Is Barefoot Writer a scam? Does this website and magazine subscription really show you the tricks of the trade to earn a living as a freelance writer and live the easy life?
Let’s take a look at Barefoot Writer and find out…
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Company Name: Barefoot Writer
Owner: Paul Hollingshead
Price To Join: $108/Year + Upsells
My Rating: 4/10
~ Barefoot Writer Reviews ~
What Is Barefoot Writer?
The Barefoot Writer is a part of American Writers & Artists, Inc. The combination of website and monthly magazine subscription are designed to guide writers on the pathway to finding freelancing success, enabling you to live a lifestyle where you can write by the pool, travel, and basically just enjoy a life of freedom.
I actually make money on the side as a freelance writer and I used to pretty much do it fulltime, so I know it’s possible. The trick is really in finding consistent work and clients that will pay the right price. I also do affiliate marketing, which is a great source of passive income. I did the training at Wealthy Affiliate.
It’s stuff like this that the Barefoot Writer is designed to help you with.
Some opportunities for freelance writers include;
-
Blogging
- Copywriting
- Website content
- White papers
- Interviews
- Case studies
- Technical writing
- Travel writing
- Ghost writing
- eBooks
The list goes on and on. The great thing about freelancing is you can travel and make money along the way.
How It Works and What You Get
Barefoot Writer is not just a magazine subscription. It’s also a membership site where you learn about the business and also get to interact with the rest of the community of members. There is also access to training, courses and articles about how to hone your skills, target the writing jobs you desire and get paid what you are truly worth.
When you join Barefoot Writer you get access to both the website and the monthly magazine.
One of the real tricks to becoming successful with freelancing is to believe in yourself and the worth of what you do. Only when you break free of the “starving artist” type of mindset will you be able to advance to the next level with your writing and income.
Staying away from the content mills like Upwork is often a wise move, as they are nothing more than a bidding race to the bottom and most clients want stuff dirt cheap on those sites.
In a nutshell this is what you get when you join Barefoot Writer:
- Access to a community of like-minded people
- Advice, guidance and some training
- The option to purchase more training and relevant information
- The monthly magazine
- Tips on finding work as a freelancer
- Access to various opportunities
Discover how to make $10k per month online!
Complaints
There is one major complaint people have about this platform. There is training and special information that is offered to you if you join. The only problem is, once you pay your membership fee you don’t actually get access to all this promised information and training. They ask you to hand over another $150 to access it, which I think is deceptive marketing tactics.
There is also a lot of hype about how great this platform is and how you’ll be making all this awesome money without having to do much work, but that’s not really true.
The company tends to speak a bit of BS, making claims like people who have never written a single thing in their life are suddenly making $300,000 a year from freelance writing after joining the Barefoot Writer.
That’s just not going to happen that way. For starters, you need some sort of a portfolio to get paid work to begin with. And if you’ve never written a thing in your life before, then quite possibly, with no practice, you’re going to totally suck as a writer.
Some people have complained that they’ve had money deducted off their credit cards for things they didn’t ask for, while others say they constantly get spammed with upsell after upsell.
Tools and Training
There are free tools and some training on the site and great information in the magazine. When I say “free”, I mean it comes included with the membership. But to have access to the rest of the training they offer, then you have to pay the upsell price.
Target Audience
This obviously targets practicing writers and those who would like to try their hand at becoming a professional paid writer. It also attracts people looking to find a way to work for themselves, travellers, and those looking to live the laptop lifestyle.
What I Like
- Freelancing definitely has some opportunities if you can find the higher paying gigs
- There is some useful content on the website and in the magazine
- The community would be the highlight of this membership
What I Don’t Like
- They sell the dream far more than the reality of being a freelancer
- Freelance writing takes a lot of work and making big money is not going to happen overnight
- Barefoot Writer make out like you’ll be making big bucks for very little output – It doesn’t work like that
- Most of the information on the website and in the magazine you can freely find in Google searches
- There are loads of complaints out there about Barefoot Writer
- They seem to try and sell this platform with the “get rich quick” mentality in mind, which freelance writing certainly won’t achieve
How Much Does Barefoot Writer Cost?
Until recently it was $49 to join, but it’s now jumped up to more than double that at $108 per year. This gets you access to both the magazine and the membership site. What it doesn’t get you access to is the more valuable information and training. Those are upsells, and when you join, you’ll be getting hit with regular upsells all the time.
Is Barefoot Writer a Scam?
They sell the hype way too much for my liking, and much of what they try to sell you on just isn’t true, but Barefoot Writer is not a scam at all. They do use some deceptive marketing, though. Overall the platform is okay, but you can access a lot of similar information by simply doing a Google search. The very best part of Barefoot Writer is the community, where you can interact with other writers and learn from each other. That’s it’s most valuable asset by far.
Personally I don’t think it’s worth the asking price, but it might be okay for a while if you’re just starting out.
This Is My #1 Recommendation
If you like writing and want to earn money from your writing, then why not do what I do these days and start an affiliate marketing business? You get to write great, useful content and promote products at the same time to earn yourself some generous commissions. The writing you do for your website can make you money over and over for years.
Best of all, it costs very little to do this and nearly all of your income is pure profit. If you want the laptop lifestyle and become a barefoot writer, then this business gives you exactly that.
The reason I became successful at it is because of the great training I did. If you click on the banner below you can read my review of that training and learn more about affiliate marketing. The training also kicks off with a free trial, so you have nothing to lose by checking it out.
Darren Burton
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You open the eyes of the people that is just what i can see in your blog. Barefoot writers are never scam and they do exist with great talents and earn hard cash with their site. Great review and great site. I came to know so many opportunities for freelance writers for their success. Thanks
Hi Saurav. Yeah, Barefoot Writer is “not bad”. It’s certainly not a scam. The main thing I didn’t really like about it, is once you pay your membership an dget inside, you find out to access all the information you thought you were getting as a member, you have to then pay a further $150 to get access to it all. I thought that tactic was a bit deceptive, but other than that not too bad. They do tend to sell the hype a lot though, claiming ridiculous income figures, which I know from experience are extremely unlikely to ever be reached as a freelance writer getting paid to write. I definitely like the community aspect of the platform.