PeoplePC is an Internet provider company that has been around since 1999. They offer a terrific deal for all. Their introductory offer is only $5.47 per month for the first 3 months, then just $10.95/per month thereafter.
PeoplePC Unlimited Internet service advertises:
- More local numbers than AOL (true)
- Smart Dialer technology for the best, most reliable connections (Don't know, dialing is dialing to me)
- Spam controls (true)
- Virus BlockerSM (true)
- Customer Care and Technical Support (true)
A friend of mine uses PeoplePC and I occasionally use it while visiting him. No special stand outs but nothing wrong really. PeoplePC is a good Internet service provider. No complaints.
PeplePC gets a grade B - Good dial up ISP
Click on their link below to check out more on PeoplePC
People PC
1Q.com Review
1Q is a question and answer company that pays members for answering questions. Unlike many other websites that have your average Joe ask questions, IQ works a bit different. Instead, it is companies that are asking the questions for marketing research purposes. By taking this approach, companies have found a viable and less costly solution for their marketing research. The best part for all of us is that we get paid to answer these questions! Below is my personal experience with 1Q.
Signing Up For 1Q
Signing up for this website was very quick and easy. I would say it took me no more than five minutes. It just asks you some basic information such as your name, address, demographics, location and a few other basic things. Of course, there is no charge to sign up with 1Q. We all want to make money answering questions and paying anything to sign up would be ridiculous. From all of the question and answer websites that I have signed up with so far 1Q's sign up process has been one of the most pleasant. I definitely never want to sign up with a company that is asking for my drivers license, gives tests that will take me two hours to complete and a bunch of other nonsense. I am not totally against a long application process, but unless a question and answer website is going to pay me the salary that I can earn at a full-time job, I don't really think it is worth it. Signing up with 1Q was a simple and to the point process.
What kind of Questions do I Have to Answer?
After signing up I had no idea what kind of questions I would receive. Here are the first two questions that I received so that you can get a general idea.
1. Which products have you purchased in the past 6 months?
2. What hair care product types have you purchased within the past 6 months?
Don't worry! No lengthy answers are needed. These are multiple choice questions, and you just have to check off the products from the options that they give you. For example, for question number two the options were hair color, conditioner, styling, shampoo and treatment. You would just have to check off the products that you have purchased within the past six months. You can choose more than one. Very simple to do!
How am I Notified When There are Questions to Answer?
To answer questions for 1Q you will need a mobile phone. All questions that need to be answered are delivered to you on your cell phone. Questions can be answered through regular text messages or through the 1Q app. I did not try the text message experience and immediately downloaded the 1Q app after signing up. Through the app I get notified whenever a new question is asked. I would advise anybody that registers to use the app as it is very simple to use.
How Much Does 1Q Pay?
During the sign up process you will be asked to choose a payment option of either $.25 or $.50. This is cents and not dollars! Notice the decimal there! What this is basically asking you is whether you are open to receive 25 cents questions or 50 cents questions. By choosing $.25 you will receive more questions. Why? Because if you choose $.50 you will only receive the $.50 questions. By choosing $.25 you will receive both the 25 cents questions and the 50 cents questions. I naturally signed up for the $.25 option, and I would advise everybody else to do so also. It would make no sense to limit the amount of questions that you receive and lower your earning potential!
How Many Questions Will I Receive?
This is something that nobody can answer. Different people will receive a different amount of questions each day. How do they base who new questions will go to? It may be by your age, location, etc. Don't expect to get 20 questions a day because it is not going to happen. Below I will show you the amount of questions that I received during my first couple of weeks using 1Q and how much I earned.
Day 1: 0 questions - Earned $0.00
Day 2: 1 question - Earned $0.25
Day 3: 2 questions - Earned $0.50
Day 4: 2 questions - Earned $0.75 (Had a $0.50 question)
Day 5: 0 questions - Earned $0.00
Day 6: 3 questions - Earned $0.75
Day 7: 1 question - Earned $0.00 (Missed the question)
Day 8: 1 question - Earned $0.25
Day 9: 3 questions - Earned $0.75
Day 10: 2 questions - Earned $0.25 (Missed a question)
Day 11: 1 question - Earned $0.25
Day 12: 2 questions - Earned $0.50
Day 13: 0 questions - Earned $0.00
Day 14: 4 questions - Earned $1.00
During my first two weeks I earned $5.25. During my first month I ended up earning $9.00. No bad for doing nothing but taking a few seconds of my time and answering a few easy questions. Sure, it is not a lot of money, but it is basically a free pack of cigarettes, or a free Jack In the Box meal. If I saved the money for a whole year that would be a free $100 or so. The number of questions really varies. There will be times when you only receive 4 or 5 questions a week. Then there are times when you will receive 10 questions a week. I have read claims from people that they have earned $50 a month with 1Q. I wish I could say that, but unfortunately I have not even come close to that, and I have been using the app for 6 months as of this writing. I don't know if those claims are true. If they are good for them. With that said, I don't mind the $10 or so per month for what to me is basically doing nothing.
As noted above, there were two questions that I did not answer because I slept a bit late on those particular days, and the questions came in early in the morning. When that happens, you will of course not answer and won't get credited. I am not sure how long you have to answer a question once it is sent to you. All the questions that I have answered I answered right away. You are alerted that you have a new question as your phone will beep. The reason I know that I missed those questions is because the app let's you know. As you answer questions, you will see a list of the questions that you have answered such as shown below.
