RealWritingJobs.com is a membership based writing job lead service. It links to job postings which are gathered from a variety of sources. The advantage of this site is that it allows members to view, and apply for writing jobs from a single website. This type of service is intended to save people the time required to visit multiple sites, and to avoid missing posts from lesser-known sources. As you may expect members pay a fee for the convenience. At the time of this review it is $34. This may change by the time you read this.
Membership based job sites can rub people the wrong way. You either love or hate them. With that in mind we decided to dig up some of the past complaints about this company. Please keep in mind, things change. Some of these complaints may no longer be valid. But it's still worth noting nonetheless.
Cons
– Shady Trial Period
Over the years, many people have complained that they felt duped by the lure of a low fee trial period. Trial periods are fine when done properly. Netflix does a great job of this. They provide you with enough warning and a clear way to get out a trial if you don't like your membership. But when it takes damn near an Act of Congress to cancel a trial membership (as was the case with RealWritingJobs.com in the past,) then that's where you're going to get a lot of complaints. Fortunately they wised up and have appeared to change this marketing tactic at the time this article was written. It should be noted that sometimes people fail to read the terms and conditions of a company they're signing up for. Many times all the details on how to cancel or opt out are buried there. But since folks fail to READ, they end up making allegations against a company that may not be all that fair. So keep that in mind.
– Crazy Income Claims
Since its inception, RealWritingJobs.com has been plagued by complaints that they misrepresent the amount of money a person can earn by utilizing their site. But common sense goes a long way here folks. If you don't have any experience in this given field, why would you believe you're going to make $1000 per week writing articles? It's just not feasible for someone that lacks this skill. But RWJ plays on folks lack of common sense and desperation by making these ridiculous claims which are unfounded and not really typical. However once folks access the membership they soon realize the numbers don't add up and are outraged. Of course this leads to complaints which spread on the internet. It's a problem that could easily be avoided by giving folks realistic expectations. They may sell less of their memberships. But at least you'll have far less complaints.
– Limited or Lack of Support.
There are also long-standing complaints that RealWritingJobs.com doesn't provide enough instructional support. At minimum, paid sites should provide free tests, community forums, and application advice. If you're thinking about using a freelance writing job service, it's wise to ask what kind of support they offer before you sign up.
– Increased Spam
One additional, less frequent complaint was the increased amount of spam, and telemarketing calls members were concerned might be related to RealWritingJobs.com. Honestly, nowadays it seems like everybody, and their mother, feels like they have the right to contact whomever they please, regardless of how distasteful the product may be {you know the ads I'm talking about}. With personal information being sold, and resold worldwide, it's nearly impossible to determine the source of unwanted email, and phone calls. It's always best to read a site's fine print carefully before forking over your money or information to a company that may not respect your privacy as well as others. I really don't know if the claims are valid or not because spam is like weed they can pretty much sprout up out of anywhere. But folks did seem to feel that they received a lot more marketing after signing up with RealWritingJobs.com
– Free vs Pay.
Regardless of some of the cons noted above, RealWritingJobs.com does actually provide freelance job listings for writers, and offers the convenience of viewing, and applying for them through a single source. However, their listings are mainly compiled from publicly available, free sites that you can access for yourself. Your choice to pay the valet, or find a parking spot on your own is completely dependent on your personal needs, and preferences. So this complaint is really subjective. There are many products and services we pay for that we could probably get for free if we worked hard enough to find it. But the reality is some of us prefer convenience and would rather have others do the heavy lifting. So you have to take this complaint with a grain of salt because it really just boils down to personal preference at that point.
Positive Changes
Presumably, in response to customer complaints RealWritingJobs.com made significant changes to their billing practices. The most positive improvement is the addition of the independent payment processing service ClickBank. But ironically that may be a bad thing. Some people assume that Clickbank is a scam. This is because some shady marketers use it to manage the billing of some of their questionable products. But folks fail to realize Clickbank doesn't create these products. They're basically like the check out person that just accepts the money delivers the products produced by other vendors.
The reality is that using ClickBank is a great thing from a buyer and vendor stand point. They have a no questions asked refund policy up to 60 days after purchase. So if the product or service ends being questionable, you can easily demand a refund without involving the vendor who may drag their feet or make you jump through hoops.
Another change in terms of billing was that RealWritingJobs.com chose to convert to a straightforward, onetime fee of $34 (price may vary depending on when you read this.) instead of offering a trial period which seemed to rub people the wrong way in the past. RealWritingJobs.com's recent collaboration with ClickBank should eliminate any future problems with recurring billing, unauthorized charges, and the inability to cancel.
So is RealWritingJobs.com Legitimate?
RealWritingJobs.com has clearly made an effort to make some changes to serve their customers better. Charging a fee in exchange for convenience is not ‘scamming.' The biggest area of concern for me were their billing practices. But they seem to have improved that by using Clickbank. However, RealWritingJobs.com was engaged in a lot of shenanigans for several years before somewhat turning over a new leaf. Have they really changed? Only time will tell. I'm not absolutely comfortable proclaiming that they've fully reformed.
The one thing I can say is that they do seem to actually provide you with writing leads. As long as you go in there with realistic expectations on how much you can earn and you do actually have writing skills, you may find this service useful. However If you prefer to do the legwork on your own, you can find free many job leads for free right on our jobs page here.
As always I encourage you to add your two cents regarding RealWritingJobs.com below. I may have missed some things or got some things wrong. So I definitely appreciate your feedback on this company. If you have any personal experience to share, then your professional and courteous feedback is always welcomed. Of course, if you like what you've read in this review, be sure to become a subscriber here. If freelance writing isn't really your thing, then check out our work at home jobs page , which is updated daily, or our personal recommendations page for less traditional opportunities. Thanks for reading this, and for your continued support!
I hope to see more of you here or my Facebook fan page.
IS THERE SUCH A THING AS WHERE YOU CAN MAKE MONEY DOING EMAIL IF THERE IS LET ME KNOW PLEASE THANK YOU
Rufus,
The only legitimate way to make money with email is as follows:
1. Get Paid To Read Email that only pays you a few cents per email and you can’t earn a full time income with that.
2. Start a blog, collect email addresses on your blog, email your list new content that promote something that helps them and pays you. This does and can work but takes training, patience and hard work.