Dear Writers,

It doesn’t take us long to begin changing things after we finish making updates. So, at this moment we are making plans for our newest upcoming development.

The new development is a step toward something we’ve been pursuing for a long time - Chat (or Instant Messaging as it’s known by some) between writers and customers. Last year we tried adding chat, but the technology available at the time and the general public’s level of comfort in using it was very low. Since then, chat has become much more prevalent in places like, for example, Facebook. In fact, thanks to Facebook we now have lots of new chat apps to choose from and they do not require downloading a client app, as we found this time last year was the standard and a major obstacle in its adoption.

To keep this post short, we plan to offer chat to our customers in test mode. By ‘test mode’ we mean, that while any visiting customer will have the ability to chat with writers, only a few writers (numbering under 50) will be chosen to interact with customers. Here’s why…

1) We need to figure out the primary purpose of customers chatting with writers…is it for answers to writing questions? Is it to be led to specific letters? Or, is it to request the writers to write for them?

2) What must we provide writers to make answering questions easier? An easily searchable FAQ section? An easy way for writers to search their own letters to provide customers something that will work for the customer’s situation? A link for the writer to provide the customer for the customer to hire the writer exclusively?

3) What protocol can we design for all writers to interact with customers and lead them to the purchase of letters or prepaid requests?

4) What safeguards can we put in place to prevent writers from using LetterRep as a lead-generation center and taking the customers away?

There are probably more things we need to be watching for, but we just don’t know to ask those questions yet.

Here’s the general layout. Check out this image:

(If you see your pic here and you’d prefer for it not to be, please don’t panic. This was simply the mock-up used to show the developer what we had in mind.)

We are, however, in desperate need for writers to upload pics to their profiles so that we can begin the process of choosing which writers will be selected as testers.

Why would you want to be a tester?
We have been conducting a survey on LetterRep recently, maybe you’ve seen it on the customer side. While the #1 answer to the question ‘Why have you visited today?’ was ‘To browse,’ that answer only stands at 41%. 37% (as of this post) have wanted to ‘Ask an expert’ - YOU! Here’s part of the results page:

Marketing research and customer studies indicate that this 37% wants a letter immediately or wants someone to write one for them.  Besides discovering answers to our questions above, we are providing the group of writers chosen for testing the ability to interact with customers and lead those customers to their own letters.

Testing should turn out to be very profitable to the closed group of testers, if they handle it properly.

We have very few pics of writers at the moment and we know this is a basic requirement for a tester. If you are interested (and we hope you are), please visit the writers side of your account and upload an image of yourself.

We hope to see you soon.

~Rob

Dear Writers,

Hi everyone. I hope all is well.

In case you didn’t notice, LetterRep got hacked yesterday. It wasn’t malicious but it was very deliberate. Just hours before the Googlebot crawled our site, a malware site from China entered through some older code we ported from the previous release to post a script that would embed cookies on visitor machines redirecting them to third party sites selling cialis, viagra, etc. As soon as Google crawled LetterRep, Google posted warnings, like ‘This site is not safe’ or ‘This site may be harmful to your machine.’ Needless to say, our traffic dropped down to nothing.

I made a call to the developer and we got the offending code removed and updated the older site code so it’s no longer vulnerable. Google re-crawled us early this morning and things seem to be back to normal.

In any event, you may want to delete the cookies on your computer in case the cookie re-directing you to the malware site was inadvertently installed.

Sorry for the trouble.

Next…PayPal.

PayPal started playing its games again with suddenly, WITHOUT WARNING, changing the fees for writers. What’s strange is that some writers were affected while others were not.

With the help of one writer (J.P. - many thanks), we found that if we choose the ‘Personal’ tab rather than the ‘Purchase’ tab when sending payments, the fee is reversed…so that LetterRep pays the fee and not the writer. Sweet deal, right? Hold on. LetterRep’s fee for this is $0.05 per transaction. Not that much, but after several payments, it starts to add up.

