Iwriter.com Packs up from Kenya
I have been freelancing on
iwriter.com. I had even made an ecourse to guide friends who wanted to try their hands on online freelancing. I had a rude shock yesterday (July 10th) when I tried to
log in to my account. I could not access the login page from the internet. I
was getting an “Error 403” message instead. It read, "Forbidden, you don't have permission to access/ on this server" I switched off and restarted my
computer at least twice and ran an unscheduled full virus scan. Results,
nothing. I then went on to bradcallen.com, the site that offers support for
iwriter and sent an inquiry via their ticketing system. I asked whether the
problem was general or particular to me. After a few hours, I learnt that they had shut down Kenya because there were attempts to hack the Iwriter money management system on their website. I asked whether the ban was scheduled for a season,
but I was duly informed that it permanent. There goes my free “making moneywith iwriter ecourse”!
This is one of the reasons why every freelancer needs to diversify their portfolio. it demonstrates the fragility of e-commerce and exports something very bad about Kenya. This one move will affect the income of quite a number of Kenyans. Granted, Iwriter pays very little, but its a site you can literally make money within an hour of registering. It was very attractive for that reason. It had no hangups, no elaborate registration procedures and was really a good entry level site to online freelancing. Unless something changes, the milk is spilt so just I am going quit whining and move move on to the next gig.
