Beware of Long-term Proposals

First things first, this is way different from the usual stuff I publish here.

Alright, I’ve had enough of this crap. I get at least one daily email from people wishing to build a “long-term relationship” based on my writings for their photography blogs, and every single time they ask me to send them examples of my “best articles”. Ha, yeah right.

When I was just starting out 4 years ago, I fell for this sort of traps constantly, but they arrived like once a month if not slower. I remember I stopped sending them stuff (which where *.docx and fully editable files ready to use) after somebody simply paid for my content without asking anything. Don’t get me wrong, perhaps 1 or 2 of these messages had actually been legit in my case, so I still reply to these messages but with links to my work, which spans from my columns here at Medium and Light Stalking to even Lens Culture and Newspapers when they ask for imagery.

I’m a photography educator, and one of the constant inquiries I get is related to sustainability. I try to teach to my students the little I can about building a solid and secure hourly rate (I have a BBA, so something of that helps me out) for them to actually get some revenue rather than losing money when working on a project. I am fully committed to photography, and I’ve had enough of these scammers trying to build their blogs and websites in the cheapest possible ways.

I want all newcomers (freelancers of all disciplines) to be aware of these scammers. I’ve worked with…