere.

In case the writing site tries to steal your work and not pay for it, publish your Blog or remove all Bold and Amazon Ads from the Hubpage article.

Inform the writing site that they have plagiarized your work.

Hence if you joined the writing site as Lambster, and the Blog is published under the name John Hardy, it is John who attacks the site for plagiarizing his work. The same is true on Hubpages.

Hence, a short email to the Writing Site by John with this advisory, should be enough to have Lambster'sr items removed, and account closed.

Secondly, understand that when you write a factual article there's just so much you can do with the facts. If you are writing about Pirates in the Caribbean, so are hundreds of other people. Your article is unique because your point of view is unique.

The names of the Pirates, their ships, the years can't change. how you put them together can and does. Hence you can write five different original articles based on the same facts. I can write five different articles based on the same facts, this is because the facts can't change, only the interpretations can, how you place them in the article can.

It is not plagiarism.

Plagiarism is when you copy this article and put your name on it. If you copy portions of this article and begin with;

"Qeyler wrote; "..... "

the quotes give the attribution so you are not copying my work, any more than you would be plagiarising Shakespeare if you used one of his sonnets with attribution to set the tone of your article.

Hence, if you've written about Pirates of the Caribbean on Triond and then decide to use the facts to write a different article here, it would not be plagiarism or else every single person in the world would be banned from writing about Pirates of the Caribbean because in 1876 someone wrote a book called "Pirates of the Caribbean."

The most often told lie; "I have read and agree to your terms of service." 

How many of you have even glanced at the TOS; terms of service or TOU; terms of use before clicking that 'I agree?'

Right.

Many writing sites give themselves absolute authority and you none.  Hence if you had read the TOS you'd have seen that this is the kind of one sided contract that begs a lawsuit.  For very often you have given up virtually all your rights.

Read carefully. The words you are looking for are 'Copyright' and provisions which basically state that you have no rights.

Do Not Join These Sites.

They will often pay a pittance for your work and then syndicate it all over the world and make the bag.  You have nothing to say nothing to get.  

Too many writing sites treat writers as dime a dozen day labourers who should be happy to see their name in print. 

Until the first lawsuit, this is going to be the situation if you allow it.

On some sites you have no rights.

For example, on a particular site once one made about one hundred good posts, he or she was dropped to 'member' where one could not even see how much revenue was being earned and one received NOTHING.

There was no recourse, save lawsuit, which is why that particular site no longer exists.

Sites which demand you write about what they want you to write about should be avoided.

Firstly, you will be doing unpaid work. There is a difference between you deciding to write about growing roses and you having to do a few hours of research to write an article about growing roses.

Secondly, they play a competition game where you and a batch of others write articles of their choosing and then they select the article they will publish, meaning you've done two hours or more free work that is in the garbage.

If they do select your work they pay a pittance for it, then make thousands.

Check the Forums or the Rules
to get the mentality of the Owner(s)
and Mderator(s). Some are Whack jobs.

There are Owners who feel that
their writers shouldn't write on
any other site.

They will punish the writer by
giving them lower pay for betrayal.

There are Owners who never look
at their sites, and emailing them is
a waste of keystrokes as they NEVER answer.

There are Moderators who will never put your work on a 'Star' Page.
And when it is really great work, they'll hold it for days so that when they
publish it, it is 'old' so will appear on some long past Featured Page.

There are Moderators who have problems with themselves and think your
article on Inferiority Complexes is about them.

There are sites which have your work 'Pending' for more than 24 hours. This gives
them a chance to plagiarise it...(many sites run by those outside of America/
England will translate your work into their language, publish it somewhere, then
publish your stuff on their site.

So be alert to the psychodramas.

Firstly, read the Terms of Service. See exactly what you get and what you lose.

Secondly, as said before, create your Bank. In this way, any site which attempts to capture your work is plagiarising your Blog or Hubpages.

As of this morning, a Google turns up 42M hits to 'Online Writing', hence there is no shortage.

Some sites, i.e. Triond and Wikinut pay very little but you retain the rights to
your work. [The first site no longer exists, the Second no longer pays]

When you decide to edit or remove an article you have the right,
(just as you do here).

There are other sites, (and I leave it to you to find them) where you lose
your rights, aren't paid, encounter nut jobs as Mods/Owners.

Join sites which do not tamper with your copyright, allow you to delete and
edit as you desire. And Sites that PAY.