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Nighthand
Nov 4, 2009

what horror the gas

Feel free to ask about current work, as some of this might change frequently enough that this is outdated. Also feel free to suggest new sites not on this list, especially if you've worked there and have firsthand experience to share.

Freelancers are not employees. Freelancers get shafted constantly. Be aware, be smart, don't let desperation drive you to do work for slave wages. Transcription for pennies per minute, writing for a fraction of a cent per word, people will try to get away with paying you far, far less than you're worth. Most of the sites below have some protection for freelancers (fixed pay rates, siding with freelancers rather than clients in disputes, etc) but that doesn't protect you from accepting work at a pay rate below what you're worth. The one saving grace of using these sites, generally, is that the client can't skip town and not pay you.

A sad fact of freelancing is that there is always someone desperate enough to accept work for third-world wages. Don't be that person. It hurts all of us in the long run, because clients learn they can get barely-passable work for a thin slice of a bean, so they won't post work or pay rates that the rest of us consider worthwhile.

If you want to hire some Goons to do some work for you, post a thread in the SA-Mart and link us if you want. All transactions should be handled in the appropriate forum.

A few things to note. The majority of these sites only work with US residents, so if you’re outside the US it may be hit or miss. This thread mostly deals with online money making, hence the title. Some things, like online tutoring and call center style work, are listed as well. In contrast, this thread isn't really for standard remote work (which has grown a lot since Covid). It's also not really for things like dropshipping and such, since "just go make a business" is kind of outside the scope of basic freelancing. It's a great idea if you can pull it off, though!

Writing

Isn't AI taking your jobs?

Not yet, and not entirely. AI writers like Jasper, ChatGPT, Google's Labs stuff, and so on are all... functional. They can produce acceptable content for low- and mid-tier blogging, and a lot of non-blog writing like product descriptions, meta data, and a lot of other grunt work that used to be the 20-cent garbage on sites like Textbroker. It can also put out fairly decent outlines and help with things like topic ideation. Basically, it's eating the lunch of anyone who was used to mindless drudgery and trash-tier writing. AI can also help create higher-quality blog posts and other kinds of high-end writing, but they can't fully replace it. Partially it's a matter of those higher-end companies paying more attention to style, tone, voice, and tiny details that the AI can't mimic, can't be consistent about, or ignores in prompts. Good writers can use it to speed up some of the more tedious parts of writing, but it's not going to do your whole job for you.

That said, plenty of companies are trying right now, so a lot of low- and mid-end writing work is drying up. One of two things will happen soon: either a bunch of those companies see that it isn't really doing what they need it to do and they go back to paying humans, or the AIs will improve enough that it really does come for us all. That, or Google finds a good way to detect AI writing and penalize it, or copyright legislation makes the basis of language model AIs a huge violation and kills broad models like ChatGPT, or something else comes through out of left field.

I recommend learning how to use the AIs, but not relying entirely on them, at least for now. After all, these companies still need people to know how to get the AIs to work, until such time as they can say "write me a blog post about X" and have it pump out something good.

Anyway, on with the writing sites.

There are a number of decent sites that come up all the time, so here’s the main ones.

Textbroker – Textbroker is a hub for freelance writers where you can pick orders out of a public pool. When you apply, they rate you from 1-5 stars, only not really. 1 star = not hired, and 5 stars is reserved for established writers who have taken the proofreading test. 2 stars isn’t worth working for, and 3 stars is low pay, low volume and hard to rise in the ranks. 4 stars is where 99% of the public work is. You can be promoted to 5 by taking their strict proofreading test and being rated highly enough. Increasingly more work is becoming available at 5, so if you can hit it, it's well worth it. Note: It seems they're requiring a photocopy of a picture ID as part of their application now. They're still legit, though. Note that it might take as many as 2-3 weeks to hear back from them about your application, and then you have a probationary period where you need to write five articles and have them rated before you can write more.

Textbroker has also shifted a lot towards "team orders", where you join a smaller pool of writers for a given client by applying to their teams. Some have nearly no requirements and accept anyone who hits the button, while others are really picky. Some have a ton of regular work, some have almost none or are sporadic, and some are defunct and it's hard to tell which is which at a glance. There's no cost other than the time to apply to them, though, and the price is often better than the public 4-star rates, so it can be worth just shooting out as many apps as you can.

Textbroker is an archetypal Content Mill. How do they work? Basically clients post assignments for X number of words, you claim and write them, and see if they’re accepted or rejected. 4 star assignments pay 1.4 cents a word. As you write, you can build connections with clients and they may invite you to a team (which is the same deal only a different price and a smaller writer pool, price varies from team to team) or direct orders (which you set the price for).

Supposedly they are changing their rating system to give better feedback and be more responsive to changes, so being demoted isn’t necessarily a death sentence. We’ll see how that works out.

Writer Access – An excellent site to work for, and it works just about the same way as Textbroker. There are a few differences that make WA better than TB. First off, if you're tenacious, you can change your rating more easily than on TB, largely through active communication with clients. If you're accepted in at 3 stars, you can pull yourself up to 4 after a couple of articles. It works the same way as TB with the open pool you can claim assignments from, with one major difference: you can only claim one from a given client at first. Once they accept it, you can freely write for that client, but until they do, you're stuck waiting. Once you've gotten initial articles in for a range of common clients (and applied to plenty of casting calls and gotten on some love lists) you'll have a stream of possible assignments to choose from.

Note that the platform is increasingly pushing to have clients post casting calls and not dump orders to the open pool. This makes it hard to get work if you’re not an established writer. On the flip side, new writers are given an hour (ish, unconfirmed) where they see new casting calls before older writers, letting them get applications in first. It’s a mess. If you can get work, WA pay is fantastic for content mills. If you can’t, it’s an exercise in frustration. They also have an algorithmic "match me up" system where they recommend available work to you based on your interests and experience, though it's still just open orders.

The application process is a little long (take your time writing blurbs and fill out as much as you can) and you should be in within a month. Definitely make sure you know the AP stylebook and take your time with the writer's test, since even though you can reach 4 stars with a little work, it takes a while to find that work.

Writer Access was recently purchased by Rock Content. As far as I know, this hasn't tangibly changed how it works, just their branding and resources (and less reliance on one kind of weird dude running the place) so presumably that's a good thing.

Constant Content – CC is a marketplace. You write whatever you like and post it, at a price you set. Then you wait and see if someone wants to buy it. It has a fairly reasonable average price per word, but it’s not good for guaranteed work. You might sell an article in an hour, or it might take six months. Definitely add it to your roster if you're a writer, because you can write multiple versions of one article (say for Textbroker) and post the second version here to sell. I've also had articles sell literal years after I posted them, so if you build up a large enough library it could be nearly passive income.

Constant Content also added their own order system similar to TB/WA, so you can work in that fashion on their site now too. I don't have firsthand experience with it to say how good or not it is now, though.

