After about two weeks of writing text with textbroker, it seems like a good time to review my experience so far. Part of this motivation comes from the fact that as of this morning, I have been promoted to a "four star" level, which means I can bid on jobs that pay more, and demand more in terms of the quality of writing they are looking for.
So far I have written a total of eight texts for textbroker. Here is a summary of articles I have written so far:
1) Heavily defined keyword texts. The client will provide several keywords like "cheap travel, cheap vacation, cheap travel reservations" and you will be assigned to write a short text of 100-150 words which focuses exclusively on using these keywords a certain amount of times while creating something that is still intelligible to read. There are many of these types of short jobs available on textbroker. The pay for these shorts is quite low, and they are somewhat mind numbing, but you can do a lot of them quickly (if it doesn't drive you insane first).
2) Lightly defined keyword texts. Here the client usually has one keyword (like "organic gardening") that they want you to write an article about. Usually the client will specify how long the article is to be (e.g. 500 words) and how many times the keyword should appear (no more than four, for example). The pay rate may be a bit higher than the heavily defined short keyword texts. If the topic is something I am knowledgeable about already, these articles can be quite enjoyable as they allow for much more creativity then the heavily defined keyword texts.
3) Research based reviews of websites. I have accepted two jobs which consisted of evaluating and writing reviews of websites. These jobs were at a low pay scale, but I took them because I thought they would be fun (and they were). In terms of paying the rent, they are probably not a good choice as the time spent researching the website and writing the review was quite intensive compared to the previous formats, but I did learn some interesting facts while composing the text, so that was an intellectual bonus of sorts.
I imagine there are other types of jobs available as well that I have not yet come across. But I can see that one issue that will be a struggle for me is the tension between cheap, quick, mind-numbing freelancing jobs that pay, and creative writing outlets that don't (or pay very little)!
Friday, November 7, 2008
Monday, November 3, 2008
October Summary
Although I only have been writing freelance online for a couple of weeks, I thought it might be useful to summarize on a monthly basis the work I've done for various companies and do some reflections on this summary.
In October, I estimated I spent approximately five hours doing paid writing jobs. Here is a breakdown of the earnings:
Textbroker.com - $8.30 for four articles (most articles were 100-150 words in length)
Mechanical Turks - $5.45 for four articles (most articles between 100-150 words in length)
Today.com - $10.86 for nine blog entries plus hits
Associated Content - $4.31 for one article about 500 words in length (upfront pay, will continue earning via hits)
Total Earned in October: $28.92
Reflections: In terms of hourly wage, I earned just under $6 an hour, which is hardly a living wage. In terms of actual writing, most of the articles I were between 100-150 words in length, and I estimate my average pay per word to be 1 cent.
I expect that for November, my hourly wage will improve quite a bit as much of my time was learning how to write for these companies using keywords and in the proper format. I would like to raise my pay per word quite a bit, and will try to look into other outlets this month to see if I can boost that rate.
In October, I estimated I spent approximately five hours doing paid writing jobs. Here is a breakdown of the earnings:
Textbroker.com - $8.30 for four articles (most articles were 100-150 words in length)
Mechanical Turks - $5.45 for four articles (most articles between 100-150 words in length)
Today.com - $10.86 for nine blog entries plus hits
Associated Content - $4.31 for one article about 500 words in length (upfront pay, will continue earning via hits)
Total Earned in October: $28.92
Reflections: In terms of hourly wage, I earned just under $6 an hour, which is hardly a living wage. In terms of actual writing, most of the articles I were between 100-150 words in length, and I estimate my average pay per word to be 1 cent.
I expect that for November, my hourly wage will improve quite a bit as much of my time was learning how to write for these companies using keywords and in the proper format. I would like to raise my pay per word quite a bit, and will try to look into other outlets this month to see if I can boost that rate.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Associated Content
Associated Content is one of the largest sources of online content and many online writers get their start writing for them. The reviews of the company tend to be quite mixed. Some criticize the company for exploiting writers because of the low pay rate and exclusive rights they retain to much of the published work they purchase. Others laud the company and say they are making a reasonable wage, not from the purchase price of articles themselves, but the income these articles generate later, which they label "performance pay."
