Fellow writers - How do you deal with buyers who use unreliable "plagiarism checkers?"

[mhwoolz]

Hi everyone,



Online plagiarism checkers may be my worst nightmare. I should say upfront that I write entirely unique content. I’ve had a couple of customers who use online plagiarism checkers, and my experience is that they’re absolutely terrible. They count things as “plagiarism” when they’re really just common phrases, lists, or other small things that are bound to be repeated somewhere across the entire internet. I know it’s important for SEO that website content appears as original, but it seems impossible to make sure that not a single phrase appears anywhere else.



So my question to other Fiverr writers out there is: how do you deal with customers who depend on these online plagiarism checkers? I have a return customer who I value working with, and lately he ran 3 articles I wrote through the plagiarism checker, which said that something ridiculous like 25% wasn’t original. I went through and made revisions to change all the phrases that came up as unoriginal. These were long articles, so it took about an hour. I politely explained to him my thoughts on these plagiarism checkers, but I didn’t mind making corrections to make him happy with those articles.



Now he’s gone back and run every article I’ve ever written for him through it. He wants me to make corrections to 8 articles for orders that have been completed for a while. This will take me hours, and I don’t know if I can just give that time. Do you think it’s fair to ask to charge him for this? It’s important to me to make sure all of my articles are high-quality and original, but this seems like an excessive amount of work for articles he was happy with before. I’d love any thoughts on how to approach this in a good way!



Thanks everyone.

[emasonwrites]

Any idea which checker(s) he’s using? I know the one from Small SEO Tools (which is the first search result when you Google “plagiarism checkers”) is ridiculously sensitive, but it also makes a big long list of all of the supposedly copied phrases, along with providing that stupid percentage. When I’ve had buyers use that particular checker, I make them send me all of that info, so I can show them why it’s ridiculous. Again, that still takes time, but hopefully less time than having to go back and change every turn of phrase that has ever been used somewhere else online.



I’d maybe run the articles through one of the less ridiculous checkers–Plagium is usually okay, though sometimes it gets silly, too–and send him screenshots of those results, explaining again that it’s nearly impossible to write anything without using a phrase that some other writer has used before; that’s just the nature of our finite language, and that his checker isn’t showing him that you plagiarized, just that other writers have combined the same words in the same order before.



I dunno, it might not help. Most of the time, if a buyer refuses to see my point of view when it comes to plagiarism checkers or starts to get a little haughty, as if he’s “caught” me, despite having done nothing wrong, I cut my losses and ask them to find someone else to work with.

[mhwoolz]

Reply to @emasonwrites: Thanks for your response. He is using the one from Small SEO Tools. It does seem very sensitive! I even made corrections to the phrases it pulled up, ran it through again, and had it mark the new sentences I had just written. It seems impossible to please. Thanks for suggesting a better checker. Maybe I’ll try running my articles through that and showing him the results. Hopefully he’ll understand!

[timelyservices]

This is serious, thanks for great lesson learnt. I shall be very careful because i intend to add article writing to my gigs.

[david388]

Reply to @mhwoolz: I’ve had to deal with this a few times, and it really gets under my skin. If someone is going to behave this way - even if they’re a return Buyer - I think it’s best to cut them loose (politely) as quickly as possible. It’s so stressful to have to do multiple revisions over and over, and the fact that this person is now running ALL of your old deliveries through his ridiculous software is totally unacceptable. 😦



On the bright side of things, it’s springtime at least!

[sincere18]

I would not do those revises.



You need to be polite, yet firm with him in your knowledge about that and be firm about key word and SEO phrases that will appear everywhere and that does not mean plagarism. If he is not trusting you to write unique articles then you should not continue to work with those kinds of clients.



I might also send a polite note in some way to customer service, not sure how I would phrase it, because what you don’t want happening is this buyer going to customer support before you do for some complaint.



But the problem here is that you did this first revise for him. So in that way, you kind of were admitting to him that you saw the problem he had and that it was a problem…this is a tough call.

[sincere18]

I am also curious what kind of articles are you writing for this buyer and in general for others? You may need to start being a little choosy on what kind of writing assignments, how the person will use it, etc.

