Writers: Got samples? Get a blog!

05Jan09

Often, when bidding on jobs, we want to do whatever it takes to secure the client. As a writer, this may mean providing samples based on what the buyer stipulates. While I still argue that this is a risky tactic in terms of your intellectual property, there are things that can be done to help avoid getting burned by scammers.

When it comes to intellectual property, it all boils down to who wrote what first.

Establish ownership

[adsense]The quickest way to do this, without jumping through hoops of registering each and every copyright, is to publish your work on your own blog.

If you don’t have your own website, server, hosting, etc to setup your own blog, don’t fret. There are many free blog services out there that have the necessary additional features to help secure your copyright. The two most popular services are:

• Blogger (good)
• WordPress (better)

The beautiful thing about blogs are their ability to utilize ping servers – this will notify syndication and social bookmarking sites the moment your post is published. Personally, I find WordPress’s use of Pingomatic faster than Blogger’s exclusive use of Google Blog Search, but that’s just my opinion.

Either way, pinging your posts lets the world wide web know exactly when your article was first published.

Get your game on

If you absolutely must apply for writing jobs that require original articles on their provided topics, here’s what I recommend.

1. If you don’t have one already, sign up for a Blogger or WordPress blog
2. Be sure to attach your name to your blog
3. Be sure to make the blog public (otherwise, the ping servers will never pick up your blog feed)
4. Write your original article on your blog, if it gives you a per-post ping option, be sure to enable it
5. Send your sample article to your buyer

If you prefer to submit a Word document to your buyer, send them the file and inform them of your choice to protect your intellectual property. Let them know that because you have not been hired yet and are still in the preliminary interview stage, you published your article on your blog, and “pinged it”. Otherwise, send your buyer a link to the article on your blog with a quick note stating that you are protecting your intellectual property and the article can be read in full by visiting the link.

Buyers interested in only the quality of your writing will typically accept this. Although they may be disappointed that they can’t claim your work as their own work-for-hire if they do decide to hire you, if they really like the article, there’s a good chance they’ll ask you to reword and rewrite it for them later.

Buyers only interested in taking your free samples and running with it will be discouraged to do so because you’ve already established that the material is yours.

Buyers who take your sample and use it anyway can always be DMCA’d later because you’ve already established ownership!

Deal or no deal…

Doing this is certainly not going to guarantee you the job, but it will guarantee that your work remains protected in the future. Not to mention, you have another (published) sample to add to your portfolio show other prospects!

Filed under: Tips and Tricks   |  Closed
Tags: Blogging, Copyright, Freelancing, Intellectual Property, Writing Jobs