I've decided to sign up and give associated content at least a short trial and see how I like it. Currently they are offering a $10 bonus if I can turn in five short articles (at least 400 words each, according to their submission guidelines) before October 31st. My starting "performance pay" rate is $1.50 per thousand clicks, and I will see if they will also pay an upfront fee on these articles as well. I'll let readers know soon what the results are of this trial!
I've decided to sign up and give associated content at least a short trial and see how I like it. Currently they are offering a $10 bonus if I can turn in five short articles (at least 400 words each, according to their submission guidelines) before October 31st. My starting "performance pay" rate is $1.50 per thousand clicks, and I will see if they will also pay an upfront fee on these articles as well. I'll let readers know soon what the results are of this trial!
Monday, October 27, 2008
Amazon's Mechanical Turk Program
While surfing online, I came across yet another program which is seeking paid content (and a whole lot more). Amazon.com serves as a kind of clearinghouse for tons of cheap writing projects (and many other simple task based online assignments) which they call HITs. Amazon calls the program "Mechanical Turks." It has been in existence for several years now, and there are some serious criticisms of the program.
For example, the wikipedia.org article dedicated to the program has the following to say:
Because HITs are typically simple, repetitive tasks and users are paid often only a few cents to complete them, some have criticized Mechanical Turk as a "virtual sweatshop." Because workers are paid as contractors rather than employees, requesters do not have to file tax forms, and avoid minimum wage, overtime, and workers compensation laws. Workers, though, must report their income as self-employment income. In addition, some requesters have taken advantage of workers by having them do the tasks, then rejecting their submission in order to avoid paying. However, at least some workers on Mechanical Turk are people who are middle class and do the work for fun.
I did sign up for the program and found a few writing jobs posted in the $2-8 dollar range that I might consider doing. Many of the jobs, however, only pay a few cents for 100 words or more, and I can see why they might be considered "virtual sweatshop" wages!
For example, the wikipedia.org article dedicated to the program has the following to say:
Because HITs are typically simple, repetitive tasks and users are paid often only a few cents to complete them, some have criticized Mechanical Turk as a "virtual sweatshop." Because workers are paid as contractors rather than employees, requesters do not have to file tax forms, and avoid minimum wage, overtime, and workers compensation laws. Workers, though, must report their income as self-employment income. In addition, some requesters have taken advantage of workers by having them do the tasks, then rejecting their submission in order to avoid paying. However, at least some workers on Mechanical Turk are people who are middle class and do the work for fun.
I did sign up for the program and found a few writing jobs posted in the $2-8 dollar range that I might consider doing. Many of the jobs, however, only pay a few cents for 100 words or more, and I can see why they might be considered "virtual sweatshop" wages!
Friday, October 24, 2008
Update on Entrecard.com
Whoops. Will signing up to use entrecard, I didn't read the terms of services fully and received a message saying my account was deleted for violating one of their requirements: that blogs using entrecard have a minimum of five posts. I had signed up this blog, but only had three posts in it as it is a new blog. With this post, however, it makes five - so hopefully my account will be restored soon!
Textbroker.Com
While reading through other blogs and websites dedicated to online writing, one company whose name kept on appearing as a potential source of short online writing jobs was textbroker.com. They describe themselves the following way on the front page of their website:
Textbroker is your marketplace for unique and exclusive written texts, created in accordance with customer specifications. You can manage any written task as either client or author with our user-friendly web interface. With Textbroker you avoid the acquisition of texts through tedious and time-consuming auctions. Instead, you are given a reasonably priced fixed-word-rate or, as an alternative, you may opt to negotiate directly to get the best price possible. Textbroker offers a meeting place for client and author alike to comfortably and safely manage all aspects of their writing needs.
From a writer's point of view, one of the advantages of textbroker.com is that instead of haggling over the price of a work (like at guru.com) you will see upfront how much a company is willing to pay for a piece of work. Textbroker.com is also reasonably easy to apply to work for - instead of being required to show samples of previously published work as some companies required, you are asked to provide a writing sample on a topic they have selected. They will evaluate your writing style and then give you a ranking somewhere between 1 and 5, which will determine which writing jobs you can bid on and the corresponding pay rates (it appears that the usual initial ranking most writers receive is a rank of "3").
I decided to give textbroker a shot: I signed up, took the test (writing an article on the topic of places to visit in the town I lived in) and then got a message that it would take 24 hours for them to get back to them. It took actually took a little longer for them to get back to me (more like 48 hours), but when they did they told me that I had received the standard ranking of "3" and I can now bid on all jobs in that category or lower.
