Fiverr

As some of you may or may not know, I do freelance writing and one of the places that I do this is on Fiverr. Because Fiverr offers a very low rate ($4 per "gig"), I don't put a whole lot of effort into it. I offer 2 400-word articles or 3 200-word articles at that price. It's more than I'd like to offer for $4 and it's less than I'd make anywhere else, but when I try to increase my prices by decreasing the article numbers, I don't get orders. So it is what it is. To make up for the price, I simply don't offer editing services or anything like that.

I also don't offer a Copyscape guarantee. Copyscape is a program that checks some text to make sure it's not plagiarized. While I don't copy content, I do research topics briefly to do my articles, so while the text is my own, the ideas often are not. The reason I don't offer a Copyscape guarantee anymore is because of a program called Grammerly. Grammerly offers a free plagiarism check, which is pretty much the bane of my existence as it is not actually finding plagiarism, but small phrases or commonly used words in the text that is similar to something located anywhere else on the internet. For example, if you use the name of a website or a phrase similar to a brand's slogan (even very generic ones) it will say it is copied material. Just yesterday, it flagged some work I did because of the phrase "car insurance scams". Very occasionally I will get an order from someone who feels the need to use this inferior service and they will complain that my work is unoriginal.

Then I start wanting to bang my head against the wall. Typically anyone who actually uses Grammarly and complains about it doesn't know how flipping sensitive it is. I literally spent 2 hours last night doing re-writes and maxing out the free checks on Grammarly and it still said it was copied. I had to start writing like a 3rd grader, omitting important things that make sentences whole before it would say it was original work. Fabulous.

At that point I was beyond irritated. I sent the buyer a fairly nasty note letting them know that Grammarly is a piece of crap and that I don't offer a guarantee on my work because people like him stumble across Grammarly and take it as the Gospel truth. I told him that if he wants me to finish his orders (3 or 4 in line, so a whopping $12 to $16 dollars), I could, but that I would not be doing any other rewrites for any other reason. If he wanted to find the mythical Fiverr writer that was willing to pander to the whims of Grammarly, that was fine by me too.

So now this morning I'm still pretty peeved because not only did this individual accuse me of copying content, but they also didn't waiver when I explained that Grammarly is a piece of shit. They just sort of reiterated that they wanted a re-write. That is prompting me to create a Doc that I can just send people when they stray to the dark side and consult Grammarly. I'm thinking I will require a screen shot of the "copied content" from a paid subscription site because it will show what it thinks is copied. I'll also specify that Grammarly is NOT an acceptable source and that any re-writes will be done at the discretion of the seller (aka me).

Honestly, I wonder if it's a game. Usually it's the people that order a handful of articles and then ask me to float them a freebie because they've been such fabulous clients. Honestly, at the rates Fiverr generates, they're getting freebies with every order. I'm insulted when they ask for free work. Then, they always go and find Grammarly, tell me it's copied and want re-writes. The re-writes wind up having to be so different that it could be another article all together. Boom - freebie accomplished. What a scam. I'm so tired of it that I'm thinking of leaving Fiverr.

As a seller on the site, I have very little possible recourse. The buyer can give me a bad rating which will hurt business if I don't cave and do as they ask with the re-writes. At the same time, I really don't care anymore.