Contena is an online platform for freelance writers founded by Kevin Flemming. It is much more than a simple online jobs board or freelancing platforms like Upwork, iWriter and dare I say Fiverr. 

Naturally speaking, the founder claims Contena to be the best platform online for writers seeking to start earning a living as a writer. 

As a member of the platform Contena will teach you how to start your own business as a freelance writer, how to write quality content and how to promote yourself and showcase your work as an in demand writer. 

Contena is this aspect does look pretty complete, teaching writing, how to start your freelance career and marketing yourself. 

Most courses on writing or becoming a better writer will only teach you the mastery of the writing skills and at a push where to find work, nudging you in the direction of well known freelancing sites. 

The platform's target market is both new writers and experienced writers seeking to improve their writing skills and pick up those higher and better paying clients. 

As good and fantastic as this does sound, you are not going to be earning any of those passive income bucks that are swashing and swirling around on the internet.

Kevin Flemming is someone you would describe as a serial entrepreneur. He is involved with much more than Contena.

He is credited as being a founder of creditforums, a managing partner of Walnut St Labs, founder of hero world media and describes himself as "dreaming in code". 

 There is no doubting his existence and success he has in business. 

He has been described as a bit of snowflake and really does not like any negative criticism at all of his projects.

It has been rumoured he "lawyers up" when when a negative review of Contena get published.

I'm sorry - but people are entitled to their opinion and if your product is not perfect, address the issues, save on the legal fees and invest it on improving your product!.

The vast majority of the reviews you see online will be glowingly positive for this very reason. Another reason is they are written by affiliates who will earn a commission when a sale is made. 

Probably a rather chunky commission to boot given the price of Contena!. 

Regardless of how fabulous Contena is or isn't you are going to be stuck working for someone else, be it as a freelancer and on your own accord from any location you are still working for someone else.

Besides, if you have a gift or penchant for writing - why not work for yourself, build up your own site that can lead to a passive income for you? 

You can easily build your own site, help people to be come better writers, recommend certain tools and courses and build up your own passive income instead of working for someone else and effectively building their site for them!.

Contena has its focus only on working remotely. Which means you can in theory and practice be anywhere on this beautiful planet and still get the work done. 

Basically, location independent living or what has become known as the laptop lifestyle. As long as you have your laptop and a stable and regular internet connection you can get the job done and get paid. 

Despite Contena's claims - a lot of the jobs on Contena Scout were exclusively hiring individuals residing in the United States. 

Sure, technically you could be any where in the states and take a job but this is not exactly what I would call remote work or location independent living. Not by a long shot!. 

Still, not one prospective employers stated the reason for seeking US based writers, and unless they require some kind of proof of your location and residence I imagine you could easily fake that. 

Contena Membership 

One of the big disappointments in regards to Contena for many freelance writers, particularly newbies is that it is not free. 

Something I don't particularly like is once your training is complete and you have to still pay to access the jobs board - You have learned everything, become a good writer, established and marketed yourself very well.

Basically, at this point the site is little more than a jobs board for you and one you need to pay to access. 

I totally agree that the training should be paid for, of course, nothing come for free but how about lifetime membership? 

Membership is on a yearly basis and comes in 2 different options:

• Gold membership US$500 per year
• Platinum Membership US$800 per year.

Currently there is a payment plan in which you can pay in 5 monthly instalments. Gold Membership will cost US$129 per month and Platinum will cost US$199 per month. 

As I have stated above - if you have completed the training and doing well for yourself what is your reason to renew your membership?. 

The jobs board!. That is all.

This I think, in my opinion is why the community is rather inactive. Not many members are willing to renew their subscription after going through the training and willing to effectively pay to access a jobs board.

The Contena Refund Policy 

The refund policy is designed so that you don't ask for a refund or simply don't qualify for it. 

To obtain a refund you must complete all the training exercises in Contena Academy and to their satisfaction in your first 30 days.

Let's clarify that. One you subscribe the clock is ticking.

Still you complete all the training, sweating you sweet little backside off and busting a gut - they can still legally refuse a refund request due to not completing the tasks "to their satisfaction". 

