Paid Online Writing Jobs Review: Is It Really Worth It?
Paid Online Writing Jobs is a website that connects freelance writers with online writing jobs, with no experience needed. They don’t make elaborate earnings claims on the site, and invite you to sign up to access their writing jobs database.
A quick glance at their Terms and Conditions reveals that they are registered at the completely legitimate UK address of “Number 11111111, registered office 123 Any Street, Anytown AB2 3CD”, which, along with the paucity of information on the home page, does bring up a few red flags.
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What Do You Get With Paid Online Writing Jobs?
Paid Online Writing jobs claims to have a database of literally thousands of writing jobs where writers are needed immediately, and all you need is an internet connection and basic English writing skills. Using their database, you can start work immediately, choose from thousands of jobs, work as much or as little as you like, and don’t need any experience.
They seem to offer job-matching, where VIP members cannot only review and apply for writing jobs on their own, but that Paid Online Writing Jobs will also email you if a writing job is a match for your qualifications. In the members-only area of the website, they have thousands of writing jobs for all levels of skill and experience. They claim to pay daily via PayPal or direct deposit.
However, this isn’t how the site works at all. It copies freelance writing jobs from other online writing job sites like Elance and Craigslist, and directs you to those sites to sign up and apply for the job in question. Furthermore, their database is extremely old, since this site has been running for a few years now. Most of the jobs that are copied into their site are more than two years old, and the data doesn’t have years attached to it, so you can’t see how old the “sample” postings really are.
What Does Paid Online Writing Jobs Cost?
The site itself doesn’t disclose the monthly fee for VIP access, but in the past, people have paid $49 per month for access to the site. They do, of course, have upsells, including a program that costs $147 that teaches you how to take your writing jobs and outsource them to lower-paid writers in order to earn passive income.
Is Paid Online Writing Jobs Worth It?
No, Paid Online Writing Jobs is absolutely not worth it. They don’t give members access to writing jobs that can’t be found in other ways. In fact, it just adds a layer of cost and complexity between you and the actual sites and clients that are posting these jobs, making things more cumbersome than they need to be.
How to Become a Paid Online Writer
Just because Paid Online Writing Jobs isn’t worthwhile, doesn’t mean that there aren’t a ton of ways to become a paid online writer. In fact, most of the better choices are less expensive or even free!
Pursue Online Training
For most online writing jobs, you will need excellent English writing skills. If you are uncertain of your skill level, or just want to brush up, there are a lot of affordable online resources to help you. Coursera offers online English classes from the reputable University of California at Irvine; there are a number of class options available from Udemy; or consider a free course through iTunes U. I myself, recommend that free training found from Wealthy Affiliate – it’s great training hub where you can learn how to write articles for your own website.
Nothing helps improve writing skills like practice, so an online course is a great way to get into the habit of writing every day and develop the skills you will need for the available jobs.
Consider Getting Certification
Google, HubSpot, Lynda, and other online training centres offer certificates in writing specialties like Inbound Marketing, Social Media, Email Marketing, and other writing-specific skills. Not all writing jobs require certification, but choosing a specialty and getting specialized training may help you connect with jobs that pay a higher rate than ordinary writing jobs.
Beware of certificates that aren’t from recognized, reputable sources, or that cost a lot of money; some certification courses are scams. Look for companies with widely recognized training, and brand names that have a good reputation.
Sign up on a Freelance Writing Website
There are a lot of online freelancer platforms. Your most difficult task may be choosing one, so read the blogs and testimonials of people who have used the sites. None of these platforms are perfect, and everyone has negative experiences sometimes, but look for a platform with lots of jobs, a good diversity of clients, and reasonable average rates.
You may want to sign up for all of them at once, but that’s not a good approach to begin with. It’s best to sign up with one at first and get very familiar with it. Use any training or support that they offer, read the FAQ’s and forums, and spend some time creating a good profile for yourself on the site.
Most of these sites rely on reviews in order to build your reputation, so try to get some small, easy jobs at first just to get some positive reviews and begin to establish yourself. After a while, you will move up in the ranks on that site, and will also have some experience and insight that you can use to choose a second site to sign up for.
Check out our article Freelance Writing Platforms for more information.
Grow Your New Career
Most online freelance writers are members of two or more writing platforms, so they can always find work by checking multiple places. Building a good client base and reputation allows you to increase your rates over time, and you may start working with your own private clients and charging your own rates.
My Conclusion
The life of a freelance online writer isn’t easy, but many people enjoy the freedom to work from anywhere, control their own schedule, and work as much or as little as they want, so there is no need to use middleman product like Paid Online Writing Jobs to achieve that goal.
I’d love to hear your experience with Paid Online Writing Jobs, and if you have any freelance writing products that you would recommend – please leave a comment and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.
Happy Writing,
Erica
9 Comments
Louis
Hello Erica,
Thanks for helping out. As a freelance writer, I was happy to come across paid online writing jobs, now I can see that it teaches nothing new. Freelance writing is really easy to go about, without having to pay for unnecessary upsells.
I only signed up with an online freelance platform, and I grew my portfolio with time.
Thanks for the share, all the best!
Erica
Thanks, Louis, I’m glad you liked the post. Thanks for reading!
Vapz
Thanks a lot for this review. I have been looking into online writing jobs for sometime now and trying to find the best fit and a legitimate program that says what they mean and mean what they say. I’ve been careful about paying for these things until I am quite sure that it is worth it. I’ll definitely take your tips and find a good course and then go from there. This was a great read.
Erica
Thanks for your comments, Vapz, glad I could help.
Topazdude
Awesome post! I must confess this post is great and encouraging. Talking up a Paid Online Writing Job, which is a website that connects freelance writers with online writing jobs, with no experience needed, is not that easy. Yes, I must confess the freedom to work from anywhere, control their own schedule and be your own boss is inevitable but is also isn’t that easy, as to combine it will your normal living as your are not under any employeer. Optimistic mind is needed as I realized from my start then and necessary training for required success in it, as I will strongly recommend Wealth Affiliate as one of the best platform to get the best training. I really appreciate this helpful post. Keep it up.
Erica
Glad you liked it. Thanks for reading!
Tolu
Hi, I like your review of the paid online writing job. I have been a freelance writer for the past 4 years. I have heard of Paid Online before now, but as a principle, I don’t subscribe for such practice and I would encourage no one to pay any money before accessing writing jobs online. There are jobs on sites posted daily on websites that include guru, iwriter, upwork, Craigslist, and many others. My advice to upcoming freelance writers is to build their skills as you rightly noted, and see every job as a challenge. Never get over-familiar with any job; put in your best to every job. Free writing courses are available at khan academy
Jay
I have come across emails from paid online writing jobs and until now I have actually thought they were really going to be able to deliver. I guess I was wrong and good thing I get not get myself involved with them. People do make money writing online and I think it is a really good way to make money on the internet. Platforms like paid online writing jobs is probably not the best place to depend on for getting these jobs as they look kind of outdated.
Chidiking88
This is a very informative piece of work. It is quite true that there are lots of middleman job site out there who almost basically don’t have quality jobs to offer. I for one have come across a very archaic job site. I quickly could not sign up because I knew it likely won’t deliver a thing to me.
You rightly pointed out about getting quality training on writing skills from Wealthy Affiliate website. From my experience in Wealthy Affiliate, there are seasoned experts there who are always ready to lead you by the hand on a sound writing career you need. Getting a recognised certification and charging low to get positive reviews in a freelancing site is another great way to go. Thank you so much for the nice advise you put down here.