The Ten Commandments Of Freelance Writing

People get scammed every day. Don’t be one of them.

Alice C. Minium
13 min readJun 15, 2018
Courtesy of Flamankamp

I am 26 years old and I write for a living. Google knows this, and my targeted ads reflect it. They are forever recommending that I enlist my soul to massive content farms clearly hungry to suck me in, as if Google is some kind of twisted, unconscionable madame for scams of industry.

This is the most targeted ad I have ever received:

The ad pitches a platform called Contenta, which functions to connect freelancers with people who will pay for their content. Except, surprise surprise: it costs $500 to sign up.

These kinds of scams and for-profit schemes are everywhere, ready to prey on the avid creative energy of eager young professionals, and ready to prey on the desperation borne of that creative energy sadly juxtaposed with a society that has no place for it. Your writing matters. So, PSA to my fellow freelancers.

1. You should never have to pay to get your writing published.

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Alice C. Minium

Richmond-based writer, investigative researcher, and police abolitionist. Contact me at alice@openoversightva.org.