We’ve all seen the ads and spam emails promising us a fortune and working part time. Sounds great! Unfortunately they are almost always (maybe that’s ALWAYS) scams. If they were that profitable, why aren’t the people selling the ideas doing them instead of trying to screw a few measly pounds or dollars out of the rest of us?

So what should you look out for to avoid a scam?
1. Does it sound too good to be true? If it does, it almost certainly is and you should be very cautious.

2. Is it a multi level marketing scheme (MLM)? It’s true that some people do make money out of them but usually these schemes don’t depend on selling actual products by associates (or whatever name they give to sales people) but rather on getting more and more people to join. Usually, it’s the people at the very top who got in right at the beginning who make the big money.

3. Be very wary of piecework. That is work where you get paid by the hundred or thousand items you produce. This could be anything from stuffing envelopes, producing labels, typing, making jewellery, etc. The rates of pay are usually abysmally low and sometimes the employer charges you for materials. Often, they will claim a high percentage of work delivered is sub-standard and so pay for far less than is actually produced and delivered.

4. Writers shouldn’t get sucked into producing articles for very low paying content websites. These will not give you useful writing credits for use when approaching better paid sites or print publications. Some of these sites pay as little as $5 for 500 to 1000 words. Others offer a share of advertising revenue on pages with your work on them. Usually there is no way to verify the figures for advertising revenue and it’s hard to earn more than a few pence or cents a month from this kind of deal. If you want to write for the internet, you are better off with your own website or with a network like here on All Info About – where you place your own affiliate ad on pages you make and take all the income from them.

Tips for Avoiding Scams
1. Never send off money for materials or information on freelance work. Reputable companies will never ask you to do this.

2. Don’t attend large scale meetings or seminars – these are almost always going to turn out to be MLMs.

3. Be very cautious if you reply to an advertisement and you are given little or no information in response but instead get what sounds like a sales pitch – again this is probably an MLM.

4. Writers shouldn’t think that any writing work will help them towards getting into good magazines or newspapers. Low paying websites will never help your credibility but might damage it, instead.

5. Unless it is a company that you know, always research any business that offers you work. It will help you avoid the sharks and, if they are legitimate, will impress them when you have your first meeting.

6. Remember: if it sounds too good to be true, then it almost certainly is.