Here’s the solution…yes, LetterRep pays $10.00 to writers for each letter sold, however, PayPal wants their slice; so…these are the options: 1) You as the writer are paid $10.00 from LetterRep through the ‘Purchase’ tab where PayPal charges you 2.9% plus $0.30 for each transaction (more for overseas transfers), or 2) you are paid $9.95 from LetterRep through PayPal’s ‘Personal’ tab where PayPal charges LetterRep $0.05 cents for a total of $10.00. Okay…we’ve voted for you…the latter.

Who hates PayPal? We do, too. The problem is, no other payment processor on the Web reaches as many countries as it does. LetterRep has writers in the U.K., New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the U.S., Philippines, India, Pakistan, Nigeria, South Africa and lots of other places. Many of these countries, South Africa, for example, still do not accept PayPal. LetterRep has lots more people who want to write, but don’t because their countries don’t accept PayPal and they don’t want to work for free and the Snailmail and Western Union options cost so much to send to many countries that the earnings are outweighed by the fees. Those options are so bad they’ve been removed from LetterRep’s writer registration altogether.

We would really like to find a new payment processor…or, at the very least, a method of payment that is accepted by all countries…maybe, $10 e-gift cards to Amazon or something like that.

Send us your suggestions.

I owe you more posts about the new changes to the site. I promise to get those out to you soon.

Finally, on Wednesday I presented LetterRep to a venture capitalist. I’ll keep you posted as things develop. Wish us luck!

~Rob

Dear Writers,

Because it is outside of the normal scope of letters we write (and because I don’t really know who out there has skills in SEO, et al, for writing web copy), I am posting this article to ask you.

A customer, a hotelier, has a website consisting of five pages. He needs copy for each of these pages tooled in SEO and optimized for his industry.

He recently joined and is very interested in hiring one writer (more than one may change the tone of the copy somewhat) to write all five pages for five separate fees. As always, LetterRep.com is here to assist in the e-comm transaction.

Let me know if you have any experience in this area. Ideal candidates for the job will be able to show some work they’ve done in the past and provide contact information to the site managers to verify.

If you are interested, send me a message at rob[at]letterrep.com or post a reply here.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Rob
LetterRep.com

Dear Writers,

Today I received a very strange request. Here’s the story…

An 82 year old man contacted LetterRep. He explained in a brief telephone call how he had recently written a book on how is son-in-law had swindled him of his company, money and stock. In his own description, his son-in-law makes “the devil look like a school boy.” The stolen company was worth 7-10million dollars.

The requester claims to have contacted lawyers who would not help unless there was a retainer deposited in advance.

The requester says what he wants now is money to leave to his other grandchildren; and, if any assistance can be given in recouping the money, the assistants (letter writers) will be duly compensated.

From LetterRep, he wants for letters to be written exposing the son-in-law and pressuring him to concede some $$$s. It seems like a long shot and there is no guarantees or assurances that any pay will come from it, but if anyone would like to review the situation and write a letter for this requester, you are free to give it a shot.

The requester also has a website describing the book and the situation: http://www.mikesomma.com

Good luck,

Rob

Thanks to AssociatedContent.com

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1412030/tips_for_organizing_your_2009_freelance.html?cat=3

Hello Writers,

Many of you may have already noticed the changes to the ‘Contact User’ feature of the ‘Current Requests.’ For those of you who have not, ‘Contact User’ now works more like a message board.

Are you familiar with Facebook? In case not, messages posted on Facebook are handled much the same way as LetterRep’s message board. On Facebook, you post a message to someone’s page. When you do so, an email gets generated to the person to whom you left the message. That email includes a link that when clicked brings the recipient back to the message board. Once there, that person can post a message to the board. Once posted, an email gets sent to the originator with the note and a link that when clicked, brings the originator back to the message board. This process can continue until (in LetterRep’s case) a rapport is built between the writer and the customer and an understanding of the customer’s needs is established.

As before, when you click the ‘Contact User’ link on the ‘Current Requests’ page, writers are provided a field to enter a message to the customer. Once submitted, an email gets sent to the customer announcing that you have left a message for them. That email contains a link. When clicked, the customer is returned to the message board (previously, it was to the purchase page). At the message board, the customer can enter text into the available field and click one of two buttons: ‘Submit and hire this writer to compose your letter’ or ‘Submit and wait to hire this writer to compose your letter.’ If the former is clicked, the site works as it did before, taking the customer to the purchase page. If the latter is clicked, the customer submits their message. An email gets generated to you, the writer, with a link leading back to the message board where you can enter text into the text field and reply to the customer. Again, an email gets sent to the customer with a link to the message board.

