Sorry I’m so late. I got so sidetracked with a post I was writing about residual sites and whether or not the end justifies the means, I didn’t get a chance to troll for leads. Here they are, better late than never.
Leads…
- Wahm .com is Looking for Writers -Maybe you can talk about making sure the ends jusitfy the means. Heh.
- Online Copy Editor for Demand Studios
- Talented Writers for a News Start Up Site - Stay away all you no talent hacks! – $15/article
- Freelance Writers - It says $500/week. Make sure you get all the details before committing to anything.
- Freelance Copywriter – Williamsville NY
- English to Spanish Translation – Detroit – $25 – $35/hour
- Technical Writer for Software Company
- Travel Writer for Williamsburg VA Tourist Book
- Green Blogger - $10/post
- Environmental Website Writer
- Blogging and Social Media Help - Salt Lake City – Must be available for meetings, phone calls and IM chats.
- Professional Writer Wanted – $15/hour
- Investigative Researcher – SF Bay
- Marketing Copywriter – Montreal - Telecommute OK
- WAHM Related articles needed – unspecified pay
Good luck to you all!
I’m sorry for the abbreviated list today. For more leads, Anne Wayman at About Freelance Writing rocks, and don’t forget our own Jennifer Chait posts blogging and web writing gigs over at Blogging for a Living. Check them out for the full rundown, and I’ll have a better list for you tomorrow.
ecohearth only pays a share of adsense revenue – but doesn’t tell you that upfront
I have seen those Demand Studio copyediting ads popping up everywhere for the past couple of months. Each time I fill out Demand’s online application, however, I get an automated response back saying they don’t need copy editors at this time. Anyone else experiencing this??
I responded to a Freelance Writing post on the Iowa City craigslist site and they sent me an email telling me to register at Singlesnet and then write a review of the site.
This is probably a scam right? A way to drive registration at Singlesnet?
Wow – Thanks for the “Investigative Researcher – SF Bay” one. That’s basically my current job description – if I don’t get a callback on that one then I’m officially cursed.
Hi Jenny – I can’t attest to applying from the outside, but I am currently a writer for Demand Studios and there is a way to apply internally once they already have you on file and such. They reviewed my application after a couple of weeks and deemed me “ineligible” by email – probably because I lacked the five years copyedit experience.
Andrea – That’s CPA blackhat marketing. Basically, the person who pasted the ad gets paid a flat fee of $1.00 or so per free signup at Singlesnet or whatever other dating site they’re promoting. They then submit the sample that they ask for to Associated Content or another content site and get paid for that, as well, so they’re making $3-5 from each email response they get to the ad.
Yeah I applied for the Demand Studios editor position about 2 months ago and was declined, despite having quite a bit of experience editing elsewhere. I think they basically have a 3+ year requirement on editors, while they are a bit more relaxed on their writers.
I love working for them, though. Fast pay, easy projects. It’s great filler work. I’ve been tempted a couple of times to make them my primary source, but I like keeping them as filler for now.
I had a hard time with Demand Studios and gave up. I’d been hired as a writer and told I couldn’t have assignments until I submitted my tax info. So did that and got an email saying I was all set. Went in to look at writing assignments and was told that there were no jobs available. So I emailed support who said they didn’t have my tax info on file. Sent them the email saying I was all set and told that the tax info must have gotten lost because they didn’t have it. So I resubmitted it and again was told I was all set, but still got a message saying no assignments were available.
So I contacted support again who looked over my file and said they couldn’t figure out what was wrong. Next thing I know, they’ve sent me an email saying my writer status was being pulled because their system showed I’d plagiarized an article written for their site, funny since I hadn’t had the chance to write anything for them. When I asked what the article supposedly was, they told me they couldn’t tell me.
At that point, I told them to cancel my entire account and purge any tax info they had for me and was told they can’t do that. Once you’ve enrolled with them, they had no way to remove you from their system. I don’t buy that at all. I ended up going in and deleting as much info from my account as possible.
I know some have had success with Demand Studios, but they were nothing but a headache for me.
@Anne G – I gave up on Demand because I couldn’t write what they wanted fast enough to make it worthwhile. Then I saw some posts here and on other sites about how they “couldn’t purge tax information” and now I’m sorry I signed up. I hate having that info out there – I sent it because I thought it was a legitimate way to make a little something in the down-time.
I’m sure they can find a way to purge tax info if they wanted to. But I don’t know how to make them want to.
Anne G – That’s too bad about that experience. While I don’t think it’s typical, it doesn’t surprise me either. I frequent the DS forums and it seems they are still very much working out the technical kinks. As far as tax information goes, I hear you. I was very reluctant to release that information myself. I’m getting ready to ramp up my freelance business and I’m definitely going to get an employer tax ID (EIN) from the IRS. That way I won’t have to give out those vital nine numbers anymore.
