cjinc.info, Legit or a Scam?

Many people, job hunters in particular, wonder whether cjinc.info is legit or a scam. I found myself wondering the same thing recently as I was looking for a typing job and I decided to write a post on my take on the website. Here it is:

I have been seriously looking for other ways of earning online apart from academic writing. I figured that typing jobs wouldn't be a bad idea. A search on the internet returned cjinc.info as one of the search results, though a sponsored result. I immediately clicked on it and was excited to see their rates-US $ 2.5 to 5 per 1000 words for offline typing jobs and US $ 3.5 to 6 per 1000 words for online typing. That is an excellent rate by all means. I did quick calculations and figured that each day I would make a whooping $21 working for only 3 hours.

I am always wary of scams, there are so many of them online nowadays, and so I first checked for reviews on the site. There weren't many and so I went back to the site and analyzed it carefully using 'common sense'. First thing I noted was that the site had ads plastered all over. There was even a custom Google search feature. While I am not opposed to a site making money from adsense, this was the first warning sign for me. I have seen enough sites that will tempt you with job offers while their main aim is to drive traffic to their site so that they can earn from adsense, affiliate programs and other such gimmicks.

The second warning sign was unprofessional email addresses: cjinc.info@gmail.com and cjinc.client@gmail.com. I cannot believe that in this day and age a company that wants to be taken seriously can use a free Gmail account instead of a business email.
   
The third warning sign was appalling grammar. English is my second language and so I cannot brag about my fluency and accuracy in English but trust me, I can tell appaling grammar from good grammar. Take for instance this section in which cjinc.info explains about the nature of their typing jobs:

"We don't ask about Investment to our freelancer's for getting the typing jobs to us, but we really expect in return to our freelancer's a good accuracy work.in borderline time period as per our terms . We are ready to pay best in the market for the same to you."

One is required to complete a sample task before you can be considered for employment. First you have to select your country which I did after which I was redirected to a blogspot site-http://livedocuments.blogspot.com. Need I mention that the website was also plastered with ads?

Before I could be allowed to access the sample work, I was required to register-basically I was required to create a Paltalk ID and a job junction ID. I clicked on the "complete registration" link and was redirected to a different site, AGAIN. The site was creativejobsinc.blogspot.com. Here I selected my country after which I was redirected to a different site, AGAIN. The new site was http://www.offerkart.org/ and I was required to download a smilebox, whatever that is. Now, I do not just install every software that is on offer on the internet and so I figured it was time to quit my goose chase.

But before that, I went back to the 'complete registration page' and clicked on the link for creating a Paltalk ID and I was redirected to a blogspot site-work-nature.blogspot.com. Seriously? Why not paltalk.com?

I gave up at this point. I mean, why should I be redirected to 4 different websites, all of which are plastered with ads, before I can be allowed to register? All the sites are owned by the same person and I guess the owner is hoping that somehow you will click on one of the ads as you hop from one site to the other and possibly earn him some money through adsense.

I have to admit that that is a brilliant idea, but quite annoying for someone who is seriously looking for a job.

Please note that all the sites that you are being redirected to are blogspot blogs, free blogs for your information.

Make the judgement yourself. Personally I would not touch the site with a one foot pole. It shouts scam! I read somewhere that they could be getting people to register with their emails after which they could be selling the emails to marketers and this could not be a farfetched idea considering what I have gathered about this site so far.

Oh, and by the way if you do not create a Paltalk ID and a Job Junction ID using the links that they have provided, the links with the referral IDs, you might as well forget about that job-if at all there is any.

Kallery.net, is it spam?

 Have you been getting a lot of page views from Kallery.net from South Korea? They appear to visit every blog and they really mess up with the stats. Here is my story:

After reading countless articles on how I can earn a six-figure salary through a blog, I have been blogging with a vengeance. Well, not really because I still have not signed up with Adsense and so I am earning nothing from blogging. However, occasionally (mostly when my employer irritates me) I do write several blog posts.