Zerys - Another site similar to TB and WA. Sign up, get rated, claim assignments, write them, submit them, make money. Your star rating is even easier to swing than TB or WA, and you need to have a high rating to see worthwhile assignments. The application process is a bit long and tedious, since you need to manually add industries you're willing to write about with their clunky series of drop down menus. A good site to diversify a little work, but not necessarily good for a primary income source. On the plus side, it only takes a few days to hear back from them about your application, the fastest of the writing sites by far. Suggested categories include Home & Garden, Business & Finance, and Cities & Locales for reasonably constant work.

Words of Worth - Another content mill. They have better rates than TB, though not as good as WA. No idea yet on volume, but it only takes a week or two to hear a response from their application process, so give it a try. Note that this site is based in the UK, and thus they hire... in Canada, the US and Australia. Presumably they hire in the UK as well, but that option is currently unavailable.

Writer’s Domain – Another content mill, and notorious for being basically SEO-spam articles. I would have thought it would be one of the first ones to disappear when AI got competent enough to write something readable, but surprisingly enough, thread regulars say it has plenty of work available and they've opened up hiring again. The application is short (though approval times can be long) so drop in an application and forget about it until they invite you in.

Verblio – A spec writing site slash marketplace hybrid. You register for the platform and then you’re free to write. Companies post topics they want articles about, and you write something for that topic and submit it. There’s no claimed articles or guaranteed acceptance like a content mill, however. If a client doesn’t want the article, they don’t have to buy it. If they do buy it, it’s generally $8 for 500 words, which is slightly higher than 4-star Textbroker level. You also earn points as you sell articles, which earn you rewards as you rack them up – including shares of the company if you rack up enough. I believe that any post that isn't purchased can be put into a library for future clients to buy, but I have no idea how well those sell, if they sell at all.

Note: The following section is about Amazon self-pub, which was a great opportunity when this thread first launched, got immensely saturated, and is now an AI-filled hellscape. Presumably there's still money to be found, but it's nowhere near the easy pickings it used to be. It's also full of links to threads that aren't active anymore, but you can still go read them if you want (and have Archives.)

Cetaphobia posted:

I thought I'd chime in that indie publishing on Amazon is a legitimate way to make money online as well. I am posting this here because a year ago, I'd have looked over self publishing with derision and focused on this thread.

Here's some things for you to read about it:

(OP Edit: All threads require archives and the discussion was pushed from SA to Goonreads.)
Ask Me About Being an Erotica Author!: PYF genital synonyms
Self-Published Erotica and You - Goonerotica is the best 'rotica
Self-Published Erotica and You, Part II - I guess what I'm trying to say is bukkake
And while romance and erotica will sell faster, it is not just limited to those genres:

Self-Publishing Goons (Amazon, B&N, Smashwords, etc)
Broke $1000 in one day for the first time yesterday from self-published books. $1001.50.
November sales numbers: ~ $28,790.00 (net profit, includes Amazon and B&N but excludes Smashwords).
Self Publishing Success Stories

So if you can write marginally well, you may want to look into this. Maybe the OP could add this information to the first post?

If you know of other writing sites, post them in the thread, with some basic info and compensation details. If they’re decent they can be added to the op.

Penny Work

KGB, ChaCha, Mahalo, Swagbucks, Xomba, Clickworker, MTurk, and so forth. These are all sites that you can get paid for doing simple tasks, like clicking links, doing quick surveys, and whatever else is posted. Very rarely something more lucrative will come up, but you’re not going to be making a living off these. Heck, most of them are dead and gone by now.

Surveys
Opinion Outpost, Ipsos ISay and Survey Savvy are the three I’ve personally used and cashed out money through. Someone in the thread also recommended Attapoll (referral code here if you want.)There’s tons of others out there. For the most part it’s $1-2 per survey, so you’re not going to make a living here either, but you can do one or two in your spare time and cash out $30 every month or so. If you’re a minority or in an odd demographic you’ll probably get through more surveys more often and pull in more cash.

Search Engine Evaluation
This was another major source of income for people in the thread. Formerly under NDA, enough people leaked what it does that Google came clean: basically, you become Google's search algorithm. Google pays these companies to pay freelancers to validate and verify search result pages, basically spot-checking for quality according to a 200+ page document of quality guidelines. You have to install a toolbar and track your time, and invoice them for your money, but it pays pretty decently.

Two of the companies formerly doing this merged (Leapforce was bought by Appen), so you currently have Appen as the go-to. Appen Link. They also seem to do some other kinds of freelancing now.

Similarly, the other option (Lionbridge) no longer seems to do the search rating, and instead looks to be focusing a lot more on AI translation. You can still check out Lionbridge to see what they have, but I have no idea what they offer these days.

Transcription

Transcription is the #1 most talked about method of making money in this thread, and most of the regulars here do it in some form. A couple of them even work for the houses involved and can hook up goon transcribers once you have six months of experience under your belt.

Kazmeyer is our resident transcription expert, so I’ll let him speak in his own words. (Note that this is fairly old, but you can still get the basics out of it, and ask in the thread for newer recommendations.)

kazmeyer posted:

Here's just a quick and dirty version. It was actually much longer than this, as I included some anecdotes, but when I looked at the size of the post, jeez.

So you want to be a transcriptionist...

First of all, let me tell you, you're making an excellent choice. Transcription is a fun, easy job that you can do from home on pretty much your own schedule, and you get exposed to all kinds of interesting subjects. It's also difficult and frustrating and mind-numbingly dull, and you'll have to sit through interviews with people you want to punch in the face. So let's get to it.

How much does transcription pay?

Generally, starting rates for transcribers are in the $.60-$.70 per minute range. Now, I know you just did some math and got excited, but calm down. That's per minute of tape, and when you're first starting out, you're going to be lucky to be able to do 15 minutes of tape in an hour of work. So starting out, you're going to be earning somewhere around 10 bucks per hour of actual work. Rates go up, however, especially if you get into media work. Rush work pays extremely well (files that need to be turned around in less than 24 hours), and specialty jobs -- like focus groups that pay by the page, or as-broadcast work, more on that later -- can pay a ridiculous per-minute rate when you average it out.

What do I need to get started?

Before you start transcribing, you're going to need a couple of things. First, you need a really good set of headphones. The audio quality of the files you recieve will vary, so a good set of closed cans to block out ambient noise is a godsend. You'll also need transcription software. The industry standard is Express Scribe, which is nice because it's free and most transcription houses will give you some instructions on how to get it set up and use it. It's definitely not the only one out there, however; I use a more full-featured program called Inqscribe, but it costs. Finally, you're going to need a pedal.

Really? A pedal?

Yes, really. You can work without one (most software will allow you to configure hotkeys to control the playback) but getting a ~$50 USB transcription pedal will vastly increase your speed. The reason is that it takes all the tape control functions away from your hands, which means you can just leave them on the keyboard the entire time instead of having to move off home row and hit a function key to jump back two seconds. This investment will pay for itself in a very short period of time.

