Textbroker

[wedreamseo]

Textbroker

 

I had a chat with Charlene, some sort of manager at TextBroker, my account will be forwarded to their quality assurance manager for an audit.

 

I don't have a good feeling about it at all as the manager I spoke with said that it's absolutely normal to proofread/edit articles at the 3 star level and that I shouldn't expect anything else from that

 

Seriously REALLY??? I am going to fucking pay $1,80/100 words to fucking edit all my articles, while I can get the same garbage at iWriter / HireWriters, you name it at $0,60/1,00/100 words. Screw them. She telling me that I should OFTEN expect these type of things to happen at the 3 star rated quality, instead of sporadically as claimed on their 3 star approval requirement list. They sure know to give a twist with words to it.

 

You may assume that the chat session didn't went by in a pleasent way after reading those words from their manager.

 

What a huge waste of money, paying twice as much for the same old shit, now that's what I call dumping money in the trashcan.

 

Once my latest batches are complete I will stay far away from them and contact my list of tested writers at iWriter and HireWriters again as those are 4 star rated writers that work at the same rates as the 3 star writers at Textbroker. However their quality far exceeds the trash I received in the last days. Once again, those are TESTED writers I'm talking about here that I place direct orders with. If you place OpenOrders at 4 star iWriter you can expect the same trash as OpenOrders at 3 star Textbroker. Bear that in mind.

 

The benefit of iWriter is that you can place direct orders at whatever rate YOU choose, and it's up to the writer to accept that. That means that you can order content from 4 or 5 rated writers at as little as $1/100 words, obvious many writers won't accept such jobs and it's not very reasonable to do that but if it's a topic that the writer likes they are often very well prepared to do it and refusing it is just one click of the mouse for them so you ain't forcing anyone. Personally when I had relative large batches of content where I didn't care too much about the quality I would send it over to some 20+ favorite writers at premium rates instead of elite, and there were always 3 or 4 writers that picked some of them up, though not all.

 

Anyway, still a thousand times better than Textbroker who FORCES to pay any writer $2,40/100 words for the option to place a direct orders, even if the writer is only 3 star rated.

 

I don't expect any good from my account audit, sure it will come with some refunds from the very worst writers ever but that will be about it, my wasted time on editing / proofreading is more valuable so I will request a payout of remaining funds once the current open projects are complete and than its farewell Textbroker and I will never have a good word about them EVER.

 

In fact it's very likely that once I launch my content platform that i will start to rank for the word TextBroker and will have someone rewrite a devastating article about them while promoting my own platform. I've thought of a USP, and I think I found it. FREE proofreading included with ALL of the articles of 500+ words.That would allow for employing some of the lesser writers in terms of grammer/spelling while still delivering publishable content.

 

No one likes to pay extra for proofreading and it seems that most of the content rated as 4 star on iWriter/HireWriter and 3 star at Textbroker all come down to about $1,80-$2,00/100 words, which means that if I can offer the same quality, but then proofread, making it of a better quality, while still maintaining the $1,80/100 words price tag that I'm a very competitive alternative.

 

500 words * $1,80 = $9,-, say $1 for the proofreader and $6 for the writer and $0,45 for Paypal leaves a margin of $1,55 for me. Textbrokers margin is far higher at $3,50 for the same length article while iWriter has a margin of $1,90 as they pay their writers a royal $1,60/100 words for 4 star quality vs Textbroker who pays only $1,10/100 words. I would pay my writers $1,20/100 words.

 

Actually I wanted to pay my writers more but that extra margin will be spend on editors instead as iWriter is the ultimate proof that paying more to your writers doesn't automatically lead to a higher quality of writing. Actually iWriter has a varying pricing structure, eg 500 words at 4 star costs $10,- while 1000 words at 4 star costs $18,50

 

To keep it fair for my writers I would implent a bonus system, eg writers that don't require much proofreading or at all will receive bonus payments, while the ones that require too much proofreading will be ditched. 

 

Actually I don't feel much for offering content at 3 star as it just doesn't leave any margin to deliver proper work.

[Mike Friedman]

I have had good experience with Textbroker, but I never really touch 3 star quality content. 

