A few weeks back a friend of mine contacted me about a writing site where she had written several articles and wound up earning just over $23. I was curious as to the nature of this site because she was made an offer to “increase” her earnings by “buying” her way into a new writing level. I found this particularly fascinating since most writing sites require writers to submit content that is ranked to “increase” their rating so I decided to take a further look. The site is called iWriter and is run by none other than Brad Callen who is a well-known Internet Marketer. So, here’s the deal:
Buy into Elite Status
Understanding that Elite Status allows writers to earn “more per article” (I’ll get to that later), you can purchase this status through the website. However, the “terms” of this buy through are fascinating if you carefully pay attention to the details. Here’s the steps:
1. Pay a fee – our con artist here is asking you to pay $147 dollars to enter this “fast track” program
2. Write, write, write – submit 3 articles on keywords they select for you (forget the fact they don’t ask writers what their skills are) and submit them
3. Wait, wait, wait – now these articles are going to an editor who is presumably being paid to review them (at these rates, they should be getting $30 plus per article)
4. Rating – interestingly enough, these three “test” articles must be rated “between 4 and 4.6 stars”
5. Screwed – what they don’t tell you (a) you don’t get paid for these three articles and (b) if you fail to get to their “rate” you don’t get refunded and you’re still stuck at “standard” rates!
Or write
Here’s the problem with this whole concept and part of it has to do with the overall model and part has to do with the quality of the orders they put up.
As of this writing: (1/25 3:51 pm eastern)
- “Elite” writers – there are 3 assignments posted with word counts between 500 and 1,000. The payment rates for these are $10.13 to $10.99
- “Premium” writers – there are 4 assignments with word counts between 500 and 700 words with payment rates between $4.46 and $8.10
- “Standard” writers – There are a ton of assignments in this category each paying a whopping $2.43
Here’s another problem
If you take a look at some of the ratios of these “clients” you’re going to see some disturbing trends: not only are they asking you to write 500 word articles for $2.43 but some of them have rejection rates that far exceed 25 percent! WHAT DO YOU EXPECT FOR SUCH CHEAP RATES – you are getting what you paid for?
I STRONGLY recommend that ALL writers avoid this site like the plague. Like all his other “programs” it appears Mr. Callen’s idea is that he makes money and everyone else gets screwed.
About Doreen Martel
Well-rounded freelance writer who contributes to various blogs, paid to write sites and revenue sharing sites. Doreen is legally blind and has worked at home for more than 10 years. She uses the lessons learned from this experience to enhance her writing and share information with others.
