If you’re considering starting as a freelance writer, which can be a great way of earning money online, you might have considered joining a site like Writing Jobs Online. They promise a database of jobs and tutorials.
As so often, this sounds like a good plan, but unfortunately what you’re getting is not as good as it sounds. In my review, you will see why spending your money on writing-jobs.net might not be a good idea.
Product: Writing Jobs Online
Overall Ranking: 10 out of 100
Price: 7-day trial $1 then $27 per month
Owner: Glen Anderson??
Website: www.writing-jobs.net
Who is the owner?
The owner is supposedly Glenn Anderson, now I don’t know if he really exists or not, but he is also the owner of Gaming Jobs Online. The woman who presents the sales video is also the same for the 2 sites, so both programs are probably produced by the same people.
Another site that looks very similar to these two is Photography Jobs Online, again the same girl in the video, but this time, the owner is allegedly Chris Page. So, both these names are probably false, which is already a bad sign about the legitimacy of this program.
The sales pages of two of the programs are below, can you see some similarities?
What is Writing Jobs Online?
This is a site that allegedly provides everything you need to start getting paid for writing online. Essentially they provide a database of writing jobs, some training, tools, and software, plus other money-making ideas like surveys.
The main problem is that you have to pay a monthly fee for this info. There are many sites that give the same sort of resources and better for free!
They tell you that the average member earns $700 per month, and the top earners $5000+ per month.
Who is this for?
This could be for you if you want to start as a freelance writer but don’t know how or where to start. The problem with this site is that you have to pay to become a member.
There are other free resources that offer more training and a better database. Therefore have a good look around before signing up for any program, and remember you don’t need to pay to find work as a freelance writer.
If you’re not sure what a freelance writer is, he or she is a writer that produces text in exchange for payment. They produce whatever sort of articles are required by their clients. Usually working from their own home, they probably write for several different clients at one time. The clients may be new every day or established clients that require ongoing work.
A site like writing-jobs.net exists because freelancers look for writing jobs online, but they are only one of many sites. Some other sites may charge a percentage of your earnings, and other sites are completely free.
An example of an article that has many resources, including – links to some of the top job boards, how to create a portfolio, plus many other useful tools and tips, is 25 Freelance Writing Resources to Get Paid More and Get More Work. Definitely worth a read if you’re thinking of starting freelance writing.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- It is possible to earn money as a freelance writer
- Some training is provided
Cons
- A recurring monthly fee which will be automatically debited after the 7-day trial
- The same information and better can be found for free
- Links that no longer work
- Site is not kept up to date
- Job database is just links to other sites with freelance writing job postings
What you get
At first glance, the site gives you the impression that you are getting a lot of information, but let’s go through what they offer and see if it really gives you any value. I’ll go through the different sections of the site as they are presented.
Getting Started
A selection of 4 eBooks that can be found elsewhere for free.
Writing Jobs Database
This should be the most important part of the site where you find jobs advertised. What you get is a list of writing job boards, freelance job feeds, and freelance jobs featuring sites such as indeed.com, elance.com, and CraigsList.org. Certainly nothing outstanding here, and not what I was expecting.
When I see “job database,” I expect to see some real jobs, not links to job boards that we can find ourselves.
$50 – $100 Writing Jobs
Another list of sites that might accept articles, some may pay a fee, and others may give you a link. Many of these sites are looking for experienced writers.
$100 – $200 Writing Gigs
Yet another selection of sites where it might be possible to find a writing job. You will probably have to submit some of your previously published work.
Writing and Online Magazine Writing Gigs. $250+
More websites that may be looking for writers. Not all sites will pay you, some only offer an author byline, biography, and a web link. There are a lot of sites here, so you will have to check through and find those that are looking for subjects where you have expertise. These sites seem to be listed in alphabetical order, but strangely enough, stop at the letter “j”.
Writing Tools
A list of so-called tools, many of which you will know already, such as WordPress, Gimp, Flickr, Skype or Filezilla.
Writing Software
Some tools that might be useful when writing or blogging, for example, Google Docs, WordPress, Squarespace, Blogger, Twitter, Facebook or Evernote. These tools might be great, but paying for a list like this is unnecessary.
Online Video Tutorials
In this section, there are 9 videos, I tried to have a look to see what they were like, but first, I had to install Flash Player, and even after that, they wouldn’t work. Perhaps it’s my computer, I don’t know, but judging from the rest of the site, they are probably videos that have been around for a while.
There are also a couple of guides to help you set your prices and an example of a service agreement.
Writing Jobs Online
Here you have jobs that are advertised mainly with justjobs.com and a few that are advertised on the indeed.com website. While there may be a lot of jobs offered, many are not freelance writing jobs. They are in-house jobs for positions such as editors, programmers, account managers, or researchers. As you can see, some have very little to do with writing. You will require experience and qualifications for most jobs listed here.
