thylacine posted:

There's a ton of 3 star stuff right now for those who need it. It's like 124 articles about vidja games.

Nighthand posted:

The Hemingway app (http://www.hemingwayapp.com/) is also making rounds right now, it'll point out long and complex sentences you should edit. I disagree with its anti-adverb position, but the yellow, red and green highlights can be helpful.

Astro7x posted:

Writers Domain released sample articles of what they expect for 400 words for $20.

Here is a 5 star example and here is a 3 star example. Both pay the same, just the looming threat of "write lovely for us and we'll remove your account".

Are these good rates for this kind of content? I really don't know if I am going to be putting in this kind of effort if there is somewhere else I should go to write the same stuff but make more money. In theory, if you write enough 5 star articles they will give you access to 600 word $40 articles, but I don't think I'm capable of getting to that point.

Basically... I miss the old days where I was able to churn out 200 words in under 5 minutes about drat near anything for $3.30. There is a lot less emphasis on anecdotes or general information, more focus on researched articles without common knowledge.

kazmeyer posted:

Basically, the throwaway general-knowledge stuff is getting murdered in the search engines, so sites are pushing for sourced, linked content. Most of the sites I've seen that I expect to still be around a year from now are pushing for that 5-star level stuff, and $20 isn't a terrible price for it.

Nitrousoxide posted:

Textbroker has such anal-retentive comma nazis. I'm getting reviews from my clients of excellent all around. They are even going out of their way to leave comments saying how good I am. I haven't had a single article sent back for revision in the 30ish I've done. Then Textbroker comes in and gives me a 3-star rating complaining about the comma usage.

Every single complaint they have had about me revolves around introductory clause commas. There isn't a single complaint about any other feature of my writing, but apparently that means I'm at best an "okay" writer.

I don't know how much time they expect people to pour over 1 cent per word articles to make sure every sentence conforms to perfect English comma usage.

With the time I was spending already I was only making 5-6 dollars an hour. I can't imagine how bad it would be if I doubled or tripled my editing time checking my loving commas over and over again.

quote:

Monday, March 3rd 2014, 2:33:21 pm - The flow of this article is good. You introduce ideas and definitions well, and your train of thought is easy to follow. You have lots of good information and you sound authoritative. The main issues with this article are flow and grammar. Keep sentences short for readability. "Cataracts, due to aging, occurs when the eye lens loses its nourishment due to hardening of the arteries of other diseases, like diabetes mellitus, that prevent the blood supply from reaching the vitreous, which is the water substance that surrounds and nourishes the lens." This is a very long sentence and is hard to get through. Try instead "Cataracts often form when a person's arteries harden and prevent blood from reaching the vitreous, the area that surrounds and nourishes the lens." The information that was removed is interesting, but distracting and not necessary to understanding cataracts. In the section on antioxidants there is some redundancy and confusion. The importance of taking antioxidants is mentioned three times. The second sentence introduces a list of substances; it can be assumed that these are antioxidants, but it's not explicitly stated. The fourth sentence doesn't tell the reader the actual role of selenium, vitamin E, and zinc in eye health; it simply restates that they are necessary. When talking about cataracts, sometimes a plural pronoun is used and sometimes a singular pronoun is used. When talking about "cataracts," say "they." When talking about the disease, say "it." Use the Oxford comma. It is the last comma in a list before the word "and." For example, " B vitamins, beta-carotene, zinc, and selenium." "Cataract development decreases in those who do not smoke, wear sunglasses when outdoors, reduce saturated fats in their diets and eat more green leafy vegetables." In this sentence, it sounds like "do not" applies to everything listed, not just smoking. The article needs a conclusion. Just 2-3 sentences that make the reader want to do something or share the article for some reason. In that same vein, use "you" phrases more in the article to relate it to the reader and help them want to take action. For example, "In addition to creating a cataract nutritional program, you may need to make certain lifestyle changes to prevent or reverse cataracts successfully" (this is a revised version of the first sentence in the last paragraph). This engages the reader and avoids passive sentences. Use this tone throughout for consistency. Who is Dr. Weil? Identify people and define unfamiliar terms.
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Tuesday, March 4th 2014, 1:23:43 pm - Thank your for the time and effort you put into your revision. It is clear that you took the reviewers suggestions and tried to implement them. We liked the formatting, in that it was broken down into subtopics and made good use of small paragraphs. Your article is also rich with interesting information and great suggestions for lifestyle changes to help your with your eyesight and avoid cataracts. Along that same line you use citations very well, and do a great job of using reputable sources. You do an excellent job of defining more abstract terms and of making your article relatable. You also make good use of tone and authority. We also really liked the concluding statement you added, per your reviewers suggestion. It's adds a sense of finality and closure. There are just a few things we would like to address. We feel that your title could be more engaging. While "Lifestyle Changes May Reverse Cataracts, Making Surgery Unnecessary" is an accurate representation of what the reader will find in your article, it could be more creative. Also, as far as formatting, while you did an excellent job of breaking your article down into smaller topics, you bolded everything except for the first paragraph. We think this may have been an accidental oversight, however, if it was not we would recommend bolding only the headers. We also would like for you to make sure you are proofreading, in order to avoid random quotation marks appearing in your text. The biggest problem with your article was the presence of redundancy. Your paragraphs about Vitamins and Antioxidants mirror one another. They emphasize the exact same material and even make use of the same list of vitamins: beta-carotene, zinc and selenium and vitamin C. These are not the only ones you mention but the ones that you mention more than once for the same benefit. If possible avoid repeating "green leafy vegetables" more than once, as well. By adhering to these suggestions we have no doubt that you will be getting excellent ratings in no time. The information you provide is excellent. Just try to avoid redundancy.
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Tuesday, March 4th 2014, 3:47:25 pm - Thank your for taking the time to revise this article once more. We can tell that you have implemented many of our suggestions. For instance, you did a great job proofreading and improving the flow of your sentences. There’s lots of good research about vitamins and lifestyle changes that potential readers can use. We would suggest that you take your research a step further and clarify any terms readers might have. For instance, one sentence said, “These vitamins act as antioxidants, which fight against free radicals.” Instead of just stopping there, slow down and explain to the reader what “free radicals” are and why they are bad. As far as readability goes, you did a great job of breaking your article down into appropriate sub-topics. The last two paragraphs were still bold, but I imagine that had to do with the word processor. There was still some redundancy in the first two paragraphs about vitamins and lifestyle changes. It may be easier to avoid redundancy if you make unique headers. In the first paragraph, you mention three items that could potentially be used for headings (e.g. “catching the condition early, taking vitamins, and making certain lifestyle changes.”) Since you’ve already introduced this list, the reader will expect the rest of the article to delve more into these topics—which you do. Be careful of subject/verb agreement. For instance, one sentence said, "The key to avoiding cataract surgery is to catch the condition early, make certain lifestyle changes, and take vitamins." But since there are three items in this list, the sentence should say something like, “The keys to avoiding cataract surgery are . . .” Overall, your revisions really gave this article useful and straightforward content. You have great research and readers will be able to use your tips. For your future writing, focus on how you break up and organize your article. Bullet points, bold items, and shorter paragraphs will make the content easier to digest. Thanks for writing.