All right, so I'm good to go?

Well, not exactly. Transcription seems like easy work on the surface, but not everyone can do it. One client told me that 90% of the transcribers he takes on wash out because the work drives them nuts. Before you apply anywhere, you should test yourself to see whether or not you can handle the work. Grab an audio file, preferably a stand-up or spoken word performance. Henry Rollins works AMAZINGLY well for this, because he personifies just about every bad speaking habit you'll find. Just make sure it's something recorded live with a single speaker. Queue it up, open up a text file, and transcribe what the guy says. Include all stutters, ums, uhs. If he laughs, put [LAUGHS]. If he coughs, put [COUGHS]. Be as accurate as possible. Every thirty seconds or so, double-space and start a new paragraph. Take breaks when you need to (you will need to) but keep transcribing until you've gotten about 30 minutes done. When you hit the 30 minute mark, you will have experienced what a typical transcription job is like. If you think you can do a couple of those a day for the forseeable future, go ahead and apply.

What's with the different types of transcription?

When you look for transcription jobs, you'll usually see them listed in one of four broad categories. First, and most common, is medical transcription, that being transcribing recorded notes from doctors and medical professionals. This is a technical trade, and most reputable houses require you to complete a training course before they'll take you on. The training can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars. Legal transcription is similar, but transcribing instructions for legal documents, and usually requires some experience in the field. General, Business, or Academic transcription is sort of a generic catch-all; this includes a wide variety of different clients and transcription styles, such as focus groups or business meetings, and is probably easiest to get into. And then there's my darling, media transcription.

Media? You mean like TV?

I mean exactly TV. Media transcription centers around the production of reality television shows and documentaries, although you can find yourself working on just about anything related to the field. Editing video apparently costs production companies something on the order of the soul of an orphan child per hour. Producing a timecoded transcript of raw video lets them cut an episode together on paper instead, saving time and money. Media work pays the best, not only in base per-minute rates, but in rush rates -- because a show has to be done by a deadline, and if they suddenly need to reshoot something, they're willing to pay an insane amount of money to get it done tout-suite. (Once, I had to do a transcript on a Friday for them to cut on Saturday for an episode of a show that was airing nationwide Tuesday. It paid astonishingly well and is probably my personal hourly income record.)

Media transcription also includes as-broadcast work, where you produce detailed transcripts of finished productions that can pay substantial amounts of money based on the complexity. (The most detailed ABS scripts include time codes of every shot in the episode, off-camera and on-camera dialogue, and can pay upwards of $100 for a 22-minute episode. You'll earn every dollar, though, they're a frigging nightmare to do.)

I'm in. Where do I apply?

There are a number of different transcription companies on the internet. Unfortunately, it can be kind of difficult finding work when you're just starting out -- not everyone wants to hire newbies, just because so many of them wash out. Go to a Craigslist aggregator, something that lets you search listings across the country, and scan for "transcription OR transcriber" starting somewhere in a Los Angeles zipcode (since most media companies are based there). You'll end up having to wade through a ton of medical listings, but you'll eventually find some general transcription jobs. Not everybody is always hiring, but most of them post ads on Craigslist when they are. Make a habit of checking it every few days.

Any leads?

Well, yes. There's a company called Focus Forward that is apparently almost always hiring. Their pay isn't the best -- works out to about $.66 per minute of tape for their standard jobs, and they have a bunch of weird specialty transcription types with different pay rates -- but they're pretty well-known in the business. If you apply there, pay VERY close attention to their style guide, and make sure you follow all the rules with their sample transcript.

Another outfit that hires regularly is Daily Transcripts. I can't say enough good things about these guys. Their base rate isn't that fantastic, about $.70 a minute for most stuff, but they're extremely good folks to work with, pay quickly, and have lots of opportunities for rush and otherwise more lucrative work. Plus, working for them is media transcription for your resume, which is key for getting into the really good jobs later on. Once you've got two years of media transcription on your CV, it's really easy to find work in this business.

Anything to watch out for?

Yes. First and foremost, any gig you sign up for should at a bare minimum make you fill out a W-9, sign an independent contractor agreement, and probably an NDA on top of that. If you don't fill out this paperwork at the beginning, it's almost guaranteed that at some point you're going to invoice them for a really heavy month of work and you're never going to hear from them again. Also, if a client suggests that a fair rate for transcription is anything south of .50 a minute, walk away. Especially if they want things done in a ridiculously tight turnaround. If you're doing a transcript in under 24 hours, you should be getting paid well for it.

Regarding the NDA: largely, it's not that big of a deal. Most of the work you're going to be doing is fairly dull stuff, nothing too secret about it. No one's going to throw a fit if you tell your friends, "Hey, I worked on some promo shoots for Alcatraz and did an episode of Toddlers and Tiaras", or even, "Hey, I got to do an episode of the second season of Game of Thrones and it was AWESOME". Revealing specific details or ESPECIALLY sharing video files, however, will get your rear end kicked. It's also there to protect any information that may come out in the files but isn't for public consumption, like if a certain well-known television star were to blurt out inbetween takes the story of that time he killed some guy in Canada. Which didn't happen, I'm just using a hypothetical story to illustrate a point. Really. Don't ask.

Also, pay very close attention to their orientation packets. If you end up working for multiple clients, you'll learn that not every one of them uses the same format, and they also may have completely different definitions of the word "verbatim". For instance, if one of my clients requests a verbatim transcript, that means no "um"s and "uh"s, but use slang where appropriate (gonna instead of going to, etc.). Another one wants every syllable the speaker utters, but convert slang into proper English and no "in'" endings. Focus Forward doesn't like the word "okay". Et cetera.

Watch your deadlines. Especially in the beginning, start slow. Most transcription outfits check your work after it comes in, so a tape that's due noon PST tomorrow is probably not due to the client right then -- but you'll make everyone's job a lot easier if you get it in on time. If you have a problem, let your handler know ASAP. The quickest way to stop being a transcriber is to start blowing deadlines left and right. By the same token, never be afraid to turn down a job if you think you're too slammed. They all understand you're probably working for multiple clients simultaneously, and telling a client, "I can't take this job because it will jeopardize someone else's deadline" is a good way to let them know you'd give their work the same consideration.

Isn't voice recognition going to kill the business?

Not for a while. Voice recognition software is getting better every year, and for industries where you have a lot of content from a single speaker who's willing to train the software, then yes, it may eventually replace transcribers. This is why I'd hesitate before taking on an expensive medical transcription course, personally -- although I think it'll be a cold day in hell before most doctors would waste the time training Dragon Naturally Speaking, that's the field most vulnerable to advances in technology.

