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Not sure if this is the right thread, but maybe someone can point me in the right direction. For several years, I've been doing occasional remote work for a friend. He sends me a project, I keep track of my own hours and send him a bill at the end of the month. I might work a ton of hours one month and then nothing for two months, it varies a lot. He pays me a good rate out of his own pocket, and I'm honest about my time. This is a great setup for me due to a bunch of boring real life stuff. Recently, some funds have opened up at the university and he's offering me an "official" position. It will still be WFH, and I will still report my own hours at a similar rate, but I will be paid by the school. This new position offers "up to" 30 hours a week, and will represent a significant increase in my workload, as I will now be shared by the rest of the department. But I'm stuck on the "up to." Previously I was billing a friend with whom I had mutual trust; now I'll be billing a faceless HR department on a campus I never set foot on. Obviously I want to claim as many hours as I can, and I don't want to sell myself short. But I also don't want to come out guns blazing, charging them the maximum right from the start because I have no idea what kind of job security I have here, and I have no idea what the going rate for being a digital jack-of-all-trades is. I don't know if anyone will be going over my time sheet with a fine-toothed comb or if I'll be just another check somebody signs without a second thought. I know the answer is "track your hour accurately, send them the bill and don't worry about it so much," but has anyone been in a similar situation?
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Sep 21, 2021 02:48
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I think that mostly comes down to the people involved more than anything. Maybe talk to the department head directly, or talk to your friend about your concerns, or see if they've hired people like this in the past and see if they have anything to say? Saying "up to 30 hours" sounds like one of two things: either they have a fixed budget and 30 hours is the max they can handle paying, or there's a cutoff at 31 hours that would make you required to be considered a full-time employee eligible for benefits or something like that. At least, that'd be my guess. They PROBABLY aren't trying to actively screw you, any more than any system of employment is designed to screw people inherently. If it doesn't work out, will your friend still be able to send you work as before? If so, there's not much of a downside to rolling with it and if it falls through, oh well. It kind of sounds like the department was looking for someone to handle work and your friend recommended you, which would be a good position to be in if you can handle the work. All that said, I've never been in a similar position and this is all conjecture, so feel free to disregard as necessary. I also don't have a suggestion for a going rate. You might ask in a thread dedicated to the industry you're working in, if there is one for whatever kind of work this is.
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Sep 21, 2021 04:37
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I started a position a couple months back that is entirely WFH and the hours are an honor system as well. Obviously if you're not producing any work that will clearly become an issue. But the speed at which different people do the same job widely varies. My second week my boss told me I was outperforming 75% of the department. This sounds like a compliment, but everyone gets paid the same regardless of the amount of work that is submitted. It was subtly suggested to me that I could slow down and still be a fine employee. I find the "up to" 30 hours almost certainly means they want you to be hired as part-time. I've had multiple jobs hire me with this restriction and that's all it has ever meant. They always wanted me as close to 30 as possible. And when work load provides I'm sure additional hours will be offered if you're interested. This is, of course, my opinion based on my experience. I don't know your exact situation but from what I've read and lived this is what I feel is most likely the case.
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Sep 21, 2021 19:59
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Every WFH I've done (including for a university) it was pretty expected that if they gave you a limit, it was a hard ceiling for you to get as close to as possible. As long as you never went over the limit, padding it out was practically encouraged. I always kept a spreadsheet with an approximation of what I got up to on an hourly basis in case anyone asked, but no one ever did.
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Sep 21, 2021 20:08
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Thanks for all of the advice! It will definitely take a few weeks to see how much actual work they end up sending over. I can't pretend it took me 30 hours throw together a single document, but I'll probably end up claiming the full time if they send me enough stuff to feasibly fill 30 hours.