This process allows you to build a rapport with the customer that the earlier ‘Contact User’ feature did not. It also diminishes the requirement to ‘hard sell’ the customer on your initial email. The hope is that after a short discussion with you about the needs of their letter, the customer will be more inclined to click the link and purchase.

Here’s the best part…Once the customer has paid, the message thread gets posted to the letter submit page so writers can refer to the message conversation for writing their letter.

**News later on a forum coming to the writer’s side.** Stay tuned.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Rob

Hello All,

Recently, Google has been testing out a new feature called ‘Preferred Sites.’ An article came out today, January 18th, on CNET that is posted in full below. Basically, it seems that searchers can choose which sites they want to search for the things they are looking for. The important thing for writers is that users can also list preferred sites for different types of searches. This is the part that is important to us. We writers can help influence customers in finding LetterRep.com in their letter searches. Please take a look at the article below. Read the ‘Google help page’ and make your submissions for LetterRep so we can all benefit from this opportunity.

Gracias to CNET for letting us use the article.

Google wants to know which sites to search

Google is experimenting with a search feature that allows users to tailor their searches by creating a list of sites they would like to appear most in search results.

Preferred Sites will suggest will suggest(sic) frequently visited sites based on search history when it’s relevant, but users can also add and delete sites, according to the new feature’s help page:

“The preferred sites feature lets you set your Google Web Search preferences so that your search results match your unique tastes and needs. Fill in the sites you rely on the most, and results from your preferred sites will show up more often when they’re relevant to your search query.”

Google said that Preferred Sites could also have an impact on everyone’s searches:

If the feature goes live to everyone, people will be able to pick a list of authoritative sites and influence all search results.

Preferred Sites is an extension of Google SearchWiki, which lets people elevate, delete, add, and annotate search results. It is activated only while the user is logged in to their Google account, and users’ preferred sites and search results are private.

Dear Writers,

For reasons known only to the Internet, today has been a good day for writers who took the time to contact customers using the ‘Contact User’ link on the ‘Current (non-prepaid) Request‘ page. Customers seem to be clicking the link LetterRep.com posts in the email you send and joining…more than on other days. As you know, this assigns the request exclusively to you.

Anyway, before the moon and stars move out of alignment, or for whatever other reason they are joining, I wanted to let you know so you can send those customers with open non-prepaid requests a message and encourage them to let join so you can write their letters.

Here is today’s list of non-prepaids so far (and it’s only 1:17pm EST):

Jan 14 2009
Letters of Intent ~ Letter of intent - Alt 1
due to poor business outcome last 2008, the management decided not to rent the ground floor of the bldg which is Unit E. In line with this we wish to ask if you could gice us 2 months transition for the final decision.

Letters of Reconsideration ~ Excuse letter for Tardiness
i want to ask for favor to excuse me on being late for four times due to leaving the office on late time and come to work early the following day.

Health & Wellness ~ Retarded person surgery experiment
I want perssausive letter to send DR Nemur taking stand on Charlie experiment who was suffering from retarded before sugery. After surgery he get smat be a social with people he can make fun of his another friends.

Reply Letters ~ follow up letter - Alt 1
I would like to thank you for giving Ducon an opportunity to quote you our best price and at the same time for giving us the opoortunity to elaborate more on our paper products and listen to your needs.

I am looking forward of hearing from you soon and hope to start a good business relationship with you.

thank you,

Termination Letters ~ termination of tenancy - Alt 2
this letter was to inform you that the unit F3 occupied by Singer Finance Corporation are to be terminated effective JAnuary 15, 2009

Welcome Letters ~ Welcome - Alt 2
Welcome my new supervisor

Consent Letters ~ letter of apology - Alt 2
An apology letter for my professor to accept me again in his class. an apolgy because of consenting my classmate’s absent, i wrote his in the attendance even if is not around yet.

