Writers Academy on Travelista Club: It Is NOT a Scam!

The first time I heard about Travelista Club, I suppose it was a long, long time ago when I didn't even have this blog yet. However, back then I was hesitant to sign up for GoDaddy since I wasn't financially ready to purchase my own domain or hosting.

It was probably some time last year when I saw the Facebook ad of this club again. At the time, I decided to sign up since I already have this blog and I think it's gonna be a good opportunity for me to get more exposures in terms of my writing skill, similar to how students might seek an essay service writing to improve their academic work.

I signed up through Writers Academy, and they claim to pay $40 AUD for a 1000-word article. So what is this Travelista Club, and what does it have anything to do with Writers Academy?

Well, allow me to explain it to you in this post as I realized that it's been a while since the last time I wrote a piece on blogging. 😉

Writers Academy & Travelista Club

To be honest with you, the first time I heard about Travelista Club, I really thought it was a scam. Mainly because I tried to sign up years ago, and I realized that they led me to purchase a domain on GoDaddy.

While I have nothing against GoDaddy (I'm currently using some other hosting provider!), I thought it was just so scammy that I had to purchase a domain in order to get paid for just one article. But well, it was years ago when I didn't use my blogging skill to the fullest. 😛

As of now, I couldn't be more thankful to have my self-hosted WordPress blog that allows me to earn a little money here and there. And recently, I got my first gig from Travelista Club through Writers Academy.

The Difference Between Writers Academy & Travelista Club

Through some research on Google here and there, I found out that Writers Academy is an Australian-based agency that recruits writers on behalf of their clients. The latter include brands and blogs in various niche. One of their clients is Travelista Club, a website that compiles a lot of travel guides and information written by freelance writers slash travelers.

Apart from Travelista Club, Writers Academy also has a lot of clients that may be more relevant to your niche. To name a few, they have some clients in fashion and lifestyle niche or even tech and fitness.

But for me, since I'm more interested to write about travel, I signed up for Travelista Club as it's more relevant to the main topic that I write on my blog.

Signing Up As A Freelance Writer on Travelista Club

Here's a dirty secret about being a brand new blogger trying to earn money in the beginning: there's always some other blogger who would discourage you from earning a penny.

I know this too well since, at the beginning of my blogging journey, I tried to get some input from other fellow bloggers about how much I should charge for an article and some other questions. And clearly, $40 AUD for an article would be considered too small for some of them. I tell you what, there are always some people in blogging communities that would discourage you from taking this opportunity.

Honestly, it's the kind of toxic positivity where they would encourage you to not sell yourself too short.

While it might be positive since of course, it's gonna be your goal to charge at least 4-digit for an article… Let me tell you something, even J.K. Rowling had a point in her life when she had to sell herself too short simply to make the ends met.

It's your choice to either take the opportunity to get only $40 AUD for a 1000-word article as a small step or just sell yourself high only to end up getting zero with no portfolio. Do you know what I'm saying?

The Signup and Approval Process

As I signed up for Travelista, there were some questions that I had to answer related to traveling. That also includes my experience, as well as some basic data like name and e-mail.

After the process, you will have to log into your account with any of your social media accounts to prevent fraud and scammers. There are 3 options available, which include Facebook, Instagram or Gmail.

The approval e-mail that I got after a while.

I ended up using Instagram for some considerations. First of all, I really want to keep my Facebook account private. Also, I only use my Gmail account to sign up for anything with newsletters and junkmail. So I know if I get accepted, chances are I wouldn't get any notification as I barely checked on it, to begin with.

Instagram was the most ideal one for me since I have a dedicated account for this blog, and the e-mail address used is the one that I frequently use for my Indonesian blog.

If I remember correctly, it took me long enough to the point I totally forgot about Travelista when I got the approval e-mail. But once I did, I didn't want to miss the opportunity so I took the process to get my initial gig with them.

The Payment and Procedures

There are some procedures that shall be taken, once you agree to be a contributor on Travelista Club through Writers Agency. One of them includes submitting the e-mail address used for your Paypal account.