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Sep 22, 2021 02:40
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Everett False posted:Every WFH I've done (including for a university) it was pretty expected that if they gave you a limit, it was a hard ceiling for you to get as close to as possible. As long as you never went over the limit, padding it out was practically encouraged. I always kept a spreadsheet with an approximation of what I got up to on an hourly basis in case anyone asked, but no one ever did. Yeah... when we give freelancers jobs in GFX design, usually we say there is a max amount of hours, and to check in and let us know how many hours have been used.
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Sep 22, 2021 17:06
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I don't have PM access, but looking for a few remote job options. I've got 12 months transcription service in one of my previous jobs. Hows the pay these days for transcription?
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Oct 3, 2021 10:55
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How the heck do I monetize a website that's not a blog and really doesn't have a lot of text content. I'm creating a web based tool for golf tee times. In brief a user of the tool will put a city they want to see tee times, the tool goes and searches a public golf courses within x miles of that city, and then all the tee times are displayed in an easy to digest format. I can't really use adsense or any sort of context related ads because there's really not that much text on a given page, which they require to approve my site for use on their networks. Unfortunately it seems like a lot of ad places are actually turning me down for that exact reason - they want a bunch of content on the page to key off of, but my content is essentially a list of golf courses and a bunch of graphs displaying their tee times. Right now I'm considering affiliate marketing because it seems like the only avenue that's not turning me down (Amazon at least) but I'm not sure if that's a great solution either. Any other options? Or better affiliate networks I should look into?
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Oct 4, 2021 20:57
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I'd expect a tool like that to be sponsored by some golf product maker, course network, media, or get some kind of referral fee from the golf courses.
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Oct 5, 2021 00:19
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Yeah, sponsorships if you can get them (which will likely be hard until you've proven you get traffic/users/referrals), some of the less valuable display ad networks, or affiliate ads. At least with affiliate ads you can promote golf-related items, but the best way to do affiliate marketing is usually with content, so you might have to buckle down and make a blog or at least a series of review/comparison pages.
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Oct 5, 2021 00:38
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Do whatever GolfNow does
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Oct 5, 2021 01:35
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GolfNow charges golf courses to be listed on their site, and also sells tee times without actually passing the money on. That, or our local golf course manager was uniquely incompetent and didn't know how to receive payments. It could go either way with that guy. GolfNow definitely sent a lot of invoices for $200 a month, though. 
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Oct 5, 2021 01:48
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Everett False posted:GolfNow charges golf courses to be listed on their site, and also sells tee times without actually passing the money on. That, or our local golf course manager was uniquely incompetent and didn't know how to receive payments. It could go either way with that guy. GolfNow definitely sent a lot of invoices for $200 a month, though. Yes that’s how they operate. GolfNow provides tee time management SaaS in exchange for some number of tee times per week, which they then heavily promote as deal times. That’s a pretty straightforward business model but not really what I’m after, which is to show ALL tee times regardless of who’s providing them. In fact a big reason I started this endeavor was because my local courses don’t work with any existing aggregators so there was no easy way to check their tee times except individually. They are muni courses and completely uninterested in whatever deal GolfNow is offering. Anyway affiliates should work right? I know the people showing up are golfers so what items to show is pretty straightforward. Maybe in the future I can approach courses about some kind of lead generation deal.
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Oct 5, 2021 04:18
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EDIT - seemed like the wrong thread to post in actually.
Prince Reggie K fucked around with this message at 03:30 on Nov 12, 2021 |
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Oct 27, 2021 19:18
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So I've been on Rev for a couple of years, and I know it sucks, both from my own experience and reading about it here. I've made more in a month with 3Play Media than I did in two years with Rev. The files are generally quite a bit shorter, so I can knock out a few here and there when I have the chance. Rev seems full of Zoom meetings and academic files, with a shitload of crosstalk and awful audio. 3Play has a ton of sports highlights... they have their own challenges, but the audio is generally tons better quality. The one downside of 3Play I've seen so far is that there isn't always work available. They say they're working on that. We'll see. Hopefully this is helpful.