Other Things to Know About 1Q:
In order to get paid by 1Q you will need a PayPal account. Chances are you already have a PayPal account or at least know about PayPal. If you do not have a PayPal account, you can easily sign up for one.
I would like to mention that 1Q immediately deposits your payment into your PayPal account after you answer a question. They don't hold on to your money until it reaches a certain threshold. It's pretty nice having quarters dropped into your PayPal account simply for answering questions.
Overall Personal Experience With 1Q:
For anybody that wants to earn some extra cash by simply answering questions, 1Q is an option that should be considered. A person would have to be out of their mind if they thought that they were going to become a millionaire doing this, but if you are like me and believe that small change adds up, you are going to want to give 1Q a try. With the number of companies that are using 1Q continuing to grow, the number of questions received will only grow. This will of course mean more money in your PayPal account! Want to give 1Q a try? Sign up here and start earning those quarters!
Is iWriter a Scam?
Is iWriter a scam? This is a question that somebody recently asked me so I thought I would put by prospective right here on "Thee Reviewer." The person who asked me this question is a young person who recently graduated high school and is soon to be headed off to college. She apparently is looking for a way to make extra money while she attends college full time. She knows that I write sometimes and wanted to know if I thought she could make $1000 a month writing for iWriter.
Is iWriter a Scam?
One word. NO! The folks at iWriter run a legitimate business and have been doing so for many years. Can a person make $1000 per month writing articles for iWriter? Yes they can! Have I ever made $1000 in a month writing for iWriter? No I have not! Why not? Well, I just never put in that much time in writing articles for iWriter. The most that I made in a month with iWriter was $500, and that was many years ago. I am always involved in many projects at once, and unless something really impresses me very much, I will not put countless hours into it. I am not saying that iWriter never impressed me. It is a great site to earn extra money, and anybody with basic writing skills can write for them. It is just that I am so involved with other things that I never had the time to put 40 hours into iWriter. I'm sure that you know what I mean.
If a person were to put in the time and effort, they could easily earn $1000 a month and probably a lot more. Of course, the effort that it will take to reach that amount of money will depend on the time you put into writing articles and your writing level. You can learn more about writing levels and how much you can earn by reading my iWriter review article.
The Truth About iWriter
I have been on both sides of the table with iWriter. What that means is that I have written articles and have also been an article requester. As a writer I have always been paid on time for my work. There were never any hassles with compensation. There were times that I felt like I got burned by an article requester, and you can find more details about that in my iWriter full review. Never has the company iWriter been at fault with any of my dealing though.
As an article requester I even had less problems. I have been sent trashy articles, but iWriter makes it very easy to reject the article and have another writer write an article for you. As an article requester, you never have to accept an article until you have one written for you that you are completely happy with.
Do You Think iWriter is a Scam?
If you have personally used iWriter before and think that iWriter is a scam, chances are that your problem had more to do with the person that your were partnering with, whether it was an article requester or a person writing an article for you. I very much doubt that the squabble had anything to do with the folks at iWriter. I am not saying that there is not anybody out there who has never had any squabbles with the iWriter staff, but I confidentially feel that this company is professional in their dealings with their article writers and article requesters.
Writers who feel that iWriter is a scam would probably make that statement because they do not feel like they are getting paid enough for their work. It is true that when a writer is in the lower levels they do not get paid very well, but that does not mean that the company is a scam. As a writer, you know what you are going to get paid for the article before you start writing it. When you accept a job for a certain amount of pay, it is an agreement and just because you are not happy with the amount of pay does not mean that you are getting scammed. Now, if you were lied to about how much you will be paid, or you were not paid at all, that would be a legitimate scam.
An article requester that says iWriter is a scam was most likely not satisfied with the work that they received from a writer. Does this make iWriter a scam? Of course not. As an article requester, you are free to reject the work that you received and have somebody else write it.
Again, I am not saying that there is nobody out there that has had problems with the iWriter staff, but I definitely know that his company is not a scam. If it was a scam, trust me when I say that I would be the first one to say so. Exposing a scam would bring me great joy! If you want to learn more about iWriter and learn more about my personal experience with them, please read my iWriter review.
Slidejoy Review
SlideJoy is a company that will actually pay you every time you unlock your cell phone. Get paid to unlock your phone! Have you ever heard of this? Did you ever think that a company would pay you to unlock your phone? I never did and thought it was kind of weird when I first heard of it.
Then after thinking about it I realized how the business concept made
sense for Slidejoy, advertisers and normal folks like us. When I say unlock your phone you know what I am talking about. Every time we pick up our phone to use we have to swipe it (unlock it.) I will now share with you my personal experience with Slidejoy and give you my Slidejoy review.
Why would Slidejoy pay me to unlock my phone?
The whole concept behind this business is getting advertisers in your face. After joining Slidejoy you will see an advertisement on your phone's screen before you unlock it. If you have no interest in the ad, you simply swipe right to unlock your phone like you would normally do. If you are interested in the ad, you will have to swipe left, and you will be taken to the advertisers web page, article, youtube video or whatever else their ad directs you. Most of the time you will not be interested in the ad, but I will admit that once in a while I do see something of my liking and check it out.