 

I would never give a cent to those behind iWriter though. Not many IM'ers I trust less. I would sooner just light my money on fire than let it line their pockets.

[wedreamseo]

I'd sum it up like this:

 

Textbroker

 

- 4 star rated $2,40/100 words: reasonable verified writers (direct orders allowed)

 

- 3 star rated $1,80/100 words: often poor unverified writers (no direct orders possible)

 

iWriter

 

- 4 star rated $1,85-$2,00/100 words: often poor unverified writers (direct orders allowed)

 

- 3 star rated $1,05/100 words: often poor unverified writers (direct orders allowed)

 

Conclusion:

 

Pay $2,40+/100 words Textbroker is ok, pay less go for iWriter/HireWriter.

 

Reasons why clients should go to iWriter: 1) much cheaper, 2) they allow to create your own team of writers at prices you decide on so you control the quality of work

 

Reasons why authors should go to iWriter: 1) they get paid more, 2) the rules are less strict, no comma nazis like many ex-Textbroker writers complain about all over the web.

 

Best choice: Avoid those content-mills all together and find your own freelancers.

 

ps: Don't expect awesome or very well researched content from any of those levels though, after all Textbroker authors only receive $1,40/100 words, that means they have to writer 4 articles/hour if they want to make a somewhat decent hourly after paying paypal fees and taxes.

[Mike Friedman]

I found iWriter's 4 star content to be nothing but utter trash after ordering 50 different articles. I would rather pay more and get something that is usable.

 

Plus, as I said, just based on who owns iWriter, I would never, ever use that service again. I didn't realize who owned it when I first used it or I never would have signed up.

[wedreamseo]

I found iWriter's 4 star content to be nothing but utter trash after ordering 50 different articles. I would rather pay more and get something that is usable.

 

Plus, as I said, just based on who owns iWriter, I would never, ever use that service again. I didn't realize who owned it when I first used it or I never would have signed up.

 

Now you're just stating nonsense and you know that yourself as well, there are plenty of decent writers at iWriters 4 star level, and even at 3 star level, sure the majority sucks but 2 out of 10 with a four star rating are pretty decent. 

 

And why not? They earn more than at Textbroker where they only get paid $1,40 at that level while iWriter pays $1,60. You think writers aren't aware of that? Would be kind of silly to avoid a better paid writing platform with less rules don't you think.

[Mike Friedman]

Lol... 2 out of 10. Yeah, that is not good enough.

 

It is not nonsense. It was what I experienced. It might have just been the niches I was looking for content in, but the articles I got were trash. Out of 50 articles, I had to request rewrites on 46 of them. That is trash. Most of them I ended up having to rewrite myself or hire another writer to rewrite them. 

 

I have had much better experiences with 4 and 5 star content at Textbroker.

 

I'm not just making this up. Everything I got at iWriter was trash. That was 2 years ago and I would never go back. 

 

iWriter was hands down the worst writing service I have ever tried.

[wedreamseo]

Lol... 2 out of 10. Yeah, that is not good enough.

 

It is not nonsense. It was what I experienced. It might have just been the niches I was looking for content in, but the articles I got were trash. Out of 50 articles, I had to request rewrites on 46 of them. That is trash. Most of them I ended up having to rewrite myself or hire another writer to rewrite them. 

 

I have had much better experiences with 4 and 5 star content at Textbroker.

 

I'm not just making this up. Everything I got at iWriter was trash. That was 2 years ago and I would never go back. 

 

iWriter was hands down the worst writing service I have ever tried.

 

Yeah duh of course you had better experience with 4 star+ Textbroker.

 

I approved 2 out of 10, you approved 1 out of 10, we're getting closer, anyhow, those two write for $1/100 words when you send them direct orders, that's still a lot better than paying $1,80 and no clue what you will receive.

 

Other good thing about iWriter is that you can refuse articles without the platform having to approve it, like at TextBroker. I'm refusing a hell of a lot at Textbroker right now and I'm sure that pathological liar bitch named Charlene will dispute some of them. 

 

Anyhow, multiple Paypal payments disputed today and will contact my lawyer in the US to see if I have a case as the content didn't match in anyway with the 3 star rating "rules" as written in the FAQ on Textbrokers website.