Thank you,

Business Letters ~ Mr - Alt 4
a letter that tell employees that as from a certain date all company vehicles must be parked the office.
by order of the management

Application Letters ~ application letter - Alt 3
apllication letter for nurses

Request Letters ~ Letter of Request - Alt 4
for getting company list and its purposes why you are interested to get the company list of Gateway Business Park

Consent Letters ~ Consent to use bank account and business permit for sponsorship purpose
give my consent to my wife to use our joint bank account and business permit under my name, to sponsor our cousin for study abroad. Besides, that I am aware of the sponsorship being initiated by my wife for our cousin.

Application Letters ~ application letter for registered midwife
application letter for registered midwife

Request Letters ~ Tour package/iterinary
We would like to request for a sample of your tour package. The prefer date of our tour February 18-21,2009. The place we have chosen is in Banaue-Sagada, Philippines.

Permission Letters ~ Permission to leave
I need a letter of permission to take a vacation leave at work to visit my grandmother who is sick.

Permission Letters ~ Permission to leave - Alt 1
i need a letter of permission to take a vacation leave

Employment Verification Letters ~ verification regarding my employment visa status
verify my employment visa.

Commendation Letters ~ TRANSFER CALL
how to write a letter to the department of telecom for a tranfer of one office to another office

Explanation Letters ~ Request to sit for exams
I have to write a letter explaining why i didn’t sit for my Final Paper during the exams period and am requesting them to give a second Chance to sit for the paper i didn’t wrote

Appointment Letter ~ IT manager - Alt 1
Please send me appointment letter for IT Manager

Sample Letters of Recommendation ~ request for promotion - Alt 3
recommend a deserving employee for promotion

Thank You Letters ~ thanks letter to my boss for inviting me in recent business meeting
Hi, I want to write a breefly thanks letter to my boss for inviting me in recent conducted business review meeting, i want also write thank to my boss for motivated all the participent of the meeting and discussed all bright future of our orgnization. and I also give 100% assurance to my boss that every expectation would be full fill by us with his support in future.

Job Application Letters ~ Cashier - Alt 1
apply for a cashier post in an organization

Request Letters ~ carldel
a letter requesting all my client to increase my monthly pay for computer repair,installation,check-up and programming of about 50 percent due to increasing demand for computer analyst and consultant and due to my personal needs because my wife is about to deliver my first daughter so i need to earn money more than my regular income

Sample Thank You Letters ~ Thank You Letter for Christmas Letter
I need a letter to reply via a thank you letter for the Christmas letter i have received from such distant relative.

Request Letters ~ to hold my class in another school
letter requesting to hold my classes in another school to be able to use the tools and equipment available in that school

Letters of Application ~ Letter of Intent - Alt 2
Want to apply for a position as a cashier even I am a newly fresh graduate of Bachelor of Science in Nursing I can be qualified as a cashier because I been working as an accounts clerck for 9 years at BTC FISHING COMPANY here in General Santos City and their products are fresh tuna and I serve our company with loyalty.

Application Letters ~ Letter of Intent - Alt 3
Apply for the position of Secretary in their good office
I am Bachelor of Science in Nursing
Work for 6 years as Secretary and accounts clerk
Work with loyalty to BTC FISHING COMPANY
Hoping that I will be hired and will do my responsibilities with deligation and honesty

Letters of Intent ~ letter of intent for approval menu list
i need a letter of intent discussing about my proposal to menu list of the restaurant for their review and approval.

Application Letters ~ application letter - Alt 1
application letter for midwives

Request Letters ~ request for assistance - Alt 1
requesting the campaign team to support tertiary students confideracy by providing them with banner to welcome them back to school.

Certification Letters ~ certifications
certify me as an employee of a company.

Letters of Explanation ~ Explanation on abseeteeism working
Since XXX, I went to Island Hospital and Dr. XX is my examiner on my stomach problem.

He did open 2 weeks mc from XX to XX.

However, my stomach intermittenly will pain.

On 9th Jan 09, I went to Island Hospital again since the stomach still intermittenly pain (MC as attached in email).