Do not think that you will be swamped with annoying ads. You will only see one ad before you unlock your phone. You will not see another ad from Slidejoy again until the time comes for you to unlock your phone again. Advertisers want you to view their ads, and when their advertisement is the first thing that you see when you pick up your phone they are hoping that you show interest in their ad. Do not think that you have to view the ads in order to get paid by Slidejoy. It does not matter if you bypass the advertisement every time you unlock your phone. You are not getting paid for each swipe that you do or on how many ads you view.
How much does it cost me to join Slidejoy?
Paying to join something like this would ruin the whole concept. It is absolutely free to join Slidejoy! We are in this to make extra money for ourselves, and even though most people like me would never pay to join something like this I just have to clarify it here.
Signing up for Slidejoy
The sign up process for Slidejoy is very simple and should not take you more than a few minutes. You will just have to type in your name and a few other details and you are all set. I was done in about 60 seconds.
I joined Slidejoy- Now what?
After joining you should now see an advertisement on your phone's screen when you hit the power on button which is usually on the side of our cell phones. Have no interest in the advertisement? Simply swipe right and go about your business as you normally do. Are you interested in the ad? Then swipe left to get further information about whatever the ad is about. The thing that I love about Slidejoy is that it takes no effort at all. We all unlock our phone anyways so it is not like we are giving up our time or doing something extra to earn money. If anybody is going to pay me for something that I already do anyways then count me in!
How much does Slidejoy Pay?
If you think that you are going to get rich by using Slidejoy then you will be very disappointment. Slidejoy is something that you will want to think of as supplement income. Think of it more as spare change or extra pocket money that you otherwise would not have. I cannot tell you how much money you will make with Slidejoy as there is no fixed amount, but I will tell you that it will be between $4 and $15 per month. That's not a lot of money, but as I have already stated, I don't mind since earning this money doe not require any extra effort on my part. I am always unlocking my phone anyways every time I use it, and I do not mind an extra $50, $100 or $150 per year for doing nothing.
How do I redeem my payment?
There are different options to redeem your earnings. I have always had my payments sent to my PayPal account. If you do not want your cash sent to your PayPal account, you can redeem your earnings for an Amazon gift card, use your earnings on eBay, AMC Theaters, Sephora, Walmart, Starbucks or any of the many other store options that you are given. You will see the full list of stores once you are registered and signed into your account.
Other things to know about Slidejoy
Once you join Slidejoy you will naturally familiarize yourself with the app. You will notice that you have a settings tab. From here you can choose a lockscreen theme of your preference if you want. There are currently nine different themes that you can choose from. This will be the first thing you see every time you look at your cell phone so you may want to choose a theme that you prefer. I have went with the default theme as it does not matter much to me.
From the settings you can also disable Slidejoy anytime you want. You may be in a situation in which you don't want to see any ads on your phone, and Slidejoy has made it very easy for us to turn it off. When you want Slidejoy to activate again all you have to do is enable it, and everything will be back to normal.
On Slidejoy you will earn carats. Every 1000 carats that you earn is worth $1. From your account you can always see how many Slidejoy carats you have earned, and you earnings are updated daily. You can earn extra carats by playing some of the games on the app. I have never played these games. You can also win bonus carats by playing the scratch offers. You can win up to 5000 carats with these scratch offers which resemble lottery scratch off tickets. Match three and you win. I have never won, but maybe you'll have better luck. Every time you play and don't win you will still receive one carat for playing. Some of the scratch offs pay cash winnings instead of carats.
My overall experience with Slidejoy
I have absolutely no complaints at all with Slidejoy and would recommend anybody with a cell phone to join. I am still baffled that I am getting paid for doing nothing but unlocking my phone. I would have never thought! The best advise that I would give anybody that joins Slidejoy is to not think that the more times you swipe your phone the more you will get paid. It does not work that way. The best thing to do is simply what Slidejoy recommends which is to use your phone as you normally would. Also remember that by swiping left and viewing ads does not earn you any more money than somebody that does not ever view an ad. If you are seriously interested in an ad then by all means go on ahead and swipe left. Almost all of us will at some time see an advertisement that we have an interest in.
Ready to join Slidejoy and get paid for unlocking your phone?
Grade: A
iWriter Review
Those looking to make extra money on the side often turn to freelance writing type websites. A company people often find is a website called iWriter. As a writer for this website you can accept articles to write from a requester and get paid for each and every article that you write. You can make as much money as you want because you are allowed to write as much as you want. With that said, you are not committed to write a certain number of articles to remain active. You can basically work when you want. You do not have to be a professional writer to make money
writing for iWriter. Anybody can sign up and start writing articles
right away. There have been claims by many that they make up to $300 per week! I will shed some light on iWriter and share with you my personal experience writing for them.
The iWriter website is a content website where a requester can hire writers to have articles written for them. It is one of the least expensive content websites to get articles from and has been around for many years. Throughout the years I have written many articles for iWriter and have also been an article requester.
In this review I will mainly focus on the writer side. I will let you know about the positives of writing for iWriter and share with you any possible negatives that you may experience while writing for this company. When you are through reading everything I have to say about iWriter you can decide if iWriter is a good place for you to write and earn extra money or if it would be best for you to pass this opportunity up.