While I understand there are a whole bunch of chancers online that will try and get a fly freebie - particularly where the training is concerned. Seriously, the amount of people going to do that is minimal. 

And,

how about putting your money where your mouth is and believing fully in the quality of the training and product bu offering a no quibbles money back guarantee?. 

A product at the price Contena is asking without some kind of trail or introductory offer is a red flag. They can offer a 7 day trial and limit it to just the first level or first training course. 

Nope. Not Contena. "Give me your money and I'll make it difficult for you to get it back!".

Is Contena Scout A Fake Jobs Board?

I wouldn't go as far as calling Contena Scout a fake jobs board. There are not as many jobs as available on Contena as you are lead to believe, this in my opinion is a bit scammy and is sure a red flag. 

The public area will show tens of thousands of jobs available, yet in the premium area, once logged in there figure is easy to work out as being around the 500 mark!. 

This is for all categories, types and styles of writing in all industries. More specialist, say SEO writing, Marketing, or research based you will likely find this number reduces significantly and only in the dozens and lucky if they reach triple figures.

Also, You are mislead to believing that Contena have the jobs - they don't!. Most of the jobs are from 3rd party sites and you will be applying for the writing jobs through companies like Indeed.

It is my suspicion that Contena Scout is sophisticated software that "pulls" writing jobs from other places across the web.

Sure, it is convenient having them all in the the one place but very few if any companies are posting their jobs directly on Contena Scout. 

The do have some job posted direct on the site, those are very limited

What Is Contena Academy

This is the writers training area where you have nine training videos complete with exercises all aimed at helping you to get started in your new career as freelance writer. 

Each video is just 5 or 6 minutes long.

Yep! under an hours training to turn you into a world class writer and able to pull in huge paying jobs and at a cost of up to US$800!. 

When you watch the videos and go through the training you find most of them are about self promotion. 

This, at the very least is VERY disappointing.

Don't get me wrong, promoting yourself as a writer is a very important part, probably the most important part of becoming a freelance writer. 

With very little emphasis or training on becoming a great writer, I get the impression is more for those that are already great writers.

The exercises are pretty simple, basic at best but are directly related to freelancing. 

There are some good points to the writing training but are very generic. The exercises I liked because they are actionable. I do have to add some of the information is out dated as are the links. 

Overall, hardly comparable to more professionally organised courses from Smart Blogger, but then Jon Morrow has an incredible background as an Editor!. 

I do believe you will find better and more extensive training on both Udemy and Problogger also. 

Can Contena Academy Help To Improve Your Writing?

In my opinion Contena academy will not directly help you to become a better writer but can help you to promote yourself much better as a writer. 

As a consequence of that, more work, more writing, you will become a better writer but I don't believe for a second this is due to the training given in Contena Academy.  

What Is Contena Coach?

This is actually something I really like.

Mentoring and coaching is a great thing on any subject - I might be a little biased here as I do give personal mentoring when it comes to affiliate marketing, blogging and getting started in online business (Click Here for Details).

Your Contena coach will be assigned to you and will work with you and assist you in creating excellent pitches for jobs, refine your writing skills and samples. 

Your coach will show you what is working and what is not and how you can adapt your writing and pitches to land the jobs you apply for. 

Contena Alerts!.

This is what I call well thought up!. Kudos Kevin Flemming on that one. 

You can create job alerts and get notified when jobs that meet your criteria become available and, well you can become one of the first to apply. 

You can create your own criteria for the rate of pay, client quality, and type of job, one off gig, long term contract, agency etc etc. 

You can also set the alert to be based on the topic and type of job - i.e medical, science, engineering, lifestyle and so on. 

Once you have set this up you don't need to check the Contena Scout or website at all - you will be emailed when jobs that meet your criteria get posted on the site. 

The great part is you can set up any number of alerts as you wish. 

Something I always do is check out a company in detail and check if they are accredited with the Better Business Bureau. 

This helps us to see how much we can trust a company and how professionally they conduct business, at the very least in a legal manner. 

Contena is owned by Heroic LLC who are not accredited by the BBB but do hold a very acceptable A rating with the consumer advocacy organisation. 