Media transcription, on the other hand, features multiple voices, outdoor recordings, action sequences, stage directions, b-roll, timecoding -- all things that automation can't really deal with. For giggles one time I hooked up Dragon Naturally Speaking to my audio output and fed it an episode of Burn Notice. It was like Racter had a stroke. (Old school reference, anyone? Anyone? gently caress, I'm old.) In any case, media transcription isn't going anywhere anytime soon, so feel free to jump on board.
Daily Transcripts is this website: https://www.dailytranscription.com/ :siren:Daily Transcripts reviews applications when they think they need new freelancers. This means your application may take anywhere from a few days to several weeks to be reviewed, depending on the incoming volume of work.:siren:
Another site, Way With Words, is here. Note: They hire Canadians! http://www.transcriptioncanada.com/
:siren:Avoid GMR Transcription, they require a shitton of work, money upfront and all kinds of red flag bullshit.:siren:
You can also try Literably for some student test recording transcription.

Once you've been doing transcription for 6+ months and haven't burned out, you can contact thread regular Jedi Knight Luigi (JKL), he helps get goons in his transcription house, a step up from DT.

Most Goons seem to start with Daily Transcripts and tend to ask the same sort of questions. The big one is how long does it take to get back to you after the test. The answer: anywhere from a week to a couple months, depending on numerous factors. You can send them a message to ask about your test status if it takes too long. They will tell you if you fail, so no word is limbo, not rejection.

Slightly Used Cake posted:

Canadian transcribers, Transcription Divas has now rebranded to Transcipt Heroes. I've been on with them for about three weeks now, they've successfully paid me in a very timely manner, are awesome and seemingly have a nice chunk of work, most legal and research interviews, clean verbatim. I'd have a look if you're experienced. They're unfortunately not taking Americans. Pay is ranging so far from $1.16-1.46 CAD for clean verbatim. Their idea of tough audio so far seems to be an actual literal cake walk.

And if you're on LinkedIn link up with CaptionMax and then through there to a guy named Ashster who owns Syncwords. Ashster seems to reach out to people when he needs more bodies. Super awesome to work for, invoicing is every two weeks and he pays as soon as he sees it via PayPal. American and Canadian spelling so being Canadian seems to be an asset. not sure that they're actively recruiting right now, but then again he gave me a poke during everyone else's slow season and has since been hammering me with work.

I didn't want to recommend these guys until I knew they were good to work with and that they paid on time. So far I have had nothing but positive experiences with both companies.

Other Work
Upwork – Upwork is writing, but it’s also translation, programming, and other various freelance contracts. Basically it’s a site where you build and post a profile, and clients browse for people to work for them. Buyer Beware! Some of the work people will solicit you for is shady affiliate marketing scams and penny work. On the other hand, there’s some good stuff in there, if you build a full profile and put the effort into it. Worth checking out. This is also your go-to hub for a ton of profile-building, brand-building, and eventual high-tier work, if you can put in the time.
LiveOps - LiveOps is phone work, so it's not strictly online money making, but it IS legitimate work from home. There's a small fee upfront for a background check, something like $55 or so. Check Derek79's posts for extra information. Essentially, you take sales or support calls for various businesses, like being the person who is called when someone wants to buy Oxyclean or a Slapchop.
Mechanical Turk - Work crowdsourcing for Amazon. A lot of stuff on there is penny work, but if you're tenacious you can find some good jobs. See PurpleButterfly's post for more detail.

Fiverr – Fiverr started off as a site where you trade X service for $5. Usually the service is worth far more than $5, but since you’re competing with a bunch of outsourced Malaysians or whatever, it’s hard to get a foothold. However, with the addition of Gig Extras, you can end up with a base job worth far more than the basic $5. Here’s a good post about it by Rupert Buttermilk:

Rupert Buttermilk posted:

Hey guys, I just have to pop in to say that if any of you have any sort of skill or talent that you think people would pay money for, even transcribing, I'd highly recommend Fiverr. I know that it seems 'well, poo poo, it's only $5', and that's true... at first. But once you actually start getting gigs and at least build yourself up to level 1 (I think it required a 90% overall rating, and 10 orders completed), you can then get into using 'Gig packages'.

Gig packages are, first and foremost, ways to set your base price higher than $5 (which ends up being $4 USD, after Fiverr takes their 20%. In Canada, it comes out to still around $5 because of the exchange :toot:) For my specific case, I started out in December without knowing anything about the site or how I should be pricing things. I'm a sound designer and composer, and I was writing 30-seconds of music for $5, and it sucked. I then changed that to $5/15 seconds of music, but it was still kind of rough, because that is an extremely low price.

Obviously, doing work like that on this site STILL means you're probably busting your rear end way more than if you were on a real-life contract, but here's where you can tip the scales in your favour... use gig extras. Gig extras combined with gig packages has literally turned an order that would be $5-15 into a baseline $40 and I'll explain how.

Gig extras are little things that you can have the buyer request for additional costs. So, $5 for 15 seconds of music. I state upfront that it's going to be a 320kbps mp3 file. Now, the buyer has the option to also get a high-quality, uncompressed .wav file for $10. Know how much work is required to create that version? One click. So, right there, that's tripled the price. I also add in the option to get all of the audio tracks I used as separate audio files. That's still no real extra work, I charge an extra $10 for that, and people have bought it. There's the option to add extra revisions (I include 2 by default), as well as an option to speed the timeframe up. My usual timeframe for gigs was (pre-'gig packages') something like 6 days, but if they want it in 2, then they can pay extra for it. Granted, I usually bust a gig out in a couple of hours, but they don't know that. Usually, the difference between a gig due in 6 days vs one due in 2 is merely scheduling.

As for gig packages, as I mentioned, you can set your base price at whatever you want. Packages offer 3 levels of your gig, which is like 'Standard', 'Premium', and 'Pro'. To put it shortly, 'Good', 'Better', 'Best'. Since setting up my gig with gig packages, I no longer offer $5 for 15/seconds. My base price is $10. Doesn't seem like a huge jump, but in the long run, it'll add up. Another benefit to gig packages is that it makes it that much easier for a customer to just quickly buy your service without having to screw around with extras, as you can include some extras in your tiers automatically, and buyers STILL have the option to add other extras in there.

Here are two screenshots of my order page (my username not included, as I'm not trying to sell to you guys. If you ARE interested, PM me. Goon discount, free extras).

Oh, I should also mention that the reason I put the word 'podcast' in my gig packages is because 99% of people who order from me are looking for podcast music. I had no idea there was such a huge demand for that, and I've updated my keywords to play to that strength, help with my profile's SEO stuff.





I know I've rambled on and on, and I'm sorry if this seems to be all over the place, but I think I've finally come through to that feeling of 'oh poo poo, I could ACTUALLY make quite a bit of money here', vs how I used to feel, which was 'Fiverr is only good for getting some spare change, here and there'. If you're willing to pretty much nickel-and-dime the poo poo out of buyers with some things but still offer quality work, they WILL still buy, and you'll profit.