Signing up for iWriter
I signed up with iWriter in 2012 (5 years ago.) From what I can remember signing up with iWriter was a fairly easy process. I do not remember having to write an intro article that they would base my level of writing skills on. Many other similar type websites do this so that they can get a feel of your writing skills. I am almost 100 percent sure about not having to write an intro article, but if I am wrong about this or things have changed I encourage you to let me know.
I was recently reading on the iWriter website about a grammar quiz that a person must take when signing up. In all honesty, I do not remember taking this quiz, but maybe I did and just don't remember. The test consists of 15 questions, and you must get 14 of the questions correct. If you fail the test, there is no second chance given. It would be best to take the test when you can concentrate and are not distracted by other things.
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| You do not want to see the above pic so make sure that you do not have any distractions when you take the test! You will instead want to see that you passed like the pic below! |
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When signing up you will have to give your personal information such as your name, address, etc. You will also have to give them your PayPal address so that they can pay you for the work that you do. Once registered with iWriter you are immediately able to start writing articles.
Start Writing Articles
Once you are registered and are logged into your account you will see a link on the top of the dashboard that says "Write Content." This is where you want to go to start looking for articles to write. You will notice that some articles are not available to you as you are a newbie on the site. Those articles are reserved for the experienced writers of iWriter. Those writers have proven that they can deliver high quality articles by their past work on iWriter, and that is where you eventually want to be to earn higher payouts for your work.
As a newbie on the site you are a standard writer and can only accept standard writing jobs. On the iWriter homepage dashboard you can see your writer ratings and your rank. Being new on the site you will not have any ratings, but you eventually will as you start writing articles. The people that you will write articles for will rate your articles from one to five stars. They may also write a comment next to their ratings if they wish.
Your rank is basically your writing level at iWriter, and this is determined by the ratings that you receive. There are four ranks of writers on iWriter, and I will show you how you can progress through these levels by writing quality content for those that request articles.
STANDARD WRITER
As I already mentioned this is the level that all newbies start at.
PREMIUM WRITER
To become a premium writer you must write 25 articles and have 25 ratings. If a few people do not leave ratings you may have to write a few more articles than 25 because you need 25 ratings. I would not worry about this as mostly all of the people that request articles leave ratings. You must also have a minimum 4.1 star rating.
ELITE WRITER
To become an elite writer you must have 30 articles written and have 30 ratings. Again, you may have to write a few more articles if some people do not leave you ratings. You must also have a minimum 4.6 star rating.
ELITE PLUS WRITER
This is the top rank for writers and requires 40 articles written with 40 ratings. You must maintain a 4.85 star rating to be in this top rank.
Your rank is very important as higher ranking writers have more opportunities. As an elite plus writer, you will be able to accept any article on the site. At the lowest level, standard writer, you are limited to only write standard articles. Again though, everybody starts here, and your first goal should be to move up to the premium writer rank. This will open up more opportunities for you and offer you more pay for your work. The higher your rank is the more you will get paid for your articles, and there is a huge difference in pay. We will talk more about that later.
The iWriter Fast Track Program
It can be a time consuming task to reach the higher rankings of iWriter. Of course we all want to have a higher ranking on iWriter so that we can have more writing opportunities and can earn the highest pay for our work. The staff at iWriter makes it possible to bypass having to write a certain number of articles to get to a certain rank by applying for the iWriter Fast Track Program. Talented and proven writers may see this as a way to immediately earn top pay for their work. They may feel insulted earning minimum pay for their work at the standard level, premium level or even the elite level. They may want to start out as an elite plus writer.
To do this a writer will have to apply for the iWriter Fast Track Program. They will be accepted and be required to write three articles based on the keywords that are given to them by iWriter. The iWriter staff will rate these three articles and based on the average rating a writer receives he or she can possibly immediately be promoted to either a premium writer, elite writer or elite plus writer. Please know that just because you have joined the fast track program does not guarantee anything. If you receive three 4 star ratings, you will still be a standard writer. Your average rating needs to be at least 4.1 to be a premium writer. If you average a 4.5 you will be promoted to elite writer status, and if you average a 4.85 you will be promoted to the elite plus rank.
To enjoy the advantage of possibly being immediately promoted with the iWriter Fast Track Program a writer will have to pay a fee. The cost for this is $197. I don't know why they didn't just make it an even $200. Maybe it sounds much cheaper to some people when the price is still in the 100s. To me this is a pretty hefty fee to pay for something like this and is not worth it at all. I never joined this program when I started writing for iWriter, but then again I don't think that it existed at the time. I believe it came out months later after I joined the site. Even so I would never pay that amount of money for something like this. I would advise anybody to just start out writing the standard articles and move your way up the ranks.
What Kind Of Subjects Will I Write About With iWriter?
You will find many different types of subjects to write about on iWriter. Glimpsing at the site right now I see that there are articles that need to be written about insects, above ground pools, photography, travel, air conditioning, furnace cleaning, business, stocks and many other subjects. You will find a little bit of everything on iWriter. Some subjects you may know a lot about and may not need to do very much research on the subject. These are the articles that I like as I can write the article very quickly. There are also articles that may be about a subject that you do not know much about. These articles may take you a bit longer to write as you may have to do some research. Of course you are never obligated to take any writing assignment that you don't want.
