Ripoff Report Needs Your Help!
X  |  CLOSE
Report: #989431

Complaint Review: Examiner.com - Internet

  • Submitted:
  • Updated:
  • Reported By: Truth Sayer — Cumming Georgia United States of America
  • Author Confirmed What's this?
  • Why?
  • Examiner.com Internet United States of America

Show customers why they should trust your business over your competitors...

Is this
Report about YOU
listed on other sites?
Those sites steal
Ripoff Report's
content.
We can get those
removed for you!
Find out more here.
How to fix
Ripoff Report
If your business is
willing to make a
commitment to
customer satisfaction
Click here now..

I wrote and published approximately 120 articles for Examiner.com.  They never paid me. I was given the run around.  I was given one excuse after the next.  Examiner.com gets paid for your work by advertisers but does not pay you.  A former examiner employee posted the following.

petrified8501-13-2010, 05:23 AM I am a former employee of Examiner.com and I need to warn you of what is happening. The site is nothing but a scam. You think you are being paid every month, but Examiner, at certain points, freezes your page views no matter how many page hits you get. They do this for about a half hour each day. Sometimes, they reduce your page views at the very end of the evening. Very few people have noticed or complained.

There have been several examiners who haven't been paid for their work. I wish I knew of anybody suing them because I would be a witness. 

Writing for this site will look bad on your resume. Examiner.com has a bad reputation and there is a reason why. Up until recently, there was no quality control (and there still isn't much). People have put up the most laughable articles in order to get page hits. Instead of having the channel managers actually check content before it gets displayed, they put up a "Report Article" button so people who don't like your article can complain about it. ONLY THEN do they actually look at your article. It doesn't matter if it's a good article. If you write about - lets say - Michael Jackson and his crazy fans complain, the article will be deleted, even if you are telling the truth. They don't have a political preference like some people claim, but if you don't like an article about - let's say - Barack Obama, you can complain ten different times under a different guise. They will delete the article and give the author a warning. QUALITY DOESN'T MATTER at Examiner.com.

Please don't fall for their scam. You can bet that the page view rate will sharply decrease in the next couple of months because a lot of advertisers have caught on t

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 12/31/2012 09:15 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/examinercom/internet/examinercom-com-does-not-pay-over-100-article-published-i-am-ranked-160-out-of-thousand-989431. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

Search for additional reports

If you would like to see more Rip-off Reports on this company/individual, search here:

Report & Rebuttal
Respond to this report!
What's this?
Also a victim?
What's this?
Repair Your Reputation!
What's this?

Updates & Rebuttals

REBUTTALS & REPLIES:
0Author
5Consumer
0Employee/Owner

#5 UPDATE Employee ..inside information

Examiner.com is not a scam

AUTHOR: John Albrecht - ()

POSTED: Sunday, August 25, 2013

I have been employed as a freelance writer for Examiner.com for over a year now and it isn't a scam. Below is what I make in one day writing for Examiner.

Photo: Yesterday was one of my highest earning days ever on Examiner. I'm not sure how or why though. Thanks for reading!

For some reason this article was very popular:
www.examiner.com/article/ghostly-figure-found-on-real-estate-listing-photo

Respond to this report!
What's this?

#4 UPDATE EX-employee responds

Examiner.com Pay Structure

AUTHOR: Ex-Examiner - ()

POSTED: Monday, April 22, 2013

First off, Examiner.com's pay structure has gone through many changes. I know, I wrote for them for four years. I'm just trying to point out, that it is not a good "living" unless you are on welfare.

I hope you choke on the Examiner.com Kool-Aid that you are drinking.

Respond to this report!
What's this?

#3 UPDATE Employee

Paid On Time and Still Pays On Time

AUTHOR: H Jonston - ()

POSTED: Friday, April 19, 2013

It makes me laugh when people say Examiner has a bad reputation for pay. If you read the fine print before you start writing, you'll notice they say that this should not replace your job. If you're too dim to get what that means then of course you're gonna be disappointed. But this 100% is not always true in all cases.

That being said, I average about $1,000 per month with Examiner, always paid on time, always paid the same day each month. Is this enough for me to make a living on? No. At the same time though, much of this money is coming from news stories I wrote months, sometimes even years ago. I work about 5 hours a week at Examiner and I get paid around (give or take a little) $1,000 a month. IMO, it's not a bad deal. If you don't take the time to learn the system, you will fail, then you will cry about not making enough--read on= 

If you think you can go in there and magically start making money--well this is not how residual income sites work. You need a good beat first of all. People writing national news stories are going to make more than someone writing about Yoga outfits. If you are writing about your passion and your passion happens to be collecting peanut shells, the don't go to Examiner thinking you're gonna make good money. Big stories sell, celeb stories sell, news sells, etc. If you get the right topic, you can fly---with consistency. Keep your column current!

I have over 40 colleauges that also write part time for Examiner, and a few even full time. All of these people are esteemed journalists, editors, or professionals in their field. Some get paid more than others, some make a whole lot and some make a little. One thing we all have in common though: we have ALL gotten paid on time. 

I suggest if you truly didn't get paid to get in touch with support, check the guidelines, check your PayPal information, as everyone I know, including myself, always get paid. 

Respond to this report!
What's this?

#2 UPDATE EX-employee responds

Examiner Has A Well-Earned Bad Reputation

AUTHOR: Ex-Examiner - ()

POSTED: Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Examiner.com is a good place to build your portfolio, but beyond that it's time to seek out a better publisher.

I don't know what you consider a good living, but Examiner.com's pay structure is a joke. All that hard work paid off for me in the form of another job offer that actually paid, with a real editor, channel manager and staff.


Respond to this report!
What's this?

#1 UPDATE Employee

Always Paid on Time

AUTHOR: Intrep - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Thursday, March 14, 2013

Hmm, that's quite interesting. 

I'm sorry you had to go through this, and trust me, I am not saying your story is false or trying to disprove you, but I've been writing for Examiner for over two years now and I have been paid each month, as promised, like clockwork. Examiner even offers a code for Google Analytics in which you can compare your hits with the hits that Examiner has for you. My numbers have never been frozen and never been off. 

Again, I am not trying to disprove your story, but just telling my side of the situation as this has never happened to me before. 

As for future clients/employers shunning people that write for Examiner; I have found that to be untrue as well. Granted, I've been a freelance journalist and writer for over a decade, so I do have quite a bit more on my resume than just Examiner, but I've landed projects with a few national magazines, and the manager of one magazine in particular stated that he loved my coverage on Examiner and that was a deciding factor when he gave me the project.

  Also, any client or employer that would judge a person on a site only and the quality of other writers work on said site wouldn't be the kind of person I'd like to work for anyway. You should be judged on YOUR work alone, regardless if it's on a site that has a bunch typo-filled content.

Respond to this report!
What's this?
Featured Reports

Advertisers above have met our
strict standards for business conduct.

X
What do hackers,
questionable attorneys and
fake court orders have in common?
...Dishonest Reputation Management Investigates Reputation Repair
Free speech rights compromised

WATCH News
Segment Now