[fawhash]

A few days back i wrote an article about this on my site.As a seller i have been using smallseotools plagiarism checker, and i have noticed that it has become really unreliable nowadays, and for this reason i wrote the article so everyone could know how unreliable it was.If your buyer is using smallseotools you are doomed because smallseotools plagiarism checker comes up with new mistakes every time you correct the previous one thinking it was your fault.

[thepromogirl]

mhwoolz said: Now he's gone back and run every article I've ever written for him through it. He wants me to make corrections to 8 articles for orders that have been completed for a while.

 

Wow.

 

mhwoolz said: Do you think it's fair to ask to charge him for this?

 

Yes, completely fair. Buyers pay not only for the work completed, but your time to complete the Gig as well. If the Buyer is now asking you to make changes material based on his new specs, then he should place a new order should you agree to make these changes in prior to ordering. Maybe even tell him our hourly rate, how long it will take the make all the changes he's requesting and create a customer quote for him? This might really put things into perspective for him. It sounds like he doesn't care to understand your side, and it could get ugly.

 

With that said, this seems like a bullying Buyer and would go ahead and submit a ticket to Customer Service. Submit screenshots and get their thoughts on the matter.

 

I hope this issue gets resolved for you very soon!

 

 

[mhwoolz]

Reply to @sincere18: These are health and fitness articles. I think part of the problem is that they’re on very specific topics, which makes it more likely that some of the phrases will be repeated around the web. There’s only so many ways you can rephrase a list of symptoms, for example. In general working with this customer has been great. It seems that he’s recently discovered online plagiarism checkers, though.

[mhwoolz]

Reply to @thepromogirl: Thanks for your advice. If he insists that he needs revisions, I think I’ll go the custom offer route.

[mhwoolz]

Reply to @david388: Thanks for your reply. I’m sorry you’ve had to deal with it too - such a pain. And thank goodness for spring!

[sincere18]

Reply to @mhwoolz: Thanks for info…but do you know the ‘how’ and for what purpose this person is using their articles?



They may be a great buyer, however you also have to question why they are questioning such a thing and what their concerns are. That is why I was curious if you knew where they were being used. Have you tried to google an entire sentence from one of your articles to see where it comes up and where they are actually posting this online? Could they possibly be reselling your stuff?

[mhwoolz]

Reply to @sincere18: Sorry for misunderstanding! To my knowledge, he’s posting the articles on his own personal fitness site. I’ve checked out the site before, so I think it’s unlikely he’s reselling them. That’s a good thing to keep in mind as a possibility though!

[thepromogirl]

mhwoolz said: If he insists that he needs revisions, I think I'll go the custom offer route.

 

This is the best route, as I said before, it could get ugly, but hopefully it doesn't. By going to the custom route, you would in a way be demanding some respect. Don't ever be a afraid to stand up for yourself in a professional manner - know your worth. :)

 

Commanding respect is about making good choices for yourself and the work you create. Setting the bar high for yourself people will respect what you do because you do it so well!

[forcedlogic]

As a person who has never used a content writer. I would be curious as to why your articles incorrect or unoriginal on this website? All I see is a bunch of writers complaining but no one is giving solid evidence to why these websites automatically claim that your copywriting is not unique.



Maybe explaining this to the customer would help but can you explain to me why these websites are not good? Also understand that from the viewpoint of the customer there is a lot of really shady people on fiverr, let’s be honest. These websites and tools are ways of validating your not stealing work in other locations and using it for gigs over and over again.

[forcedlogic]

As a person who has never used a content writer. I would be curious as to why your articles incorrect or unoriginal on this website? All I see is a bunch of writers complaining but no one is giving solid evidence to why these websites automatically claim that your copywriting is not unique.



Maybe explaining this to the customer would help but can you explain to me why these websites are not good? Also understand that from the viewpoint of the customer there is a lot of really shady people on fiverr, let’s be honest. These websites and tools are ways of validating your not stealing work in other locations and using it for gigs over and over again.

[forcedlogic]

As a person who has never used a content writer. I would be curious as to why your articles incorrect or unoriginal on this website? All I see is a bunch of writers complaining but no one is giving solid evidence to why these websites automatically claim that your copywriting is not unique.