A survey of the jobs available shows a plethora of jobs asking for between 300-500 words of content, paying between $3 and $5 dollars. This is definitely not a lucrative market, but I reckon it is good for the experience. Starting Monday, I will be trying to fulfill one job request a workday, which over a month should garner somewhere between $60-100 a month.
Textbroker is your marketplace for unique and exclusive written texts, created in accordance with customer specifications. You can manage any written task as either client or author with our user-friendly web interface. With Textbroker you avoid the acquisition of texts through tedious and time-consuming auctions. Instead, you are given a reasonably priced fixed-word-rate or, as an alternative, you may opt to negotiate directly to get the best price possible. Textbroker offers a meeting place for client and author alike to comfortably and safely manage all aspects of their writing needs.
From a writer's point of view, one of the advantages of textbroker.com is that instead of haggling over the price of a work (like at guru.com) you will see upfront how much a company is willing to pay for a piece of work. Textbroker.com is also reasonably easy to apply to work for - instead of being required to show samples of previously published work as some companies required, you are asked to provide a writing sample on a topic they have selected. They will evaluate your writing style and then give you a ranking somewhere between 1 and 5, which will determine which writing jobs you can bid on and the corresponding pay rates (it appears that the usual initial ranking most writers receive is a rank of "3").
I decided to give textbroker a shot: I signed up, took the test (writing an article on the topic of places to visit in the town I lived in) and then got a message that it would take 24 hours for them to get back to them. It took actually took a little longer for them to get back to me (more like 48 hours), but when they did they told me that I had received the standard ranking of "3" and I can now bid on all jobs in that category or lower.
A survey of the jobs available shows a plethora of jobs asking for between 300-500 words of content, paying between $3 and $5 dollars. This is definitely not a lucrative market, but I reckon it is good for the experience. Starting Monday, I will be trying to fulfill one job request a workday, which over a month should garner somewhere between $60-100 a month.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Generating Traffic to Your Blog
In my last post, I wrote about signing up to do paid blogging with today.com. I'm enjoying the writing and the pay rate ($1/day for 100 words), but in order to generate more income from this site I will need to get people to visit it. How to do this?
Well, since I'm writing about an online game, I'm hoping there is at least a small audience of dedicated gamers who will read my blog with regularity. This is the key audience I'm trying to reach. But I have also been doing research on other ways to generate traffic to my site, and have found two that I am now currently using:
1) Entrecard.com - Entrecard is a site whose sole purpose is to encourage bloggers to visit each other site. Each day, you can visit up to 300 sites and deposit an online business card letting the blogger know you visited his or her site, and hopefully they will reciprocate. Once you have signed up, you create your own business card to put on our site, and when other entrecard users visit your blog they click the button that says "drop" to let you know they have been there. Entrecard also lets you advertise your site on other bloggers' sites, possibly generating interest from their readers as well. You can see my entrecard posted to the left of this blog (all drops are welcome).
2) Stumbleupon.com - This site allows you to randomly visit websites and rank them according to your personal preferences. Some forum users at today.com reported the unique hits to their blogs skyrocketed after signing up for this service (after signing up, go to your blog and rank it and you will be able to add it to the stumbleupon inventory of websites).
Well, since I'm writing about an online game, I'm hoping there is at least a small audience of dedicated gamers who will read my blog with regularity. This is the key audience I'm trying to reach. But I have also been doing research on other ways to generate traffic to my site, and have found two that I am now currently using:
1) Entrecard.com - Entrecard is a site whose sole purpose is to encourage bloggers to visit each other site. Each day, you can visit up to 300 sites and deposit an online business card letting the blogger know you visited his or her site, and hopefully they will reciprocate. Once you have signed up, you create your own business card to put on our site, and when other entrecard users visit your blog they click the button that says "drop" to let you know they have been there. Entrecard also lets you advertise your site on other bloggers' sites, possibly generating interest from their readers as well. You can see my entrecard posted to the left of this blog (all drops are welcome).
2) Stumbleupon.com - This site allows you to randomly visit websites and rank them according to your personal preferences. Some forum users at today.com reported the unique hits to their blogs skyrocketed after signing up for this service (after signing up, go to your blog and rank it and you will be able to add it to the stumbleupon inventory of websites).
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