Is Guru.com a Scam?[ Freelancer’s Heaven Or Waste of Time?]

Hi and welcome to my Guru Freelance review. Are you looking to making money as a freelancer? Would you like to convert your writing skills into a profitable online business? Perhaps you feel that by joining the Guru.com freelance website you will be able to achieve this goal?

Is Guru.com a scam, or is it a profitable freelance site to join?

It's my pleasure to help you to decide whether this platform will be worth your time and effort. 

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At the end of the day, it's all about you. It's about helping you to find the best possible way to make money from your writing skills. So, before we get started with this review, you may want to take a look at my NR.1 recommendation for making money from writing online.

NAME OF WEBSITE : Guru.com

OWNER : Inder Guglani,(CEO)

PRICE TO JOIN : Free, and they have paid membership options

WHAT IS ABOUT?: A platform designed to offer companies the opportunity to get their important, projects, or work done outsourced a freelancer. 

OVERALL RATING :

WHAT IS GURU.COM ALL ABOUT?


According to the official Guru.com website, the current CEO of the company is Inder Guglani.

The site goes on to state that Inder has won a fair share of business awards such as the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Business Services in the Upper New York, Western Pennsylvania, and West Virginia Region. 

As far as Guru.com is concerned, it was named "among the Fastest Growing Privately Held Companies by Inc. com." 

Inder has maintained a fairly low profile though in terms of informing the public about the latest developments regarding the company. His last blog that was posted on the company website dated back to 2013. However, the site does have it's regular blog contributor namely Joe Wilson who forms part of the customer experience team.

Guru.com is basically a service to help website owners, or employers to seek professional freelancers to complete their work-related tasks or projects. 

The benefit of any company hiring a freelancer is that they did not have to commit to paying the regular expenses that go along with having a full-time employee. Expenses such as salaries, health insurance , leave-pay, and so forth.

On the other side of the spectrum, one can also get jobs by offering their services as a freelancer.

The remainder of my review will just be focused more on talking about it from the freelancer's point of view.

HOW DOES GURU.COM WORK?


It's free to join as a freelancer. They also have a paid membership option, but I will chat about that in the next section.

Basically, the sign-up process is pretty similar to other freelance websites such as PeoplePerHour.

Remember that your job as a freelancer is to attract clients to your profile. This is why it's so important to fill in much info as you can regarding your work experience, previous jobs, testimonials, and other work-related documentation.

The marketplace is fairly competitive, and depending on the skills area that you are specializing in, you may need to bid to win the job offer over your competitors.

For instance, take a look at this job request seeking someone to edit and format a book that the client wishes to publish on the Amazon Kindle marketplace.

How does Guru.com work, your real competition

Should you decide to apply for this job, you can go ahead place your bid offer for the job.

Then it's just a matter of waiting and hoping that the client chooses your offer over the others.

Let's say that a client does eventually accept your job offer, you can then utilize the platform's Safepay feature.

What is the Guru.com Safepay all about?

Basically, the client places a certain amount of the job fee into this 'basket' to ensure that you as a freelancer will not be shortchanged of your hard-earned efforts.

What happens if you do not get the job? 

You may think to yourself that you can always apply for other jobs in the marketplace, right?

True, but with the free membership option, you are limited to only 10 bids per month. That means, that you can only apply for 10 jobs per month.

Is there a way that you can increase your bid caps?

Yes, but that means that you are going to have to pay. Let me show you how much in the next section.

THE GURU.COM MEMBERSHIP OPTIONS 


Before I talk about the membership options, let's talk about the bids. 

You can buy more bids, even though you are still a free member. This is how much it costs to buy bids.

How much does it costs to buy bids on Guru.com
  • 20 Bids - $10
  • 40 Bids - $20
  • 60 Bids - $30
  • 125 Bids - $50
  • 250 Bids - $100

The other option is to go the membership route and become a premium Guru.com member.

They have different Guru membership options.

The Guru.com Membership Options

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  • Basic - Free
  • Basic + - $8.95 per month
  • Professional - $15.95 per month
  • Business - $24.95 per month
  • Executive - $39.95 per month

With each of these paid options, you unlock 600 bids per annum, which means you get 50 bids per month.

Should you invest money to make money? Before I answer that question, take a look and see if the site is well received in the public eye.

GURU.COM CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS VERSUS COMPLIMENTS


During my research, I discovered, that both Trustpilot.com and Sitejabber scored this freelance service with low marks.

Whilst Trustpilot gave it 2.4 out of 5 stars, SiteJabber gave it a mere 1.96 out of five. 

What were the customer complaints about?

One of the primary issues reported by users was having to deal with the complicated policy rules of the company. 

For instance, if a freelancer was due for his payment, Guru.com would withhold the funds. They would go on to state that the monies would only be released to the freelancer if the client verifies his id.

