Have you ever worked for free?

Cristian Level X³

January 24, 2017, 5:55 am

6

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Have you ever worked for free?

Both in the world of freelance and online marketing agencies there always comes a point when somebody might ask you to work for free. In return, you may get a full blown contract later on or a list of new potential clients and doing this free project will greatly influence their opinion about you.

As a freelancer, I also had my share of free work, mostly scams made by the buyers, especially for content work, they would ask me to write a couple of articles, I would hand them over to the client and expect payment, but really that was the last I've heard from them, they would disappear and I would have wasted my time and effort on something I didn't get paid for.
Things are way better at the moment, I know how to protect myself from bad clients and usually I never do direct transactions except with old trusted clients I had for years.

Clearly working for free as a freelancer when you are getting scammed is bad. But what do you think about this concept? Have you ever worked for free willingly as a freelancer or in a agency?

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hitmeasap

hitmeasap

Yes I have! - I often work for free. Both online and offline. I do this due to "good will" so to speak, but also due to the reason of "karma" kind of. I don't really believe in karma that way, but I do hope that I'll do something good, for someone, at some point, and that I will get something good out of it myself, at some point in life.

I'm a firm believer of believing.

7 years ago

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Corzhens

Corzhens

I am always willing to contribute my effort to the right causes. Our community has a committee that invited me to join their planning session. That took some days usually on weekends and I was glad that it resulted in concrete projects. With online work, I occasionally pitch in for forums that are starting. Nothing wrong with working with no pay as long as I have spare time.

7 years ago

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augusta

augusta

Sure, I do as a volunteer, willingly and not coerce. I have never been scammed by the way because I look at clients critically when once you're a complainer I will not work for you because complainers hardly pays.

7 years ago

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coolavender

coolavender

Fortunately, I haven't experienced working for free due to a scam. I have worked for free voluntarily though and I've done it for people and websites that I like and support. In some instances, I've worked without pay to return an old favor or to give back. There are forums where I contribute by leaving insightful comments intermittently without expecting for payout or reward. It makes me feel good to do so and that is a reward in itself.

7 years ago

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ColdFlameChris

ColdFlameChris

I did work for free especially for my relatives and family. They once ask for my service to make them an invitation card and video presentation for their event for free. It takes me a couple of days to finish the work and after the long hours of hard work, you won't get paid as there's no agreement that they will pay you or they will just give you something for your service, but that's okay, I think of it as a gift to them. But the downside is, it's automatic for them to ask for your free service and you can't say no to them anymore since it's too late and they already get used to it.

7 years ago

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vinaya

vinaya

Normally, I don't work for free. However, there are times when I work for free. When I was growing as a writer, I used to write for my cousin for free. He did not pay me for my work, however, he used to take me to dinner once in a while.
After I started working as a professional writer, I wrote a number of book reviews for free in order to help a fellow writer. I did not receive payment in the form of cash, but she helped me to market my ebooks.

6 years ago

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