|
Has this been covered? I haven't been in the thread in a few months. What content mill/writing site allows you to write under a pseudonym? I know back on Demand, I could write under a different name. I'm the only person with my name online and I already use my real name for art. I don't want "the day job" to interfere with what I'm trying to build with my real name online. Also what's the protocol for using pseudonym-ed pieces as part of a portfolio? It seems that it would be difficult for it to prove that it is you. I'd like to pick up some local area writing gigs but most of writing work has been under a different name. I genuinely like writing and there's some good offers in my area, but I'm unsure how to approach this and seem legitimate. Any input?
|
# ? Aug 9, 2013 04:36 |
|
|
# ? Jun 10, 2024 12:18 |
|
Nighthand--as far as I know the blurbs don't actually matter. There's no real industry categorization on the administrative side, it's purely when you go to sign up for casting calls later on. No. 9--almost all content mill websites hide your name because they don't want people contacting you. Constant Content lets you use a pen name, Textbroker just gives you a number (what a marvelous indication of how vile they are) and Writer Access just uses a first name and initial. Unless your first name is extraordinarily distinctive, Writer Access should suit you. Also, writing under a pen name is extremely common and I don't think most people will bat an eye at it.
|
# ? Aug 9, 2013 05:31 |
|
Textbroker assigns clients a number so writers never see their names, but it doesn't work the other way around. I've definitely had clients refer to be as Nighthand in messages. Heck, that IS a distinctive enough pen name to track me down outside of the site, though I don't have a personal writing site set up to take advantage of that.
|
# ? Aug 9, 2013 06:59 |
|
That threw me off, so I looked it up. You are set as an ID # when you sign up for Textbroker, but you can manually choose to override it with a screen name. I never did, in fact for some reason I never knew the option was there. Edit: Just a little rant. What is it with eLance and oDesk and Skype? Why does EVERYONE want to video chat for a $10 article? I really don't want to call people to get a $5 bid in. They are obsessed with this, and I just have issues with phones that I don't even want to get into here. Kilo India fucked around with this message at 18:33 on Aug 10, 2013 |
# ? Aug 9, 2013 07:41 |
|
Looks like I'll be joining you guys in making money online, with Tutor.com in my case. I'm kind of nervous about it, so I'd like to ask those of you who've worked for Tutor.com a few questions. 1. Do I get to see what sort of questions the student has ahead of time, or just the subject? I've got some definite blind spots that haven't yet stopped me from passing exams, and I don't want to connect to someone just to discover that I'm useless to them. 2. How often are you put up for review to get promoted/bumped a tutor level/whatever? 3. Do I want to finally get around to teaching myself LaTex for tutoring the higher level maths? That's something I haven't bothered with up to this point, but I can see time being of the essence for this. Also, can LaTex even work through the Tutor.com interface? 4. Voice chat is a thing that can be done, right? How often do students ask for it? I understand that a single bad review can ruin your month, and I don't particularly want to deal with a student giving me poo poo just for being a woman that's tutoring them in math. 5. I understand that none of these jobs have the greatest employment stability, but how does Tutor.com rank among online contract jobs? I really want this to work, as it would give me better pay than my current retail job while also looking more relevant on my resume. EDIT: and 6. Do I get to see the identity/username of the student before I connect to them, and can students request specific tutors? EDIT2: 7. If I manage to squeak by a pass in something that I'm not all that comfortable with, will that end up screwing me over in the end? PurpleLizardWizard fucked around with this message at 21:05 on Aug 11, 2013 |
# ? Aug 11, 2013 19:20 |
|
I searched this thread and the site and don't see anything about it except as a listing under "Penny Work" in the beginning, so does anybody have any experience with Clickworker?
|
# ? Aug 12, 2013 03:42 |
|
I have it listed as penny work because, for the two or so days I poked around on it, I never saw any tasks you could do for more than 5 cents or so. However, that was over a year ago so it could have changed in that time. It seemed mostly "click our ads" or "fill out these surveys and sign up for our affiliate programs for 3 cents" kind of things.
