Hm. Perhaps my post came off as much ruder than I intended. I wasn't attacking you, Jan. My point is just what DaveEMG pointed out: that it is a two way street.
Just like a buyer doesn't want to be ripped off for his hard-earned money, I don't want to send work to someone without first being assured that I won't send something over without having wasted my time and effort. I know that you don't disagree with that, especially since you have now pointed out that you also write content (sorry, I don't look at people's sigs much).
That being said, I look more at a person's overall participation on WF before making a judgment call on whether I would like them to pay first or whether they should pay in increments.
For example, I got a PM from a guy last week that wanted me to write some articles but expected me to write them all first before he paid. He was concerned that I would run off with his money. I assured him that I value my reputation and have always delivered what was asked for. Additionally, I would ask people that I had previously written for if I could use them for a reference so that he could be further assured. This guy had 2 posts on WF at the time (and still does, to my knowledge).
So since it was a "small project" (probably 8 or so hours of my time to complete) should I have automatically done the work and sent it to him even though I had nothing to go on to gauge his character and past business dealings?
I think you would agree with me that the answer is no.
Different scenario: When I first started to offer writing for members of WF, a member with almost 500 posts PMed me for a larger project. He had solid positive rep and was engaged in conversation not only in the "Shooting the Shit" section, but also in other areas of the forum. Constructively as well as showing a sense of humor. I had no problem with him paying partially up front and paying the rest after the project was finished.
So, to answer your question, my "useless rep" statement was not to say that the rep system is not
ever a useful indicator of a person's integrity and value to the forum. However, I do believe that a person can post forever on a forum and not get "neg-repped" and be a completely different person during a business transaction. There have been several examples of these posters coming to light in the past couple of months around here.
So it is a complete judgment call. And one that both buyer and seller need to make. While there are tools that will protect you (Paypal, paying with CC) no one really wants to have to hassle with trying to get money out of a person for work done or money back from a person for shoddy or missing work. It's a headache and all-too-often results in more trouble than the monetary value is worth.
My advice (for what it's worth):
For both buyers and sellers:
- Everyone on here has an IM client. Use it. I can't write for someone unless I know what they want that copy for. Are they selling something? Is it going on an informational site? Are they using Adsense? What are the particular keywords that they want me to hit on? How long are the articles that they want and why do they want that length? I've found that just by talking to someone on IM for 15 minutes, I can gauge not only how I should go about writing for them, but also what kind of person they will be to work with. 99% of the time, my gut feeling is dead on. Sure, people can be much different on IM than in "real life" and it's easy to deceive. However, if you take a person's WF reputation and posting "personality" and combine it with their IM "personality" that gives you much more to go on than you had before.
- Stay in constant contact via IM or better yet, phone. Some guys I do work for and work with are probably a little annoyed at my updates via IM. It's infinitely easier to just que them up when you see them on and say "here's how it's going..." than to PM someone and not know when they will see it. I do this at least once every two days for guys that I'm doing for that I have their IM names. And I'm getting much better about getting everyone's IM names that I work with. I didn't do this at first and I didn't like it when people felt that they needed to contact me for an update. After all, I did ask them to pay first, they deserve to know what their money is doing for them.
For Sellers:
- If you have bad news, don't run from it. Spearhead it. I had a death in the family one weekend only to turn around and get strep throat the next. I was able to work maybe three days in that time between so my schedule was all crapped up. I did my best to let everyone know what the deal was, even though it killed me to do so because I felt that I was giving messed up excuses even when I really wasn't. Most or even all of the guys I was doing work for during that time have said that they will be return customers.
- Stick to your guns about what you will/will not do. I take Paypal because, even though it's a pain in my ass, I have used it for years and I feel that I know its idiosyncrasies. I look at it kind of like Windows that way. I had a guy that really wanted to use my services, but had 0 posts on WF and was telling me that he wouldn't use anything but escrow.com. While many people have reported success with this site, I've never used it before and I don't have time to do the research on it that would make me comfortable using it. Plus, let's face it: if someone doesn't have a Paypal account and they live in the US, more often than not there is a reason. I politely declined the transaction because it just didn't "feel right."
- Know your limits. If I was charging on WF what I have been paid at print publications, I would be researching for days or even weeks the articles that I write. But no one wanting content for their sites is going to pay that premium so I have adjusted my style to be able to accommodate a far lower price. That means I have to write about things that I already know about or that I can easily research in a flash. I'm no Mac user and I would never be able to write about it properly. I've had to politely turn away three different people because of this. But it's worth it to me and the customer because I wouldn't be delivering them a crap product and they respect my honesty.
For Buyers:
- Ask for references. Try to get references from trusted members. Anyone can make up 5 different accounts that all say that JonDoeDesigner is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Try to talk to these guys on IM, if they're willing. Sure, the mods would be able to check to see if a person has multiple accounts from a single IP after the fact, but that's the same hassle as having to file a dispute with Paypal. You don't even want to have to do that if you don't want to.
- Check up on your work. Be polite, of course. IM the seller every once in a while (I don't recommend more than once a day) to say "How's it going?" and shoot the shit with the guy. Hell, I enjoy talking to different people on IM from the forums anyway because it's fun to "talk shop" with different people because I don't know anyone that does IM in "real life." I'm not saying you have to be someone's best friend, but a seller is going to be far more likely to want to finish your project if you are a personable conversationalist and don't come off as their "boss."
- Be explicit about what you want. Probably every other person that PMs me about articles wants something like "25 articles on pancakes." And I can almost understand that attitude. After all, the whole reason that you hire someone for design or content writing is that you don't want to be bothered with it. However, if you want to get what you want, you are going to have to be as specific as possible. So I always have the customer write out their topic list as well as whatever keywords they would like me to focus on. If I am talking to them on IM and neither of us are rushed for time, I always ask them all the questions I went through before under "Everyone has an IM client." This always makes the transaction much easier and much more pleasant for everyone. I know that designers have to feel the same way about this.
Whew, ok that was long. But I hope that it cleared up any misconception that my previous post may have portrayed that I was attacking Jan. I wasn't. I just want everyone to know that it's not all "common sense" when dealing with others online and that many times disputes could have been prevented with just a little bit of forward-thinking and some good ol' communication.
Also, these tips came off the top of my head (yes, I really am that verbose) so if I think of any more I will post them in this thread.
I hope that this helps.
Old habits are hard to break.