|
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. ... And it's gone. Am I allowed to share my WA articles with people for critique? I was wondering if some people in this thread could tell me how to improve my writing.
|
# ? Feb 27, 2014 23:07 |
|
|
# ? May 13, 2024 09:43 |
|
This thread is usually behind the paywall, but not always. If you post anything, I'd edit it out once you get critique. Better, post it in a google doc or something you can close off. There's also a goon who does editing, though I dunno if you're invested enough to want to pay for some critique. You can also use a few tools to help yourself improve. If you use MSWord (and probably libreoffice too, I dunno) crank all the grammar check settings to the max. 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.
|
# ? Feb 27, 2014 23:44 |
|
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. Thank you for this. The no adverb rule applies mostly to creative writing, where you're supposed to be showing and not telling.
|
# ? Feb 28, 2014 08:25 |
|
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.
|
# ? Feb 28, 2014 18:28 |
Astro7x posted:Writers Domain released sample articles of what they expect for 400 words for $20. I dunno, I could pump something like that out in 45 minutes. Add in 10 minutes of editing and 5 minutes of loving around not being productive and it's 20 bucks an hour. In terms of content mills that's a pretty great rate. Textbroker will pay you like 6-8 bucks an hour unless you find something you already know everything about already (like a how to on how to survive the first night in Minecraft, my current project). Of course content mills should just be there to fill your time between getting well paying gigs with bylines if at all possible.
|
|
# ? Feb 28, 2014 20:49 |
|
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.
|
# ? Feb 28, 2014 21:08 |
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. I really wish Textbroker had a text upload page that supported hyperlinks and formatting. I would love to give a well formatted article when I upload my stuff. I format it properly when I write the article in the first place, but that stuff just gets stripped out when it gets pasted in. Adding sources and poo poo just doesn't work for their uploader unless the client wants proper href tags in there.
|
|
# ? Feb 28, 2014 21:12 |
|
Is it normal for textbroker gigs to just not respond to your submissions until it autocompletes? Everything I've written is stuck at "Waiting..." I think I'm just going to stick to sponsored blog posts once my queue clears.
|
# ? Mar 2, 2014 18:13 |
|
It depends on the client. I have a couple who accept within 12 hours, and I've occasionally worked with one that seemed to be online for revisions, contacts or accepts within an hour. Most do tend to let it go to autoaccept, but that's fine with me. It means no revisions. Client rating doesn't matter for anything, other than the occasional comment from TB themselves "great job pleasing this client!" on their review. At least it's a short autoaccept period. I had one go to autoaccept on Zerys. I submitted it 2/3/2014 and it finally accepted on 2/21/2014.
|
# ? Mar 2, 2014 20:45 |
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.
|
|
# ? Mar 4, 2014 19:40 |
|
I got hit by those for a while. If you have access to Microsoft Word, it's one of the options in the grammar check you can set, so running an article through Word for a scan is a quick way to find them. Textbroker are very much comma nazis, you're right. I'm pretty sure each editor has one type of error they look for and they rate all of your assignments at once, so you'll get a string of identical comments and no other errors pointed out.
|
# ? Mar 4, 2014 20:06 |
|
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. I just got my first five articles back. Two were rated 3 stars. In one I used a serial comma twice. The other one I used a serial comma once. Literally the only corrections I got for those articles and got rated 3 stars on both. I used serial commas in my other articles and the textbroker editor noted that they shouldn't be used, but got 4 stars for those. It seems like that's what they nitpick. It's stupid that some editor decided to knock down my rating because of it but now I know to stay away from them now.
|
# ? Mar 4, 2014 22:43 |
|
I love serial commas and I love that my workplace loves them too.
|
# ? Mar 5, 2014 02:50 |
|
I had a mediocre piece get four stars and a good piece get three stars. The former had no comma problems and the latter had one. I feel like they take untrained people, train them to spot comma usage problems and then let them get to work.
|
# ? Mar 5, 2014 03:10 |
|
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! These are a series of reviews I found on a 400 word article on "Cataracts" 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. 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. Astro7x fucked around with this message at 18:22 on Mar 5, 2014 |
# ? Mar 5, 2014 18:20 |
|
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.
|
# ? Mar 5, 2014 18:22 |
|
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. I edited and put more specifics up above with the feedback they've been giving. I completely agree. I'd keep an eye on registration in case they start cutting writers. So far I have not heard of anyone's accounts being deactivated, but it's only been 3 days and I've seen a lot of people frustrated with the changes.
|
# ? Mar 5, 2014 18:24 |
|
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.
|
# ? Mar 5, 2014 18:30 |
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... 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.
|
|
# ? Mar 5, 2014 19:12 |
|
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. 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. 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. 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.
|
# ? Mar 5, 2014 19:51 |
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, the clients have a very reasonable expectation of higher quality work at 5 cents a pop. You were making 1.65 cents a word before. You should expect to have to put out better quality content for over three times the per word rate.
|
|
# ? Mar 5, 2014 20:17 |
|
Yeah, what's happening is the kind of quality you get for $3.30 isn't passing muster with search engines anymore, so clients want better content. Everyone's going to be moving in that direction once they realize paying people for garbage is just throwing money down a hole. Demand Studios just announced another reorg, they're going to be completely redoing eHow in a couple of months. I don't know if that means they're going to be relaxing their requirements any, but there may be more work available there in the future.