More About Writing Articles
When viewing the open articles you will see the project title with the requester name. In that same section you will see their approval rating. It will show you how many articles that they have accepted in the past and also show you how many articles they have rejected. This is very important to pay attention to as it will give you an idea of how picky a requester is.
I would never accept to write an article for a requester with a 50 percent approval rating. Why would I waste my time writing an article for a person that rejects half of the articles that are submitted to them? That tells me that there is a 50 percent chance of my article getting rejected. The better your article is the better chance there is that it will not get rejected, but keep in mind that you can write a near perfect article, and the requester can still reject it for any reason. The minimum acceptance rating for me to accept a writing job is 80 percent. Believe it or not I have seen many requesters with ten percent or so acceptance ratings. They will have something like nine articles accepted and 90 rejected. Why would anybody waste their time writing for somebody like that?
The pic below shows an example of article requesters that I would stay away from!
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| Their approval ratings are very low. There is a requester that even has zero articles accepted and 23 rejected! |
You always want to write for a requester with higher approval ratings. This does not mean that you can send them a garbage article because they will reject it. Just because they have a high approval rating does not mean that you can take advantage of them and send them crap. Write them a well formatted article with proper grammar, and chances are that they will accept your article, and you will get paid.
Also next to the project title you will find the amount of words that are required in the article, the amount of money you will get paid for the article and the time that you will have to complete the article once you accept it. Unlike some other similar websites, you are given a countdown to complete the article. We are not talking about days here. You will have hours to complete the article, and the amount of time that you are given depends on the amount of words that are needed. For a short article of 150 words you may be given one hour. A 500 word article may give you three hours to complete. It is never a good idea to accept an assignment unless you can immediately start working on it. If you don't finish the article on time, the assignment will immediately become available to other writers.
How Much Does iWriter Pay?
I have already talked about the ranks of the writers on the site. Every rank pays writers a different amount. As a standard writer you will earn the minimum that a writer can earn on the site. Here is the pay for standard writers:
150 word article - $1.01
300 word article - $1.62
500 word article - $2.43
700 word article - $4.05
1000 word article - $6.08
As you can see the pay is not very much for standard writers. With that said, you must put in your work to move up your ranking status so that you can earn much more for your writing. As I am writing this article I am glimpsing at the assignments that are currently available for premium writers, elite writers and elite plus writers. This is the pay offered for those assignments. Keep in mind that sometimes the pay will vary on writing jobs even though they are the same amount of words. Also keep in mind that this is just some of the articles that I have chosen to list here as there are hundreds in each category below.
Premium Writer Assignments
500 word article - $4.50
500 word article - $8.10
1000 word article - $8.51
2000 word article - $24.30
4000 word article - $52.65
Elite Writer Assignments
500 word article - $12.15
700 word article - $20.25
1000 word article - $14.99
1000 word article - $24.30
2000 word article - $40.50
3000 word article - $48.60
4000 word article - $64.80
Elite Plus Assignments
500 word article - $28.35
700 word article - $35.44
1000 word article - $52.45
It is obvious that you are going to want to get out of the standard writer rank if you want to earn good money for your writing. The pay for your work will significantly improve as you move up to the higher ranks. I have never been an elite plus writer and am usually at the premium writer rank. I have made the elite writer rank a few times and taken on some of those writing assignments, but I eventually received a few ratings that lowered me back down to the premium rank. I would say that I am at the premium writer level 75 percent of the time and at the elite writer level 25 percent of the time.
Keep in mind that your rank can always change as you receive ratings for your newly written assignments. Just because you make the rank of a premium writer does not mean that you can take it easy and write junk. If you do you will eventually be back in the standard writer rank. You must maintain your writing level by continuing to deliver quality work.
Writing quality content can also earn you tips. A requester can send you a tip on top of your pay if they choose to do so. In my experience it happens once in a while and is always welcomed. A requester can also add you to his or her favorite writer list. When they add you to this list they can send you special requested assignments. You will earn a premium in pay for writing these assignments.
You must have a PayPal account in order to be paid for your work. If you do not have a Paypal account you will need to open one up. It is very easy to do, and if you want more information on opening up a Paypal account you can find it here. With iWriter, you can choose when you want to get paid. For example, you can choose to get paid once a week on a particular day. You can also choose to get paid once a month on a particular day. It is up to you how of how you want to get paid. My Overall Personal Experience with iWriter
The thing that I love about iWriter is that it basically gives anybody with an ambition for writing a chance to earn money. No experience is needed! Of course as a writer flourishes and improves their writing skills more opportunities will open up for them, and their pay will significantly increase. For this reason I would recommend anybody to join iWriter.
There are some squabbles that I have with iWriter though. I would never want the folks at iWriter to take my comments personally. These are just my opinions. My biggest complaint about iWriter is the amount of power that a requester has to reject your article and leave you a bad rating. You can write a superb article only to have it rejected for no good reason at all.
