Three Reasons Why iWriter is Not Easy

Around a year ago I joined iWriter hoping to make money from home. The site seemed reputable enough. Thankfully I was right. Whatever I earned I actually got as promised and there were no hidden fees. That said, working on iWriter is not easy for three big reasons.

1) The Tier System is a double-edged sword

iWriter uses a tier system. Lower ranked members get less pay than high ranked members do. Every article written adds up to five points to your score. Your score is then divided by the number of articles written to give you your ranking tier.

The tier system is meant to help weed out poor quality writers. Those who do not have a high enough ranking after thirty pieces have been submitted are automatically banned by the system.

When you first join there is the option to buy a high ranking. This is very dangerous. When a high rank is purchased the total number of articles remains low. One or two poor ratings with a low number of articles will lower your ranking quickly.

Most people choose to write in hopes of gaining a better rank. It is safer and cheaper after all! Well, good luck gaining rank because….

2) You are at the clients' mercy. Period.

Many clients are not good at explaining what they want or are very picky. Something so small as the tone being “wrong” can result in the rejection of otherwise perfect work.

When a client rejects your work you are given a zero. Every zero subtracts from your total ranking. A single person can cause a large ranking drop if they rejected everything you sent. Rejected work is also always unpaid.

This leaves writers doing a hidden secondary job…

3) You also have to screen and keep up with your clients.

iWriter is basically a marketplace where clients post work and writers can choose to do work for them. You are liable for choosing good clients and avoiding bad ones.

Client scores are basically useless. Rejected work does not affect their client score even if it can destroy yours. It is much wiser to look at a client's rejection rate. High rejection rates mean the client is likely to reject your work. On lower tiers it is very common to find clients with high rejection ratings. This can make it difficult to find work to do when you are new and your score is very vulnerable.

It is a good idea to contact clients once you have written for them. Thank them for letting you write for them. Also let them know you are willing to do rewrites for free. This simple act can save you from rejection sometimes.

Clients can choose to mark you as a favorite writer. This is great news as it means they can ask you to write for them! This means more pay and less rejections. Stay in contact with these clients.

Overall Conclusion

Overall iWriter is a legitimate place to find work. The problem is that it is very hard to gain and keep a decent score. Often the pay just doesn't work out to enough to cover the time spent. If hard work for low pay (by American standards anyway) is not a problem then iWriter may still be a good choice. Otherwise you probably should take your writing skills elsewhere.