The good, bad and ugly of getting paid to write

For the last two months I have been focusing on commercial writing. i.e writing for money and not art or fun.  What I found is that commercial writing can be a distraction.  It can be lucrative but you can also loose money.  Over the last two months I have tested out three different websites that allow authors to write for money.

Lets start with the money aspect.  The most I made from any project was $123.00 for a 7000 word e-book that I ghostwrote.  The least I was paid was $1.01 for a 150 description of a Halloween costume, though I did 10 of them so the total earnings form 1500 was $10.10.  On average I earned $4.65 for 500 words. 

Now what will you be writing.  Well I did everything from writing reviews of products to product descriptions.  I also did a good bit of ghostwriting, which entailed writing a couple of erotica novels, an e-book for a bible group, and one on running.

So there is good about getting paid to write.  You can actually get paid to write.  But for the most part what you are paid is below minimum wage when you look at the hourly rate.  However,  I think this could change if you get a steady stream of clients that are willing to pay.  The best chance for this actually happening is on the elance site. 

Now the bad is the website.  I could have just had over all poor luck in which sites I chose for this adventure.  So take this review like sand in your shoes, sometimes it's not that bad.  I tried out three sites.  Scripted, Iwriter and elance with varying degrees of success, failure and hassle.

 

scripted.com

Scripted was by far the worse of the three sites.  I say this because of there utter lack of customer service and the initial process which I never got past.  First signing up and creating an account is easy.  Then you have to select an Industry.  Once you have selected an industry you fill out an application which includes a writing assignment concerning the subject, and you also need to submit a writing sample.  Here is where it all fell apart for me on scripted.  I selected two industries filled out the applications.  Then I received a response back that the sample was too long.  I shortened the sample, then got an e-mail that the sample was irrelevant.  Mind you there were not instructions on what you should submit as a sample.  So I chose a different sample and once again got the response that it was too long.   I rewrote the sample to shorten it to less than 500 words and resubmitted.  I then waited more than 10 days for a response.  Mind you the other industry I applied for never responded to me at all.  I e-mailed customer service to see if I could get the application reviewed.  Then sent me a response that the sample was to long  ie 500 words was too long.  But because they had not sent it back to me I was unable to change the sample.  After two weeks of trying to get the sample accepted I gave up.  Today I logon to the account for the first time in a month and both industries show they have been reject.  However, I was never told they were rejected, given the opportunity to fix any thing besides the sample being to long or irrelevant on the one industry, and I never heard any response to the other.  So I never earn any money from the site, and I spent a number of hours trying to get this site to work to no prevail. 

iwriter.com 

Iwriter was the next site that I tried and the one I earned the most money on.  It is also the site that caused me the most problems and I had a number of articles stolen by requesters.  Once I pointed this out on the requesters review and to the site my account was locked down and I am still working to try and get my last payment for a number of articles.   

Starting off on iwriter can be time consuming you have to writer 28 articles at a 4.1 star review or higher in order to move to the premium level.  You want to be a premium writer for two reasons: more articles and more money.  However the system is set against the writer in this endeavor.  requesters that only want to pay the standard rate are basically encouraged to give lower ranking to keep writers at the standard level.  This is not to say all requesters do this but enough do that it effects your ability to quickly get to the higher level.  For example, a requester can give a 1 star rating with no reason. Yet they can still buy article.  To make this clear requesters are not required to buy any article. So if  they hate the writing enough to give it a one star; why would you pay for the article. 

Once you getting going on iwriter you  can fill a lot of time and earn good money over the last six weeks my iwriter money has been my spending money.  Since moving to New York and quitting my job it took stress off the budget.  The big thing to know about iwriter is the website could give to shakes about it's writers.  I had a number of technical difficulties on the site from full articles vanishing.  Then there is the contradictory messaging.  First the tell you to write in their dialogue box to prevent submission problems, then tell you to write somewhere else to avoid losing articles.  I can only assume that they want you to type up your article in word and then retype it into the box.  This would be a time consuming step that would limit the profitability of the style writing.  The other items that clearly shows that they unconcern with the writer is the dialogue box.  This is a simple plain text box,  with NO formatting options.  If you do cut and paste formatted text into the box it will retain the formatting but the box itself doesn't even have a save feature.  Finally, the fact that I was unable to submit an article was only resolved when the requester got involved on my behalf. 

The final thing that turned me off on iwriter is what happened this week.  I wrote three articles for the same requester.  He then gave me one star reviews and declined the articles after saying they weren't what he asked for.  Yes,  this would have just been a pain but then I found out he was using the articles or very similar articles on his website.  I brought this to the attention of iwriter and asked for them to remove the one star reviews.  I didn't ask them to pay me, simple to remove the reviews.  The next day my account was blocked.  At the time I had a large ebook project pending,  two request from requesters waiting for my attention and $25 of writing (not including the 25$ in stolen work) waiting to be paid out.  I emailed Iwriter a number of time requesting my account be unlocked so I could finish pending project at least,  to at least letting me tell my clients that I could not finish the project they requester.  Nothing it was like midnight on a long highway.  They have not responded to any e-mail since locking my account.  Not even with an explanation as to why the account was locked in the first place. 

I briefly considered opening a new account and contacting my requestors but have decided that once burnt, twice shy.  So I lost a weeks worth of work and a couple hundred dollars once everything had been completed and paid.  If you choose to use iwriter.  I would suggest,  setting up funds transfers as frequently as possible to limit losses if the choose to lock your account.  I would also get contact information for all clients off the site incase they lock you out you can contact your clients.  Finally, only writer for users that have a  70% or higher acceptance rate.  Other than that, Enter Iwriter at your own risk.

Elance

 

Elance was the final site I joined in my pursuit of earning money as a writer.  This site for me has the best potential but also needs the most time commitment.  Creating an Elance Profile is slightly tedious but considering it is your resume, portfolio, and contact page it's no wonder.  One thing I will note is that you should take time and set up this page it makes a difference.  I started with little to nothing on the page and later added everything and had much better results.   Next the process of getting work is more complicated and time consuming.  However,  this does allow for writer and requester to have a dialogue and back out at anytime before the project is started.  When applying for jobs,  you need to think of it as a job interview and sell you and your writing.  You also need to be willing to negotiate  and provide additional information.  So the hiring process does take more time.  But then you can set date for project completion,  and end date to give your self enough time to finish projects.  Finally the rate of pay is set by you and the requestor and agreed upon before you start and then held in an escrow account until the project. 

 

Elance has an interesting foundation but it will be going through a large change this year as it merges with Upworthy another online freelancing website.  Additionally, Elance is more of a free for all elancing website.  Meaning you will find a lot of other jobs on the site that have nothing to do with writing.  This can be a good thing if you have web design, or html or other types of create experience or talents.   

 

In conclusion, though I earned the most from iwriter it also left an awful taste in my mouth.  Additionally for all the writing I did over the last six weeks,  none of it was my writing.  Meaning it didn't move along my novels, novellas, or short stories. Additionally, it took away time I would have spent on other sites; liked Inked voice my writing group website.  As my time whittled away by life, work, and moving across country, I wrote more but less for me.

 

Writing for money was a good experience.  I will continue looking for ways to be a paid writer.   I will continue working on Elance, and take a look at other online websites, and move to pushing my books to all retail outlets.  

   

I wonder if I might end up making it as a writer in new York instead of a lawyer.  Funny how the world works.