|
# ? Mar 5, 2014 20:41 |
|
Jedi Knight Luigi posted:I love serial commas and I love that my workplace loves them too.
|
# ? Mar 6, 2014 02:24 |
And some people don't like Oxford commas.
|
|
# ? Mar 6, 2014 03:12 |
|
I would watch the hell out of that wedding.
|
# ? Mar 6, 2014 19:46 |
|
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
|
# ? Mar 6, 2014 20:03 |
Knightmare posted:Aww I was looking forward to the $3.30 stream of conciousness writing. Still waiting on my WD acceptance as well. Jesus. I contacted them a week after I did the test and they told me it would be two to three weeks. Of course it's been three weeks and then some now. I suppose I shouldn't expect to get in any time soon.
|
|
# ? Mar 7, 2014 18:55 |
|
I would assume any time estimate got shot to hell when they did their reorganization. My guess is that in a couple of weeks or a month they'll pull in new people, as they fire people who can't adapt to their new requirements. I'm with Knightmare, I did my application with them in like November or December, so it's been a while.
|
# ? Mar 7, 2014 20:06 |
|
Same-sex marriage! Same-sex marriage everywhere! 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.
|
# ? Mar 8, 2014 18:46 |
|
Looks like Writers Domain is hiring content editors, so maybe they are planning on hiring more writers https://boostability.recruiterbox.com/jobs/30543?referer=indeed
|
# ? Mar 11, 2014 00:39 |
|
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? 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.
|
# ? Mar 11, 2014 02:20 |
Does anyone have any experience with blogmutt?
|
|
# ? Mar 11, 2014 02:36 |
|
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. I saw you addressed this a little in the OP, but where is the easiest place to get media work?
|
# ? Mar 11, 2014 23:21 |
|
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
|
# ? Mar 11, 2014 23:48 |
|
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. Depends on the ABS. The ones where they want individual shots can go gently caress themselves, but the lighter formats are a dream. Right now I'm doing verbatim timecoded transcripts for $1.20 a minute and wishing I was on ABS duty. As for where to get the work, look for transcription houses based in LA. Daily Transcripts is my usual go-to for starting transcriber recommendations, but I'm getting the vibe they've been slowing their hiring lately. You may have to slog through some general transcription before you find a media place, but yeah, if you check Craigslist and see someone advertising for transcription that mentions TV shows, jump for it.
|
# ? Mar 12, 2014 00:19 |
|
ABS is sweet as long as you don't have to call out all the little tiny shots. It's not even so bad if you can do it straight into word, or a script program, but when they insist on multi column tables bleh! On a different note, someone please tell me, why do people think it's okay to chew gum when they're being interviewed? You have a microphone right next to your mouth!
|
# ? Mar 17, 2014 20:32 |
|
I use InqScribe, so when they want multiple columns I just insert tabs between them. At that point I can sometimes paste the text directly into the template and it'll auto-format into the three columns, or I can import it into Excel as tab-delimited and then paste from Excel into the template. There's only one template I ever ran into where that didn't work at all, and it was something Daily Transcripts used. (And there's one client I regularly work for who requires something even more detailed, it's something like eleven columns all told in Excel sheets, but it pays like $7 a minute so I'm content to do it by hand there.) I've probably already mentioned this one somewhere along the line, but my favorite "why the gently caress would you do this" was a series of interviews where they used a voice-activated recorder, and in an attempt to gently caress me on the per-minute rate, they set it at an extremely high sensitivity threshold so theoretically, there wouldn't be any dead air at all. What I got was a tape full of the middle syllable of words. "We went to the museum to see the dinosaurs" became "e n o e use o ee e nosa." I cheerfully handed over a transcript full of gibberish, billed them, and told them I was booked solid the next five times they tried to engage me.
|
# ? Mar 18, 2014 14:43 |
|
I signed up for text broker just to see what it's like, got rated a 3. So far, I have only seen a few requests for articles, like "tips to maintain your water heater" and "choosing hvac repair" was listed over 20 times. . . What is up with the article being listed so many times? Every request has had a 1 day deadline, is that normal? I'm sure I could google around and poo poo out 300 words on water heaters really quick. . . But to make a quality article I could not possibly justify doing all the research for only $3, am I over thinking this? In the past two days, 90% of the times when I chexk for offers there has been nothing available for 3 stars on text broker. I really doubt I will write any articles at all.
|
# ? Mar 19, 2014 19:55 |
|
On Textbroker you really need to be a 4 to get any serious use out of it. And yeah, you'll see a bunch of copies of the same assignment from the same client, they want a bunch of different articles on the same topic for probably a network of related blogs. 1-day deadlines are fairly standard as well, though I've seen some clients post 3 day and the rare 10-day for huge projects.
|
# ? Mar 20, 2014 00:49 |
|
|
# ? May 13, 2024 09:43 |
|
Well poo poo. . . Is it difficult to move up from 3 to 4? I google'd a little about Text Broker after I submitted the sample, and it said "They love the AP Stylebook and hate the Harvard Comma" and I'm certain I broke both of those rules. Honestly, hating on the Harvard Comma seems like a really pedantic thing. Overall, I think the biggest thing that turns me off about Text Broker is how it seems like people want you to do all the research. If the request said "write about water heater maintenance using the following tips. . ." I would then I would have gladly accepted it, but otherwise I don't really like doing research for someone else's blog.
|
# ? Mar 20, 2014 01:15 |