On the second e-mail, they actually make it quite clear about the procedure. Once given the assignment, they will give you the deadline so you could submit it before the date. Any payment will be done every Friday, upon the approval of your article.

The e-mail that I got after getting the approval e-mail.

The Assignment

Once approved, you'll be given 2 assignments.

First, they will give you a link to Travelista Club website where you can link to from an article on your blog. So, yes… The first assignment, you will publish it on your blog. There's no value on the first assignment, but once it's done, it will take you to the second assignment with the standard value $40 AUD per 1000 words.

For the first assignment, I decided to link it from my Airbnb review in Brunei with anchor text linking to their Brunei content. The second assignment, which would be published on Travelista website, could be any destination of your choice. You could even check out their training resources before you started.

The latter is the step that I skipped as I just went straight to write my piece on Sarawak for the website. And the result was, I had to revise the piece for a few times since I apparently didn't follow their standard on my first few attempts.

One of a few rejection e-mails that I got for the article. HAHA.

The revision was more technical, but it's clear that I rarely learned from my mistake since it took me like 2-3 revisions until I got my approval e-mail for my piece on Things to Do Around Kuching in Sarawak.

Finally, the approval e-mail for me to claim the payment… 😛

Once approved, I waited until Friday to check whether they're actually legit to pay me $40 AUD on my Paypal account. And yes, they actually did. I got a notification e-mail from Travelista once the payment was done.

And when I checked my Paypal account, the $40 AUD was received as I converted it to USD as my main currency. In total, I received around $27 USD.

Final Verdict on Writers Academy and Travelista Club

To be fair, I was quite impressed with the fact that the procedure is quite well-organized. From the first assignment to the approval, there's a clear step by step that is quite easy to follow. And when it comes to the payment, they paid me on time as per their information in the beginning.

The notification that I got once the payment done on their behalf.

Writers Academy and Travelista Club are NOT Scams

I could assure you, they are legit entities who actually pay you for your work. When it comes to their work, I'd consider them very professional too.

Not only do they give us information that we need, but they also provide us with blogging and writing resources that we could use for our own betterment. It's basically a win-win when it comes to sharing knowledge.

And even though they give you an option to purchase your own domain through GoDaddy if you don't have any, you could actually register from any other hosting provider. For example, I don't use GoDaddy for my blog but they still approved my application. 🙂

Source: Pxhere.

The Possibility of Getting Higher Rate For An Article

To be honest with you, $40 AUD for a 1000-word article with so many requirements and possibilities to revise for the umpteenth time is not so much. I have been paid higher so many times, and even the previous projects with the higher rate only required me to write 500 words for the bare minimum.

However, if you're a new blogger trying to get some exposure and a little money to start your portfolio, I would say why not trying to apply for Travelista Club? I mean, it won't hurt to start small with the hope to get bigger income in the future.

In terms of the possibility to get paid higher for an article on the club, the answer is yes. It's possible, but it all depends on the performance of your post as well as some other algorithms they use. For example, there are some gigs that require you to write more than 1000 words, in which you'll get paid higher.

The courtesy of the payment on my Paypal account.

My Take on Writers Academy and Travelista Club

So far, my first gig was the only gig I got from Travelista Club. I haven't got any more assignment just yet, but it's okay. 🙂

They let their client choose the writers before delegating the tasks to us. It will also depend on the performance of both our blogs as well as the blog posts on behalf of their clients.

The display on my Writers Academy dashboard.

For anyone interested to apply, you could click here to apply for Travelista Club.

My main consideration to still go for the application is that I live in Indonesia where $40 AUD still has values here. I could get a lot from the payment and it wouldn't be something that I'd miss, given a chance.

I understand if some of you might not see the value on the amount of payment, but if you try to build your portfolio or gain viewers from other platforms, it won't hurt to try. Bonus point that you could get at least a cup of coffee with the payment, no?!

So, do you have any other platform where you got your paid writing gigs as well? What's your take on it? Tell me what you think, and cheerio! 😀

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