A cautionary tale for freelancers:<\/p>\n
One of my Email Players subscribers (who asked I not name him \u2014 although if you know him, I suspect you will see him talking about this soon\u2026 if he hasn\u2019t already) wrote some email sequences for a Chinese eCommerce brand purely on commission. He did a great job, increased sales over what they were doing by $100k, and had all the analytics for the 3 months they tested his emails.<\/p>\n
In fact, the client admitted he whipped the pants off 6 other agencies who they\u2019d hired prior.<\/p>\n
And the deal was, he\u2019d get paid 30% of the increased revenue over what they were doing.<\/p>\n
So, in this case, $30k was owed to my Email Players subscriber.<\/p>\n
But when it came time to pony up the green stuff?<\/p>\n
The clients acted shocked at his invoice. Then they tried negotiating with him with a trick straight out of the low class jackass client playbook. In this case, they wanted to nullify the $30k invoice in exchange for access to 3 massive eCommerce brands the client would personally guarantee my Email Players subscriber would get more copywriting work from.<\/p>\n
The answer was, of course, no.<\/p>\n
After which the Chinese client asked if there was any way he could compromise, etc.<\/p>\n
I suspect you get the gist of where this is going.<\/p>\n
Last I checked (about a week ago) he still had not gotten paid. And it is one of many reasons why if you\u2019re a freelancer getting courted by a would-be client from a corner of the world where you have no real legal or other recourse or options to go after them if they turn out to be a bum client like the one above\u2026 then get paid 100% up front.<\/p>\n
Not just half up front.<\/p>\n
But all of it.<\/p>\n
If they balk?<\/p>\n
There\u2019s plenty of clients in the copywriting sea.<\/p>\n
Personally, I always found that a good rule of thumb when doing business with anyone in a jurisdiction where you can’t really go after them for owed money. And, believe it or not, it\u2019s something a few copywriters I know do even with clients in their own countries\/jurisdictions.<\/p>\n
Even better:<\/p>\n
Sell your own offers and be your own client.<\/p>\n
You are the one client you can always count on not to leave, forsake, or screw you over.<\/p>\n
Something much simpler to do if you have a list and mail it each day.<\/p>\n
Especially if you follow and use my paid Email Players newsletter:<\/p>\n