I will share one personal experience that really ticked me off many years ago. A requester wanted a 2000 word article written for them. I put my heart and soul into this article and submitted it only to have it rejected and given a one star rating. This person's comment on that rating was "I am rejecting this because I needed it at a certain time frame and this
came much too late, as I enlisted the help of a college student at a
nearby university who is majoring in publishing and editing." Thanks for nothing! This person had just wasted hours of my time! I must state that I delivered this article two hours after I accepted it so I believe that his comment was a bunch of nonsense. My instinct told me that he copied my article and used it while rejecting it. He basically received a free article from me!
With what I just mentioned you may be wondering if a requester can steal your article, reject it and not pay you for your work. The folks at iWriter make it as tough as possible to do so, but I will tell you that it is possible. When a requester views your submitted article they cannot copy it and paste it. Those functions are disabled. This will stop most people from stealing your article. Remember though that there is a small percentage of people that will go through a big hassle to steal your work. If they really want to they can just retype word by word everything that you have written in your article and then reject it. It doesn't make any sense to me to do this, but I just want to let you know that it is possible to do. Most people would not go through all of this hassle and would rather pay the writer his or her dues. There is always that very small percentage of people that will steal from you, but it is very rare and you shouldn't even worry about it.
Another thing that is really annoying is that sometime when looking for an article to write you will see special instructions that say "This article is for my favorite writer. If you pick this article I will reject it and give you a one star rating." It will also say "My writer knows the topic."
Talk about a cheapskate! This requester can easily send this article to his or her favorite writers and not list the article on the general board. Why do they do this? I am not sure if they are ignorant about how things work, but I think that they just don't want to pay a little extra bonus money by sending their article request to their list of favorite writers. They want to put it out on the general board so that they can pay the minimum amount of money possible. If I was the writer that a requester like this was concentrating on, I would never accept the article and make them send me a special request. You will surely never receive a tip from a requester like this!
If you decide to give iWriter a try, you will eventually run into a requester that will reject your article. I don't care how good of a writer you are. They may leave you a low star rating of one, two or three which affects your overall rating. This of course could possibly have an affect on your rank which will determine the articles that you are able to accept and write. If something like this happens to you, the best advise that I can give a new writer on iWriter is to not let something like this annoy you too much. If you do your best and deliver high quality articles, a few knuckleheads are not really going to affect your rank. Most of the requesters on iWriter are honest people that are going to give you a rating that is truly based on the work you give them.
So are you ready to start writing for iWriter? I will tell you that the positives of iWriter clearly outweigh the negatives. I actually took two years off of writing for them due to other projects in my life and just recently started writing for them again. I do not have the time anymore to write numerous articles on iWriter, but I do try to get in at least five articles a week. If you have the time and the ambition to write articles and get paid for them, I would definitely recommend iWriter to you.
Grade: B-
Weegy Review
Weegy is a question and answer website that pays experts for answering questions that are asked directly by ordinary people. Even though the people answering questions are called experts, you really do not need to be a certified expert in anything. The way I see it is that life experience gives you your expertise in various topics, and I'm glad that Weegy sees it like that too.
Weegy is the name of the website's artificially powered advanced search engine. When a person is on Weegy to ask a question, they will see Weegy there on their screen in the form of a woman. When people ask a question, Weegie will try to answer it for them. If she does not know the answer she will pass the question on to an expert. That is when you come in. Sometimes, she will answer the question, but the person asking the question will not be satisfied with her answer, and they will have an option to ask a live expert instead. Again, this is where you come in. Also, whenever an expert answers a question, Weegy records the answer into her memory in case a similar question is asked to her in the future.
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| Here is a picture of the page where people can ask Weegy a question |
Signing Up For Weegy
Signing up to answer questions forWeegie was very easy. It was a very quick process, and you just had to give your basic information. There was not any tests to take or anything like that. Basically anybody could become an expert on Weegy. There was a section titled "About" where you would fill in some information about yourself. There was also a couple of other sections titled "Qualifications" and "Degrees" where you could do a little bit of bragging. All in all the application was very simple and once done I was immediately ready to get to work.
What kind of Questions do I Have to Answer?
With Weegy you never know what type of questions will be thrown at you. When I started answering the questions I received a few history questions, a few math questions and a few love interest type questions. The great thing is that you can pass up on a question if you don't want to answer it or you just don't know how to answer it. When you pass up on a question, it will go to another Weegy expert.
How am I Notified When There are Questions to Answer?
This is one of the things I loved the most about Weegy. There is a page on the site that if left open means that you are prepared to take on questions. You don't have to sit there all day waiting for questions to come. You can do whatever it is that you are doing and just have the Weegy window opened up in the background. When a question comes in, you will hear a beep sound that lets you know that there is a question to be answered. You then just go to that open window and answer the question. Once done, go back to whatever it is you are doing. If you don't want to be bothered by Weegy you can just close the window. Great system!
How Much Does Weegy Pay?
I don't know! I have yet to get paid by Weegy. Are they a scam? Certainly not! In the research that I have done about this company I have learned that Weegy is an honest company and that the experts working with them have always been happy with the pay at Weegy. Seems that I got in at the wrong time with Weegy though as they are currently having problems with their Google Adsense ads displaying on their site. The income generated from these ads is how they would pay their experts. Seriously though from what I have heard the pay is about 20 cents per answer. That is really not that bad. I have heard that many people report earnings of $300 to $800 every month by just answering Weegy questions.