Writing Online News
Yet more content from another site. A list of links to articles from aboutfreelancewriting.com, The articles might be quite good, but as you go through everything that is offered with this program, you realize there is no unique content; everything comes from other sites.
Premium Surveys
I don’t know what this list of survey sites is doing here; nothing to do with writing. Just another opportunity for Writing Jobs Online to earn some money with their affiliate links.
Other Online Opportunities
I can’t believe this, yet more survey sites! Don’t they know taking online surveys is largely a waste of time!
Tips and Tricks
Some more good articles that are taken from another site. This time, the articles are made to look like they are from writing-jobs.net, but in fact, they are from another site beafreelanceblogger.com
and finally
Over $400 in sign-up bonuses!
Another list this time of survey sites that offer a sign-up bonus.
Overview of what you get
As you can see, there is a fair bit of info; however, overall, I would say there is very little here that should be paid for. There are other sites for freelance writers that are free to access and give more information, and have real up-to-date ads for writing jobs. Therefore, the most important point is that you don’t need to and shouldn’t pay to find a writing job.
Writing Jobs Online isn’t kept up to date. On the member’s page, there is a list of premium writing jobs. Although I joined the site towards the end of April, they still had the jobs from March.
I think this sums the program up, they want your money, but they’re not willing to do much work to give you any value.
This is another program that gives the impression that you will be working for well-known corporations and earning $1000s per month. If it’s this easy to earn money writing, why do they include the survey sites?
Writing-jobs.net has several of the common red flags:
- The promise of easy money – up to $120 per hour!
- Glowing testimonials
- “As seen on” – these publications might have featured freelance writing as a way of earning money from home but not directly featured writing-jobs.net.
- Pressure tactics – “3-day sale” I visited the site over several days and the “3-day sale” was always on.
- Partnerships with “high paying corporations” – this is used to make their site look legitimate. Writing Jobs Online doesn’t have any real jobs advertised on their site so how could they have any partnerships with these companies?
How much does it cost?
There is a 7-day trial for $1. After that, you are charged $27 per month. It’s not an ideal way to take a trial because it’s not made clear that you will automatically be charged if you don’t cancel, and it’s all too easy to forget to cancel your membership. This is what they are hoping! A company with nothing to hide that provides a great product would offer a free trial.
$27 per month is a lot too much to pay for a program like this. If it was a one-off payment, it would still be too expensive!
At least there is a 60-day Clickbank guarantee, so any problems go directly to Clickbank, and you will get your money back.
My final opinion
On the face of it, a site like Writing Jobs Online seems like a good idea. But having been through all they offer, you can see there is nothing unique on this site.
Job lists from other companies, articles from other websites, and lists of tools that you probably are already familiar with. There is certainly nothing that justifies the monthly membership fee.
There is an ever-increasing need for freelance writers, with different businesses all needing to have a strong online presence. As the demand for content grows, so does the competition among the writers. With more and more people looking into ways of earning money from home plus residents from third-world or developing countries ready to work for very little.
You can find some legitimate jobs advertised, but these advertisements probably mean the client is looking for a bargain. You may have to take some of these low-paying jobs when you’re getting started, but after a while, you should start to get repeat work and start cultivating relationships with your clients.
There are many sites that advertise freelance writing jobs for free, so there is absolutely no need to pay writing-jobs.net for their secondhand lists to find a writing job.
Verdict: Not Recommended
An alternative
If you’re thinking about starting as a freelance writer, have you ever thought about blogging, not for others but for yourself? You can earn money writing about subjects you enjoy. You will have the advantage of not having to meet any deadlines, and you won’t have to spend your time searching for work.
You will need a website, which these days is very easy to set up. Then you will need to decide what you want to write about.
Once you’ve decided on the topic or niche of your site, you can start writing articles. In your articles, you include affiliate links. When someone buys a product or service through your affiliate link, you receive a commission.
Online shoppers search for reviews or information on a product before buying. As a blogger, you can provide them with this information and get well paid for your work.
I’m doing just that on my site. Although I’m not recommending Writing Jobs Online, I’m warning you that if you sign up for this program, you will be wasting your money. At the same time, below you will see that I recommend another product that I feel is a much better alternative.
What I recommend is setting up your own affiliate marketing website. Getting started is the most difficult part when setting up your own affiliate marketing business. When I started, I joined an online training center called Wealthy Affiliate, where you are taught in easy to follow step-by-step lessons on how to build your online business.
You should be aware that this isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme. You will learn how to create an ethical long-term business. There are no wild promises of big earnings because, as with any business, to be successful requires effort and determination. If you put in the work and don’t give up, you can and will earn money writing for yourself!
