UPDATE 3/9/15: A fellow writer on one of my work sites had this to say about iWriter’s $150+ “Fast Track” program:
“$150 doesn’t quite do it either. I signed up when I first joined TB (Textbroker). I thought, okay I will give this a shot. I paid, nothing happened. After a month, I started raising hell about it being a scam. I got my money back, but only after going through 8 weeks of annoyances and yelling matches. Run away as fast as possible. FYI, the check I got in the mail for the returned money came from Egypt.”
I’ve long maintained that a successful product sells itself; that a positive and upwardly-mobile workplace attracts talent without needing to try too hard. When I come across a freelance writing scam site or con, I do my best to write about the reasons why I consider it a bad choice for freelancers, and I don’t tend to bite my tongue when I’m dishing out deserved criticism. When I wrote my blog entry Freelance Writing Site Info: iWriter.com nearly a year ago, I figured that I’d detail the issues I found with the site, steer others off, and leave it up perpetually to serve as a warning. I didn’t expect I’d get a lot of comments on it – the review was pretty straightforward – but I did get a surprising chorus of agreement from people that had been burned financially by the site.
Almost unanimously, my visitors agreed that the ethics behind the site were questionable at best, even if they were claiming to have earned some money with them. My blog post might have answered the basic question of “Is iWriter.com a scam?”, but it was the commentary below it that drove the point home to casual browsers.
Yesterday, I got an email from iWriter, with the subject line “We’d like to deposit free money into your iwriter account balance.”
Here is the text of the email I received from iWriter:
Hi Delany, the holiday season is upon us and I thought it
would be fun to give away some free money sent straight to your
iWriter account.And it’s valid until January 1st. Here’s how it works:
http://www.iwriter.com/blog/2013/12/wed-like-to-give-you-free-money/
Also, I wanted to let you know that I’ve added a blog to iWriter,
which you’ll see when you visit the link above.And we’re in the process of adding a feature to allow you to write
Press Releases for clients, which has been a highly requested
option.Lots of good things to come in 2014!
Have a look at the page below to see how you can earn free money
deposited by us, straight to your iWriter account balance:http://www.iwriter.com/blog/2013/12/wed-like-to-give-you-free-money/
Happy holidays! 🙂
Brad Callen
Bryxen Software, Inc.Bryxen Software, Inc. 2159 Glebe Street, Suite 270 Carmel, IN 46032
Essentially, the link leads the reader to a page that’s offering a buck or two for every post they get out on the net that promotes iWriter. This morning, my queue on WordPress for my iWriter review piece – the one with over 20 negative comments about how much of a scam iWriter is behind the scenes – is suddenly filled with post after post about how wonderful and amazing and profitable the site is. All of these comments popped up mere hours after the email was sent…
….and if you think that’s a coincidence, I’ve got a bridge to sell ya.
iWriter and everyone spam-posting for the site – you’re embarrassing yourselves and muddying the waters of those looking for legitimate freelance writing sites. You’ll find no “safe harbor” on this blog when it’s so abundantly clear what’s motivating your posting tone.
The Freelance Writer Guide 