I just wanted to share some tips I've learned writing on Textbroker off-and-on for the past few years. It isn't the end-all be-all of content farms, but recently the site has gotten better in regards to the volume of gigs available, as well as the effective hourly you can earn writing certain types of articles:
While the job postings are endless, the income potential is not: a lot of the time you'll find gigs where they want you to write 10 500 word articles for $10! Not only that, they want you to link to 3 references, use a keyword 10 times (that’s barely relevant for the article). Sometimes the instructions will be longer than the article they want you to write!
Is there a way to, off the bat, make a decent hourly?
There is, albeit with a few caveats (not full-time, not long term).
As many other writers have noted, Textbroker is not the best place to make a career as a freelance writer. While currently there are over a 2800 writing gigs available on the site, most of these will not be worth your time. These are the articles that will pay you $3.50 to write a 350-word article that take as long as 45 minutes to write and research. If you are a NEET waiting for you mom to microwave your tendies, this is even less than what you would make from your part-time job at Wal-Mart.
With just a few minutes of day of searching, however, you will be able to find enough articles to write 10 hours a week for the site, earning $500 monthly after taxes. While this obviously will not let you quit your day job and go GALT, if you are young man looking to create a marketable skill for yourself (copy writing/content writing), this is a decent way to get your feet wet.
The content written on Textbroker is not Gary Halbert-level material, and doesn't have to be; these articles require little research; in most if not all cases, the clients of Textbroker who post the articles will even provide you links to existing articles they want you to rehash. Textbroker’s clients are small businesses such as dental practices, ambulance chasing law firms, and affiliate marketers looking to build up review sites. About 10% of these clients will be tough customers demanding rewrites (avoid car dealerships); since this will dramatically reduce your hourly, you are better off “quitting” the gig and letting the article go back to the general pool: once you realize who’ll be the bad clients to work for, you can reduce this to less than 5% of the articles you attempt to write, making minimal dents in your hourly.
Types of Articles That Pay an Effective Hourly Above $20
Like I mentioned earlier, it is hard to find enough $20+ effective hourly articles on Textbroker to quit your day job; but if you focus on these niches, you will be able to find enough articles to write about 10 hours a week at $20 an hour: this will get you around $800 a month pretax, and if you are in the 15% federal income tax bracket, after income taxes and FICA your take home pay will be around $500 a month. $500 a month isn’t much, but it may help you make your student loan and/or car loan payments, and given it is only 10 hours a week, you could get away with writing these articles while you are sitting at your cubicle at work.
The articles you need to focus on are rehashes-generic articles that are around 500-800 words, and consist of you rewording existing content. The best categories for this are Location-Specific Articles and Review Website Articles.
Location-Specific Articles
A lot of small businesses who use Textbroker are looking for location specific articles: law firms, dental practices, car title loan providers, and others want articles that say things like “Title Loans in Peoria” or “Laser Dental Surgery in Visalia”. Most of the time these clients are trying to build out their website, and will put up dozens of articles needed. These articles will basically be the same subject, but with different cities in the keywords. For example, a law firm operating in Southern California will want 15 articles, each one about “Motorcycle Accidents” in various suburbs of Los Angeles. Once you write one or two articles (look online for the details you need to rehash), you’ll be able to churn out a few of these an hour, giving you an effective hourly rate as high as $25. These batches will not be available every day, but when it rains, it pours. It may take you a whole night, but if your alternative is trolling forums and watching YouTube videos, it is a worthwhile use of your time.
Review Website Articles
Along with location-targeted law firm articles, review website articles are also a lucrative gig on Textbroker. Hundreds of wannabe affiliate marketing masters will post article gigs on Textbroker. These clients have read some Tim Ferris books, and want to half-ass their way to an easy living. All you need to do is search for reviews online, rehash the article, and submit. These clients are the best: I’ve never had one of these clients reject an article.
Even better than the generic review articles are the online casino review articles. These reviews have been popping up lately, and are over 1200 words long. You’ll generate $14 an article, and you can easily write 2 an hour: that is $28 an hour! The easiest part of the online casino review articles is not only will the client provide you with links to existing reviews, you can fill the articles with lists of the casino games (the sites typically have hundreds) available on the sites, as well as a rehash of deposit and withdrawal methods.
Stepping Stone for Better Opportunities
Textbroker alone will not help you build a freelance writing career: if you focus on the wrong areas, you’ll end up an online burger flipper, as Matt Forney once said. Writing 10 hours a week on Textbroker will give you some extra money to invest or pay your bills, as well as provide an opportunity to improve and hone your copywriting skills, so you can eventually write better articles for more pay. You’ll start to learn what types of content is in demand, and how you as a budding entrepreneur can capitalize.
An example of this is medical practice and law firm content. You could easily build up a niche business providing this content to medical offices, dental practices, and law firms in your area. You could tie this up with web design and other up-sells, and carve out a nice niche business for yourself.
Takeaway
•Textbroker by and large has low-value writing gigs that take too much time to research and write for the pay.
•If you focus on the two niches described in this article, you’ll be able to generate an after-tax side income of $500/month, while at the same time practicing your copywriting skills
•Looking at the available article writing gigs on Textbroker will give insight to what types of article are in demand; you can even discover lucrative niches you didn’t even know about.