You can see below some of what Wealthy Affiliate offers, and you can sign up for the free trial without giving your credit card details.
If you have had any experience as a freelance writer or you have tried the writing jobs online program, please let me know how you got on in the comments section below.
Thanks,
Peter
Writing Jobs Online aka writing-jobs.net
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Training
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Jobs Database
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Help and Support
Summary
Description Writing Jobs Online also known as writing-jobs.net promises you access to a database of jobs, tutorials, tools, and support. All this so you can work from home writing and earn as much as $30 – $120 per hour!
Price: 7-day trial $1 then $27 per month
Owners: Glen Anderson??
Website: www.writing-jobs.net
My opinion: Another site that charges you a hefty monthly fee for information you can find yourself for free. Jobs database is just links to other free sites. Don’ waste your time and money!
Not recommended. Unfortunately, I can’t give less than 1 star!
Thank you for saving my money. I’m sick of these “charge the job seeker” search sites because they basically rob poor people and do nothing for them. The poorly maintained website you pay to use sounds very much like MyFlexJob.com as well. Takes your money and offers the same craigslist level of job offers.
You’re welcome Tristan! Yes, there are too many of these misleading sites.
Hi Peter ive already signed into this and for the 7 day trial do you know how i could remove my subscription ? i dont want this to belink in my bamk account anymore , im just clueless about how to unsubscribe
Hi Fanie,
You can cancel your subscription through Clickbank. If you go to this page https://www.clickbank.com/corp/support/, click on Contact Us and follow the instructions. It should be straight forward!
Best of luck,
Peter
Hi Peter,
Very informative to apply, thanks for the review.
I just want to learn although Turkey is not included in the restricted countries to get free membership for WA, I was noticed that your country is not supported when ı tried my submit.
you know anything about this
Hi Hasan,
You should be able to join WA as a free starter member, Turkey is not one of the countries from which free memberships are not allowed.
I suggest trying again.
Peter
Hey Peter,
I know I’m a little late to this post. I started freelance writing in January and am almost to the point where I will be able to go full time. I came across the “scam” through Facebook and was curious. As a curious writer, I did my research. Thank you for the information. I just thought I should mention another site that seems like a scam but worked out for me. It was a job through writers academy. They say they pay you for the article but you have to pay for a website. The website is through WordPress and is yours alone. It’s also at a great discount. The money you make for the article pays for the site and then some. It was my first job and I worried it was a scam. Yet here I am months later with a great website and true list of resources they give you when you sign up to write an article. I just wanted to mention it as an alternative since it worked out for me. Thanks again!
Hi Katie,
Great to hear of your success! I don’t know Writers Academy but if it worked for you that suggests they might be genuine. If the article you wrote paid for the website that sounds ok, but it is possible to with Wordpress for just the price of hosting, a few dollars per month. Thanks for giving us your recommendation it might help other budding freelancers.
All the best,
Peter
Thank you Peter for giving the details about the website that ends up being a scam! It is disappointing that people lie. I found the advertisement on glassdoor.com under another name, execwriting. The true website was not given until you opened the website.
Thank you for listing the red flags too.
You’re welcome TP. The trouble with Writing Jobs Online is that there is nothing unique on the site and you are expected to pay a monthly fee. More or less everything is from other sites, that can be accessed for free. There are much better resources that you can join for free that specialize in freelance writing. Sites that were created to help people get started, better to start with these sites that have real jobs advertised and save $27 per month.
Strange they use another name in an advertisement, not very honest!
Thanks for your visit,
Peter
Thank you for your honest and well-laid argument why this company is not on the up and up. It is often hard to find honest reviews on line about companies.
Thanks Denise,
Yes, unfortunately writing jobs online isn’t the best place to go if you’re looking to get started as a freelancer. Glad my review helped!
Peter
Thanks for reviewing this in such detail so we don’t all waste our time and money!
I’m always looking for new clients for editing and writing. It doesn’t look like this will be it!
You’re welcome, Stephanie. No, I think you can give this a miss. Unfortunately, all the job offers on this site can be found for free, no need to pay any monthly fee.
Thanks for your visit,
Peter
Oh another Wealthy Affiliate website. Wrong bus. Let me go back to the real sites offering value not just tricking people in order to join your “#1 Recommended Program” like you call it.
These WA websites are so annoying. You are slowly but surely losing credibility. It’s just a pity a lot of people don’t know your tactics.
Hi Vincent,
Sorry you feel that way about Wealthy Affiliate. Do you know why so many people promote this program? Because it is legitimate! Many of us have been scammed before, so finding a site that offers awesome training, all the tools you need, great support and a free trial we are happy to promote it. Our tactics are promoting a genuine program and warning people of the scams. As a result, people can join for free and then decide if they want to become premium members. You can promote any products you wish, there is no obligation to promote Wealthy Affiliate.