 

Now time to setup a website and rank it for Textbroker, I bet iWriter will love it when I start to order articles about Textbroker. I'll give them instructions like: Find anything negative you can find on the internet about Textbroker and write a nice story about it, don't make stuff up just keep it objective and quote the negative experiences in it, you are also free to write your own experience with them as long as it's a bad experience. The best part is that the internet is already full of bad experiences about them, especially for writers that feel like getting ripped off by them.

Edited July 7, 2015 by Mike Friedman
Edited for content

[alexitisisimo]

I found iWriter's 4 star content to be nothing but utter trash after ordering 50 different articles. I would rather pay more and get something that is usable.

 

Plus, as I said, just based on who owns iWriter, I would never, ever use that service again. I didn't realize who owned it when I first used it or I never would have signed up.

 

What's wrong with the owner? 

[alexitisisimo]

It's really hard to find writers on iWriter that are anywhere near decent. Even if you do find a decent 4-star, it's likely they'll stop writing for you once they find a better gig. It's just ridiculously frustrating to have to start from 0 each time. How many writers do you still have on the books (4-star) that are still giving you good content on a regular basis? 

 

 

I've also talked to some people that just deliver WordAI spun content. This is what one guy I "know" (just through a Skype group): 

 

• Find generic topics only that can be split into 3-4 points
• Google said topic and find 1-2 articles on the topic
• Write a unique introduction that sounds really good (most people read the intro and skim the rest, generally only looking for good formatting) 
• Run article through WordAI and then fix any grammatical issues
• Run through CopyScape 

 

The process usually takes about 5-10 minutes. Not sure if people are still doing that but when I heard about it the platform was quite busy and so I imagine you could get a decent hourly rate using that process. 

 

Thing is, I can't imagine a writer that can put something together than actually converts will stick around for these dirt cheap prices. It must be damn annoying for them to have articles rejected for random reasons, clients expecting results based on what they pay (not what the writer gets! big difference here), and having to work in the 'content farm' community. 

[Mike Friedman]

What's wrong with the owner? 

 

They were behind Backlink Beast or Backlink Monster. I forget what it was called now. Basically it was a Build My Rank clone. Right after launching, almost the whole thing was de-indexed. Even knowing that they kept selling it, and probably still are today. They also had the nerve to have their "SEO" put out a report about how links on de-indexed pages actually help rankings, complete with zero evidence and full of nothing but made up BS. Since it was a monthly subscription, they were just trying to get people to stay as long as they could and squeeze every cent out of them possible. 

[wedreamseo]

They were behind Backlink Beast or Backlink Monster. I forget what it was called now. Basically it was a Build My Rank clone. Right after launching, almost the whole thing was de-indexed. Even knowing that they kept selling it, and probably still are today. They also had the nerve to have their "SEO" put out a report about how links on de-indexed pages actually help rankings, complete with zero evidence and full of nothing but made up BS. Since it was a monthly subscription, they were just trying to get people to stay as long as they could and squeeze every cent out of them possible. 

 

Oh they were behind that as well, yeah I remember that situation. I thought they launched these crappy 'digi' product line.

[wedreamseo]

It's really hard to find writers on iWriter that are anywhere near decent. Even if you do find a decent 4-star, it's likely they'll stop writing for you once they find a better gig. It's just ridiculously frustrating to have to start from 0 each time. How many writers do you still have on the books (4-star) that are still giving you good content on a regular basis? 

 

 

I've also talked to some people that just deliver WordAI spun content. This is what one guy I "know" (just through a Skype group): 

 

• Find generic topics only that can be split into 3-4 points
• Google said topic and find 1-2 articles on the topic
• Write a unique introduction that sounds really good (most people read the intro and skim the rest, generally only looking for good formatting) 
• Run article through WordAI and then fix any grammatical issues
• Run through CopyScape 

 

The process usually takes about 5-10 minutes. Not sure if people are still doing that but when I heard about it the platform was quite busy and so I imagine you could get a decent hourly rate using that process. 

 

Thing is, I can't imagine a writer that can put something together than actually converts will stick around for these dirt cheap prices. It must be damn annoying for them to have articles rejected for random reasons, clients expecting results based on what they pay (not what the writer gets! big difference here), and having to work in the 'content farm' community. 