|
# ? Aug 12, 2013 04:43 |
|
PurpleLizardWizard posted:Looks like I'll be joining you guys in making money online, with Tutor.com in my case. I'm kind of nervous about it, so I'd like to ask those of you who've worked for Tutor.com a few questions. I'll answer what I do know based on my own experience so far. 1 and 7. Yes, although you want your acceptance rate to be as high as possible, so if you just squeaked by on one of their tests (or had to Google for help on most of the questions), I'd recommend you not take on that subject / request to have it removed. They're not kidding about expecting you to KNOW the material. 2. They're in down time right now, so my probation period officially starts in September. According to my mentors, however, I can be bumped to Tutor 1 before my probation ends (which would be in November, 60 day probation) if I hit the numbers. I'll report as soon as this comes true! 3. I honestly don't even know what LaTex is, so I'll leave this to someone else! 4. I have voice chat disabled and haven't used it, but they've said they're looking at expanding this. I work more in essays, so I'm not sure how popular this would be in the maths. 5. No clue, as a new employee there - another one to leave to the more experienced! 6. You can't see their username but you can see their request; from what I understand, students can "favorite" particular tutors to contact when available.
|
# ? Aug 12, 2013 05:51 |
|
PurpleLizardWizard posted:Looks like I'll be joining you guys in making money online, with Tutor.com in my case. I'm kind of nervous about it, so I'd like to ask those of you who've worked for Tutor.com a few questions. I worked with Tutor.com for 3 years when I was in college (back in 2003-2006ish) and now I'm back with them again, and have been tutoring since February. I'll answer what I can! PurpleLizardWizard posted:1. Do I get to see what sort of questions the student has ahead of time, or just the subject? I've got some definite blind spots that haven't yet stopped me from passing exams, and I don't want to connect to someone just to discover that I'm useless to them. PurpleLizardWizard posted:2. How often are you put up for review to get promoted/bumped a tutor level/whatever? PurpleLizardWizard posted:4. Voice chat is a thing that can be done, right? How often do students ask for it? I understand that a single bad review can ruin your month, and I don't particularly want to deal with a student giving me poo poo just for being a woman that's tutoring them in math. PurpleLizardWizard posted:5. I understand that none of these jobs have the greatest employment stability, but how does Tutor.com rank among online contract jobs? PurpleLizardWizard posted:EDIT: PurpleLizardWizard posted:EDIT2: Crunch Bucket fucked around with this message at 14:02 on Aug 12, 2013 |
# ? Aug 12, 2013 13:57 |
|
Thanks for the replies, Wiggy Marie and Crunch Bucket. My shaky subject is geometry. I just simply haven't had to deal with it since early high school, so while I have a knowledge base, I've forgotten a lot of the little tricks. I think I'll see if I can refresh my memory some more before I consider removing that subject, as I guess I shouldn't be surprised at finding the exam challenging after deciding to sit for it with no preparation. If I remove a subject, can I test for it again in the future, or is it barred to me? Wiggy Marie posted:3. I honestly don't even know what LaTex is, so I'll leave this to someone else! LaTex is a piece of software/a computer language made for really fancy typesetting. It gets used with regularity in the higher maths and sciences because it becomes a huge pain to write out an equation in Word at that point. It's also what's used to generate most of the formulas you see on Wikipedia pages. There are add-ins for Word that can make it more convenient to use, but there isn't native support for it beyond generating a formula as a graphic in a separate program and copy-pasting it over.
|
# ? Aug 12, 2013 14:39 |
|
Nighthand posted:I have it listed as penny work because, for the two or so days I poked around on it, I never saw any tasks you could do for more than 5 cents or so. However, that was over a year ago so it could have changed in that time. It seemed mostly "click our ads" or "fill out these surveys and sign up for our affiliate programs for 3 cents" kind of things. Oh,yeah that kind of thing. Welp,I might give them a shot. Thank you for the clarification!
