Like a lot of people I’ve submitted my articles to free article sites in an effort to drive traffic. I’ve never thought it was a particularly good idea for a number of reasons, so only about 10 of my articles are out there on these free sites.
Now I’m even MORE glad I never really bought into article marketing.
The other day I looked through my spam filter and discovered a PayPal invoice. I retrieved it from spam land and discovered that one free article site has decided that he’s paying too much for bandwidth so now he’s going to BILL people for the privilege of having their articles on his site.
Here’s what the invoice said. I’m changing the name of the site, since I don’t want to give this loser any traffic. The typos are his:
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Thank you for posting your articles and your use of our website [ScumArticleSite.com] Because of you we are growing a LOT and our server useage and the benefits you gain by using our service are benefiting you. So much so that we are forced to ask you to donate for a lifetime membership to keep using our site for free and submitting all of the great articles that you do. Please find a paypal bill for the small amount of $7.99 for your lifetime fee for using [ScumArticleSite.com] - thank you. This will help offset the increased server costs and keep advertising off the site. Thanks so much in advance for your support. Sincerely [ScumArticleSite.com]
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I went into PayPal and cancelled the invoice and sent him a message saying that he had a lot of nerve billing ME when I was letting him use my content for free.
(As an aside, the part about “keeping advertising off the site” is a huge lie; it’s riddled with banner ads.)
He actually wrote back and said (again the English problems are his):
I don't use your article - I provide you a service where you benefit by posting your articles.
Give me a gigantic break! Without the articles, this guy HAS NO SITE. I’ve certainly seen no benefit from having my articles there and I told him to take them off. I don’t deal with lying scum.
I encourage you to pay close attention to your PayPal statements. If you see invoices you don’t recognize, be sure to cancel them.
Please pass this on to anyone you know who has articles posted on second- and third-tier kinda cruddy free article sites. When you use services like Article Marketer that distribute articles for you, they can end up in questionable cyber-neighborhoods.