Maybe explaining this to the customer would help but can you explain to me why these websites are not good? Also understand that from the viewpoint of the customer there is a lot of really shady people on fiverr, let’s be honest. These websites and tools are ways of validating your not stealing work in other locations and using it for gigs over and over again.

[forcedlogic]

As a person who has never used a content writer. I would be curious as to why your articles incorrect or unoriginal on this website? All I see is a bunch of writers complaining but no one is giving solid evidence to why these websites automatically claim that your copywriting is not unique.



Maybe explaining this to the customer would help but can you explain to me why these websites are not good? Also understand that from the viewpoint of the customer there is a lot of really shady people on fiverr, let’s be honest. These websites and tools are ways of validating your not stealing work in other locations and using it for gigs over and over again.

[forcedlogic]

As a person who has never used a content writer. I would be curious as to why your articles incorrect or unoriginal on this website? All I see is a bunch of writers complaining but no one is giving solid evidence to why these websites automatically claim that your copywriting is not unique.



Maybe explaining this to the customer would help but can you explain to me why these websites are not good? Also understand that from the viewpoint of the customer there is a lot of really shady people on fiverr, let’s be honest. These websites and tools are ways of validating your not stealing work in other locations and using it for gigs over and over again.

[emasonwrites]

Reply to @forcedlogic: Some checkers are just too sensitive. These are usually the checkers that look at phrases, instead of entire sentences. It’s conceivable, and actually pretty likely, depending on what you’re writing about, that fresh content, even if you wrote every single word organically without even looking at any research, contains phrases that have been used elsewhere online.



For example, say a buyer asked me to write about “email marketing for small businesses”–a topic that’s been pretty much written to death. If I write, “Email marketing is a great resource for small businesses,” it’s highly likely that some other writer (probably two or three or eight) has written that exact same phrase. The checkers that are too sensitive will report that as plagiarism when A) I didn’t copy and paste that from anywhere, but more importantly B) the full sentence is "Email marketing is a great resource for small businesses looking to improve current customer retention and new customer engagement."



In short, I classify a checker as “too sensitive” when it doesn’t look at complete sentences/the content as a whole in addition to phrases or reports common and/or innocuous phrases as plagiarized when common sense dictates that it’s entirely possible someone else has used the same words in the same order before.

[forcedlogic]

Reply to @emasonwrites: So then as a seller of written copy I would say this.

Dear Patrick,



While we value your business highly it’s important that you understand a key piece of our business which is creating original content. If it’s true that there is no original content left then it’s also true that parts of your order may seem similar to other content on the web.



We can not control what people write all over the world, we can only give you the best service possible. Therefore it is our policy that we ignore copywriting content checkers as they are too sensitive to the copywriting in general.



While we understand that this may put you at a crossroads, it’s in your best interest and ours to ignore those results and do you own investigation. We guarantee that our work is 100% original and that we do not use any programs or content spinners to create your articles.



We hope you can understand this difficult decision that we have made and we hope to keep you as a loyal customer in the future.



Sincerely,

Awesome Content Creator

[topaz_muse]

SEO Tools sounds tricky. Can the same be said for Copyscape? I’ve heard this one come up a lot on other sites that involve writing content for others.

[infinityplusone]

Reply to @forcedlogic:



People who use cheap tools like smallseotools or SEOspyglass are the same type of people who come to Fiverr and expect more than a bargain. Both of those tooks are notoriously poor at either catching all the links (SEOspyglass has a 2.9% success rate) or are oversensitive because the tools algorithm is flawed. Any commonly used phrase will be caught in the 3 consecutive word filter. Because it is cheap, it doesn’t highlight the phrases or show how they would work within a plagiarized article.



All writers have a certain style and turn of phrase, from Stephen King to George Martin. Using smallseotools to catch plagiarism would catch both of them. Try it.



3 consecutive words is hard not to produce so you’ll always look like you’re copying someone. If I were the author I would go to another tool like copyscape, run your own results, screen shot it and present it as evidence that you didn’t copy crapola.

[infinityplusone]

Copyscape isn’t as bad.