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Nov 5, 2021 14:54
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Also worth noting that 3Play is American Residents only, sports aside they sound cool. Also Americans, Wolfestone is opening up an American arm. I'll let this thread know if they're actively looking for any bodies. And if you have degrees folks don't forget that teaching English is mostly online now as a bunch of countries in Asia have cracked down on lovely English teaching companies. Which apparently meant like ALL OF THEM.
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Nov 11, 2021 01:06
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Dressed For Chess posted:So I've been on Rev for a couple of years, and I know it sucks, both from my own experience and reading about it here. I've made more in a month with 3Play Media than I did in two years with Rev. The files are generally quite a bit shorter, so I can knock out a few here and there when I have the chance. Rev seems full of Zoom meetings and academic files, with a shitload of crosstalk and awful audio. 3Play has a ton of sports highlights... they have their own challenges, but the audio is generally tons better quality. What's 3Play's rate structure look like, at least roughly?
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Nov 11, 2021 04:27
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tried registering for 3play but they're not looking for people from my location (california?)
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Nov 11, 2021 05:48
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kazmeyer posted:What's 3Play's rate structure look like, at least roughly? I've seen rate per minute as low as in the .50 range, and as high as $1.50. There are frequently bonuses added to files they want done quickly. I suspect there are probably files I'm not seeing yet, as I'm just a few weeks into this. Edit: Just saw one pop up for cricket highlights that was $1.75 per minute, but I know gently caress all about cricket.
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Nov 11, 2021 16:53
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Dressed For Chess posted:I've seen rate per minute as low as in the .50 range, and as high as $1.50. There are frequently bonuses added to files they want done quickly. I suspect there are probably files I'm not seeing yet, as I'm just a few weeks into this. A transcription job that requires both knowledge of a sport even most anglophiles find nigh-incomprehensible AND researching foreign names? (chorus swells) Today, fate has chosen its champion.
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Nov 12, 2021 02:32
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Spokes posted:tried registering for 3play but they're not looking for people from my location (california?) California passed a law that means you have to treat "independent contractors" who are not really independent, like human beings. Given how hostile capital is to treating human beings like human beings, the instant response of most companies is to stop employing people from California and claim it's impossible due to legislation or whatever. Unfortunately, since capital controls the politicians largely, you'll almost instantly get states (especially red ones) instantly passing laws that say "not only do you not have to treat your employees in Louisiarkanassipivania like humans, you can actually install a punishment device onto their uniform if you want, and shock them when they underperform, or even if you just feel like shocking them.
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Nov 12, 2021 02:34
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pseudanonymous posted:California passed a law that means you have to treat "independent contractors" who are not really independent, like human beings. Given how hostile capital is to treating human beings like human beings, the instant response of most companies is to stop employing people from California and claim it's impossible due to legislation or whatever.
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Nov 12, 2021 23:53
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Well, drat. Applied to 3Play to maybe pick up some extra holiday work and got the brush off. Kind of annoyed it starts with the test only and not any place to send a resume; "I've been doing this 13 years" tends to get more attention in this business. 
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Nov 19, 2021 03:56
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[00:58:45 benzo muttering] I passed the test for Verblio, but I waited to long to start. Now it just kicks me back to the test and their support is automated.
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Dec 10, 2021 07:35
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I asked this question in the negotiations thread, and it was recommended that I ask it here too: I was wondering if anyone had advice on negotiating over piecework. I'm currently looking at some academic copy-editing work for some extra cash. The initial email suggested the company pays between £5 and £10 per 1000 words depending on the type of editing being done. Now obviously, £5 doesn't interest me at all, but £10 feels a bit low to me too (I don't know what the usual per-1000 rate is, but it's probably well short of the £30 per hour suggested here).
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Jan 13, 2022 23:01
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Hand Knit posted:(I don't know what the usual per-1000 rate is, but it's probably well short of the £30 per hour suggested here). How many words can you edit in an hour?
