Is Textbroker Worth It?

I have been a writer on Textbroker for 15 months, and have cashed out over $1700 from the site. This definitely sounds like it's worth it! But there are a couple of reservations.

First, the good parts:

• It is the one place where I can get paid for work in just two weeks, as long as the balance is over $10. There are two cash-out dates each month.
• There is usually a list of assignments to choose from
• You can set your own price for Direct Orders

Now, the not so good parts:

• The rates they pay for all but level 5 assignments are pretty low. Level 2 pays 0.7 cents a word, Level 3 is 1 cent, and Level 4 is 1.4 cents a word. You will often need to do quite a lot of research for an article, making these rates pretty awful. Level 5 is considered professional, and it pays a more reasonable 5 cents a word. Very few people make it to level 5.
• Occasionally the assignments will taper off to almost nothing.
• Some assignments are terrible. Clients don't always make it clear what they desire, or they may make unreasonable demands. Of course, you don't have to take those ones, but it doesn't inspire confidence in the venue.

My personal beef:
Until last week, I was a Level 5. Actually, there are very few assignments that are even available at that level, but when there was one that I could do, it was great! However, in February, they started sending me warnings about the use of commas. They sent me a reference to study the use of commas. Sigh. This is somewhat a stylistic thing, not a RULE. The editor for my book, North Country Cache, lectured me long and hard about using too many commas and made me change my style. I think TB wants all those commas back in.

But, it really doesn't matter now. The comma police have busted me back to a level 4. I don't know if I'll ever get my 5 rating back.

It is really hard to make a lot of money there. You will put in a lot of time. But you don't have to wait for weeks or months to sell the articles you write. You accept an article, write and revise it till the client is satisfied, and you get paid within a couple of weeks.

They occasionally stop accepting new authors for periods of time, but I see that they are allowing sign-ups now. Unless your English is really poor you can expect to begin at a Level 3.

Textbroker

Assessing My Income Opportunities

Well, I found out Friday that I am losing my best web site client. They want to go with a completely database driven site, and I don't have the software to do that. Sigh.

I need to look at possible ways to increase my income beyond just a few pennies a day. My best option is to continue to expand my online writing income. In general, here is what I currently do, with comments:

• Textbroker- some months there are enough good assignments to make over $100, some months the offerings are garbage
• Associated Content- I post only for Performance Views at the rate of $1.55 for 1000 views. The upfront payments process is so frustrating that I simply cannot deal with it. Here's a humorous look at that: My Wrong-Headed Journey Into AC Land. I earn about $3.50 a month there, but with effort I could earn a little more. I need to get enough articles posted that I move to a clout level 10. Then I would at least receive the highest PV rate.
• Shared Reviews- This is a site where real people review products that they own. I've blogged about it several times. They had a good beginning and then a rocky patch where they had to sink or swim on their own earnings. They are now fairly stable. It is an advantage if you joined early, but there are still good opportunities to make some cash there if you work hard. It should only get better as the site generates more income. This month $2000 is being split among the top performers (rules defining that change from month to month). My share of the pie last month was $47.81.
• Helium- You can write a ton of stuff for them without ever making a cent. I have sold one article there for $10, but can't cash out unless I have $20. Not a place I can talk myself into putting more effort into.
• Contests- I have entered several writing contests this month. Of course there is no money there unless I win. Pretty iffy, but at least it gave me a chance to be a little creative
• Undisclosed- by far, my biggest income generator is from a source I am not free to disclose at this time. Right now, I'm making about $300 a month there. But the articles are all repetitive, SEO heavy, pieces on topics of limited interest to me. I have a hard time making myself do them.

I would say that an average price (not calculated, just seat-of-the-pants estimate) per article is about $5. If I could make myself write four articles a day, I could cover my bills. Just FOUR articles. But I have to tell you, that yesterday I did three, and my brain was just about fried. They take varying amounts of research, but some take quite a bit. They have so many criteria to meet the client's SEO wishes that it can give me a headache! (Seriously... one article had 13 keywords it wanted included at least once, but not more than twice each- and two of those were primary concepts of the article with no good synonyms. They specified the number of paragraphs and subheadings. They wanted it in a natural writing style, and they wanted it all in 400 words. Took two hours, and only earned $5.50).

So... I think I'm off to write an article.

P.S. I'll report the results of the Adgitize click style poll tomorrow, with some analysis.

web ad income Nov 21 (4 blogs, 2 web sites, writing): Adsense $.04 Adgitize $.74 Project Wonderful $.03 My Survey $.10 Clixsense $.07 Chitika $.03 Neobux $.055 ______________________ Total: $.97

Textbroker Freezes Author Acceptance

I have been writing for Textbroker for almost a year. Their service is exactly what their name implies. Client need material written, people want to write. Someone in the middle needs to broker the transactions.

Authors are rated based on the quality of their work at levels 2-5. Higher level assignments pay more.

Recently, Textbroker began a blog to better communicate with their authors. Today, they have announced that they will no longer accept authors except as needed. Currently, over 23,000 people write for Textbroker. Despite the large number of writing orders Textbroker receives, it is difficult to provide enough assignments for that number of writers!

Interested writers may submit a writing sample for approval, but will only be moved into active positions as old ones become available.

Textbroker

web ad income Sept 2 (4 blogs, 2 web sites): Adsense $.04 Adgitize $.51 Project Wonderful $.02 Shareapic $.01 ______________________ Total: $.58

web income August actually cashed out (4 blogs, 2 web sites, other writing): Adgitize (income - ad cost) -$7.06 Private Ad sold $35.00 Associated Content $2.98 ______________________ Total: $30.92