Thanks for your comment,
Peter
Hi Peter,
I think the moral of the story is that Writing Jobs Online doesn’t really offer anything of value. Maybe it was originally a neat idea to connect writers with jobs but with so many freelance companies out there, why would a writer choose this company for their monthly fee. Doesn’t make any sense, nice review.
Cheers,
Todd
Hi Todd,
You summed it up nicely, they don’t offer anything of value. There is really no need to pay for the information they provide. It is good to connect writers to jobs but there are already sites that do this that are free. Like with most jobs you need to be persistent, you may not get paid much when you start or receive many rejections but keep going and you will get noticed.
Thanks for your thoughts,
Peter
I am looking for some freelance job and I am glad to have found this post. It is very obvious to me that it is a scam that just steal your hard earned money.
Thanks for recommending a platform to learn how to set up my own website and monetize it. Did you learn all the tricks from Wealthy Affiliate too?
Hi Alex,
Yes, you don’t need to bother with Writing Jobs Online, a waste of time and money. If you like writing I think it’s a much better idea to set up your own website. Then profit from affiliate marketing and writing about a subject you enjoy and not something that is imposed on you by your clients. I set up this website based on the training from Wealthy Affiliate and I recommend anyone to try it. After all, it’s free to join and definitely worth checking out.
Thanks for your visit,
Peter
HI Peter
This is a great inside look at this program which I do appreciate. I was disappointed I suppose because there is definitely a need for something like this to support writers and it seems the only people out there are running low rate facilities such as this.
I know all the information is there for free but sometimes trawling through all the different boards and opportunities would almost warrant paying someone to put everything together.
There is definitely a marketing opportunity there for someone but not a low rate approach such as this. A real shame. I do support your verdict of Wealthy Affiliate as legit and for website development it is great but as a writer I know how other supports are also needed as well.
Hi Marie,
Yes, this is a very disappointing program. There are other programs for freelance writers that provide lots of information and are free to join like freelancewriting.com. It’s a shame there are sites like this ready to prey on anyone who hasn’t done his research.
Paying a site to have all the information in one place could be justified if they gave you some really good training, but if not you just get sites like this that republish other articles or have links to existing jobs boards.
I think writing for yourself and setting up an affiliate website is a much better idea. If you still want to become a freelancer try a few of the job boards and when people are happy with your work, you can build relationships and have your own group of clients. This is possible but will take time.
Thanks for your feedback Marie.
Peter
Looking at what writing jobs online offers I would be really upset if I even paid them $1 for the 7 day trial. I would feel really cheated. All the things you’ve listed there that they “offer” I already know about. I know about Elance and also about sites that you can submit articles to that might pay you for it. I’ve messed around with almost every survey website there is and I have mostly been disappointed.
To me this looks like a scam, if you give so little and charge for it… no thank you!
I am a blogger too and if you want to make money writing, write for yourself. I know because I have tried all of these things this pathetic website has to offer and none of it was any good. I then decided to write for myself and it is paying off.
Great advice to start your own blog, I highly recommend it!
Hi Lynne,
I know what you mean, there are so many of these companies around that offer jobs and training. However, all they really offer is rehashed information from other sites and links to job boards that most people who are looking for work online already know about. I still wonder what the survey sites are doing here, they have nothing to do with writing online. Oh I forgot, they are there to earn affiliate commissions for Writing Jobs Online! Just goes to show who they are really interested in!
Much better to start your own internet business and write for your own website, write about things you enjoy and earn money from promoting affiliate products.
I wish you continued success with your business.
Peter
Hi Peter,
Thanks for this concise review!
I myself have made a living writing on line for some time now in one form or another but the problem with sites like this is, they are charging money for information and training that can be found elsewhere for free!
I would implore everybody to do their research before joining any such company and find out all that you can for free, prior to joining any such program!
You’re right Nate, if everybody carries out their research before joining these make money online programs, the scammers will start making less money and may even start disappearing. Unfortunately we’re a long way from that scenario at the moment, there seems to be more and more low quality or scam programs.
For writing online there are many sites that can help freelance writers and for free. If you enjoy writing I think the best way of earning some money is by having your own website. It may take a while before you earn you first commissions but imagine earning money writing about one of your hobbies or something you really enjoy. What could be better?
Thanks for your visit,
Peter
Hello Nate I would really like someone to guide me through how to initiate start making money as an online writer.
Hi Carlos,
Nate probably won’t see your comment, but there are plenty of free resources available online that can help you get started. I would look at sites like thewritelife.com or makealivingwriting.com, there are so many! There’s so much good free advice, there is absolutely no need to pay.
Best of luck,
Peter