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Jan 14, 2022 08:35
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OK, so, I've been getting some news articles in my feed lately about affiliate marketing, and wanted to ask this thread and see if anybody knew anything about it. I figure that if it's started to break into the mainstream news, then that means it's probably already too late to get in it, but I'm still curious.
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Jan 20, 2022 05:03
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You can still get into it but it's not solid gold like it used to be, it just ends up being a lot of work on blogging and stuff. What did you want to know?
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Jan 20, 2022 05:08
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Basically what sites to start with as well as maybe some tutorial vids/websites. I hate social media and have since it first existed, so this probably won't turn into anything for me, but like I said, I was curious because a work friend is more into it than me.
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Jan 20, 2022 05:42
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Affiliate marketing generally starts with "pick a niche you know enough about and/or can pretend to care about" and then finding products to sell through it. Amazon's affiliate program is the go-to for a lot of places, but it's a harder sell and less lucrative these days than it used to be. But, for example, if you search something like "the best web host for wordpress" you'll find a ton of blogs that review different web hosts, and every review has a link to a "special deal" that is just an incentivized affiliate link from that web host's affiliate program. Sites like Clickbank are offer hubs where companies that don't want to run their own affiliate programs can set up offers to run there, for example. https://ahrefs.com/blog/affiliate-marketing/ https://neilpatel.com/what-is-affiliate-marketing/ https://www.shopify.com/blog/affiliate-marketing https://www.locationrebel.com/how-to-start-affiliate-marketing/ You don't NEED social media to do affiliate marketing (and in fact a lot of social media ban direct affiliate marketing) but it often works out as a source for traffic. Mostly though, affiliate marketing is more or less the same as something like drop shipping or running your own online store; it all ends up revolving around running a blog, doing SEO work, traffic generation, and stuff like that. Disclaimer: I'm not an affiliate marketer myself, but I've written a bunch about it for blogs over the years. Someone more experienced can drop in and tell me I'm wrong if they want. I think we used to have an affiliate marketing thread somewhere too but I have no idea if it's still active. EDIT: it's this, and is archived. https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3447030 Nighthand fucked around with this message at 15:27 on Jan 20, 2022 |
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Jan 20, 2022 15:23
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Cool, thanks for the info Nighthand!
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Jan 20, 2022 23:50
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Fuschia tude posted:How many words can you edit in an hour? Having spent a few days copy-editing friends' work it looks like I can clear the 'minimum pay' guidelines from that site. So that's nice.
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Jan 21, 2022 00:29
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So I've been looking through this thread because I'm having something akin to a midlife career breakdown, and I'm not sure I can be a "professional" in my field much longer. Thankfully I have a really supportive partner who is far happier than I am in her work and able to support the two of us. She even offered to let me be a kept man. But I still have a few debts I'm paying down, and also I really feel like I'd need to make SOME money, so my question is: Does anyone have any thoughts on what the easiest/best/most reliable way to make maybe 25k a year or so on the internet would be? I am a capable writer but don't have any formal experience in copywriting or editing. I could potentially look at doing transcription work or something of that sort, but also I just....would love any ideas. I'm pretty loving burnt out and could honestly see spending a year or two doing absolutely nothing of note, so any thoughts here would really be appreciate.
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Jan 25, 2022 00:29
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MEIN RAVEN posted:So I've been looking through this thread because I'm having something akin to a midlife career breakdown, and I'm not sure I can be a "professional" in my field much longer. Thankfully I have a really supportive partner who is far happier than I am in her work and able to support the two of us. She even offered to let me be a kept man. But I still have a few debts I'm paying down, and also I really feel like I'd need to make SOME money, so my question is: Learn coding, security, cloud poo poo. Something chill. Making that much transcribing might be hard and it comes and goes. I'm personally sick of not knowing what's coming down the pipe and looking for a normal job. You can always buy and sell stuff. That's another idea. Go to garage sales, etc. Sell it online. Hit or miss though.