Other Things to Know About Weegy:
As I stated earlier, the site is currently having problems displaying Google Adsense ads and thus are not currently paying their experts. After being on the site I noticed that some of their experts are still loyal and are still answering questions. After reading their blog, I have noticed that the administrators of Weegy are keeping their experts posted on what is going on and have even stated to their experts that if they do not want to answer questions they are not obligated to. I love that they are keeping their experts informed on things. I have seen too many websites that have just left their members in the dark about things when they ran into problems, and the next thing you know they shut down without any advance notice. I really wish that I had discovered Weegy earlier. Seems like a tight knit community.
Overall Personal Experience With Weegy:
The future of Weegy seems uncertain. After reading the blog I am not sure if there is a future for Weegy or not. I really hope there is as it is a terrific website, and I would love to be part of it. I debated with myself if I should even write about this company or not, but for some reason I feel that they will come back alive and continue paying their experts. I do not know anything about the problems that they are having with Google Adsense, but I do know that there are many other alternatives out there to Adsense. Hopefully the administrators at Weegy can find a good alternative if they cannot clear up their problems with Adsense. Sure, the pay will probably be less for experts, but I am sure that the experts would not mind. If anything changes with Weegy I will update.
Grade: B - (with uncertainty)
Harlem Globetrotters Show Review
I was recently invited by a relative to see a Harlem Globetrotter
performance. I had little interest in going and at first declined. Then I
thought about my NBA crazed 13 year old son and how he may like it. I
asked him if he wanted to go, and to my surprise he did not even know
who the Harlem Globetrotters were. When I briefly explained to him who
they are and what they do he wanted to go. So I made the telephone call
to my relative and told him to count me and my son in.
You
don't have to be a basketball fan to know who the world famous Harlem
Globetrotters are. The Harlem Globetrotters have been around for nearly a
century so most likely they are a part of your childhood memories. All
of us (except for my son) have at least seen them at one time or another
on television. They are the basketball team sporting the red, white and
blue striped shorts along with their blue basketball jerseys. They even
have a red, white and blue basketball
that they play with that has sort of become a trademark with them. If
you are watching them on television you will most likely hear the team's
signature song which is a whistled version of "Sweet Georgia Brown"
that is performed by Brother Bones. They are basically the most popular
basketball team in the world that does not play in the NBA. With that
said, they are not what you would think of as a normal basketball team.
They do not participate in serious competitive basketball games.
Instead, the Harlem Globetrotters are performers who put on an
exhibition basketball game that is mixed with athleticism, theater and
comedy.My personal childhood memories of the Harlem Globetrotters are from the early 1980s when I was a child. I remember "The Harlem Globetrotter's on "Gilligan's Island
So off to the arena we went to see the Harlem Globetrotters in their 2017 tour. I was sure that most, if not all of the members of the team that I remember from the 1980s were no longer with the team. The most memorable player that I liked the most was a player by the name of Curly Neal. He was a bald headed guy and seemed to stand out from the rest of the guys. I have now found out that he retired from the team in 1985 after playing with the team for 22 years. Again, I did not think that any of the Globetrotters that I remembered would be there, but I was sure that this 2017 Harlem Globetrotter team would be just as entertaining as their predecessors.
I did not expect to see the show very good as we bought the cheapest seats available. It was $18 per ticket. When we entered the arena and found our seats I was very surprised at how good we could see the show. I thought to myself how you would have to be insane to pay $150 for the front row court-side seats. The shows starts with the Globetrotters coming on to the court doing tricks, spinning the basketball on their fingers and heads, performing fancy slam dunks and doing what they are paid to do. The globetrotters are then introduced one by one to the crowd and the fans cheer. Their opponents for the night was not the Washington Generals that I expected to see. Instead, it was a team called the World All Stars. The poor World All Stars did not even get introduced to the crowd. Then again, who cares as nobody is here to see them anyways. I have since found out that the Washington Generals are no longer a part of the Harlem Globetrotter show, and the last game that they played was in 2015. Apparently there was some contract issues. The World All Stars are now the Harlem Globetrotter's punching bags!
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| The spinning the ball on the finger trick is something that Harlem Globetrotters have perfected! |
The basketball game started, and the first thing that I noticed was how terrible the World All Stars defense was. They just let the Harlem Globetrotters do whatever they wanted. They would just stand there with their hands up in the air. Of course this is not a real basketball game and is pure entertainment, but it is just something that I took notice of. Those more familiar with the Globetrotters will understand me when I speak of the Globetrotters interrupting the game with their comedy antics. The main Globetrotter that you noticed was a big guy named "Big Easy." Big Easy, as well as some of the other Globetrotters have a microphone attached to themselves so the crowd could hear what they are saying during the game. During their comedy skits they would argue with the referee, make fun of him and were really funny at times. They would pull down the pants of the World All Stars during the game and make fun of them as well. Very funny at times, and this was all expected at a Harlem Globetrotters show.
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| A Globetrotter during one of their comedy acts |
A few things that I noticed was that the three point line expanded so far out that it went to and ended at both edges of the court. Another thing that I noticed was that the basketball court looked a bit smaller than normal. I am not sure of this, but it sure looked like it to me. One thing that was funny was the four point shot that the Harlem Globetrotters made up during the game. This is part of the shows gimmick, and I thought it was very funny as anybody who has played basketball as a kid at one time or another made up the four point shot. During the game, the Harlem Globetrotter players made some very impressive shots. There dribbling skills are beyond great and they put together some fine alley-oops.
