If you have a basic grasp of the English language, can write
reasonably well and are good at internet research, you can earn a few bucks on
the side by writing articles for Textbroker. I love writing online when I am
bored at work, because once I select an article to write, I can compose it in
Microsoft Outlook and not make anyone suspicious of what I am doing.
What is Textbroker?
No way to sugar coat it: Textbroker is a an online content
mill. The site employs a large number of authors who write articles for
clients, generally website or blog owners. Articles are submitted and approved
via the Textbroker website.
How Does It Work?
Interested authors can sign up at textbroker.com. In
addition to providing basic information, you will have to submit a sample of
your writing. Textbroker then rates the sample and assigns you an initial
author rating between 2 stars (the worst) and 5 stars (the best).
Once you are signed up and accepted, you can begin writing orders
for clients. There are three types of orders: OpenOrder, TeamOrder and
DirectOrder.
If you are a new author, you will only have OpenOrders
available. These are orders that are available to any author that meets the
rating criteria set by the client. You can search orders by rating and by
category. However, I find that the easiest way to search is by choosing today’s
date and searching for all articles requested today. This way, you avoid some
of the junky or hard-to-write articles that everyone has passed by. Good
article topics will usually get snapped up within an hour or two. One kind of
annoying thing is that you can only claim one article at a time. So be sure it’s
something you really want to write.
If clients really like you, they can offer you DirectOrders.
These are orders that are only available to you. You can accept or reject them
as you please, and you can also set your own pay rate. I usually make this rate
a bit higher than my pay-off for OpenOrders. If you write quality articles, you’ll
be surprised how quickly clients contact you for DirectOrders. There are a lot
of crappy writers at content mills, so they are happy to pay a bit more to
ensure they don’t have to do a bunch of editing. You can also try to acquire
clients by sending them personal messages through Textbroker, but I’ve found
that this is not very effective if you are hoping for a higher rate.
TeamOrders are orders that are available to a specific team
of writers. Teams are generally a collection of experts on a particular
subject, for example web hosting, copywriters or legal bloggers. Each team has
its own pay rate, and some can be very lucrative. You can apply for a team on
the TeamOrders tab, and you will generally have to submit a writing sample for
approval. I haven’t had much luck getting on any teams, but I haven’t spent
much time in this area of the site.
Proofreading is one additional way to earn on Textbroker. In
order to become a proofreader, you must have at least a 4 star rating and pass
an editing test. The test is pretty difficult, and a lot of people do not pass.
I wouldn’t worry too much about it if you can’t get approved as a proofreader,
because there aren’t usually any assignments available to claim anyway.
What Can I Earn?
Authors are paid per word based on a rating. 2 star authors
receive 0.7 cents per word, 3 star authors get 1.0 cents per word, 4 star
authors get 1.4 cents per word, and 5 star authors get 5.0 cents per word. Articles are usually anywhere from 250-500
words, so a 4 star author would get $7.00 for a 500-word article.
How Do I Get Paid?
Once you submit an article, the client has the ability to
accept it or send it back for edits. If the client doesn’t make a decision
within three days, the article is automatically accepted. I can’t speak for everyone,
but I have had only a handful of articles come back for revisions, and the
edits have been very quick and easy. As soon as the article is accepted,
payment is sent to your Textbroker Pay-Off account.
Once the balance in your Pay-Out account is above $10, you
can request money to be transferred directly to a PayPal account. Payments are
made every Friday.
How Can I Improve My Rating?
Each article you write is rated by Textbroker and sometimes
by the client. Your rating is calculated by averaging the Textbroker rating of
your last five articles. So long story short, you have to write better articles
in order to improve your rating. It is not too difficult to get a 4 star rating
as long as your articles are reasonably well-written. However, it is nearly
impossible to achieve a 5 star rating. My guess is that most 5 star authors are
not working for Textbroker.
Overall Review of Textbroker
Textbroker: Pros
I like that Textbroker provides me with a super simple way
to pass some time and earn some cash on the side. The interface is very simple,
and I’ve never had any problem clients (knock on wood). Payouts are consistent,
and I always know exactly what I’ll be paid when I accept an article.
Textbroker: Cons
Let’s be honest, you aren’t getting much pay for your work
at Textbroker. Since I’m already getting paid at my full-time job, this doesn’t
bother me too much. But it’s not something that I can do all day every day. In
addition, some of the orders available are really crappy and difficult to
write. It can take some time to sift through everything to find something you
actually want to write.
Overall Rating: 4 of 5 stars
An easy way to kill a good chunk of time and get paid to do
it. Not going to become rich here, but a reasonable source of slush fund money.
Want to sign up for Textbroker? Click here.