I've heard that the voice over and video testimonials section of Fiverr is some of the most profitable work you can get on there, and they DO have a transcribing section as well. I pretty much stick to music, since that's what I know best. :shobon:

Edit: PRO TIP: When starting out, ask a friend (or three) to sign up and submit a gig request for your stuff. Hell, pay them the $5 in advance so they're not out anything, because at that point, getting traffic to your profile is the most important thing, so completed, 5-star gigs are an excellent way to get noticed. I had two friends do this for me and it really helped. Just a note, though... It's best if your friend pretends they've stumbled across your profile, and that they carry on the full request within Fiverr so it doesn't look fishy. I've heard of people getting suspended when it seemed like they were extending their gigs outside of the site. Just have your friend message you on there with the request and details and you should be fine; don't have them put through an order with just the words "What we talked about, you know what to do."
Affiliate Marketing – This one is a huge topic that deserves (and might have) a thread of it’s own. It isn’t talked about much in this thread usually. The Warrior Forum and other similar sites offer a ton of information to get started.

Tutoring Tutor.com allows you to do some online tutoring on various subjects. Here's a great post about it:

Udelar posted:

OP asked for more information about Tutor.com, so here we go.

Until a few months ago I worked at Tutor.com. I left when I was offered a full-time teaching position elsewhere. I can confirm that they're entirely legit.

Requirements:
1) You must live in the US or Canada, but must not live in New York State.
2) You must be at least 18.
3) You must be attending college or have a Bachelor's degree (not necessarily in the subject you are teaching)
4) You have to pass a test in one of the subject areas they need. When I worked for them, their highest-need areas were Calculus, Statistics, Physics, and (especially) Chemistry.

(They also were in need of bilingual tutors for students whose first language is Spanish or Vietnamese, but they don't teach languages; these tutors would help students with their ordinary coursework but provide that help in the student's language. I only speak English so I don't know much about that part of their offerings.)

Application Process: You apply on their website and take tests to prove that you know enough to teach a subject. They get a writing sample from you to prove that you know how to communicate in text. Passing more tests makes them more interested; they sat on my application for months when I only had the Algebra Test passed, but as soon as I made it clear that I could do Trigonometry and Calculus they emailed me the next day. More subjects = More Students = More Hours.

If you get selected they'll have you send in some paperwork, link you to some basic training materials, and eventually schedule you for an interview/mock session with a Mentor. The mentor will pretend to be a student with a typical problem from one of the subject areas you passed a test in. After the mock session the mentor will provide some feedback and helpful suggestions. For me, the entire process from passing the Trigonometry test to starting work took about a week.

What it's like: You run a program on your side that matches you up with students requesting help in your subject area. You are paid an hourly rate. You can work in either of two different ways: you can schedule hours, for which you will be given priority as students connect, and you will be paid a (lower) waiting rate when not connected to students, or you can "float", which gives you lower priority as a tutor but since you're unscheduled if something comes up you can just go. Both scheduled and floating tutors get paid the same rate when they are connected to students. When I left, scheduled hours were exceedingly hard to come by. Even top-level tutors like myself would typically only be able to grab 10 or so scheduled hours per week. There is a hard cap of 30 hours per week. In practice this cap is difficult to hit; when schools were in session, as one of their most prolific tutors I typically only had about 20-25 hours per week.

After every session, students are asked to leave feedback on how they felt the session went; this student feedback score is the most important number for you. Consistently high feedback with many sessions gives you promotions and bonuses. Consistently low feedback gets you fired.

There's not really any way to communicate with your fellow tutors except your mentoring team, so you kind of feel isolated. I think it would have been great to have "tutor's lounge" forums or something along those lines. It probably would have kept me more focused on my job if I'd had something to do besides browse SA while I was waiting on kids to connect.

All in all, it was a pretty decent job, and it got me to develop the skills that are now earning me a professional salary.

I tutored all of the maths, so my work had probably 60% high schoolers, 30% college students, and 10% middle schoolers. Algebra I/II were my most frequented subject areas, but it was pretty balanced overall between Calculus, Statistics, Trigonometry, Geometry, and Algebra I and 2.

I honestly don't recall the waiting pay rate, as I almost always had students during scheduled hours. Active pay rate started at $9/hr when I was a probationary tutor. Your probationary period is over once you've got enough sessions turned in, and then your pay becomes either $10/hr if you tutor only low-need subjects, or $12/hr if you tutor at least one high-need subject (Note: if you've passed a test in a high need area, you get the higher active rate even when you're tutoring one of the other subjects). Regular active pay topped out at $14/hr for Tutor IIIs in high need areas. When I left there were incentive bonuses in Statistics and Chemistry of $.50 per session (most sessions are about 20 minutes long). There were also special programs for highly skilled and rated tutors that I participated in that had higher incentive bonuses.

The bonus structure is a percentage of your base pay and rewards you for 1) Having high student satisfaction ratings and 2) Completing a high average number of sessions per hour. I believe bonuses ran from 4% up to 20%, and like everything else at Tutor.com was automatic and based on your performance metrics only.

Other Goons Occasionally a fellow Goon with some work available will post in the thread. Keep an eye out. Another place for this is in SA’s Freelance thread. Note: Any actual goon-to-goon work should be done in a thread in SA-mart.

About Taxes

For the majority of these sites, you’re a 1099 contractor. This means that none of your income is withheld for taxes. That means you’ll need to set aside a portion of your income to pay taxes. The amount varies depending on how much you make. Personally I set aside 20%, but that’s because it also partially serves as my emergency fund. You might also have to file taxes quarterly. It’s a big turn-off for freelance work but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. You only have to pay taxes after you’ve earned a certain amount. I’ve heard $400, $600, and other numbers tossed around. The general idea is that if you’re earning a decent income, you’re paying taxes. If you’re making $10 a month off of surveys, you don’t even register on the government’s radar.

For more specific tax advice, either go to the Tax Questions thread right here in BFC, or visit a tax professional.

For historical record: Legitimate Online Moneymaking Round 2 (The old thread) forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3284002

As always, if you have something worth adding, post it in the thread and I'll try to update it some time in the next 3-6 years.

Nighthand fucked around with this message at 18:22 on May 17, 2023

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Nighthand
Nov 4, 2009

what horror the gas

unixbeard posted:

I was looking to hire a writer, I have a bunch of instructional material on subjects like finance or computer science and was wondering if I could get them summarised. Most of the content isn't that challenging there is just a lot of jargon. Is it feasible for a writer to make summaries or would they really need domain expertise? Even if they did the bulk of the writing up I could always go through and proof/fix it up myself.

Assuming it is possible, where would be the best place to find a writer, and about how much would I be looking at for a summary of a 50 page chapter?

I do summaries and re-writes of articles on topics I'm unfamiliar with all the time for Textbroker. They pay by the word of the produced article, not of the source material, so that's probably what you would look for payment-wise. Figure out how long you'd like the summaries to be, or how much you'd be willing to pay total, and go from there.

For reference, a 4-star article on Textbroker earns a writer 1.4 cents a word. They charge an added fee of like 30% or something like that, so the client pays 1.7 cents or so a word. Without the middleman you're more free to negotiate with the writer or writers you choose.

