Review of Textbroker

Every week, I’ll be reviewing one of the many freelance writing sites out there.  This week’s review is on Textbroker, which seems very popular, but does have some drawbacks.

Background

Textbroker is a content site that gives freelance writers the opportunity to write articles and get paid for them on a monthly basis.  When you apply for Textbroker, you need to submit a short writing sample on a topic that is given to you (they will not evaluate a previously-published sample).  If you are accepted, you are assigned a rating from 2 to 5, which is based on the quality of the sample you submitted.  Writers with high ratings have access to articles that have a higher per-word payment than those accessible to writers with low ratings.

When you log in to the site, you can click on the assignments tab and you will be taken to a page that shows you how many articles are available.  Click on the topic you want to write about and a list of available articles will appear.  Once you find an article you would like to write, click on it for a full description.  If you decide to write it, click on the button that says, “Yes, I would like to write this article.”  The deadline for each article is listed in the project details, so be sure to view it so that you can be sure to complete it on time.  If the article is not completed by the deadline, it will be returned to the queue and you will not be paid for it.

Positive Aspects of Textbroker

There are many positive aspects to writing for Textbroker.  The articles are usually easy ones that can be completed in about 10 minutes.  The longest it ever took me to write an article was 35 minutes, and that was an 1100-word article that required detailed research.  Many of the articles available only require 250 or 350 words, so you can complete them quickly.

Since Textbroker does the work of finding clients and making assignments available for you, you don’t have to spend as much time looking for your own clients and asking them if they have work available.  If you are hesitant to approach people about writing for them, writing for Textbroker may be a good alternative.

Textbroker pays on time every month.  In fact, they have always paid me earlier than their guidelines state they would.  The payment date for each month is the 10th, but I have been paid on the 6th of the month each time I have been paid.  It is nice to have a reliable payment coming in each month, especially when some private clients are slow to pay or disappear without paying for your work.

Textbroker is a good place for new writers to get their feet wet, as the application process is very basic and there is no interview required.  If you want to build a writing portfolio, you don’t have to work for free.  You can write for Textbroker and make some extra money while you build your credentials.

Negative Aspects of Textbroker

There are some negative aspects of working with Textbroker, especially if you are an established freelance writer.  One of the main drawbacks is that the pay is very low.  For a 250-word article, you can expect to make between $1.75 and $3.00, depending on the topic and the client’s instructions.  Established freelancers may not be able to justify accepting such a low rate.  However, an easy 250-word article may only take 7 or 8 minutes to write, especially if you already know a lot about the topic.  Even at 8 minutes per article, this is an hourly rate of $13 per hour.  If you live in an area where most jobs offer $9 or $10 per hour, writing for Textbroker may be a suitable place for you to get work.  If you’re used to making $25+ per hour, then Textbroker will likely be a waste of your time.

Textbroker has many writers, so there will be times where the topics you are interested in writing about will not have any available opportunities.  You can choose to wait for more opportunities to become available, or you can take on work in other topics.  While this might be a good way to branch out in your writing, you may become bored and have a difficult time motivating yourself to complete these articles.

Another drawback to Textbroker is that you have to request payment each month (payment is not automatically sent on a specific date).  The cutoff for a payment request is the 5th of each month.  You may get busy and forget to request payment, which means you would have to wait a whole extra month to receive payment.

Overall, Textbroker is a good place to find filler work that can supplement your writing income.  However, you should not spend so much time writing for Textbroker that you are unable to search for higher-paying writing opportunities.

Residual Income for Freelance Writers

Wouldn’t it be nice to keep making money from your writing projects long after you have completed them?  It’s possible as a freelance writer and it’s called residual income.  Simply put, residual income is when you do the work once and keep getting paid for it over and over again.  If you’re willing to put some effort in to completing things like articles, e-books, and blog posts, it is possible to keep a steady stream of revenue flowing, even during months when you do little or no writing work.  Let’s take a look at some types of residual income for writers.

Advertising Revenue

Instead of constantly working for others and allowing them to reap the benefits of your talent, why not set up your own Web site?  You can set up a large Web site dedicated to one topic or several smaller sites (also called microsites) dedicated to different topics that you are interested in writing about.  Once you have the site filled with content that you have written, you can get revenue by setting up advertising on each page.  You can use a program like Google Adsense, which displays ads on each of your pages and pays you each time someone clicks on one of those ads.  You can also sell advertising to other companies on a monthly or per-ad basis.  Even though you have completed the content for the site, you can keep earning money as long as you display ads on each page.

Books and E-books

Another way to earn residual income as a writer is to write a book or e-book.  Once you have done the work of writing the book, you will continue to earn income as long as the book is on the market.  You will need to decide whether a traditional book or e-book is right for you.  The credibility of being published by a traditional publishing house is an attractive prospect, but royalties may be minimal and you may need to spend an extensive amount of time marketing your book in order to make enough sales to keep getting paid.  An e-book is much easier to produce and distribute since you can use the power of the Internet to make the e-book available to thousands of people.  If you write and distribute your own e-book, you will also be able to keep a greater percentage of the profits.

Affiliate Programs

If you do not have the time or the interest in writing an e-book, you can sell other people’s products and make commissions for each product sold.  Research several affiliate programs to find products you feel comfortable promoting.  It would be best to stay away from any products that have many bad reviews or that are unethical in any way, since your reputation could be damaged if you recommended that type of product.  Once you have selected a product to promote, you can market it by writing a blog post with your affiliate link or sending an e-mail to your list with the product information and your affiliate link.  While this does take some effort, the commissions can add up to a substantial amount of money for very little work.

Revenue Share Content

Some Web sites allow writers to submit content and receive revenue share payments on that content.  This means that you will receive revenue based on ad clicks or the number of page views each of your articles receives.  You need to decide if this type of arrangement is right for you.  Some sites that offer revenue share/residual income opportunities do not offer up front payments for your work.  This means that there is a chance you could only make a dollar or two on an article that doesn’t get many page views.  However, you could make $3 per month every month for 5 years on a high-traffic article.  This means that you would make a total of $180 over the life of the article, which far exceeds what you would make if you submitted the article to a content site for an up front payment of $10 or $15.  Some sites to review if you are interested in this type of opportunity include Associated Content and eHow.

Set aside some time this week to look into residual income opportunities that can help you make more money.  With a little effort now, you can continue to reap financial rewards for years into the future.

Freelance Writing Income Guide

Welcome to the Freelance Writing Income Guide.  This blog is intended to be a resource for freelance writers at all levels.  Whether you are just starting out, or you’ve been writing for years, you’ll find information on passive/residual income, legitimate freelance writing opportunities, finding private clients, marketing your freelance writing business, managing the administrative aspects of freelance writing, and finding the best resources for building your career.

Posts will be made once per day from Monday through Friday, and comments from current freelancers or people who have a desire to begin a freelance writing career are welcome.  Thanks for stopping by.