It was a relief to see that at least I had an audience-a whooping 3 views moments after publishing a blog post! I was ecstatic, but wait a minute, all the views are from one source: kallery.net. So South Koreans are finding my content interesting and worth attention?

The first thing I did was to click on the referring URL-can't remember where I ended up (Many bloggers say that they end up at porn galleries which is very weird). My instincts told me to be wary of spam, but I had already clicked on it out of excitement. I did a Google search on the site and found several complaints from bloggers like me who lamented about visits from the site which really messed up with the stats. Apparently, bloggers who use blogspot.com are the main culprits. Some bloggers in Google product forum said that Kallery.net was just interested in advertising products to bloggers.

I slumped into my seat. So I do not have a worthwhile audience after all? Maybe I should still continue writing academic articles and get them A+ grades.

Realwritingjobs.com Scam or Legit?

Of late academic writing has been unsatisfying for me. All of a sudden the company I have been working for for 3 years on a full time basis has discovered that my writing is not so good after all. The result? Fines on each and every paper that I write due to proofreading errors. Blogging has sounded like the break I have been looking for. But how do I write articles that will drive traffic to my site? A search through the internet gave me an idea to check Ezine for the "most viewed articles". Unfortunately for me, the section no longer existed. But as I perused through the categories, I saw an ad that attracted me. It was about earning "$317" daily from article writing. It was an ad by realwritingjobs.com. I clicked on it and this is the message I got:

"We are currently not accepting members from your country, we apologize."

A closer look at their 'FAQS' presents one with this information:"Citizens of ALL countries can join". Well, maybe it was a technical problem.
I am from Kenya. That was a major problem and I could not imagine myself missing the opportunity to make a whooping $317 each day (Ksh. 25,360). Luckily for me, I have subscribed to easy-hide-ip.com and so I turned it on. Immediately I was assigned an IP in Canada and so I was able to access the realwritingjobs.com site. The site is designed to tempt someone to sign up with them. These are some of the information that you will find on their home page "no experience required to join", "writers needed, more writing jobs than we can fill", and "earn an excellent income". I immediately signed up with them-the sign up form just requires you to provide your first name and an email address.

Next thing I found myself looking at a checkout form. What the heck? Couldn't remember being interested in purchasing anything. Apparently I was required to purchase membership access for $34. That is a lot of money for any writer regardless of their geographical location considering that one can get the same services for free.

 I quickly searched the web for information on whether the company is a scam and I was glad  that I opted out as soon as I saw the membership fees.

Well, I never got to access the members area but the information I have gathered from their FAQs is that the site contains a combination of writing jobs from different websites. Basically the site webmasters rummage through the web for writing jobs after which they create a job database.

After being online for 3 years now, I have learned a few survival tactics and one of them is to flee whenever I am prompted to pay before I can be given work. There are so many sites that allow one to access writing jobs for free such as freelancer.com, elance.com and odesk.com. (well, you can still pay membership to upgrade to better plans, read more bid opportunities at freelancer.com).

I checked their website for information on free trial which some people claim is available for 10 days at $2.95 but could not find it. But I came across this: "a 60-day unconditional money back guarantee".

Basically, the website offers a service that is similar to that offered by freelancer.com with the difference being that clicking on the jobs takes you to different sites unlike freelancer.com which advertises its own jobs. The site is okey if you do not mind paying a membership fee of $34.

Oh, and take their promise of a 5-figure pay with a pinch of salt. I found this statement at the site: "In the past I've made well over $10,000 in a month writing articles". Keep in mind that this is a site with no jobs of its own and so the exact amount that one is paid to write articles does not depend on them.

I leave you to make your own judgement. If you are a bit lazy (you do not want to check several websites for writing jobs-you want all jobs in one place), you can try them.  The site does not give a lot of information (for non-members) but I have read somewhere that the fee is monthly so do a bit of research before signing up to avoid disappointments in future.