To air Samuel Johnson's much used quote, “No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money.”

An interesting article with some sound advice. I steer clear of all the freeloaders you mention, although many years ago I did write articles for no other payment than a free issue of the magazine. I didn't mind this at the time for three reasons; 1) I was writing in a magazine about my beloved football team (Newcastle United), so it was a real labour of lovr, 2) It was a great confidence boosting exercise in which I proved to myself that I could write effectively, and 3) in those pre-Internet days, seeing my byline at the foot of the page in a glossy magazine was quite a thrill, and, after 20 articles, I had a good start to my portfolio.

These days I'm much more hard-nosed about it all, although I have been known to offer my writing services free of charge for non-profit causes I like to support, but this is a rare occurrence.

Thanks for highlighting some of the pitfalls.