Working with BoostInsider? Be Warned…Is it a Scam?

You may have heard of the company Boostinsider, or received an email from them encouraging you to post content and get paid. It’s easy…just promote the products you love and get paid. Right? Wrong, apparently.

Let me tell a little bit about bloggers. Many bloggers use their blogs to supplement their income. Most bloggers that I know don’t make a lot blogging, and they work very hard for what they do make with their blogs. For some, their blogging income is vital to being able to pay their bills and feed their families. I am very fortunate in that both my husband and I have great jobs, and any extra income that I make from blogging just goes for extras. But some bloggers need that income to keep the lights on and gas in the car.

One way that bloggers can make a little bit of money is to post content from companies like Boostinsider. It works like this: after you post a link on your social media pages, they “supposedly” will pay you (on average) a few cents for each reader who clicks that link. Nobody is going to get rich here. And definitely not with this company…because they don’t pay what they’ve promised.

Here is my personal story: I posted some content for this company and earned…wait for it…a whopping $28. Not a huge amount of money, but I do expect to get paid as promised for work done in good faith. Doesn’t sound difficult or complicated, right? Wrong.

I requested the payout (it’s supposed to be deposited into my Paypal account within 7-10 days) back in November. Didn’t receive payment. Sent a message to the company. No response. Sent another message. And the response that I received was shocking and offensive. In essence, it said, “We think you bought those clicks.” What???

Let’s take a look at this ludicrous claim. First of all, I wouldn’t know where to buy clicks. I didn’t even know people could do that. If I had wanted to “buy” clicks, by the time I researched how to do that then bought and paid for these non-existent clicks, I would have spent far more valuable time than the paltry sum of $28 I’m owed.

Additionally, most bloggers I know, including myself, are ethical individuals who wouldn’t dream of doing this. And I am highly offended that a company would accuse me of this practice. In all my years of blogging, I have never had a company accuse me of falsifying anything. Especially for $28!

I have now emailed this company numerous times and contacted them via their website more times than I can count. They don’t even have the courtesy to respond. (Only the one time with their absurd accusation).

Apparently I’m not the only one having an issue with this company. Take a look at the review posted here. Evidently there are a lot of us that this company is scamming. 

So if you’re a blogger – you may work with Boostinsider just fine for a little while – until they up and decide not to pay you. Just be warned. This is not an ethical company. My next letter is going to be to the attorney general if this company doesn’t take care of this. I know – it’s only $28. But for another blogger it may be a lot more. And it may be money that they need to feed their kids. So it’s my moral responsibility to say something.

If Boostinsider decides to do the right thing and pay me what they owe, I will certainly come back here and update this post.

If you feel that bloggers shouldn’t be taken advantage of in this way, I encourage you to email Boostinsider at lingzi.jin@boostinsiderinc.com and let them know that the word is out.

Also, feel free to Tweet this message: “Bloggers Beware! If you work with Boostinsider, you may not get paid for your hard work. http://wp.me/p5vNwT-8te @boostinsider”

Update: After this blog post was shared throughout social media, Boostinsider stepped up and did the right thing. This post went public and Boostinsider paid the $28. It’s a shame that it had to go so far. But we are thankful that Boostinsider saw the error of their ways and paid for work done in good faith.