Textbroker: Don’t Quit Your Day Job, But If You’re Looking for a Side Hustle, there is an Easy Few Hundred Bucks a Month To Be Had
There are many opportunities online to make some quick scratch writing articles. With the large amount of small businesses needing content and "entrepreneurs" looking to copy Tim Ferriss, there is plenty of work that is easy to find. While the job postings are endless, the income potential is not: a lot of the time you'll find gigs where they want you to write 10 500 word articles for $10! Not only that, they want you to link to 3 references, use a keyword 10 times (that’s barely relevant for the article). Sometimes the instructions will be longer than the article they want you to write!
Is there a way to, off the bat, make a decent hourly?
There is, albeit with a few caveats (not full-time, not long term).
As many other writers have noted, Textbroker is not the best place to make a career as a freelance writer. While currently there are over a 2800 writing gigs available on the site, most of these will not be worth your time. These are the articles that will pay you $3.50 to write a 350-word article that take as long as 45 minutes to write and research. If you are a NEET waiting for you mom to microwave your tendies, this is even less than what you would make from your part-time job at Wal-Mart.
With just a few minutes of day of searching, however, you will be able to find enough articles to write 10 hours a week for the site, earning $500 monthly after taxes. While this obviously will not let you quit your day job and go GALT, if you are young man looking to create a marketable skill for yourself (copy writing/content writing), this is a decent way to get your feet wet.
The content written on Textbroker is not Gary Halbert-level material, and doesn't have to be; these articles require little research; in most if not all cases, the clients of Textbroker who post the articles will even provide you links to existing articles they want you to rehash. Textbroker’s clients are small businesses such as dental practices, ambulance chasing law firms, and affiliate marketers looking to build up review sites. About 10% of these clients will be tough customers demanding rewrites (avoid car dealerships); since this will dramatically reduce your hourly, you are better off “quitting” the gig and letting the article go back to the general pool: once you realize who’ll be the bad clients to work for, you can reduce this to less than 5% of the articles you attempt to write, making minimal dents in your hourly.
Types of Articles That Pay an Effective Hourly Above $20
Like I mentioned earlier, it is hard to find enough $20+ effective hourly articles on Textbroker to quit your day job; but if you focus on these niches, you will be able to find enough articles to write about 10 hours a week at $20 an hour: this will get you around $800 a month pretax, and if you are in the 15% federal income tax bracket, after income taxes and FICA your take home pay will be around $500 a month. $500 a month isn’t much, but it may help you make your student loan and/or car loan payments, and given it is only 10 hours a week, you could get away with writing these articles while you are sitting at your cubicle at work.
The articles you need to focus on are rehashes-generic articles that are around 500-800 words, and consist of you rewording existing content. The best categories for this are Location-Specific Articles and Review Website Articles.
Location-Specific Articles
A lot of small businesses who use Textbroker are looking for location specific articles: law firms, dental practices, car title loan providers, and others want articles that say things like “Title Loans in Peoria” or “Laser Dental Surgery in Visalia”. Most of the time these clients are trying to build out their website, and will put up dozens of articles needed. These articles will basically be the same subject, but with different cities in the keywords. For example, a law firm operating in Southern California will want 15 articles, each one about “Motorcycle Accidents” in various suburbs of Los Angeles. Once you write one or two articles (look online for the details you need to rehash), you’ll be able to churn out a few of these an hour, giving you an effective hourly rate as high as $25. These batches will not be available every day, but when it rains, it pours. It may take you a whole night, but if your alternative is trolling forums and watching YouTube videos, it is a worthwhile use of your time.
Review Website Articles
Along with location-targeted law firm articles, review website articles are also a lucrative gig on Textbroker. Hundreds of wannabe affiliate marketing masters will post article gigs on Textbroker. These clients have read some Tim Ferris books, and want to half-ass their way to an easy living. All you need to do is search for reviews online, rehash the article, and submit. These clients are the best: I’ve never had one of these clients reject an article.
Even better than the generic review articles are the online casino review articles. These reviews have been popping up lately, and are over 1200 words long. You’ll generate $14 an article, and you can easily write 2 an hour: that is $28 an hour! The easiest part of the online casino review articles is not only will the client provide you with links to existing reviews, you can fill the articles with lists of the casino games (the sites typically have hundreds) available on the sites, as well as a rehash of deposit and withdrawal methods.
Stepping Stone for Better Opportunities
Textbroker alone will not help you build a freelance writing career: if you focus on the wrong areas, you’ll end up an online burger flipper, as Matt Forney once said. Writing 10 hours a week on Textbroker will give you some extra money to invest or pay your bills, as well as provide an opportunity to improve and hone your copywriting skills, so you can eventually write better articles for more pay. You’ll start to learn what types of content is in demand, and how you as a budding entrepreneur can capitalize.
An example of this is medical practice and law firm content. You could easily build up a niche business providing this content to medical offices, dental practices, and law firms in your area. You could tie this up with web design and other up-sells, and carve out a nice niche business for yourself.
Takeaway
•Textbroker by and large has low-value writing gigs that take too much time to research and write for the pay.
•If you focus on the two niches described in this article, you’ll be able to generate an after-tax side income of $500/month, while at the same time practicing your copywriting skills
•Looking at the available article writing gigs on Textbroker will give insight to what types of article are in demand; you can even discover lucrative niches you didn’t even know about.