Guru.com customer complaints Why Guru.com is a scam

Many clients felt that the companies' request for govt-issued IDs, voter ID/insurance bill/lease agreement/utility bill, and full-face photos were unnecessary and felt it be an invasion of privacy.

The site also scored an F rating on the BBB(Better Business Bureau) website. Folks reported that the company apparently stole people's identity by requesting personal particulars and then for no reason at all closing off their accounts.

I also learned that if a client does not rate or review a freelancer's work, then Guru.com can step in and give that particular freelancer a positive review, even though the client might not have been entirely satisfied with the services rendered.

As a result, members reported that many freelancers were given positive reviews, and the site was not reporting the true profiles.

Amidst these negative stories, in all fairness, there are still positive testimonials in smaller numbers. 

Does this mean that Guru.com is a scam?

Before I reveal my verdict, let me talk to you about the pros and cons of this business opportunity.

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT GURU.COM


They have a free membership option.

They have a long-standing in the market.

They have a freelance incentive program in place.

They offer a variety of payment methods. As a freelancer, you can choose from four payment options in which you would like to receive your money. You can choose PayPal, Payoneer, wire transfer or Direct Deposit(US.ONLY).

WHAT I DO NOT LIKE ABOUT GURU.COM


Their company policy is complicated.

Their user interface is not user-friendly.

They have numerous customer complaints.

This is not a passive income-earning opportunity.

Now it's time for the verdict.

IS GURU.COM A SCAM? MY PERSONAL OPINION


Is Guru.com legit?

I think that this one is a bit tricky.

On the one hand, you got lots of folks that gave this platform a negative rating. On the other hand, some people are happy with using Guru.com

So, is Guru.com a scam?

 I believe that at one point, Guru.com was the go-to platform for freelancers and employers. I do believe that given the fact they have more complaints than compliments, that their standards have somehow dropped.

Having said that, I recommend that should you decide to give this platform a chance, to proceed with caution. It could work out in your favor, or it could not.

Is Guru.com the right option for you?

Joining a platform like Guru.com does not guarantee you any jobs. As a free member, you have only some attempts within a month to land a paying gig. 

To increase your chances, it would mean that you need to pay, for either more bids, or take up a membership.

Lastly, as a member, Guru.com will deduct 9% of your earnings as their service charges. 

You can pay them less, but that means that you would have to go for the more expensive membership package.

Is Guru.com a scam why do you have to pay expensive membership fees
In summary, if you have experience as a freelancer, and do not mind paying money to land jobs, then perhaps you can give Guru.com a go.

What if you don't have the experience, or you want your writing skills to get the true recognition that it deserves? Is there an alternative way of making money from writing online?

Absolutely! 

HOW TO MAKE MONEY FROM WRITING ONLINE?


Whether you are new to the online world, or you have the experience you can certainly make money from using your writing skills.

In fact, you can build your own online business by using your writing talent. You will use a business model(which I will show you) that will teach you how to make money from talking about your passion, or hobby or a skill that you may have.

It's a newbie-friendly method and it offers flexibility, allowing you the freedom to work on your business whenever you have free time. Most importantly, it will give you a real chance to earn a passive income online.

I hope that this Guru Freelance review has helped you out.

If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to leave them below. I look forward to hearing from you.

Wish you everything of the best in your online success.

Kind Regards and Take Care

Roopesh





9 thoughts on “Is Guru.com a Scam?[ Freelancer’s Heaven Or Waste of Time?]”

  1. Thank you very much for this explicit review. i knew about guru before k=now but it was on a light note.

    However i also think that the fact they have more complaints than compliments, that their standards have somehow dropped and it is better not to invest time , energy and resource into it.

    Reply
  2. Well! I have heard a lot about guru,com and to be honest, I have never worked on it even though I am a freelancer. This is really detaed and it sums up virtually everything about this guru,com website. Well. I am not convinced that it is for me especially with the low ratings and some complaints and all. Thank you

    Reply
  3. Hello roopesh, good review on guru,com. It is the first time learning about the platform but judging from your review here, it is a good place for a freelancer to meet a good customer. I think I would like to give the free membership a try and see how well it works. If I am satisfied, then I can go on to the premium membership. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
  4. The review was a good one and it is opening my eyes in the online business. Guru is fairly good from what I understood but I don’t think it is really okey for a beginner since it is not user friendly. I’m not comfortable with their company policy but if there is adjustment in their standards, kindly share it in your next post. Thanks.

    Reply
  5. Over the years i came to experience guru platform and i got positve reviews from it. although i did not invest much of my time as i moved on to other things. it seems pretty clear that the standards have dropped and there are better platforms to invest our resources.

    thank you for this review. it is indeed well researched.

    Reply
    • You are most welcome. I really appreciate your time. Thanks, and it’s great to hear from someone who has tried Guru before.

      Take care

      Roopesh

      Reply

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