Words on the Page

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Writers Worth: This Job, Not That Job

Last week I mentioned that chum Jenn Mattern had sent over two lousy job offers for us to dissect together. The first one, which appeared here, was bad enough. This one makes that one look almost tame by comparison.

The winner of the Worst Job on the Planet award:

ScrewWritersWorldwide (not its actual name) is seeking Pro-Bloggers for all cities and towns in North America and throughout the world. As part of our vision to become the leading research web site and largest social network for retirement-minded people, we are seeking Pro-Bloggers to assist us with this goal.

As a Pro-Blogger you can:

– Create your own Group, based on the city or town of your choice or based on a specific category of interest
– Publish up to 100 articles and blogs on our web site, within your chosen Group
– Earn income based on clicks, sponsorships, membership sales, and additional products sales
– Access our Pro-Blogger training videos
– Use our publishing platform to advance another product or service that may benefit our members
– Educate our members about your city, town, or category of interest
– Grow your network of contacts, friends and business associates
– Promote events and social activities to your group members

Here’s The Deal In A Nutshell:

– Choose the city/town you want to blog about or choose from our list of key topics (only one blogger per city, town, or key topic, first come, first serve)
– Follow our tutorials and video training which will show you how to use our blogging platform (it’s about as simple as using email)
– We will provide you with suggested topics to blog about or you can create your own topics
– Blog from home, full time or part time, make your own hours
– No previous blogging experience necessary
– No age requirement, you don’t need to be “retired” to be a Pro-Blogger

Compensation

– As a Pro-Blogger, there are multiple ways for you to earn income. In the beginning, you will be paid from two different sources: Google, Inc. and ClickBank. We will show you how to add new income sources over time. If you succeed, we succeed.

– Your earnings will depend on the amount of traffic your blogs generate, the size of your network, and quality of your information (with our existing subscriber base of 10,000, your blogs will receive some traffic instantly). You can earn commissions of up to $5000 for some of the products we offer, while other strategies show you how to create a steady monthly income.

– Your income will grow over time as your network grows and your blogs rank higher with Google

– Your blog efforts can be reduced over time even while your income increases. Once you have finished the available topics, you only need to maintain what you have already written.

Additional Benefits of Becoming A Pro-Blogger:

– you will be the “group leader” for your city or town or key topic, which comes with all kinds of potential benefits (ability to organize events, meetings, activities, promote a different web site or business you might own, etc.)

– you may choose to interact with new members, make new friends, new professional relationships, etc.

– you may choose to “set and forget” your blog by which you would complete our suggested blog topics, then let your blogs continue to attract traffic and earn passive income

– you will be “connected” to other members all over the world, which will help you make new friends and acquaintances should you ever travel to those locations

– get in on the ground floor of the “retirement wave”, enabling you to participate in the largest and wealthiest demographic the world has ever seen

Expenses

Your only expense will be your Pro-Blogger Membership Fee of $99/month.

However, our introductory offer for the first 100 Pro-Bloggers is only $7 for the first month and $39/month after that.
Get Started Today For Only $7!
(link to payment form)

Remember: There is only one blogger position available per city, town, or key topic – claim yours today before someone else does!

You read it correctly:
They expect you to pay THEM for the privilege of working for them.
Did anyone else have to choke back the vomit just now?
Besides the obvious reasons why this job sucks (NEVER pay ANYONE for you to work for THEM), they’ve committed nearly every cardinal sin of lousy job advertising.
– You become a “leader” but there’s really no power or authority attached.
– You get to earn “passive income” via a website I guarantee you you’ve never heard of. So a minuscule share of nothing is…..
– You get to swap horror stories with other writerly saps who are foolish enough to sign up to pay for work, not the other way around.
– You get in on the “ground floor” of a bad trend — paying to be someone’s writing bitch. Retirement may be the “wealthiest demographic the world has ever seen” (though I doubt it), but you’re not seeing that money.
– You, as a “Pro-Blogger” (which is not hyphenated, you putzes) get to pay $99 for a job that isn’t really a job. It’s like going to work in an office and having your boss hand you a bill at the end of the week.
– And nowhere do they mention what that “income” they keep talking about is. It’s completely up to you to “earn” your “passive income” which isn’t going to be anywhere near the $5,000 they’re promising. $5,000 a month? A day? A decade? No clue, is there?
– They’ve mentioned the Google word. Dangling that rankings carrot like it’s gold, aren’t they? Ah, but Google is on to people like this. You’d be lucky to see any rankings and be even luckier if Google chose not to ban your content for the spam it would be.