I don’t want to sound like a DS fanboy or anything, but I am going to agree with TW Anderson. This morning, I spent 35 minutes and pumped out two How-to articles at $15 a pop. But then again, there are those times when the only available topics are “How to Build A Perpetual Motion Machine” and other impossible tasks.
Unless things have changed recently Demand looks for 5 years of editing experience minimum. They’re definitely a lot stricter in their editor requirements than writer requirements. I have had a very good experience with them as a writer–there’s generally a lot of writing to choose from on a diverse array of topics. So long as you can get it done in a time that’s reasonable for you, it’s a good source of income.
This morning, for example…I’m taking a week off of work, and I decided to pop into DS and see if anything caught my eye. I snagged 4 articles @ 15 bucks apiece and I burned them out in an hour.
Bam. 60 bucks for an hour’s worth of work. Nothing to scoff at, as far as I’m concerned. That’s spending money for next weekend for my wife and I have to have a nice dinner somewhere.
What I don’t like about Demand Studios is that it seems like everything is a How to article and I can’t find any that I can bang out in 15 minutes. They don’t have anything good for my knowledge base. I’m not going to put in an hour’s worth of effort on one article.
I landed a much nicer writing job with a British website writing gardening articles, I have vegetable, flower and herb gardens, so gardening is a snap. $15 for 300 words. I made $150 today in three hours time.
Demand Studios does work for some, but in my case, not being able to purge my SS information just doesn’t sit right.
A better one, for me anyway, is Internet Brands. Not great pay, but they let you pick your topics. I write for VetInfo, WAHM and their travel site. On an average day, I can get 10 of their 150 word articles done in a under two hours time and walk away with $40. That leaves me time to do higher paying work, but still have something to fall back on.
I’ve never heard of Internet Brands – it looks like they have lots of jobs available. I think I’ll check it out later. Sorry to take this thread on such a tangent – but how do they pay you? Flat fee or is it rev. share?
Hi
I just wanted to say that I wrote a piece for WAHM about a year ago. It took ages for the editor to get back to me, she failed to answer a number of queries, and I still haven’t been paid, despite multiple emails (politely) requesting them to honor their contract. I felt that she handled the whole thing very unprofessionally, occasionally sending out emails about her personal life to writers explaining why articles/comments/payments were delayed. Now she is just silent. I would not recommend writing for this magazine, which is too bad, because I think it has some very strong content.
Delia Lloyd
I have more than 15 years of editing and writing experience, so I don’t know why I wouldn’t qualify (at least on paper). I’d understand if they turned me down if I failed an editing test they administered, but I can’t even get to that part of the process. I guess I’m just confused why they keep placing ads for copy editors and then say they don’t have a need for someone who’s got the qualifications to do the job.
Though after reading some of the complaints about Demand, maybe it’s better I’m not up to snuff for them….
@Jack B – Internet Brands pay a flat fee. They’ve just changed computer systems and pay schedule. They pay via direct deposit, check or I believe Paypal once a month on the 14th. Their new computer interface allows you to submit articles directly through the site, then editors make notes and if you need to make changes, you go back into the system and make them. Plus, it keeps track week to week of the money you’ve earned. You also pick the articles you want to write. They used to assign them, but they switched that up in the past month.
I know they are hiring for a number of websites – their automotive division has been looking for writers and their bank loan division too. I also believe my editor said they are still looking for writers for the Travel & Leisure division.
Their rates are $10 for 450 to 600 word articles and $4 for 150 to 200 word articles. Usually the writing rules are keep it brief as possible without any fluff. Straight and to the point.
Thanks for the info Anne G. – $10 is pretty low for 450 words, but like you said, it’d be nice to have that to fall back on. I sent them an email today.
Depends on the topic. I just recently wrapped up a project where I was writing simple travel guides on a couple of cities, and I was going 5-6 500 word articles per hour.
I don’t type, however. Most of my projects these days I’ve been using Dragon NaturallySpeaking, which means my productivity has darn near tripled. The only things I type anymore are keyword-heavy articles or articles which require me to write backgrounds on actors or the like when I’m not always using “regular” language. Sometimes people’s names and their movies can get a bit tricky for the program to recognize
10 bucks a pop x 5 or 6 an hour = a cool 50 or 60 bucks an hour. Nothing to sneeze at in my book.
More people should start using text-to-speech programs. Not only has it nearly tripled my productivity, but it’s saving my wrists. Not to mention it allows me to take low-paying gigs and turn them into high-paying. Of course there’s that whole quality vs. quantity, but I’m of the opinion that a penny earned is greater than a penny saved, and at the end of the day I’d rather have a paycheck than worry about whether or not I just wrote the greatest piece of prose since Shakespeare.
@Jack B. – I tend to go for the 150 word articles. I spent an hour this morning doing articles on cats – raising kittens and the likes. In an hour’s time, I got 10 articles done – that’s $40. Now I can move on to other projects. I do type 80 wpm, so that helps!