Sorry for Ms XX (superior name) create any problem towards you due to this few weeks abseeteeism and I’m only inform you through sms method which I suppose to write proper email or call you to give proper explanation.

Letters of Notification ~ PENDING ENGAGEMENTS
Please i need a letter to inform a customern that so many engagements and does not respect repayment schedule. I need to let him know the total amount he is owing us. Since he has so many engagements that is is so many little debts.

Cover Letters ~ Late submission of Applications
explaine my late submission of application letter for rest days- vacations for the following staff

Request Letters ~ for torque spanner
service enginner to using torque spanner for machine maintenance purpose

Referral Letters ~ social ministries assistant
we need a referral letter request aide for someone in need from another non-profit agency. would like a form letter to use for everyone for every type of help

Referral Letters ~ social ministries assistant - Alt 1
we need a referral letter request aide for someone in need from another non-profit agency. would like a form letter to use for everyone for every type of help

Business Letters ~ Promoting my new Tow Trucking business
I just need letter promoting my new tow trucking business. I I am trying to start my own tow trucking business and I went around to drop off business cards that I had made but I think that it would stick more if someone had to read a letter. I am also going to put some of my business cards in with the letter as well.

Proposal Letters ~ sample of a proposal letter for donations.
I need a sample of a proposal letter for food donations for my food bank.

Request Letters ~ Providing Staff/employees to organizations
Hi,

We are a recruitment firm and we provide staff to all kind of organization as per their needs.

We need to get a letter proposing them to tie up with us so that we can provide them with staff as per their needs/requirments.

Thank You.

Complaint Letters ~ find a siutable title please
i paid my bill to an internet service provides and for a week my internet service has been very very poor i couldn’t browse for a week, and that is a great lose for my company because we totally depend for our income. so i want to know whats you have to do about the 7 days that we couldn’t access the internet. thank you

This topic is posted here, in addition to the Writer FAQs in case any discussion arises.

LetterRep.com does not withhold any portion of writer payments as taxes. Writers are responsible for reporting their payments as self-employment income.

We got a lot of help during 2008 from the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) concerning this topic. Primarily, the IRS helped us to relate LetterRep.com to a business model existing within the IRS list of business tax models. (Online businesses are a challenge.) The closest resemblance LetterRep had to an existing ‘brick-and-mortar’ model is that of a building or property which leases space internally to independent consignment businesses. Examples might be that of a mall which allows private consignment shops to operate internally. LetterRep.com handles the business transactions for each of the consignment businesses, but because no employment or 1099-R contract exists between LetterRep.com and the separate business entites selling products on LetterRep.com (no time schedule, for example), writers who sell on LetterRep.com are completely responsible for their own taxes based on their works that sell.

Please let us know if you have any questions about the totals you made during 2009.

Rob Noyes
LetterRep.com

Hello Writers,

In the last post, I mentioned the Editorial Guidelines for writers. These guidelines help describe how to compose your letters as templates and how to format your letters so they appear ‘normal’ to customers who review and hopefully purchase them.

Because of the wide variety of letter compositions and formats submitted, the suspicion is that very few writers are reading these; so, the Editorial Guidelines are posted here for easier access, as you go through editing your letters.

Keep in mind, if you find a problem or a better or easier way of doing something on the site, please post it here for all of us.

---

These editorial guidelines are designed to help you understand what works are acceptable and unacceptable for inclusion in the LetterRep.com letters database. Before you submit works to LetterRep.com, please read this page.

CONTENT QUALIFICATIONS

To Be Qualified For Inclusion on LetterRep.com, Your Work:

* MUST NOT CONTAIN AFFILIATE PROGRAM LINKS. See Section #3 below.

* MUST NOT BE BLATANT AND EXCESSIVE SELF-PROMOTION OR HYPE.

* MUST NOT CONTAIN PORNOGRAPHY/ADULT MATERIAL, HATE OR VIOLENCE-ORIENTED, SUGGEST RACIAL INTOLERANCE, ADVOCATE AGAINST ANY INDIVIDUAL, HAVE INSULTING-OBSCENE-DEGRADING TONE OR CONTAIN EXCESS PROFANITY.