I'm sure several of the writers in this thread would be willing to give it a shot, myself included. I don't have PMs, but if you want to send me a message at my username at gmail, you can.

Nighthand
Nov 4, 2009

what horror the gas

Dr. Kyle Farnsworth posted:

Anybody done any writing work for these guys? http://www.interactmedia.com/

Just curious how legit it is.

Nexus42, send me a PM or give me an email address and I'll send you some of mine that have gotten approved on Textbroker.

Reading their FAQ I'm seeing a few things that raise red flags for me. (http://www.interactmedia.com/writers-faq/)

"Occasionally, visitors to the YoExpert site will read these sample articles and request answers to questions. If you have a question pending you will be notified and asked to answer the question. Once the question is answered, your account will be reactivated. This answer article is unpaid; however, the revenue we earn from YoExpert helps us keep our service free for all writers (unlike other writer platforms that charge writers a monthly fee or require them to purchase bid credits to get jobs.)"

Your account will be reactivated? I can't tell if they mean the YoExpert account reactivated so you can answer, or your writing account will be reactivated once you answer. Either way, it's work that's unpaid and it doesn't sound like you have the option to not do it.

"Do I get paid for words that are edited out?
Writers are only paid for the amount of words that are approved by the client. During the review process, some of your content may be removed. You will not be paid for this content. The client will only pay for the amount of content that they can use."

So at any time a client can decide 50% of the work you submitted to them isn't something they wanted, and only pay you 50% of what you agreed on, even though you have no guarantee they won't just take the content anyway.

"In the Marketplace, clients are trying out writers to determine who will be a good fit for their projects. Therefore, the first page that you write for a new client should be considered a sample page that may or may not be accepted. You are trying to prove yourself to that client so that they will add you to their Favorite Writer's List, and assign you more work in the future. "

So you're writing for assignments that the client can then decide they don't want you for and your work goes to waste. You don't get paid for it, but a client can offer you lower prices on it 'as an acknowledgement of time spent' (which seems potentially open to abuse.)



They could be legit or they might not, but with the site skimming 20% off of any agreed on price, and with clients setting the rate, you might end up working for pennies. Without registering and actually getting in to see the prices on offer, I couldn't say if it's solid or not.

Nighthand
Nov 4, 2009

what horror the gas

I wouldn't say TB is more worthwhile, just that they're different styles. CC definitely requires writing stuff that's going to sell (meaning knowing the market) and pricing things competitively. If your articles don't sell, you don't get paid. TB is at least a somewhat guaranteed string of possible assignments.

Anyone that writes for any of these sites should try Constant Content, for sure. If nothing else, an assignment posted on Textbroker is a topic someone is buying, and you can re-write your own article and post it on CC.

Nighthand
Nov 4, 2009

what horror the gas

I don't recall having to do that to get into Textbroker, but I might have and just don't remember it.

Nighthand
Nov 4, 2009

what horror the gas

That came up a page or two back I think, it sounds like it's a thing they do now. I wonder if they were getting too many people from countries they can't send tax documents to or something.

Nighthand
Nov 4, 2009

what horror the gas

It's worth it for the short term (6 months or so) but gets less so the longer you do it. They're prone to getting rid of people for no reason and the work gets mind numbing after long enough. It's a good paycheck while it lasts though, just don't expect to be doing it a year from now. You might be (some people are) but most people don't last.

Nighthand
Nov 4, 2009

what horror the gas

On a similar note, Textbroker either hired a ton of new writers or cleared out a huge amount of their assignments that had been sitting there for weeks or months with no takers. It's down to under 200 4-star assignments (when two weeks ago it was in the 800 range). I watched 100 assignments get posted between 2am and 6am, and by 8am they were all gone. Looks like TB competition is going to be fierce for a while, until people settle down, quit, are demoted, or otherwise stop fighting for the 4-stars.

I really need to pass that ridiculous loving proofreading test and get into five stars.

Nighthand
Nov 4, 2009

what horror the gas

Great info all around guys. Doghouse, I don't know how well they'll like you moving. I've heard Leapforce would fire people for moving for some reason or another, so maybe Lionbridge is the same. You might be able to skate by without telling them and risk being dropped if they find out, or you could try to contact them and ask (and risk being dropped when you move because now they know.) I personally don't have experience changing addresses with them either way. Heck, as far as I know you're the goon who has worked with one of those two companies longer than any others.

Cetaphobia posted:

I thought I'd chime in that indie publishing on Amazon is a legitimate way to make money online as well. I am posting this here because a year ago, I'd have looked over self publishing with derision and focused on this thread.

Here's some things for you to read about it:

Ask Me About Being an Erotica Author!: PYF genital synonyms
Self-Published Erotica and You - Goonerotica is the best 'rotica

And while romance and erotica will sell faster, it is not just limited to those genres:

Self-Publishing Goons (Amazon, B&N, Smashwords, etc)
Broke $1000 in one day for the first time yesterday from self-published books. $1001.50.
November sales numbers: ~ $28,790.00 (net profit, includes Amazon and B&N but excludes Smashwords).
Self Publishing Success Stories

So if you can write marginally well, you may want to look into this. Maybe the OP could add this information to the first post?

I can certainly add this to the OP. It's of personal interest to myself as well, since even though I do a lot of crappy content writing I want novel/store/game writing to be my primary income eventually. Thanks for the nice easy links to paste! =D

Nighthand
Nov 4, 2009

what horror the gas

Back when I worked with Leapforce, I would occasionally log in from my parents' home a couple hours across the state. It was still the same state though, and it wasn't permanent. They never said anything to me about it.

If your bank account can set up automatic transfers to your new bank, or if your new one has branches in your new location, I'd say go for it. You just don't want to get stuck with money going into an account you can't access.

As for why they care, I have no idea. They may spread out their hires around the country, or different states may have different 1099-related tax laws they have to work around, or who knows. Maybe one of their staff has a grudge against North Dakota.

Nighthand
Nov 4, 2009

what horror the gas

Dear Textbroker Client: If you want "thoughtful and well thought out revisions" when all you give me as a comment is a grammar change, shove off. I'm not spending an hour revising an article you're paying me $5 for, especially not when it was a challenge cramming in all the info you wanted anyways. Also, there's the 5-star level if you want better next time.

Sincerely, Passive-Aggressively Posting on an Internet Forum You'll Never See.

Nighthand
Nov 4, 2009

what horror the gas

RabbitMage posted:

I keep getting docked by TB's editors for my comma usage, but ~my girlfriend~ got the mother of all insults today. Her client rated an article as low as they possibly could and left a comment akin to "You, should, review, your, overuse, of, commas!" with a suggestion she sign up for Grammarly (which turns out to be horrible, expensive, and the sample edit she did gave her a virus).

I'm looking forward to getting some stuff done on Constant Content.

As an aside, has anyone writing for Monachy heard from him lately?

