Diary of a Mad Editor

The other day, I received this piece of spam in my inbox offering me the moon and all the heavens if I’d sign-up for some “awesome” website marketing program for bloggers that guaranteed me millions of visitors and untold riches from the adsense revenue that traffic would generate.  All that for a “small” monthly fee.  Of course, I smelled a rat. A legitimate company offering a legitimate service wouldn’t be emailing me.  Legitimate companies are looking for big money accounts. Not small, insignificant bloggers like myself. 

Whether it’s an email from a relative of an African dictator or a sales letter telling you how you can buy gold coins and get rich quick, a scam is a scam. Writing scams are no different. There are all kinds of freelance writing scams out there these days. Promises of untold wealth writing articles, online seminars taught by so-called gurus and creativity coaches.  Fake-ass literary agents. Or come-ons from so-called marketing/PR companies. Lots of ways of preying on unsuspecting wannabe writers. Here’s a clue: if they ask you for money up front, you are not going to get paid any money. If it sounds too good to be true, it is too good to be true.