Website Review: FreelanceWorkExchange.com

With all of the freelance classified-type sites out there like Guru.com and Grammatika.com that cost close to $100 just to get in the door and see if they are any good, it was refreshing to see FreelanceWorkExchange.com offer a week trial for $2.95 to test the waters and see if it was any good. At best, it will get me some work and keep me drinking the brand of beer I like. I worst, it would be a very small write-off on the income taxes. I would still drink the beer I like, by the way. It's the beer in the white can that says in big, black letters "BEER" on the side.

You get used to it.

Let me start off by saying that FreelanceWorkExchange.com has a very nice referral program. For every one of you that I refer to the website, and if you sign up for free trial, I get roughly $6. That's a hell of a lot for a referral program. If you continue on with the site, I will get 30% of your monthly fee. That's about $15 a month per person I refer. I could get on here and write every article about how great FreelanceWorkExchange.com is and end up making a lot of beer money each month. Hell, I could bump up to the next level of beer quality: Budweiser.

FreelanceWorkExchange.com reminds me of those kookey doctors that go on and on about the miracles of magnet therapy to cure the latest strain of STD that's going around. I've been swallowing magnets for a month, and I'm here to tell you that the only magic going on is the discoloration of my computer monitor every time I fart. Magnet therapy doesn't work. And neither will you if you spend all of your time at FreelanceWorkExchange.com.

The layout of the website is nice. They got that right. It looks professional and inviting. There are links that invitingly and temptingly advertise "Jobs For Writers" and "Jobs For Designers", along with jobs for editors, illustrators, programmers, consulters, photographers, and on and on. They offer free job reports, free ebooks, and success tips that'll have you drinking the good beer in no time.

Great! Sign me up! $2.95 will get me working, and quick!

And then, reality hits.

When you go through the pearly gates of FreelanceWorkExchange.com's login, you see that -- to continue our magnet metaphor -- these magnets aren't really holding things on the fridge that well.

Sure, you get free advice tips. They just happen to be in the form of spam-like emailings you get three or four times a day spouting off information you read in the pamphlet "So, You'd Like To Work At Home" when you were sitting on the crapper at Barnes and Noble, flushing out three Cafe Mochas in a matter of forty-five minutes. To be honest, I wasn't really expecting some sage advice here. But I wasn't looking for spam, either.

The free job report? It's a set of tips I wrote about on this here blog. You get sage advice like "don't isolate yourself" and "post on message boards." You get about two or three sentences explaining each item. But, again, it's nothing you've never heard before. And it didn't cost you $3 when you heard them.

Now, let's get to the jobs listings. Before we do, though, let's go back to those magnet doctors. Have you ever heard them talk? They'll say something very vague and misleading in hopes that you won't listen to them. Very much like a politician:

These magnets attract the iron in your blood, you see. And the iron itself becomes magnetized. Pain has a negative energy, ya know, because nobody likes pain, therefore it's negative. The magnets have a positive pole, and that's why you put the positive pole against your sore spot. Positive energy fights negative energy. Your iron-filled cells are magnetized by this positive energy and negates the negativity at the source!

This is the same feeling I get from the job listings on the site. This is an exact copy of a job listing. Notice the lack of any specific details or needs by the employer.

Contribute to a Women's Magazine
Can you write articles that would appeal to a broad women's audience? If so, this company may have an opportunity for you. You must be a good writer and journalist with a creative mind and the ability to come up with good ideas for content.

When you click on a link, you just get a form that is pre-filled out with all of your information. Whether or not anybody actually gets it is anybody's guess.

There you go. I personally think FreelanceWorkExchange.com is a scam. It's a nifty way to get $3 for permission to send you spam thinly veiled as important and secret information that will make you millions. And yes, they claim you could make millions through their site.

Now, I'm off to my thirty-year old pulltab beer and to find another website to review. Any suggestions?