|
# ? Aug 12, 2013 19:53 |
|
Has anyone ever worked with a transcription company called Points West? I'm testing for them now and the owner seems a little big...high strung. So far as putting detailed instructions on how to organize my files on my computer for her company. I'm used to people asking that you use a separate particular folder, and please delete our files after such and such time and whatnot, but this seems a little bit more micro-managey (yes I know that's not a word!) I was just wondering if it wasn't because I was going to bump up steps and the higher paying companies are more...particular.
|
# ? Aug 13, 2013 00:56 |
|
That's a new one on me. The only time I've had clients get picky about directories and such was when they were using dropbox or some system like that to transfer files. All my clients care about is the end product.
|
# ? Aug 13, 2013 01:00 |
|
I have a lot of free time these days in the evenings, so I think I'll try the transcription route. I'm going to test myself a bite with some Harry Rollins, I think, as mentioned in the OP. As far as typing itself goes, I'm usually ~100wpm with a 4-5% error rate, but that's standard text with some numbers. If you start throwing in nothing but 10-key, my rate goes way down. I like to type and I like money. It would be cool if this actually works out.
|
# ? Aug 13, 2013 20:05 |
|
I don't believe this particular question has been asked yet, but someone correct me if I'm wrong! I'm doing a transcription and the final form is a Word doc using a 3-column table. I'm using InqScribe to do the transcription. I've used text delimiters for easily preserving format into Excel, but I haven't been able to figure it out when using tables in Word. I'm sure there's some stupid easy trick to this that will make my life a lot easier. Can anyone help me out?
|
# ? Aug 15, 2013 00:30 |
|
Sometimes, you can get away with 00:00:00[tab]SPEAKER[tab]WORDS or whatever and it'll work perfectly when you paste it into the template. Sometimes you have to copy it out of Inqscribe and into a .txt file first, and then copy it out of there into the template. You can also use delimiters to format it in Excel and then copy/paste the cells into the Word template, but it can occasionally get squirrely if the line counts don't match up. Unfortunately, three column work is always at least a minor pain the rear end, I've found. They should be paying you more for it, though, so hopefully that'll make up for it.
|
# ? Aug 15, 2013 00:40 |
|
Thank you! The trick with pasting it into a .txt file and then re-copying into the template worked. I can already see areas where I'm going to have some little hiccups with this one, because sometimes each column has forced line breaks. Thankfully, it shouldn't be more than a bit of cleanup at the end. Being able to use text delimiters is going to save me so much freaking time. And yes, this one does pay quite a bit more, so a bit of extra time spent formatting the final document doesn't feel as painful.
|
# ? Aug 15, 2013 00:54 |
|
For a while, three column is basically all I did in transcription, so I learned just about every way a template could gently caress you up and how to fix it.
|
# ? Aug 15, 2013 00:56 |
|
Nighthand posted:Given how dry Textbroker has been recently I'm hurrying to write up profile blurbs to get that poo poo submitted. Too bad they say 7-10 business days for the star rating. On the plus side, I got 32 on the writing test, with only a couple of actual mistakes (most incorrects were from things I legitimately had never heard of before, like wtf SEO silo method.) Have you heard back from Writer Access yet? Textbroker is cool and all (I even got a 5 star rating on an article in which I was able to interject how you shouldn't wear fedoras) but the pay is kind of a suck - but it's better then workin' day labor and I don't have to put pants on. Do client ratings play in Text Broker's rating system? I haven't had any rated by TB yet, but I'm stacking up the 5 star client reviews. unbuttonedclone fucked around with this message at 21:21 on Aug 16, 2013 |
# ? Aug 16, 2013 21:14 |
|
My profile is still pending review. I figure some time next week I'll have the initial rating. I'll probably shoot them a message if I haven't been reviewed by Wednesday, that should be 10 business day point for me.
|
# ? Aug 16, 2013 21:21 |
|
I got my first Leapforce review after 4 months. It is "substandard". This worries me. A few questions. 1. How many substandard reviews = fired? 2. How many tasks are in your feedback? I got only three. 3. Does getting such a review limit the amount of work you can get? Thanks.