Across the internet you will see a lot of positive reviews regarding Contena - examining the reviews you find that they are affiliated with Contena.

Sure, I could palm you off, review the company in a favourable light and walk away with $160-$200 commission.

As an ethical and heart centred person I just can't actively or passively promote something that I don't stand behind 100%. I only recommend or promote products that I use myself.

Carol Tice Of the well respected  Make A Living Writing lists Contena as a "new content mill that sucks!"

While Carol Moynham in Her Contena Review provides a relatively positive but neutral and unbiased review. 

And Anis Chetty, of Full Time Home Business Has An Interesting Contena Review

Generally speaking the more honest and unaffiliated independent reviewers are telling you there is better training out there as a writer and you get very little value from such a high fee. 

Yes indeed, Contena is not free. Even though in my opinion the training should be due to the lack of quality in the training. It's very so-so!

Contena will cost you 

• For Gold Membership US$500 per year
• For Platinum Membership US$800 per year.

There are some good and positive things about Contena that I like. 

• They teach you how to market yourself as a writer, a gap in the market something that other writing courses don't teach you. 

• The Contena Mediation Escrow Service. Escrow is very common in the freelancing world and saves you from being scammed and not getting paid. And jobs taken directly on Contena the employer pays Contena in advance and you do the work. When Completed to a satisfactory standard the funds are released by the escrow. 

• Good and Highly Rated Customer Support. No company or training product should Leave you in the dark or hang you out to dry. Many comments online regarding the high quality of customer support ay Contena.

• They Are Highly Rated By The BBB. Obviously a good thing to see.

• The Contena Alert System: Very well thought out - get job alerts straight to your inbox.

• The Owner is Real person and not fake make up persona. Kevin Flemming is actually as I mentioned a serial entrepreneur. 

Nothing is ever perfect nor ever will be, there were some things that I did not like about Contena. 

• Very basic almost non-existent training in regards to improving your writing.

• Very overpriced: US$500 to US$800 is far too much to pay for about 3/4 of an hours training on how to promote yourself as a writer and access to a jobs board. 

• Contena Scout - As jobs board I found it to be bland and devoid of anything I could not find else where online for free! 
• No real interactive community of writers sharing writing tips.

Really good question and not quite one that is easy to answer. 

You can certainly make money promoting Contena as they do have an affiliate program. This is not what you were asking. 

While I really don't think Contena will help you to become a better writer and be able to command a higher fee.

I do think that you can make money with Contena by marketing and presenting yourself in a much better fashion and thus getting more work which means more money. 

While I really don't like the money back policy or the lack of real in depth training on how to improve your writing skills it would be completely inaccurate to call Contena A Scam. 

I can tell you for absolute certainty Contena is not a scam. 

Both becoming a better writer and marketing and promoting yourself and your skills as a writer is what you need to earn a good income as a freelance writer. 

Contena in my opinion only deliver partially in this aspect. To pay US$500 to US$800 for that is far too expensive. 

The actual training itself is devoid of real quality and I'd rate at as being worth less than $100 in my opinion.

The rest of the fee you are paying is for the jobs board - and there is no way I'll pay to become a member of any jobs board.

No thanks!. 

If you are writer or interested in becoming a writer then why not learn how to set up and run your own affiliate marketing site around the topic?

Absolutely no tech or programming skills are required at all! Zero!. I don't even know half a line of code myself! Seriously!.

You can make a simple affiliate site around writing, improving your writing skills. recommending certain software and tools that help writers to create better and more beautiful content. 

When someone buys - you can earn a commission. It's pretty cool when that happens.

Get even more traffic, not a lot, just around 800 per day and you can add a second income stream, Display adverts.  

Create strong enough a following and you can even make and sell your own digital e courses to your audience. 

That's 3 income sources from one simple site.

This is something that you can do for any topic at all. Any topic, your hobbies, anything at all that you enjoy doing or something you are curious about and want to learn.

Create a site about the topic, drive traffic to it and monetize the traffic. It is as easy as that. With the right training you can even end up with proper full time passive income. 

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The reasons are pretty simple:

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In fact...

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