These broker sites appear to be Panda-proof, because they are not posting articles on one huge website, but instead selling them directly to customers, who typically use them on highly targeted sites.
Recently I've heard about two broker sites I hadn't heard of before:
Media Piston -- I don't have any personal experience there, but a writer friend said that their rates were similar to Textbroker's. The editorial feedback, she said, was very helpful. They take international writers. Site / apply
Scripted -- I heard about this site when a rep from the company left a comment on this blog. Their site lists prices for customers, but I couldn't find any info on the site, without registering, about how much they pay writers. Site / apply
If anyone has any personal experience with these sites, please leave a note in the comments.
Update: I signed up with Media Piston to see what it was like. The pay is substantially lower than what I am now getting elsewhere, so there were no assignments there I was tempted to claim. They don't publish a pay/word rate, only rates for individual articles, but I spot-checked some articles, and the pay rate was less than 2 cents/word for all of them, and even that was contingent on earning a bonus. Like most of the broker sites, the pay gets better as you climb your way up the ratings "ladder," but unlike many of the other sites, Media Piston doesn't reveal what the top rates are. The sign-up process is quick, the site design is attractive and easy to navigate, and the company seems quite legit. Might be a good choice for new writers, writers currently working for a similar or lower payrate elsewhere, and writers who have the time and energy to work their way up to higher payrates without knowing, in advance, what those are.
Update 2: After looking around the site a bit more, I'm actually not sure if there is a ratings "ladder" to climb, as there is in Textbroker and WriterAccess, or if you can just get higher bonuses on individual articles based on your work on those particular articles alone. I did hear through the grapevine that you can get a bonus that is twice as much as the amount stated on the assignment form. The forums seem pleasant, and the owners seem to be accessible. I'm still not feeling tempted to try it, though, unless I run out of work elsewhere.
Update 3: Well, curiosity got the better of me (I'm always curious about how different sites work), and when I saw a very short, easy assignment that paid a bit more per word than the rest, I took it.
Update 4: I submitted my first assignment. They lead you by the hand through the submission process, which could be attractive to people new to Internet writing. I had some problems with the cursor jumping to the top of the input form, which may be a browser-related problem, and there didn't seem to be any way to save work in progress. Otherwise, it was all very easy. They send the work through a peer review system, which I'm not thrilled about, as I've had problems on other sites that used peer review with people "correcting" or rejecting work that wasn't wrong in the first place. I'd much rather work with professional editors. But we shall see. Oh, and apparently there is a "ladder" after all, as they say that doing well on assignments can "unlock" higher paying ones. But they don't say what that higher payment is.
Update 5: The article was accepted, and I got all the available bonuses. The editor fixed some minor issues without bouncing the article back to me. I also received friendly "outreach" emails from a company staff member. Everything went smoothly and was very pleasant -- but the pay, even with all the bonuses, was only about half of what I am getting elsewhere for similar work. I'm going to keep an eye on the site but put it on the back burner for now, at least while I still have work elsewhere.
Update 8/21/12: Here are a few more sites I recently heard about that work on the Textbroker model. Both, alas, are low paying. I don't have any personal experiences with them -- if you do, please share your experiences in a comment below Thanks!
iWriter -- At the starting level, pays $2.43 for a 500-word article, which goes up to $3.01 if you get a "special request" (which sounds like the equivalent of a Textbroker direct order). There are three levels, and higher-level writers earn more.
site / apply
Writers Domain --Pays $3.00 to $3.30 for 200-250 word articles.
site / apply
I really enjoyed this post and your blog in general. I've been looking for legit info on content site writing. You've got exactly the info I was looking for.
ReplyDeleteThanks. :-)
ReplyDeleteAgreed your article was very helpful to me, thanks so much
ReplyDeleteThanks, Mr. Koontz!
ReplyDeletethanks for so much information. Please keep updating about other sites as well.
ReplyDeleteAs of today, writer's access is not taking any new writers.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I signed up for mediapiston today, and I don't see any jobs available.
ReplyDeleteWhere did you hear that WriterAccess isn't taking new writers? I don't see anything on the site that says that. Did they send you an email? (From a selfish point-of-view, I hope that it's true, as that would cut down on the competition for assignments -- but I haven't seen any announcements to that effect, and in fact, I thought that very recently WA was trying to get more writers.)
ReplyDeleteAs for MediaPiston -- yeah, it's totally empty!
I just found this note from "Joe from MediaPiston" on the WAHM forums:
----------------
Over the last few months we've focused heavily on a couple of things:
1) improving our turnaround time ...
2) improving the reward structure for our top writers ...
As a result, we made numerous changes to our claims and work allocation processes ...
The results of these changes were: ...
3) more work going to the most established writers vs. new writers
4) assignments not spending much time on the work page (time from post to claim is VERY fast these days)
5) Overall, we've handled more content over the last 60 days than at any other time during the company's history ...
That said, for less committed writers working on a less full-time basis, for writers that have mediocre ratings in our system and for new / unestablished writers it has meant that there is far less work available to these folks than previously. We're working on ways to improve the work availability for new writers and some customer-side things that will further increase order volume.
--------------------------------
Since you're brand new there, and I only wrote one article, that could explain why we're not seeing anything.
If you want to see the full post (by Joe of MediaPiston) that I quoted from above, it's here: WAHM thread on MediaPiston
On the second page of the thread, a writer is claiming that another writer at MP is scooping up all the articles and subcontracting them out.
I don't know if that's true, and it sounds like it might be exaggerated, even if there is some truth to it. Bottom line, though, whatever is going on there, the site seems to be dead for new writers, at least for now.
Thanks, Chelsey, for letting us know!
Oh, maybe you meant Writers DOMAIN (not Writer Access) wasn't taking new writers. Writers Domain (writersdomain.net) has a notice up that registration is closed and to check back in a few days.
ReplyDeleteToo bad -- I had gotten my hopes up that Writer ACCESS was drawing up the moat, ha.
Anyway, it's confusing the way the sites use such similar names.
I can't tell you how much I appreciate your site. Do you have a FB page?
ReplyDeleteHi. I have had personal experience with Writersdomain.net. They are excellent! The pay may sound low, but it is actually about the same as TextBroker. The thing is that the articles are super easy to write. I can write one in about 10-15 minutes if I pick the right keyword. Most of them are easy to make a "how to" article out of, so they're really simple. The only downfall is that there isn't much available after the first of the month, but I made over $100 in the first week of this month doing it part-time, and I got a payout by the second week since you can request one once you make it to $100. If you don't make it to $100, then you get paid on the 5th of every month. I think it's great, but the articles are going to be gone faster the more people who sign up.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, and thanks for the other website suggestions. :)
ReplyDeletePlease I am a writer on the iwriter.com platform. Can anyone tell of websites that work the way iwriter.com works. Please when giving your response, I will want website that are internally accessible and not just US only.
ReplyDelete