Should You Provide Free SEO Writing Samples?

Imagine applying for a super-cool freelance SEO penning job. You provided amazing, targeted clips, your interrogation was on-point, and you were acceptable to get the “let’s motion a contract” go-ahead.

Now, ideate the imaginable asks you to constitute a 1,000-word blog station to spot if you tin “match the marque voice.”

But here’s the catch: the blog station is an unpaid “test.” You won’t beryllium compensated for your writing.

Would you inactive determination up with the lead? Or archer them to lb sand?

I bring this up due to the fact that 1 of my SEO Copywriting Certification students went done this precise issue. She rearranged her docket and jumped done aggregate hoops to supply a escaped penning sample.

Did she get the gig? No. And she was angry.

What’s the occupation with providing escaped SEO penning sample?

Unfortunately, determination are scammy companies that usage “writing tests” to get freebie content. It sucks, but they’re retired there.

If you’re an experienced writer with clips, testimonials, and results, you whitethorn consciousness similar you shouldn’t person to leap done other hoops. The lawsuit already has what they request to marque an informed decision.

Plus — and this is my large bugaboo — arsenic nonrecreational writers, our clip is precious. Doing worldly for escaped takes distant from paying clients. If the lawsuit wants to PAY maine for a penning sample, cool. I tin enactment with that (which is what I counsel companies that are searching for freelancers.)

Otherwise, I don’t person time. Companies asking maine to unpaid my clip connected the disconnected accidental that they mightiness prosecute maine feels similar a immense powerfulness imbalance close disconnected the bat.

Are “test” projects the norm for freelance SEO writers?

It’s not the norm, but it does popular up — particularly successful companies with HR departments who deliberation that’s “how it’s done.”

In different cases, immoderate larger companies oregon contented agencies ::cough:: contented mills ::cough:: person a “screening” process that requires investigating and time.

Plus, if you’re looking for an in-house unit job, immoderate benignant of investigating process is common.

For example, a institution erstwhile flew maine to Phoenix, truthful I could instrumentality an editing trial and a property test. (Yes, a property test!) Since I got a mates of escaped nights successful Phoenix during a bleak Pacific Northwest winter, jumping done their hoops was a no-brainer decision.

Should you ever accidental “no” if a institution requests escaped penning samples?

Well, it depends.

The archetypal happening I’d bash is antagonistic with, “My blog station rates are X,” and spot however the speech flowed. The imaginable whitethorn say, “Sure,” and inquire for an invoice. (This has happened galore times.) They whitethorn springiness you a counter-offer.

Or, they whitethorn constitute thing that makes you think, “Nope, I’m not traveling down this road.”

You tin larn a batch astir a imaginable by however they speech astir money.

Plus, you’ll privation to probe the company, cheque with different freelance writers, and get immoderate intel. As you whitethorn guess, immoderate of the astir amazing-sounding freelance gigs aren’t connected the up-and-up. You’ll constitute aggregate pages that you’re told “aren’t right” for the company…and then, you’ll spot YOUR contented connected the institution website.

You know, the contented that “wasn’t right.”

But, let’s accidental the institution checks out, you cognize you won’t spot a dime from the work, and you STILL privation to enactment with them.

Yes, this happens!

Maybe they’re a imagination client, truthful you’re consenting to leap done immoderate hoops. Or, the occupation allows you to turn a caller accomplishment set.

Or, the gig conscionable sounds fun.

I cognize writers who person gone done the contented mill process for a abbreviated clip due to the fact that they were burned retired and needed a caller mode to find clients. It wasn’t great, but they had their reasons.

If you tin marque it enactment for you — and the downside is limited  — wherefore not? For instance, this blogger urges writers to “think of the bigger picture” when faced with an unpaid penning test.

I wouldn’t supply a escaped penning trial for 99.9 percent of the jobs retired there. But erstwhile an unpaid trial turned into a escaped wintertime vacation, it turned my “no” into a “why not?”

Otherwise, it would person been a Letterkenny hard nary for me.

via GIPHY

So, cognize that it’s omniscient to consciousness wary of unpaid “test” assignments. There are different ways to get penning jobs without penning aggregate unpaid pages.

If you determine to determination forward, bash your owed diligence and marque definite the arrangement works for you. You’ve got to spot immoderate upside to marque the escaped enactment worthy your while.

To paraphrase the omniscient words of Missy Elliott, “Do your happening / Just marque definite you up of the game.”

What bash you think?

Have you been asked to taxable an unpaid penning test? How did you grip it? Leave a remark here, oregon caput implicit to the SEO Writing Tips radical and fto maine know. You tin cheque retired this Facebook discussion astir escaped SEO penning samples too.  Enjoy!