Nighthand posted:

Sounds like a great opportunity for someone to get the format down and rull in the money. I wish they'd accept me already so I could give it a shot.

Astro7x posted:

Writers Domain has been turning into a frustrating mess since they changed formats from 200 word $3.30 articles to 400 word $20 articles. It took me 45 minutes to write one instead of the usual 10 minutes. I have been seeing people post their reviewer comments online, these simple SEO articles are being send back for content revisions up to two times, some times rejecting them. The reviews between the original and both revisions are sometimes twice as long as the articles themselves. It's kind of crazy...

There use to be a article count that was shrinking each day, it's actually been growing each day!

...

I have a feeling writers are not going to be able to adapt to their content nazi changes, when before you could pretty much submit anything as long as it had proper keywords and good grammar.

Turtlicious posted:

It sounds like they just have pre-fabbed sentences to use when they see a mistake, so they tally up the mistakes then paste in the sentences.

Nitrousoxide posted:

Just gonna throw this out there. At 10 minutes a pop for 3.3 dollars per article, you are making, on average, slightly less than 20 dollars an hour. Plus you have to be productive for every minute of that hour. At 45 minutes for 20 dollars you make slightly more and have 15 minutes to either goof off or put into another project per hour.

Seems like you come out ahead there.

Astro7x posted:

I don't think so... I just read a 400 word review about an article that calls out very specific things and offers suggestions. Either way, I am just not use to people being this critical on content.


Well I haven't been told to revise my article yet though, so there could still be more to it. It's a lot more challenging trying to come up with a unique spin on an article instead of making up an anecdote about pretty much any topic. It also requires a lot more time. I am use to being able to write an article or two during my lunch break at work.

Jedi Knight Luigi posted:

I love serial commas and I love that my workplace loves them too.

The March Hare posted:

Knightmare posted:

Aww I was looking forward to the $3.30 stream of conciousness writing. Still waiting on my WD acceptance as well.

fake edit: just checked, I did the test/application in Oct

The March Hare posted:

TheRamblingSoul posted:

Anyways, I'm getting a foot pedal in the mail tomorrow and already have Express Scribe Pro. I'm also already in Babbletype and will be signing up for my first batch of work soon. Is there anything that should be advised moving forward besides basics? Any places I should look for for additional work or maybe higher rates? Or maybe splitting off and doing the business card/website/blog thing?

Appreciate the help.

kazmeyer posted:

Basically, what you want to do starting out is take as much media work as possible. There's a lot of reality TV out there, and that's where you get the good experience. If anyone offers to train you how to do as-broadcast work, take them up on it. Once you've got a couple years of media experience under your belt and can handle multiple formats of as-broadcast work, that's when you can start commanding higher rates and really being a work snob.

Jedi Knight Luigi posted:

Post-production houses, especially closed captioning/subtitle houses. I work for one myself but we're not taking on any more independent contractors at the moment. If we ever do, I'll search here first.

But in the meantime I'd check craigslist for media transcription work as well.

e: ABSs are the devil