Day 135: AWAI Online

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 135: AWAI Online

One of my pet peeves are people trying to take advantage of other people: Nigerian princes who want to share their millions, financially strapped mothers who can’t provide for their children and ask for support, and writing sites making unrealistic promises to aspiring writers. One such writing site is AWAI Online.

It’s understandable why freelance writing has become so popular. Men and women of all ages get to work from home, get to be creative, and some of them manage to earn a decent income.

AWAI Online recognized that freelance writing has taken off faster than a car on nitro and zoomed in to lift unsuspecting people of their hard-earned money. The plan is simple, get people’s attention with the line

““The Accelerated Program for Six-Figure Copywriting salary”

When I see a line like that I immediately know that I’m dealing with a scam. No copywriter, amateur or professional earns a six-figure salary. If they did, everyone and his uncle would choose that profession.

Generally, freelance writers work for pennies, they are among the most underpaid people in the world. Some of them get paid 3, 5 or 10 cents per word and gradually work themselves up to a better payout.

A friend of mine is such a writer. She started out working for pennies, build up a portfolio and a reputation and today she is one of the most successful and respected writers in the business. Save to say, she makes a very nice income but she earns nowhere near $100,000 a year. However, she is one of the few, the rest of us take what we can get where it comes to writing.

But let’s get back to AWAI Online. As always I did some digging and found this article:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/53003768@N06/8494566540

At Writers Beware I found the following:

https://accrispin.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-barefoot-writers-club.html

At the time of publication, there were 127 comments pertaining to AWAI Online. Let’s have a look at some of them:

The head honcho of AWAI, calls herself "Katie Yeakle" That happens to be a fake name, as are the names of many of those who run or write for AWAI. Hmm...

Check Elance or oDesk if you want to find out what freelance writers really earn. Those sites are chock full of very capable writers charging $10-$20 per hour.

If AWA has accomplished anything aside from making "Yeakle" and her insiders fabulously wealthy, it has flooded the market with pipe-dreaming wannabe $500-an-hour writers, which by their sheer volume have eliminated the chance that many will earn a reasonable living off writing.

I just found out they are taking $49 out my credit card account every year, and I have not authorized this repeated charge. Also, I cannot find anything in "My Account" on their website that shows I will be or have been charged or how I can stop the charges. This qualifies as a scam. I've never gotten anything worthwhile from them either. Stay away.

Thanks for this post! I've been wondering about these AWAI people. I signed up for their mailing list at some point but I've never spent money on them. I just get emails from them every few days that always sound about the same and never give me any actual info. Like you said, it's just all fluff that reads like one of those get rich quick scam pages. Sure it sounds glamorous and beautiful and who wouldn't want that... but it's got way too many red flags.

If I call in the next 30 minutes, I will receive two, that's right, TWO subscriptions for the price of ONE! They'll even throw in a free shower head valued at $19.95! But wait--that's not all. As a special introductory offer, they will provide me with a 1,000-page email list that I can use to spam unsuspecting people with the hypnotic power of my newly-acquired copywriting genius! If that's not a deal, I don't know what is.

On second thought, it might be easier to just take a blunt blow to the head.

There is only ONE way to be a profitable writer--have talent, wow a publisher. Get your education in the field of writing from reliable educators, work, work at it until you have a WOW piece. Now go out there and WOW one.

There is no way, as I see it, that some snake oil salesman on the internet can make you a writer.

What I want to know is, "who are all these people writing the testimonials?" 

AWAI is pretty much of a joke.

Unfortunately, the naïve, and the ones who don't do their homework on AWAI get sucked in.

I have lost count the number of business owners I have written for who got burned after hiring "copywriters" through AWAI.

The stories I could tell you about this place. Just the way AWAI advertises themselves should tell anyone with a half a brain that they are not good at copywriting. Their lame articles alone should tell you plenty. Buyers beware. 

I guess this just about sums it up. If you go searching for AWAI Online, you’ll no doubt find favorable reviews, but the question is … who wrote those reviews, even if the writer states that he/she is unbiased.

Take it from me, anyone who believes that earning a six-figure salary (meaning in access of $100,000 a year) with copywriting is possible is dreaming.

The only ones who make money from the six-figure writing course are AWAI Online and you can be sure that they’ll be smirking … we caught another sucker.

You want to learn how to write? There are two ways of doing that: 1) go to school, an actual school where a teacher/professor will explain the process and the finer points; 2) go online and read everything you can get your hands on. Don’t just read through, study the material. Next, you practice, practice, and practice some more. You’ll get the hang of it soon enough and it won’t cost you a dime.

Follow up on scam alert

Yesterday I posted a suspected scam alert posted via Craigslist.  I shared my blog post with Maria (the poster of the ad on Craigslist) and she replied to me by email.

Its unfortunate that you feel that way, as I just see myself as your everyday Marketing Graduate. I'm not some "spammer" there is no need to bash me or what I do, if you simply do not understand the network. I am twenty two years old. I am an open minded individual with a four year Marketing Degree.

A marketing degree and she’s wasting her time on a scam. 

A plan of the "new rich" is to be open minded. I am sorry that you are so close minded as to write a blog bashing the existence of the XXX Network which is Millions of people all doing the same thing.

Millions of people?

^ Most XXX network affiliates end up quitting their full-time jobs b/c simply making  money is this easy so why would WE bother with a full time job???

Why is anyone still going to work? 

