When it’s too good to be true, it probably is… and when it comes to making money online, there’s no shortage of too good to be true…
That was the question a friend of mine had. She asked if I had ever heard of Online Web Typing, and if they are a scam. I hadn’t heard of them before, so it was a good opportunity to do a little research and share what I found…
Disclaimer:
Please note, I am not a member or an affiliate for Online Web Typing. This review has been researched with information and/or testimonials that are available online in the public domain. Any recommendations and/or conclusions are strictly opinions and may not to apply to, or agree with, all persons or situations. See full disclaimer for more info
What Is Online Web Typing About?
According to their website, Online Web Typing is a place where home-based freelancers can find lucrative data entry jobs.
They claim to pay as much as £20 – £25 (or equivalent in your home currency) per job, with the potential of making £220 a day. That’s impressive for this kind of work… too impressive.
That's when I first suspected Online Web Typing might be a scam… although I wasn't jumping to any conclusions.
Not that £220 a day is an unachievable wage for a work-at-home job… but they also claim that no prior experience is required.
Having researched and reviewed dozens of data entry jobs, whether it’s straight transcription or freelance writing… to make decent money, you definitely need some experience.
There’s at least one skill you absolutely need, which is of course…typing.
And data entry is not easy. To make the kind of money they’re talking about here requires a high-level of skill, in the ballpark of 70+ words per minute with 90% or greater accuracy.
Experienced home-based transcriptionists for Allegis as an example earn between $13 and $17 per hour.
Accutran Global is another legit data entry job that pays between $.004 to $.0055 per word. Transcription is lot tougher than simple data entry… and highly skilled typists there only average $15/hr… which is currently equivalent to £11.57.
So, when Online Web Typing claims you can consistently earn between £20 and £25 for simple data entry job that can be done in an hour with no experience… I’ll go on the record here and say, not likely.
Is Online Web Typing a Scam?
At first glance, Online Web Typing presents itself nicely. They have a clean website with well-written descriptions and attractive images.
As mentioned above though… it starts to look suspicious when they claim a relatively high rate of pay for anyone with no experience.
Having reviewed hundreds of programs over the years, I’ve run into a lot of scams and there are some clear signs to look out for.
Sign-Up Fee
Registering with Online Web Typing is £26. They say it's just a deposit for training and it'll be returned once you complete your first job… but they also say no refunds (which I'll talk more about below).
But you should never pay for a job anyway…
There are hundreds of freelance opportunities and marketplaces for writers and typists that do NOT charge you to join.
And there’s a reason for that.
- First… they need a large pool of talented freelancers because good freelancers attract more clients, as well as the amount those clients will pay.
- Second… it’s far more lucrative in the long run to collect a small percentage from each transaction than it is to charge a one-time entry fee. And, if Online Web Typing is taking a percentage… they should share those details with you before taking your money.
- Third… not only is an entry fee a bad business decision, it also shows a lack of confidence in their product because they’re asking you to pay before you even see it.
No Refunds
If putting up a pay-wall to see what's inside isn’t bad enough… how about no refunds when you decide you don’t like it.
This is crazy to me. I don’t know what they’re talking about “Due to the nature of digital goods” they can’t offer a refund.
Every legit company (digital or not) provides some kind of refund or guarantee.
In fact… many come with a free trial.
If the red flags mentioned above were not enough, this policy has scam written all over it.
That's not to say they are a scam, but so far… it's not looking good.
What Is the Community Saying?
In today’s business world, it’s important to build a community around your brand. So, I always check to see…
- If there is a community, and…
- What are people saying?
At first glance, it looks as if Online Web Typing has a presence on social media…
…but when you click on the icons they do nothing.
It could be something simple. A glitch, or an oversight when building their website. No worries… we can search them individually.
What I found though is nothing. Those icons don’t work because they’re fake. Online Web Typing doesn’t exist on social media…
I thought maybe they had an abandoned Twitter account…
It turns out that the @onlinewebtyping username belongs to someone in Australia who is entirely unrelated to onlinewebtyping.com
So they don't have a presence on Twitter either.
A successful business or marketplace that deals with clients and freelancers depends on building a network of both. For Online Web Typing to not even exist online in the most popular places doesn’t make sense… unless of course they’re a scam and having a social media presence would only invite negative reviews and complaints.