|
# ? Aug 16, 2013 22:29 |
|
The Google rater reviews always seem to be moving targets. They will retroactively apply changes in standards to your reviews, which punishes everyone who thought they were doing things correctly and according to the guidelines. You might spend some time going over the current version of the guidelines, that can help. I wouldn't worry about one substandard review as long as you get a higher rating the next month. Getting a two-star here and there isn't as bad as getting two in a row. They do kick people for getting consistent low reviews, and sometimes will kick people for no obvious reason. I don't know about limiting work, usually they'll just let you go. LionBridge had a higher paying rater position for those who consistently scored five-star reviews, not sure about Leapforce. I think you had to get like six months of five-star reviews to be eligible.
|
# ? Aug 16, 2013 22:44 |
|
We are allowed to trade off DT work, correct? I have a 41 minute as broadcast project that I'm gonna need to offload if possible. $1.50/min but it's due tomorrow at noon PST/3pm EST. I'm having to go out of town suddenly and this is just taking me too long and I'm not gonna be able to finish it. Any takers? edit: I should add that I've done the first 8 minutes and I can send you what I have already, not that that's a ton of time, but there it is. Free money I guess? editx2: All is well. I pulled a super late nighter and got it all finished! Thanks to those who responded to my PMs. Crunch Bucket fucked around with this message at 12:47 on Aug 17, 2013 |
# ? Aug 16, 2013 23:32 |
|
Hey guys, Write.com is hiring again. They just sent me a little notice. The test is actually harder than Writer Access in my opinion, though.
|
# ? Aug 17, 2013 08:42 |
|
Their site says it's closed still. Is it worth it? This site says it isn't.
|
# ? Aug 17, 2013 09:58 |
|
Someone else in this thread or another thread said it was, but yeah, I doubt it. Instead, I got a tip from writers on Writer Access that Zerys.com was a good place. The account setup is just completely asinine--you'll see what I mean--but the work being shuffled through is interesting because there are assignments that actually pay a decent amount, though you have to move fast to catch them. People get on favorite lists very fast and then they get a lot of work assigned directly to them. I haven't done a lot so far but what I have done was pretty good.
|
# ? Aug 17, 2013 23:07 |
|
Kilo India posted:The account setup is just completely asinine--you'll see what I mean-- You aren't kidding. They could definitely come up with a better way to choose your industry specialties than nested drop down boxes. Edit: I dunno guys should I set a specialty to Entertainment -> Anime -> Hentai? Sounds like a great idea. Nighthand fucked around with this message at 00:11 on Aug 18, 2013 |
# ? Aug 18, 2013 00:03 |
|
I got into Zerys but apparently shot myself in the foot with a 3-star sample. The job board is completely barren. I'll keep an eye on it and see if I can get a couple things to move up to 4 or 5, but I'm not holding on to a lot of hope right now. It looks like the kind of site where, once you're established, you get work rolling in. The problem being there's not much posted openly so it's hard to get the initial contacts going. At least the prices on the recently-written assignments list are mostly reasonable. Still have to hear back from Writer Access. EDIT to avoid triple posting. Today there were a handful of assignments on the Zerys job board, so I claimed and wrote a simple 200 word blurb. Within an hour it was accepted and my rating has been bumped to 4 stars. So it really is super easy to get bumped up. Nighthand fucked around with this message at 20:03 on Aug 20, 2013 |
# ? Aug 19, 2013 21:05 |
|
I wanted to share this with the other transcribers on here so they could stare at it as incredulously as I do: http://racine.craigslist.org/ofc/3977482994.html Look at the pay. Seriously. EDIT: For anyone who doesn't care to click the link - $15/per audio hour. Old Boot fucked around with this message at 04:53 on Aug 22, 2013 |
# ? Aug 22, 2013 04:45 |
|
Look at that list of demands, and they want to pay people less than $4.00 an hour. I think I've seen them post elsewhere, that cheese quote looks familiar. "We are looking for winners, not whiners". You can't be that cheap and be that huge of a pain in the rear end at the same time. At least they won't get any takers.