I've gotten a looooot better about commas because of this site. I used to overuse them a lot as well, and I still get docked for them occasionally. At least most of my TB editorial reviews are either no comment or "great job pleasing this client!"

I find the TB editors far more constructive than I've ever gotten a comment from a client. Which stands to reason, of course. Clients are stupid.

Nighthand
Nov 4, 2009

what horror the gas

Exactly. It's really variable. With a good selection of articles, I can clear $15+ an hour writing them quickly (4-star level). With a bad selection, it can take me a whole day just to find and write two $5 articles. I don't even touch 3-star ones.

In the last week or so, there's been a lot more competition for the good articles, it seems like. I see them disappear a lot faster than I used to, and there's a generally lower number of available opps. So, at the moment I doubt it'd support as much as a part-time job would, but it works as a supplement.

Nighthand
Nov 4, 2009

what horror the gas

How long are the stories you write? Is it more on the order of 2K words or 10K?

Nighthand
Nov 4, 2009

what horror the gas

Scaramouche posted:

Just signed up for TextBroker, but as a client not an author. Do you guys have any advice on how to make compelling postings so I only get the bestest authors?

EDIT-Also, is it worth checking out the others? I got the impression that TextBroker was the biggest one. The field is engineering/science/industrial.

Be specific about what you want out of a writer. Revisions are good, rejections are bad -- work with us. Provide sources if you can. If you find an author whose work you really like, go to them for direct orders -- it may be more expensive but you don't risk having some random schmoe claim it and give you work you don't like. If you have multiple favored writers you can set up a team and invite them to it.

Be careful with your keyword requirements. Try to make sure your required keywords make sense to use as-is in english. You'd be surprised how often something virtually impossible to work in comes up.

As for checking out other sites in the role of someone paying for writing: that's up to you. If what you get from Textbroker is satisfactory in terms of speed, quality and price, stick with them. If you're not satisfied, check out a different site and see if it works better for you. E-Lance has pretty robust profiles you can check out, same with oDesk I believe.

LactoseO.D.'d posted:

Long shot: Does anyone here make money playing Diablo 3?

There's an entire D3 economy thread in the Blizzard Games subforum: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3484844

I wish I could, I'd love to play that game and it's auction house, but I don't have a computer that can run it or the funds to buy one.

Nighthand
Nov 4, 2009

what horror the gas

They have been a bit more concerned with client instructions recently, one of their blog posts was encouraging writer feedback on the instructions and getting clients a better set of guidelines. Up until memorial day, there were upwards of several hundred assignments that had been sitting there untouched for weeks, if not months, because of how bad the instructions were.

I don't know how everything looks from the client side, only from the writer side, so I just gave you what I like out of clients. I also tend to cherry-pick my articles more than some people, but in general the easier it is for a writer to write what you want, the better it is for everyone involved.

Nighthand
Nov 4, 2009

what horror the gas

The proofreading test is absurdly difficult for something you can only miss one out of ten to pass. Especially since if something is incorrect according to AP style and correct according to Textbroker's rules, it's correct according to the test. There's just no defined place to find Textbroker's guidelines and what differs.

Nighthand
Nov 4, 2009

what horror the gas

Textbroker also debuted a new thing. They're called Expert Orders. Currently they're highly screened and only for people with various financial certifications. Specifically, "All authors have been pre-screened for industry-specific, standard certifications, including CFAs, CFPs, CPAs and Series 7."

However, if anyone actually possesses those certifications, it could be a goldmine. I don't know how much work there will be, but the pay rate is 20 cents a word.

https://www.textbroker.com/us/news.php

Edit: I had listed 25 cents a word, which is what clients pay. Writers get 20 of that.

Nighthand fucked around with this message at 15:50 on Jun 28, 2012

Nighthand
Nov 4, 2009

what horror the gas

kazmeyer posted:

(Related note: If you ever see an ad for Winged Words Transcription or Linda Britt wanting to hire transcribers, run the gently caress away.)

Want me to add that to your wall of text in the op?

I did edit a couple lines of the op to reflect taking all commerce to SA-Mart. I figure people can post links here to their SA-Mart threads if it's in the topic of this thread, but that there has to be a thread in SA-Mart to begin with. At least that's how I interpret it.

Nighthand
Nov 4, 2009

what horror the gas

DarthBlingBling posted:

Textbroker UK emailed out asking for proof-readers. They pay 0.3c a word and jobs are available to anyone with a 4-5 star rating and passes a short test. The test can be taken when you log in. Might be available in the US as well.

No idea how well that will pay.

I haven't seen notice of it for the US version, so either they're behind on notifications or it's just for the UK folks.

Scaramouche posted:

Anyone got the 411 on TextMaster? It showed up in my techcrunch feed and from a functional standpoint it looks incredibly similar to textbroker.

I haven't seen them come up before, but it might be worth checking out. It looks like the more volume you put out, the more you're able to make per 100 words. According to their introduction pages, the lowest level (0-9999 words of content in an unspecified period of time) is $1.40 per 100 words, which is 1.4 cents a word, identical to Textbroker's 4-star amount. Though they might take commission out of that, which would lower the writer's income.

Looks like TextMaster's benefit is if you're writing stuff at the Standard or Expert levels instead of just the Basic level, where the price goes up to 4.2 and 11.2 cents a word respectively. I can only imagine that the number of assignments at that level are slim, but without signing up I can't say for sure.

As for the time period to rack up enough words of production to rank up, I'm wondering if it expires at all. The top tier is 5,000,000 words +, which would be completely impossible in a month or two unless you spent every waking moment writing. It could be rewarding long-time workers as a pay increase over time.

Let us know if you investigate further and make out like a bandit before the goonrush.

Nighthand
Nov 4, 2009

what horror the gas

Oh, okay. Yeah, I haven't seen TextMasters come up in this thread or the previous one before, so your guess is as good as mine. I do intent to register and see how it looks for inclusion in the OP though.

Nighthand
Nov 4, 2009

what horror the gas

Yeah, that looked a bit weird to me. The writer side doesn't look like it deals with the credits, at least from their preview.

They do mention that if a client receives work from a writer that they don't approve of and reject, and that the staff agrees with the rejection, that the writer has to start over and try again until the client is satisfied. So as a client, you at least have a reasonable guarantee you get something usable out of it.

Nighthand
Nov 4, 2009

what horror the gas

RabbitAmbulance posted:

Is it really permissible for Textbroker clients to post orders with a set word count, but then threaten to reject submissions if they aren't several hundred words beyond it? That seems shady as all hell.

"Yes we want 600 words, but will only pay you for 300 of them." Yeah, okay.

I haven't run across that, but I'd definitely contact the TB staff about it. If "not doubling the maximum word count" is the only rejection reason, it's totally not legit.

Nighthand
Nov 4, 2009

what horror the gas

You log in and you're given an interface with available tasks you can claim and do. When you're done, you claim and do another one. As long as you're working, you note down the times started and ended for each task, and bill Leapforce for that time at the end of the month. If there are no available tasks you can't work and thus can't bill them for time. On the flip side, you can work whenever you want day or night for as little or as long as you want, assuming tasks are available.