One of the funniest moments of the show came at halftime when the Harlem Globetrotter mascot named "Globie" came out on to the court. The person in the Globie costume danced to short snips of different songs. He did the dance of each song and had some crazy moves that most people could not do in their regular clothes yet he does the dances in his crazy Globie costume. You have to see it yourself to know how funny it is.
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| Globie, the team's mascot was the funniest part of the show to me! |
Many times during the basketball game, the globetrotters will get fans involved in their antics. If somebody does not want the chance to ever get embarrassed silly, it would be best for them not to get front-court seats. The farther you are, the safer you are. During one stint, Big Easy went out and took a lady's purse from the crowd. He had it on the court for awhile and then I don't know what happened to it. Later, he brings the lady to the center of the court. He asks her name and she gives it. He then asks her if she likes to party, and she says yes. Looking at this lady I doubt she is the party type lady but she says what everyone expects to hear. Music then comes on real loud, and he starts dancing with her and then turns around and puts himself in a position where she is freaking him. Yes! A little bump-and-grind action going on! She backs off at that point, but it stirs some awkward laughs from the crowd. People did not know if they should laugh or not. He then asks her for a kiss on the cheek. To my surprise she does it. He then asks her for a kiss on the other cheek, and she pecks him on that cheek too. He then closes his eyes and puckers his lips for a kiss on the lips! She denies him that kiss and tells him that she is married. That gives more arsenal for Big Easy's comedy act. He thanks her and lets her go back to her seat. When Big Easy sees the husband he tells the crowd that this beautiful lady has got to be with this man for his money. Now it is time for the husband to get humiliated. Big Easy brings the husband to center court and tells him that he is going to teach him how to have a long lasting relationship with his wife. Big Easy tells the husband that he is going to play the role of the husband and that he (the woman's husband) is going to play the role of the wife. Slow music comes on and Big Easy instructs the husband how to slow dance with him. Arms are around waist and everything and while dancing the husband says that he is so uncomfortable. Big Easy then picks up the husband like a woman, manhandles him and spins him around.
I have to say that I love comedy, and I love good laughs, but this whole
thing seemed more insulting to the couple than anything else. It seemed
pretty gross that this woman would give this stranger kisses on his
cheeks. Granted it was just pecks, but it would sicken me if my wife,
sister, aunt or my mother would be put in a position to do this. I know
that the woman did not have to do what she was told, but she is just
going with the position that she was put in to and figured that she has
to go just go along with the show. Also, the man being insulted about
his looks and the comment from Big Easy about his wife being with him
for his money seemed more insulting than funny. Then to be dragged on to
center court and treated like he was. This part of the show was not
funny. The husband, like the wife, were put in a position, and I don't
blame them for going along with the act, but I am sure that this guy and
his wife were not very happy about it. Many other insults and degrading
things were part of this stint that I cannot remember, but to sum it
all up it was all done in a classless way.
Another thing that I noticed during the entire venue was that I was constantly trying to be sold something. They had something going around the arena that you could donate money to for a charity. Was I in church? Seemed like an offering plate going around, and I was not impressed with this. A few minutes before halftime, you also noticed vendors taking out giant baskets of basketballs to certain areas of the arena near the basketball court sidelines. This is so that they can sell the famous Harlem Globetrotter red, white and blue basketballs during half time. They make a killing off of selling these basketballs! The price tag for a normal sized basketball was $30! We bought two basketballs as how can you not buy the kids a basketball when all of the other kids around are getting one. It had me thinking about their strategy in marketing their items by putting pressure on the parents to buy their kids a ball. Surely there were people there who could not afford it. I understand that this is a business and that their goal here is to make money, but when I really think about this kind of stuff it really ticks me off. Another thing that they kept announcing is how everyone could go to the court after the game and get their basketballs autographed by the players. How does that make a kid feel if he did not get a basketball? Very shady in my opinion.
If you wanted to save some money
on the very expensive basketballs that they sell at the show, you can
get a basketball that is basically the same thing. An
amazing price difference!
You can get four or five of
these basketballs instead of one! Sure, they do not actually have the
name Globetrotters on them. If having the Globetrotter's name on the
basketball means that much to you go on ahead and pay an arm and a leg
for it. To each their own!
To sum up my Harlem Globetrotters 2017 show experience I would say this
it was okay. It was not that bad as the show did have me laughing at
times. Would I go again, most likely not. I think parts of the show were
tasteless and things were said and done that I probably would not want
my kids our future grand-kids seeing or hearing. I am not making out the
show to be completely horrendous, perverted or anything like that, and I
was not terribly offended by anything in the show. I would just rather
not have little ones in my family around some of the statements or acts
that the Globetrotters say and do. Many of the jokes that the
Globetrotters say and do are demeaning to others. They will make fun of a
person's weight, their ethnicity and other things that are just plain
out insulting to others. If you are a conservative parent that tries to
install values into your child, this show is probably not for you. There
are much better shows out there to take your kids to and you will most
likely want to pass this one up.
Rating: C
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