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!
This Job
13 responses to “Writers Worth: This Job, Not That Job”
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.
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.
I gasped out loud when I read that $99/month. Unbelievable! Like Jenn, I hope no one would actually fall for that.
A great example of why we should never pay to get work.
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.
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
"chase my eyeballs down the hall"
Gawd, I love good writing! That made me laugh. Thanks!
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…
(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.)
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.
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!
Hilarious, Ashley! Just think of the $99 as the entry fee for your eyeball chase. 😉
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!