|
# ? Aug 22, 2013 04:58 |
|
AuntBuck posted:Look at that list of demands, and they want to pay people less than $4.00 an hour. I think I've seen them post elsewhere, that cheese quote looks familiar. "We are looking for winners, not whiners". What a pain in the rear end that person must be to work with. I'll admit, I sent a "whiner" email reply quoting industry standards. Just seeing that set my teeth on edge. I got paid more in the 'cash cow (but not for the workers)' market grind of telerelay services, which is saying something.
|
# ? Aug 22, 2013 05:00 |
|
I was tempted to do that as well. No way any experienced transcribers in the US will take that poo poo job (I hope). I know why that looks familiar, someone else linked me to this one where they mention their company: http://www.ifreelance.com/project/detail.aspx?projectid=81689 Judith Chandler, I hope I never have to deal with you in real life. Edit: Looks like Judy takes on freelance work, then parses it out to other people to actually do for a pittance. ohnobugs fucked around with this message at 05:10 on Aug 22, 2013 |
# ? Aug 22, 2013 05:07 |
|
That's one of the downsides of freelancing -- there's always people out there offering slave wages, and there are always people hard up enough (or who just don't know any better) that will take those jobs. Hopefully, most of them realize pretty quick they're being exploited and look for something with a reasonable pay scale.
|
# ? Aug 22, 2013 05:13 |
|
kazmeyer posted:That's one of the downsides of freelancing -- there's always people out there offering slave wages, and there are always people hard up enough (or who just don't know any better) that will take those jobs. Hopefully, most of them realize pretty quick they're being exploited and look for something with a reasonable pay scale. I feel like there should be something in the OP about 'expect to find companies that are not willing to pay you minimum wage for the hours spent,' because independent contractors aren't covered under that law. As much as it seems like a 'well, obviously,' it's worth giving a fair warning. I skimmed through, so maybe it's there, but it's not really in bold lettering for anyone who's desperate to find work and may get poo poo on as a result. Much less for work that they may actually end up competing for.
|
# ? Aug 22, 2013 06:35 |
|
I've convinced myself that what I'm doing now (on TB) is very badly paid training. It's conditioning me how to write certain things certain ways, and I'm getting to apply the things I've learned in ways I haven't done before. So far, so good.
|
# ? Aug 22, 2013 06:51 |
|
An Old Boot posted:I feel like there should be something in the OP about 'expect to find companies that are not willing to pay you minimum wage for the hours spent,' because independent contractors aren't covered under that law. As much as it seems like a 'well, obviously,' it's worth giving a fair warning. I skimmed through, so maybe it's there, but it's not really in bold lettering for anyone who's desperate to find work and may get poo poo on as a result. Added a note to the top of the OP.
|
# ? Aug 22, 2013 17:39 |
|
My favorite is "15) Must be able to commit to at least 20 hours per week" Someone help me out here? Like...I commit to between 90 and 120 minutes per day most day...I don't think I could do 20 hours a week, I think my hands would break. Is anyone doing this much audio?
|
# ? Aug 22, 2013 18:11 |
|
If you can't out-pace voice recognition software in pure speed for $2 an hour real time, you're not good enough for them.
|
# ? Aug 22, 2013 19:13 |
|
Does requesting work on DT go by the first people to request it for that day or by seniority? I guess there are also certain types that they don't let everyone do too. Have only got one file each of the past 2 weeks with nothing yet this week. Usually put in for 60 mins a day.
|
# ? Aug 23, 2013 00:21 |
|
|
# ? Jun 10, 2024 12:18 |
|
It's been slow the last few weeks, the only thing I have seen a lot of has bee rush work, but unfortunately, it's been on days I couldn't accept it. Should be picking up again soon with school when all the little researchers get back to work. :-)
|
# ? Aug 23, 2013 03:26 |