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Jan 25, 2022 01:13
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MEIN RAVEN posted:Does anyone have any thoughts on what the easiest/best/most reliable way to make maybe 25k a year or so on the internet would be? I am a capable writer but don't have any formal experience in copywriting or editing. I could potentially look at doing transcription work or something of that sort, but also I just....would love any ideas. I'm pretty loving burnt out and could honestly see spending a year or two doing absolutely nothing of note, so any thoughts here would really be appreciate. I do work for Writers Domain primarily these days, and unfortunately they are not actively hiring. But I'll throw in my two cents because it's in line with what you're looking for. In 2021 I made 27K writing an average of 5.08 article per day of their 400 word SEO articles per day, for an average of $14.53 per article. It probably takes 2 hours per day for me to do, and is decent side income. I am by no means an experiened or formal copywriter, I just reword basic garbage into their style guide. I am sure there is other SEO work in that price range. Maybe someone else in the thread can chime in. I like it because I can pick it up when I can do it. I usually knock out two articles during the morning before work, one during my lunch break, and then two more at night. Some days I don't do it at all. But it's easy money that I can knock out in typically 15 minutes if I have a good topic, a little longer if I have to do some basic research. I also do this in addition to my day job, so it is not my primary income. I'd get burned out if I wrote anymore than that per day
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Jan 25, 2022 01:16
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Astro7x posted:I do work for Writers Domain primarily these days, and unfortunately they are not actively hiring. Looks like Writers Domain has opened up registration again, but it is for writers for their 600 word articles that pay $27-$30 that are a bit harder to write, but work is plentiful for them.
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Jan 25, 2022 20:39
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Astro7x posted:Looks like Writers Domain has opened up registration again, but it is for writers for their 600 word articles that pay $27-$30 that are a bit harder to write, but work is plentiful for them. I'm definitely intrigued by this, so no reason not to look in to it. I have a friend who works in publishing and it would probably be good for me to get some work under my belt in case I ever want to switch to that. I do have a closet desire to be a writer... I do appreciate the thoughts so far and would love more, if anyone has them.
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Jan 25, 2022 20:43
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Writer Access is the other one I would suggest checking out. It's the one several of my writer friends get most of their lucrative work from, though I have zero idea how much of it is through direct orders, love lists, or whatever versus public orders. I haven't done the content mill circuit in years myself, ever since I was poached by a client who recognize me as the only one who ever sent in non-garbage. But, to give you an idea, I pulled in 85K from my writing last year, and I have at least two writer friends who topped that. IT can definitely get lucrative when you get the right kinds of connections.
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Jan 25, 2022 21:45
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When I looked at a couple of the writing sites in the OP, I could set my flag to American or British. Is there anything tricky about getting paid if you’re in Canada?
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Jan 25, 2022 23:23
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Nighthand posted:Writer Access is the other one I would suggest checking out. It's the one several of my writer friends get most of their lucrative work from, though I have zero idea how much of it is through direct orders, love lists, or whatever versus public orders. My friends that work for Writers Domain say that Writers Access is more lucrative, but yes, it is more work with fighting for open orders, getting on clients love lists, and a much slower start because of it. I really don't know much about it though. For me it's just too much pressure knowing that clients are actually reading that stuff. The WD 400 word SEO spam blogs are perfect for me, because I can just churn them out and don't worry too much about them, because someone is getting paid $1 to quickly review my article before it gets automatically published to some word press site where no one will read it except google bots. The Writers Domain 600 Word Onsite Blogs are actually put on client website and scrutinized much more because of that. I swear that the amount of time I've spent writing and revising one 600 word article for $30 I could have spent writing 3 of the 400 word ones for $45. And I also get paranoid about revision requests on those, because nobody ever sends the 400 word ones back for revision unless you have tons of grammar problems. I don't even proof read them anymore, I just send them off as soon as I finish
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Jan 25, 2022 23:27
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