A Genuine Review of iWriter.com

I recently joined iWriter and thus can give a genuine review of how the site functions. One thing about iWriter is that joining is very simple. It's actually the easiest I have encountered in the three years I have worked as a freelance writer. All you have to do is to go to their site, click on the registration link and sign up with your name, email address, preferred username, and password and you are done. No tests or submission of samples.

iWriter's system works such that writers are grouped into three: standard, premium and elite. All writers at iWriter, regardless of their writing ability, start at the standard level. A writer's level can be upgraded upon receiving a minimum of 30 reviews with an average feedback rating of 4.0. This basically means that to move to the next level you should have completed a minimum of 30 orders. This is not a simple feat as requesters (clients) can reject your articles for no reason. So it's possible to write even a 100 articles before you can be upgraded. Worst of all, one is not given a chance to revise an article. And then there are the perennial low-raters-requesters who will not rate you well regardless of the quality of an article.

At iwriter.com things only get better as you move up the ranks. As a standard level writer the rates are too low to motivate one to write. The pay for a 500 word article is 2.43. Considering that one is not given an opportunity to revise an order in case of any problems, that is a very low rate.

So far I have written 5 articles and earned $7.7. All the articles have been approved but I still do not feel motivated to write.Mostly because I have access to better paying writing gigs.  If you do not have access to other paid writing gigs, I recommend  you try iWriter.com. It's also a good place to gauge your writing skills as the requesters themselves choose to accept or reject an article based on the quality. However, this is not always the case-there are as many genuine requesters at iWriter.com as there are scammers.

iWriter also seems to block some IP addresses. There are times when I cannot access their website. In such cases I get a '403 forbidden' error. At other times I access the site without experiencing any problems. In case you ever encounter such as problem, try to change your IP address and all will be well.

My verdict on the site. The site is a genuine site that links clients to writers. I would advise one to join the site only if confident about his/her writing skills. If you believe that you have good writing skills and you encounter rejection, do not give up. Rejections appear to be the norm rather than the exception at iWriter.com. Just try to avoid clients who have a low approval rate as the chances of your article being rejected are very high. As for paying, I am yet to reach the minimum payout ($20) and so I cannot confidently say that they do pay.

All the best if you decide to sign up with them.

HIV Does not Cause AIDS

Apparently HIV does not cause AIDS. This is mind boggling at best! I feel cheated and generally sick. I have done a course in laboratory science and so I have spent a considerable part of my time learning about HIV-how it causes AIDS, how HIV destroys T-cells, how the HIV drugs work...memories of I spending hours and hours in the library trying to understand this makes me feel like a fool. I just watched a documentary by Stephen Allen and I am still in a state of shock.



Some people and corporations are making a kill out of making the public believe that HIV causes AIDS. Yes, selling ARVs to people rakes in billions of dollars each year and governments, some scientists and the big pharma are making a kill. The evidence is there-in the film there are statistics that disprove the myth that HIV causes AIDS. According to the documentary, the major cause of AIDS is the HIV drugs particularly the AZT (zidovudine). AZT is a deadly drug. Apparently, it was being developed to treat cancer but the FDA could not approve it as it was too toxic for human use. When AIDS was discovered, pressure from activists and the public for the government to find a cure and explain the disease made AZT (previously proven too toxic for human use) to be declared as a lifesaver drug.

From there the drug was manufactured in large quantities and given to all people who were tested HIV positive. The result? More deaths due to the toxic effects of the drug and more billions of dollars for the stakeholders. Its hard to believe that some people would sacrifice human lives for money. I have seen friends and relatives suffer from the effects of AZT and I can't believe that someone is deliberately doing this to people.

Apparently, retroviruses are harmless and the same case applies to HIV. If one has HIV but leads a healthy lifestyle, no hard drugs, smoking, anal sex, and eating a balanced diet, most likely one will not get AIDS.

It is interesting to note that the proponents of HIV/AIDS hypothesis cannot still answer some questions like why some people who do not have HIV have AIDS, or why they spend billions of dollars (and time) looking for a vaccine that will never be found. For those who do not know about vaccines, they are substances that trigger the production of antibodies against a specific antigen. HIV itself triggers the production of antibodies against it which beats the logic of trying to look for a vaccine.

I found all the explanations in the documentary to be correct and quite thought-provoking. The documentary tells it as it is for everyone who is interested in knowing the truth. At the moment, do not expect the governments, the big pharma, and some scientists, to admit that this is the truth. As one of the scientists in the documentary says, 'money is stronger than the truth'.

After watching this documentary, I have resolved never ever to take HIV drugs should I ever get diagnosed with HIV.  I hope this bubble will burst very soon so that the world will get know the truth. At the moment, people will continue to believe their governments, the media and healthcare providers, all of who will tell them that HIV causes AIDS and AZT is a lifesaving drug. Which is very sad because AZT is a highly toxic drug and HIV does not cause AIDS.

Beware of Scam Projects at Freelancer.com

Freelancer.com is a legit site that works by bringing employers and employees together. The site mostly attracts employers who need cheap labour and most of the projects there are legit. However, there are a large number of scammers on the loose at freelancer.com. These scammers demand that you provide them with samples of work on their topic of choice or their specific instructions. Alternatively, they claim to give you a test assignment which is not paid for. They then claim to review the responses to decide who to give the assignment to.