The Math Doesn’t Add Up
According to the website, they currently have 856 job placements, 5 years of industry experience and have completed 25,000 or more data entry jobs.
Let's put aside the fact that the oldest snapshot of their redesigned website at archive.org was 10 months ago, and they were still showing the same 856 placements.
Another oversight?
If you’re like me, your eyes glaze over when someone mentions math, but something didn’t look right here.
I’ll give Online Web Typing the benefit of the doubt and use their higher rate of pay… £25 per job.
That’s 25,000 data entry jobs (according to their website) at an estimated £25 each.
Multiply those two numbers together, and you get £625,000 paid to freelancers over 5 years… or £125,000 per year.
When you think about it for a moment, £125,000 is not a lot of money. For one or two people maybe… but we’re talking about Online Web Typing’s total payout.
Now… let’s consider another claim.
Apparently, you can earn up to £220 per day.
We can and multiply that £220 by a modest number of working days in a year… say 250.
That comes out to £55,000/yr.
Of course, not everyone is going to work 10 – 12-hour days for 250 days a year…
In fact, out of hundreds of workers (remember, they have 856 job placements), let’s say there are only two people ambitious enough to work that hard.
Two workers earning £55,000 per year is a total of £110,000… but we’ve already established that Online Web Typing has only paid out £125,000.
That only leaves them with £15,000 left over… so how can they pay for the other 854 job placements?
Maybe they don’t have any full-time workers…
Maybe everyone who bought the Online Web Typing program only works part-time and barely averages £5000 per year.
Based on the £125,000 figure, that would give them a grand total of 25 typists.
So, the math doesn’t add up.
Finally… I left out an important detail here. I used the number 25,000 when the website actually says 25,000+.
I suppose it could be 26,000 or 27,000… but it’s probably less than 30,000… or the website would say 30,000.
We could also say it wasn’t £125,000 a year, but only £50,000 one year and £200,000 another… but no matter how you shuffle the numbers they don’t add up to a hundreds of members making a lot of money.
It’s an underwhelming opportunity at best…
Fake Testimonials
At this point, I was pretty sure Online Web Typing was a scam but I couldn’t say for sure… and I don't make those accusations without real evidence.
In fact, I was still thinking of paying to join because… hey, I make mistakes … at least that's what my wife tells me 🙂
I could be wrong. Maybe they are legit…
Before breaking the bank though, I wanted to see what others were saying.
As it it turns out… they’re not saying much.
With no social media presence, I couldn’t find any reviews there.
Strangely, there are also no reviews on sites like Trustpilot, Glassdoor, or Sitejabber.
The only ‘endorsements’ available were the testimonials on their site.
You can probably guess what I found.
With a little research you can see these testimonials are fake, using models from stock photo galleries that I found on other sites as well…
Jessica Renton from the UK doesn't exist… but whoever the woman in the picture is, she can be found on other websites as well…
With no member reviews, and proof that Online Web Typing was using fake testimonials… I decided not to waste my money. They don't offer refunds… and I have zero confidence in what they are selling.
Geo-Discrepancies
There were already enough red flags here, but I found a few other strange things going on worth mentioning…
They claim to be located in London, but when I did some research to find out what year Online Web Typing was founded, I noticed their website had been registered in the US.
It’s not completely out of the ordinary. Although Online Web Typing’s website was designed by Smarter Digital Marketing in the UK… it’s possible they had originally contracted it out to a US company at one time.
And when you look back in the Internet Archive you see that years ago they were using US currency on their site. Apparently, jobs back then paid between $45 and $50… which is 2 -3 times higher than the average work-at-home data entry job.
Final Thoughts
From the fake testimonials to the false social media icons, Online Web Typing is clearly hiding something.
And when you consider the unrealistic income claims, the cost to join, and most importantly, no guarantee or refund… there's just too many issues to overlook.
I always try to be fair and give every product and program I review the benefit of the doubt.
So, I won't go as far to say Online Web Typing is a scam, but I will say… they don't give us any evidence to suggest otherwise. Based on what we know, I'd say there's a good chance you'll just be wasting money here.
My recommendation is to stay clear of Online Web Typing and instead choose an online job you know is safe… preferably one that offers refunds, or doesn’t cost anything to join.