I am also a female who blogs everyday herself. Not about business but simply my life, my beautiful friends, my interests fashion. Etc. This isn't a website for fools, its a website a network for people are are not wussys. Are motto is "no wussies allowed" my team travels to costa rica, california, around the globe with their incomes. I wouldn't get any money from you after you initial start up fee, you would keep 100% of what you made after that. You already ruined that chance though, by bashing the entire system. 

Oh dear, I’ve ruined my chance.  Can someone please give me a hanky.   Oh well, I’ve ruined other chances, the $250 million that a business man in Kenya was going to send me, the $248 million that a Saudi prince wanted to give away, and the $43 million from some unfortunate soul in Nairobi.  

With this chance ruined, how will I go on living …

When the going gets tough, the crooks get creative

The unemployed are easy targets for crooks.  Now that promised millions from Middle Eastern business men and princes no longer have the desired effect, scammers have to come up with other ways to ensnare well-meaning people into their web.

If the unemployed happen to be a writers (and let’s face it, with millions of blogs out there, who isn’t a writer these days?) the scams become much more easy to execute.  Just play on someone’s writing abilities and you scam is sure to get attention.  It got mine.

The scam in question is a call for bloggers on Craigslist. 

Serious inquiries only. This is for people who are looking to put in the hard work daily to create limitless opportunistic for themselves through blogging. I need ten new bloggers respond to this post and the details will follow. Make anywhere between 25-1000 dollars your first day.

Sounds intriguing, right?  I thought so too.  So I clicked the provided link and made some enquiries.

Maria (not her real name) sent me the following explanation:

Hey Conny! If your already wayyyy into the freelance writing and blogging than you could very easily transform your current work into this blog! This would be great for you! I think its great for anyone really! It's the best move I 've made for myself since working wayy too many jobs to try and get by! I would like to work one on one with you so that you understand the process. I will send over the video that explains how everything works, but I must say some people are overwhelmed by it. There are four steps to our program. I myself, only did the first two steps which are basic and inner circle training. What scares people off initially is the fact that you have to pay a monthly fee to be a part of the XXX network. Don't be frightened by that. I didn't start off with much money myself and together the first two steps cost me about a hundred and twenty five dollars. (I was in between jobs when I invested trust me it is soooo worth a hundred dollars.) However, I made it all back the second day with two hundred dollars into my account! 

The video will explain everything but I like to break it down for people so that they can understand it better. You blog daily, get attention to your blog simply by posting everyday and making new connections. They join your team and you get straight money to the bank! Its really quite simple. You learn new tricks and tools for small businesses and tips to live like the new rich. If you would like to talk to me more about the process after you watch the video you can call me personally at XXX XXX XXXX between the hours of 9 am- 1 pm tomorrow-Friday. I know I asked my sponsor about 100 questions my first day! If you are interested in lifestyle design and you want to take the leap I suggest you do! You can work when you want and where you want and make an endless amount of money! It sounds crazy but my sponsor Christopher is pulling in around 1500 dollars in just a few hours of work. Same for the rest of our team. Our specific team is very friendly and I'm sure you would get along with us great we even have our own facebook group called "The XXX." The last team trip was to Costa Rica! It was only my first week on the job so I unfortunately did not make that team meeting :p. Anyways thats lots of exciting things going on! I hope we can add you to the team and get you pointed off in the right direction! 

Here is the video:  They make you enter your email first but then the video appears :) Please contact me if you have questions after the video !!! I repeat please contact me if you are confused on to how this actually works. I would hate for you to get confused or think this is more complicated than it really is. Its probably the most simple, full-filling lifestyle one could have! I know the video is a little long but its worth watching! 

-Maria

As soon as I read that I had to pay to join, I smelled a rat.  I may not be a decedent from Einstein, but I wasn’t exactly hatched under a chicken either.  I also noticed several spelling mistakes, which didn't instill confidence.  So I asked Maria how much had to be paid.  She replied …

There are now five steps to the XXX Program. I started off with the first two because I really did not have any money to spare. I had no job but I knew something had to be done and that my four year business degree was worth more than babysitting and waiting tables until I figured my life out. The first step which is the basic membership is twenty five dollars. The second is 100. Third step is 500. Fourth is 1000, the newly added step costs 3500 dollars. (Which sounds insane but for our upper members like my sponsor, he makes that 3500 dollar commission off of adding new people to his team daily, that its absolutely ridiculous.) Did you watch the video yet?  What my sponsor recommended me to do was to invest in the first two because that was all I could afford until I could move up. That week I realized how easy it really was. While I had two members join my team the second day. I made two hundred dollars. They bought the 500 dollar step. Therefore I lost a thousand dollars worth of commissions off having new members join my team because well simply I did not have a choice! I was still sort of broke then! I hope that kind of puts a bit of a picture on what happens here in the XXX network. In the meantime I was blogging, getting traffic to my site was really quite easy because the XXX network does most of the work for you! You can sit at home blog about whatever you want, people like personality if they like what you write about they will be attracted to your blog! Which your probably already really good at by now! 

She made money with baby sitting ... just exactly how old is this girl?  A program that works for you while you sit back and do nothing ... I smelled another rat.  A pack of rats actually.  If it was this easy to make money, would anyone bother with a full-time job?

Do these people think we’re crazy!  Who’s going to spend that kind of money?

It might be good for the starter or the program though.  With every new fool who joins, he gets a fee.  Then it’s up to you to rope in your friends (to make a little money) or to advertise on Craigslist or Facebook to find other fools.

Fortunately, I am not a fool and those I know aren’t either.