The following is a screenshot of a project at freelancer.com (click on it to enlarge it):

Please notice the budget is set at a high range, $1500-$12500 to attract bidders.
Also note the fact that one is supposed to complete 100 pages of unpaid work as part of the test assignment. I just wonder, what if the owner of the project gave different 'test assignments'  to 10 bidders. That would be 1, 000 pages for free. Its very possible for the owner of the project to disappear  after getting the 1000 free pages.

Wait a minute, the owner of the project has changed the profile details a few minutes after posting the project. There is a very attractive profile pic. What's more, he has changed his country to United Kingdom from Bangladesh! I started tracking the project immediately it was posted and minutes later, the project has already attracted 6 bids. I bet by the end of the project there will be 100+ bids.
Below is the changed profile:

I cannot imagine myself providing 100 pages of free work before I can get paid.1 or 2 pages would be a more reasonable request. And considering the number of complaints from freelancers who have provided samples only for the project owners to disappear after receiving the samples, I would trend cautiously when it comes to projects that require special samples.

When it comes to writing, a serious employer can evaluate your skills based on your previously completed papers, i.e. you do not have to write 5 samples based on specific keywords and instructions for the employer to assess your writing skills.

As for the above scenario, I would not be surprised if the 100 pages 'test assignment' that one is required to complete before being given work is part of the project. Do note that the employer has stated that the 100 pages will not be paid.

Also note that the profile is new-no reviews.

Just wanted to bring to your attention this detail to avoid wasting your time and money bidding for projects that are fake and which will drain you in terms of energy-100 pages of free work can really drain you.

jobjungle.info, legit or scam?

There is something about jobjungle.info that makes me think that it is owned by the same person who owns cjinc.info (which I personally consider a scam in the sense that its intention is very different from what they make you believe is their primary intention-to give you a job). An analysis of cjinc.info shows that the site makes money primarily from adsense, software downloads, and signups. The same case happens at jobjungle.info.

Below is an analysis of the things that make me suspicious of the website:

1. Poor Grammar
I have said before that English is my second language and so I cannot brag about my level of English proficiency but I can certainly tell appalling English from good English. The level of grammar in jobjungle.info is quite unsatisfactory. You would think that being the professionals they claim to be, they would hire a proofreader to proofread their web content. As of writing this post, they had an opening for proof readers (which by the way has been open for as long as I can remember).

2. Redirections to weebly.com and blogspot.com sites
weebly.com and blogspot.com are sites that give you an opportunity to make a website, or rather a blog, free of charge. For testing purposes, I chose the proofreading job opening after which I was redirected to a different site-http://jobjungle.weebly.com. From there I was required to provide the following details as part of the application process:
click on the image below to enlarge it-its a screenshot of the details I was required to provide

Notice the fact that Job box ID and Paltalk ID are mandatory just like in the case of cjinc.info.
Also note the fact that the website does not have a business email address: it uses the free gmail account which is a bit unprofessional.

I clicked on the link provided in order to create the job-Box ID and I was redirected to another website: thoughtandmemory.org. Seriously? Why not 99designs.com which is the site where one is supposed to get the job ID? I continued in my search for truth and clicked on all the provided links and finally landed at the 99designs.com sign up page. I checked the site and discovered that they have an affiliate program. I also checked the referring URL and discovered that it had an affiliate ID. So I knew that they were making money from 99designs's affiliate program. Hmmm...such a brilliant idea.I did not sign up for I am not a designer.

I then clicked on the provided link in order to create a paltalk ID and found myself in a blogspot site: http://theresumes.blogspot.in. Seriously? Why not paltalk.com? Well, I clicked on the provided link and landed at Paltalk.com's sign up page. I did not sign up. Instead, I went straight to Paltalk.com's website and I realised that the company also has an affiliate program. This is their incentives to attract people into the affiliate program:

You can earn $.25 for every new registrant and an additional 30% of subscription revenue when that registrant becomes a paid member. Plus, Paltalk offers additional incentive tiers, coupons and much more!

That may not seem like much but 100 members means $25. And if you check carefully, you will realize that the referring URL has an affiliate ID. This means that every time someone signs up at Paltalk.com through their link, jobjungle.info earns a commission. 

In conclusion, this is my take on jobjungle.info:
1. The owners make money by directing people to paltalk.com and 99designs.com.
2. They also make money from adsense-that is why they redirect you to irrelevant websites-weebly.com and blogspot.com sites, all in the hope that you will click on one of the ads that are plastered all over the websites.
3. The owners act by connecting you to employers (can't confirm that this actually happens as I never signed up with them).


I do not know for sure but I would not be surprised if the person who owns cjinc.info is the same person who owns jobjungle.info. The similarity between the two sites is conspicuous.Notice the Types of job opportunities available, the fact that one is redirected to different websites to create a job ID, a paltalk ID and to get samples. They may not be scammers in that they do not even give you the jobs, but they make money by forcing people to sign up at certain websites.

One interesting thing is: of what use would an ID at 99designs.com be to me-the website only offers designer jobs-logos, flyers, book covers, etc. Seriously?

Just trend carefully-I have been signing up with many websites hoping to get jobs or other offers but one thing I have noticed is that spammers have also proportionately increased. This means that some websites sell people's email addresses to marketers for a profit.

You might be interested in:

 cjinc.info, legit or a scam?