* MUST NOT CONTAIN INFORMATION ON: hacking/cracking content, auto-surf program advocacy or promotion, bomb creation, support for terrorism/radicalism/religious fanaticism, illicit drugs or drug paraphernalia, steroid use or advocacy, weapon/firearms/ammunition/balisongs/butterfly knives or brass knuckles, or the promotion of hard alcohol/tobacco-related products or prescription drugs.

* MUST NOT CONTAIN ANY CONTENT THAT IS A VIOLATION OF ANY LAW, be considered defamatory, libelous, or infringes on the legal rights of others.

* MUST NOT BE A SUBMISSION OF THE EXACT SAME WORKS as one that you already submitted. Some writers have submitted the same work multiple times with only a few words changed in the body — we reject these and ban writers who engage in this practice.

* MUST NOT BE A REPLY TO A PERSONAL EMAIL, letter or other correspondence.

* PUT NO ADDRESSING, DATING, REFERENCE (RE:), OR SUBJECT in the header of your letters.

Letter Title
• Be concise: instead of “announce the sale of a boat or house” write “announce sale of property”; e.g., omit articles when possible and unnecessary description.
• Lowercase first word.
• Use active verb (not –ing or noun phrase): e.g. Announce (not announcing).
• End with a period before author if named.
• Do not use punctuation after author other than periods for initials, example:
write a letter title. Author A.B.

Letter Description
• Include only 6-8 lines (salutation and body paragraph, or two if short).
• End with 3 dots (including period): .…

Insert Material
• Be concise.
• Do not use verbs in brackets (e.g. [insert amount]; just write $[amount]).
• Use brackets [ ] , not parentheses ( ).
• Name: [name] or [full name] if necessary (not [person's name] or [subject’s name])
• DO NOT PUT XX OR [XX]
• Name of company or organization: [company/organization] (not [business name] or [name of business])
• Add apostrophe-s after brackets: [name]’s or [company]’s.
• If a date is used in the body of the letter, insert date as [date].
• Time: insert time as [time] or [time period]
• Combinations: on [date] at [time], we…
• Position or title: [position/title] (not [state name of position])
• Gender: [his/her], [he/she]
• Optional material: [Optional:] Then begin the optional content as a separate paragraph.
• Dollars: $[amount]
• Contact information: [phone number] or [phone] or [email]

Letter Body
• Business letters: Dear [name]: or To Whom It May Concern: (note colon and caps)
• Personal letters: Dear [name], (note comma)
• Skip a line before beginning first paragraph.
• Double space between paragraphs.
• Use the words “from” and “to” rather than a hyphen between times or dates.
• Do not use any spacing before paragraphs (LetterRep customers can choose the format from their interface).
• Do not add any blank lines at the end of the document

Display Content
• Lowercase first word.
• End with period.
• Use active verbs: complain about poor service; express disappointment with company.

Word Choices
• Avoid “totally” (use “completely” instead) and “definitely.”
• Avoid “a lot” (use “many” or a similar word instead).
• Due to = caused by (do not use it to mean “because of”).
• Avoid contractions in business letters; they are acceptable in personal letters.
• Avoid “thanks much.”
• Use “I look forward to” rather than “I’m looking forward to.”
• Use “and” rather than “&.”

Punctuation
• Use a semicolon (;) before “however” and a comma after it.
• Use double quotation marks, not single.
• Enclose period and comma inside quotation marks.
• Use commas after all elements in a series, including last one before “and.”
• Use only one space between sentences and following all punctuation.
• Use the slash mark (/) for multiple pronoun (or other) options: [his/her] NOT [his or her].
• Follow “To Whom It May Concern” with a colon (:) NOT a semicolon (;).
• Do not use tabs; use one space.
Remove white space at end of document

General
• Single space throughout.
• Proofread the letter before submitting it!

LetterRep.com Editorial Guidelines:(AFFILIATE PROGRAMS)
Sorry, we DO NOT ALLOW ANY AFFILIATE (OR DISTRIBUTOR) LINKS in any works. Please don’t send them in or your work will be rejected.