The one down side with weekends is that more people work weekends, so you're more likely to encounter no available tasks. Whether or not you do depends more on the amount of work Leapforce has available than the number of people online, though.

Nighthand
Nov 4, 2009

what horror the gas

Has anyone writing for Textbroker had an article accepted and then had it later revoked for any reason? Other than plagiarism, I mean.

I wrote an article, and it was accepted after the 72 hours or whatever. Now the client sends me a message, asking if it's too late for revisions (in a slightly insulting tone, no helpful criticism and no offer to compensate for further work.) I'm slightly worried that they may be able to escalate it and somehow force me to work more on it or get it rejected, though I think the whole auto-accept thing is in place to protect writers from exactly this kind of thing.

I just want to know if there's any precedent I should worry about, or if I'm pretty much safe. I wouldn't even care if it was some $5 thing, but it's $72, which is relatively significant for me.

EDIT: Their Refund Policy makes me feel much safer.

quote:

Textbroker.com has a 3-day auto-acceptance policy. You have three days (72 hours) to take action on an article once it has been submitted to you. The 72 hours includes weekends, so an article delivered on Thursday will be auto-accepted on Sunday. If you do not take action on an article after 72 hours, the article will automatically be accepted. There are no refunds available for accepted articles.

So yeah. Leaving the question and answer for posterity.

Nighthand fucked around with this message at 05:26 on Aug 9, 2012

Nighthand
Nov 4, 2009

what horror the gas

Yes, feel free to post your opportunities here, but make sure you have a linked SA-Mart thread for the actual transactions to take place in. Consider this thread advertising, not deal-making. That way the mods in SA-Mart can keep everything where it needs to be with all the accountability that entails, and this thread doesn't turn into classifieds.



On a Textbroker note, I received a bonus from a client for the first time today. I didn't even know they could do that. I just got an e-mail saying someone paid me a free $7 for the fast turnaround of an article that was only $8 to begin with.

Nighthand
Nov 4, 2009

what horror the gas

I always figured it was the kind of thing you do while you're doing other things. Work on writing an article, browse forums, read or whatever, just refresh occasionally to see if there are any tasks.

They made that harder with that whole "closing other windows" thing, though.

Nighthand
Nov 4, 2009

what horror the gas

Google looks at those two pages as separate websites. It will see the article posted on both of them and assume one of them stole the content. One article might not have a huge effect, but there's also the keyword focus issue. Each site presumably has different sets of keywords it focuses on, and all content on that site is optimized to take advantage of those keywords. So the duplicate article would need to be tweaked (and then look like spun content, which Google penalizes) or suffer from not utilizing the keywords it could be.

Generally, copied content is a bad idea. You could just as easily have the article rewritten for the other site.

I swear there was a dedicated SEO thread somewhere, but I don't see it. Maybe I'm just thinking of a defunct A/T thread about it. EDIT: There's this thread but it hasn't had a post since August, so no telling how active it is.

(Also anyone here who is more of an SEO expert can contradict me, I'm not a guru in the field, I've just written about it a lot for Textbroker)

Nighthand fucked around with this message at 20:31 on Oct 11, 2012

Nighthand
Nov 4, 2009

what horror the gas

It's hard to tell if you're not phrasing your assignments well enough for the average Textbroker writer without seeing one, but keeping them assigned to the proper categories is never a bad thing. You could also create a team and set a sample assignment as the entry requirement, so you can see how your prospective writers write before you allow them into the team. 5 cents a word is 5-star level on TB, so even if you set the team at 3-ish cents a word its still more than a 4-star writer gets from open orders.

Nighthand
Nov 4, 2009

what horror the gas

It already blows my mind that you managed to stick with it as long as you did.

Nighthand
Nov 4, 2009

what horror the gas

Excellent information. What were the pay rates? Does it cater mostly to high school level tutoring, or college level too? Like, what level of math was your most-called-upon skill?

Nighthand
Nov 4, 2009

what horror the gas

Excellent information, I'll add it all to the op.

Nighthand
Nov 4, 2009

what horror the gas

When they do it, they'll do all five of them at once, because the editors go through and rate a ton at a time. Having written for them for a year now, I tend to get reviews of my stuff once a month, sometimes longer -- the most recent one was two months and a week since my last one, and rated something like 90 articles. They should do yours soon though, I know it didn't take them a month to give me my initial rating.

Nighthand
Nov 4, 2009

what horror the gas

Yeah, this thread is more for off-site earning opportunities, SA-Mart is the best place for Goon-on-Goon deals. They have systems in place to deal with such things.

Of course, if you're a Goon and post assignments on Textbroker or oDesk or Elance or whereever, you have the third-party site regulating the transaction, and could probably post it here without issue.

In Textbroker news, I wrote my 500th article the other day, and promptly claimed a massive project that's worth about 2/3rds what I make in a typical month. Hopefully they'll like what I produce and I can slack off for part of January.

Nighthand
Nov 4, 2009

what horror the gas

Well, Textbroker's copy editing seems to be done by their in-house team. Demand Studios had copy editing work, but as far as I know it never paid well to begin with and who knows if they still hire for it. You might be able to pick up such jobs on one of the freelance boards (oDesk, Elance) but I have no idea how available it is, if at all.

That said, if you do find anywhere that hires copy editors and has a decent pay rate and work availability, by all means let us know. Most people here seem to be keen on the writing end of things, so that's what gets talked about. That, transcription and Leapforce work.

Nighthand
Nov 4, 2009

what horror the gas

Kaz and the DT crowd, how much can you say about what it actually is you're transcribing? I imagine some stuff (like your high end media work Kaz) is under NDA, but is everything similarly tightly controlled?

Nighthand
Nov 4, 2009

what horror the gas

kazmeyer posted:

(In X's case, I can't reveal anything, and I even had to agree to sign the NDA before I knew who X was.)

They take the FMV sequences for Charles Barkley's Shut Up and Jam Gaiden 2 very seriously.

Nighthand
Nov 4, 2009

what horror the gas

I don't do them regularly, but I cashed out $20 in amazon credit the other day from Opinion Outpost. Survey Savvy is the other one I did, but they haven't had one I qualify for in like six months, so whatever. I haven't tried the others, but if you want to give a quick rundown or a link or something I can spruce up that section of the OP.

Nighthand
Nov 4, 2009

what horror the gas

And if you do Leapforce/Lionbridge, you can hope one of your pages comes up for rating, and rate it super hyper relevant!

I did once encounter a Brighthub page when I worked for both them and Leapforce. It wasn't one of my pages though.

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Nighthand
Nov 4, 2009

what horror the gas

I just find the experience useful since now I write a lot of SEO articles for other sites and can put some of what I learned through Leapforce to use SEO-wise. Though, to be fair, at this point that basically means "your content isn't lovely".

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