For Freelance Writers: What is WritingCampus.com?

As a freelance writer, I am constantly looking for new and creative ways to promote my writing while at the same time earning a decent living. Unfortunately, for many writers, the latter of the two tends to be the hardest to accomplish.

While surfing the Internet for job opportunities, I came across a website I had never heard of before called Writing Campus. The Writing Campus website promotes itself as being a place where writers can "just write and earn." Further examination led me running from the Writing Campus website with a desire to never look back.

In order to earn money through Writing Campus, writers must sign up for an account in which they will input their Google AdSense publisher ID number. If you do not have a Google AdSense ID, you will be encouraged to get one before signing up. Not doing so means you will not earn money with this site, as adding your Google AdSense ID to the site allows you to collect the AdSense revenue for the ads placed within your individual blog entries.

The site is disturbing for a number of reasons, one of which being the publisher's blatant disregard for Google Adsense Terms of Service. On the main page, arrows point directly to ads placed by Google. While the arrow appears to be the website's "logo," pointing directly to ads is a blatant violation. One is left to wonder whether or not this is a creative way around the terms of service of if Google hasn't caught up to them yet.

The initial instructions provided to new members explain that it is against the rules to click on your ads, but encourages members to click on the ads of others within the network. Encouraging clicks of Google ads in any way shape or form is a violation of TOS, so I'm sure this reminder wouldn't exactly delight Google representatives either.

Most of the users registered on Writing Campus seem to be from India, which is not a problem in itself, but users registered in the United States will most likely receive less blog traffic from other users due to time zone differences. Our blogs would appear on the main page while those in India are asleep and would quickly be run off of the front page as traffic increases during the day.