This Job
To be honest, I’ve no idea why this ad would appeal to anyone. Want to be a blogger? Here’s a better way:
Start your own blog.
Seriously, why should you pay some unknown bunch of putzes for your content? The promise of rankings and passive income? How are they going to give you that exactly?
Wait. They’re not. Nope, you’re expected to grow that yourself.
So do it for yourself.
Do a little homework, build a network on your own, learn how to drive blog traffic, and earn that passive income yourself.
Writers, have you seen worse than this? If so, share it because I’d have to see it to believe it.

13 responses to “Writers Worth: This Job, Not That Job”

  1. Jennifer Mattern Avatar

    They sound like a real peach to work with, don't they?

    What annoyed me about this one is that it's even advertised as a "gig" at all. It's some kind of cross between a blog network and a content mill.

    You're doing everything you could do with your own site on Blogger, WordPress, etc. But they exercise some control over your revenue streams and can influence your content strategy.

    You still pretty much do all the work, and PAY them for the privilege while you drive traffic to their domain (traffic you can't take with you when you inevitably decide to leave because you can do better on your own).

    I hope no one was naive enough to fall for this nonsense.

  2. Gabriella Avatar
    Gabriella

    I thought this was an awful job–and then my eyes bugged out at the "pay us for this fantastic opportunity" part! Wow. Agree. NEVER PAY ANYBODY FOR WORK. Oh, man, you got me riled.

  3. Cathy Miller Avatar

    I gasped out loud when I read that $99/month. Unbelievable! Like Jenn, I hope no one would actually fall for that.

  4. Anne Wayman Avatar

    A great example of why we should never pay to get work.

  5. Lori Widmer Avatar

    Thanks again, Jenn, for alerting me to this one. I hope no one fell for this, either. You'd have to be pretty darn thick to not see this for what it is.

    Gabriella, isn't it the worst you've seen? I couldn't believe it. Part of me wanted to think it was a spoof, but it's not.

    Made me gasp too, Cathy.

    Exactly, Anne. They're taking the "membership" model and exploiting it to the nth degree.

  6. Ashley Avatar

    WOW. Just wow. I had to go chase my eyeballs down the hall when they fell out after reading the bit about $99/month.

    Oh but wait — it's a STEAL at the introductory rate of $7 and only $39 after that! Oh oh oh sign me up!

    /sarcasm

  7. Gabriella Avatar
    Gabriella

    "chase my eyeballs down the hall"

    Gawd, I love good writing! That made me laugh. Thanks!

  8. laura@writingthoughts.com Avatar

    How awful.

    Like most writers, I get my share of "inquiries" wanting me to write for free. But this one goes above and beyond in terms of exploitation.

    I can almost picture them sitting in a smoky back room somewhere saying something like, "a lot people want to be writers, let's take advantage of that…"

    Of course, that's just my overactive imagination.

    Sadly, I bet they will get some takers. I would hope not, but…

  9. Paula Avatar

    (First, I totally agree with Gabriella's comment about Ashley's eyeballs line!)

    I thought the ad was bad long before I got to the $99/month kicker. But hey, it's exclusive – only ONE blogger will be accepted per location. (My hope is they won't find nearly that many suckers gullible enough to think this is a legitimate offer.)

  10. Jake Poinier Avatar

    Tell me this is from "The Onion," right?

    And as far as your closing question: No, I haven't seen anything worse than this, and I'm not a skilled enough horror-fiction writer that I could even create one.

  11. Lori Widmer Avatar

    Ashley, you had me laughing out loud at that image!

    Laura, sadly your imagination probably is closer to reality than you think!

    Paula, this is one race you don't want to win! 🙂

    Jake, I wish it were from The Onion. That would make much more sense.

    "I haven't seen anything worse than this, and I'm not a skilled enough horror-fiction writer that I could even create one." — thanks for the chuckle!

  12. Cathy Miller Avatar

    Hilarious, Ashley! Just think of the $99 as the entry fee for your eyeball chase. 😉

  13. Sharon Hurley Hall Avatar

    Yup – definitely the worst I've seen in a while. Imagine having to pay for the privilege of earning peanuts and then being left in the lurch when the site folds or disappears. So not worth it!

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