Content writing for clients has its risks.

I just read an interesting post at CharfishDesign’s blog on Ways you can recognise the client from hell. It covered some warning phrases that any freelancer should be aware of when they hear it coming from a client.

These warning phrases include ones like “I don’t care”, “It’s up to you”, “You can do anything you want”, and a here’s beauty, “We need to make a few changes”.

I used to do wedding videos, run a home services franchise and be a sales consultant for several residential project building companies. So over a period of 15 years I got to deal with hundreds and hundreds of clients. Thank God most clients are kind and good natured. However when dealing with the general public you do get to deal with the good, the bad, and the ugly. Unfortunately it’s the last two types that we generally tend to remember the most.

It can sometimes be difficult to determine which clients will be good and which ones will be bad when we first meet them. Over time we do learn to read the warning signs. But there are a few things we can do to prevent a difficult situation arising if we decide to take someone on as a client.

Get paid UPFRONT. No payment plans, no deposits unless they are to secure your services before the job, or if the job is going to be over $1,000 or $2,000. If the client or business cannot afford $1000 or so up front, they are not worth the risk.  Payment plans are for large corporations or government utilities that have the resources to employee lawyers and debt collectors. Or for businesses selling retail services or products using your credit card for regular payments. However as a small to medium-sized business freelance work should always be paid upfront.

But at least get paid in FULL before you start the work. No exceptions. If you are good at what you do you should be able to provide adequate examples, demos and testimonials of your work. If that is not good enough for your prospective client let them walk. The good and SERIOUS ones will come back. Don’t be so desperate to get a client as that shows (even subliminally) and it lowers your bargaining power.

If you are a web designer and/or content writer and are sick of dealing with bad clients. There is a way to still make money. Just setup great WordPress minisites with unique content (10-20 pages is enough) on a particular niche. Then sell them at the internet marketing forums like DigitalPoint or WarriorForum. Those Internet marketers are easy buyers and love to buy new sites. If you also provide a good product and service, they will be pestering you for more sites to purchase. This might provide you with another income stream.

Rating in a product review

Product review sites have been popular on the web for many years. If you do a search for product reviews at Google it will return 378 million results. That’s a lot of product reviews online. If you put that same search term in quotations for an exact phrase search you still get 62.5 million results. And that’s just at Google.

People that want to buy a particular product maybe a bit suspicious about manufacturer claims. They are wary of sales hype. Rather they would like to read some real reviews from others that have either tested the product who use it for themselves. They want to know if the product is any good. Is it reliable, does it do what the manufacturer or retail store claims. Is the product good value for money.

That’s where a good product review comes into play. The reviewer gives their assessment on whether the product is good, just OK or bad in their eyes. It helps the reader to decide whether they want to go ahead and buy that product, or look for an alternative model or brand.

I personally use product reviews a lot myself when buying products. Especially expensive products or ones that will take up a fair bit of my time. Reading the opinions of others helps in making that decision. But if I feel those opinions are a bit biased or based on poor information, then I like to read more scientific based product tests. Like those that are done by the Australian Consumers Association at their Choice website.

As I use these type of reviews a lot myself it gave me the idea to also setup websites to review specific products. Things that I have a high degree of interest and passion. Like electronics gadgets such as GPS units, mobile phones, cameras and camcorders.

So the current project I’m working on are product review sites. I’ve just registered a keyword focussed domain at GoDaddy and created a new account on my dedicated server. Installed WordPress, installed a theme and about 20 plugins.

I won’t mention the domain name yet as I still have to upload content. So I don’t want it crawled by the search engines until the basic are ready. You know the usual mandatory pages like contact, privacy policy, disclosure and so forth. And a few pages to help visitor understand how products in that category work, what to look for when buying one, and other useful information. Then the product reviews will start.

I can’t wait to share this with you. So I’ll keep you posted on its development. Stay tuned for more.