Constant Content

I'm normally a scrooge when it comes to compliments, so this one is hard-won, but the one thing I love about CC is its financial transparency.

On most writing sites, the remuneration formula is proprietary, and it's very easy for the site to pull "earnings" numbers out of its butt without a writer being any the wiser. We just have to trust those other writing sites because they're nice guys. But on CC, _we_ set the price, and we know how much of a cut CC takes, so that we have a way to verify how much we've actually earned from our writing. That's very important to me as someone who hates being kept in the dark. And it's my reason for increasingly posting my articles only here.

(As an aside, BrightHub and HubPages also use a transparent remuneration formula because they don't pay writers directly, the earnings come from a Google Adsense or Amazon Affiliate account. But in those two cases you still have to trust Google and Amazon to report earnings correctly. And we know Google are _really_ nice guys, don't we?)

Michael

InfoBarrel and Xomba are also completely transparent allowing Adsense to pay you. Google stated some time back that Adsense publishers get, and have always gotten, 68% of the amount charged to the Advertiser. Too bad we can't specify the value of clicks though.

I've had experience dealing with Google and am less confident in their reliability than in that of writing sites such as Helium and Suite. Even if there were some way to verify Google's honesty, which there isn't, Google is a very disorganized outfit in which the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing.

In general, marketplace sites are the only ones that offer true transparency. I'd want to apply to Demand Studios if I hadn't heard so many horror stories about its sadistic editors.

Michael

For financial transparency, Textbroker is also good because it pays exactly what it says. It doesn't pay that well compared to C-C, but you get paid for exactly what you write, which is comforting and dependable. Now that I think about it, I get paid less per word sold at TB compared to C-C, but probably well more per word written until my percentage of sold articles gets a little higher here.

Charlotte, could you PM me a referral link to Textbroker if it has a referral program? I don't have an account there yet.

Michael

Hi Michael,
I'm not Charlotte, but Textbroker was the first content writing site I found and I love them almost as much as Constant Content! I know some of people don't like them because of the low pay at levels 2-4, but it pays off if you stick with it and it is consistent work. After almost a year with them, I finally made it to a level 5 (much higher pay). Unfortunately, there are very few orders placed at that level, but they pay very well when they are. I pretty much balance my time between there and here (more there of late). I know authors there who are at level 4 and do make good money though. If you can research and write quickly, you can do well at level 3 or 4. Unfortunately, I do neither, and was spending alot of time writing articles at low pay. But, it payed off! Anyway, that is all to say that I don't think they have a referral or affiliate program. I think you simply go to the site and apply. Of course, I applied almost 2 years ago, so their process may have changed since then. At that time, you submitted a sample and waited for them to give you a rating. Anyway, good luck!

Sadly, textbroker only accepts US authors. It took me quite a while to ferret this out. I found it on this page: http://www.textbroker.com/us/faq/a/regi ... ttings.php

Oops . . . I'm so sorry I forgot they only take U.S. writers! My apologies to anyone who was interested who isn't in the U.S. I just started with them a month or two ago, and the process is still the same. Alas, no referral programs, but thanks for asking. You go to the site, sign up and enter your interests. Based on those interests, they gave me three article topics to choose one from. (wow! how's that for a jarring and unnecessary change in pov. hah!) I wrote a sample from one of these and they rated it. Then I started writing for paid assignments. After 5 articles, they paused my account for about a day while they rated those first five and adjusted my rating. Then I was free to just keep going. All "4" ratings so far. Congrats on the "5"! I hope to get the promotion at some point if I keep turning in 4's with no issues.

On a side note, I love TB because I needed more practice to gain confidence for my writing here. I have no experience writing product or sales copy. I like taking a shot at the more research-oriented and informative article requests here, but if I want to make a living writing at some point, I think I should know how to "sell."

BTW, if you don't know textbroker, the ratings comes from them after your article is submitted and sold to the client. Your ratings allow you to pick from articles requested at that level. For example, customers can pay less to get articles with less perfect English or pay more for professional-level quality. Honestly, anyone who's had any success here at C-C should ignore the whole thing, because you would never have a problem.

I just want to mention one thing I don't like about TB, though. I've recognized assignments that I think came from C-C first. I have seen a couple of examples of requests where I think the customer made a request here and paid decent money for a quality article. Then they list it at TB to get 50 more just like it (on different products or for different states, etc.), with a link to the example they already have. Of course, after a full rights purchase, it is completely within their rights to do this, but it makes me feel shady. I don't do any assignments I recognize from here. (Although, if I has made the original sale here, I would!)

I just noticed the same thing the other day Charlotte...about a request that had previously been on here. Just a hint about getting bumped up to a 5...if you have received all 4 ratings, it helps to contact the editors and request a review of your work and ask about being promoted. I am thankful I ran across them before finding CC, as it gave me a chance to brush up on my writing! It is an excellent place for someone new to content writing to start. On the other hand, I do love CC...just am in a bit of a dry spell here! Sorry, I too had forgotten that they only accept U.S writers (for tax reasons I think).