 

Only used them for cheap link building content at $3/500 words lately, from 80+ tested writers I filtered a list of 20+ or so, nothing great about that content but it's readable and can't complain for $3/500 words of course, Those are not the writers I would classify as decent though.

 

I do have a list of about 15+ decent writers at the premium and elite level and I agree that you have to keep your list updated, as last time I send a batch of 30 article titles or so to that favorite list only about half were completed by those favorites and the rest ended up in the pool of writers (open orders). So you sure have to stay in touch and contact them on forehand to see if they're still there and can handle it.

 

I agree with what you say on dirt cheap prices but at iWriter they get paid $0,80/$1,60/100 words at 3-4 star level, while at Textbroker they receive $1,10/$1,40 at those same levels. That are almost the same absurd low prices.

[yukon]

It's really hard to find writers on iWriter that are anywhere near decent. Even if you do find a decent 4-star, it's likely they'll stop writing for you once they find a better gig. It's just ridiculously frustrating to have to start from 0 each time. How many writers do you still have on the books (4-star) that are still giving you good content on a regular basis? 

 

 

I've also talked to some people that just deliver WordAI spun content. This is what one guy I "know" (just through a Skype group): 

 

• Find generic topics only that can be split into 3-4 points
• Google said topic and find 1-2 articles on the topic
• Write a unique introduction that sounds really good (most people read the intro and skim the rest, generally only looking for good formatting) 
• Run article through WordAI and then fix any grammatical issues
• Run through CopyScape 

 

The process usually takes about 5-10 minutes. Not sure if people are still doing that but when I heard about it the platform was quite busy and so I imagine you could get a decent hourly rate using that process. 

 

Thing is, I can't imagine a writer that can put something together than actually converts will stick around for these dirt cheap prices. It must be damn annoying for them to have articles rejected for random reasons, clients expecting results based on what they pay (not what the writer gets! big difference here), and having to work in the 'content farm' community. 

 

The wordAI example sucks.

 

• hxxps://wordai.com/version3sample.php

 

 

Develop Trust - You want your own audience to trust you as a company and a man. This is the reason why it is very important to be true. As an entrepreneur, your audience must find a way to understand you as a company and a man. Keep building your personal brand, and participate with your target-audience. Tell them that you're a man they can trust. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Develop Trust - You want your own audience to trust you as a company and a man.

 

 

Really, company & man?

 

 

 

This is the reason why it is very important to be true.

 

 

 

Is false such a bad thing?

 

 

 

As an entrepreneur, your audience must find a way to understand you as a company and a man.

 

 

Really, we're doing the company & man thing again in the same paragraph?

 

 

Keep building your personal brand, and participate with your target-audience.

 

 

 

What should we do, play lawn darts with our audience?

 

 

Tell them that you're a man they can trust. 

 

 

Really, we're doing the man thing for a third time in the same paragraph?

[wedreamseo]

Update

 

Textbroker admitted "some articles were written to a lower quality than ordered", actually make that most, but well at least they do admit it.

 

As I'm a 'valued' client they're willing to make an exception on their refund policy and offer me a one time refund of $500,-.

 

I'll accept that as it compensates my time spend on proofreading/editing all those articles while posting it on my 10 new niche sites, which took me about 5-10 hours more than usual so $500 is ok for that.

 

Little chance to win those disputes anyway so I closed them and the refund is in my account now.

 

Though satisfied with the compensation I do find it odd that they allow such writers at their 3 star level as some articles really made zero sense at all, others had issues that were easily editable but same as they said, some, were complete garbage. I mean how can that slip through, especially when you realize that some of these writers have 300+ approved articles with a fairly low rejection rate.

[yukon]

Update

 

Textbroker admitted "some articles were written to a lower quality than ordered", actually make that most, but well at least they do admit it.

 

As I'm a 'valued' client they're willing to make an exception on their refund policy and offer me a one time refund of $500,-.

 

I'll accept that as it compensates my time spend on proofreading/editing all those articles while posting it on my 10 new niche sites, which took me about 5-10 hours more than usual so $500 is ok for that.

 

Little chance to win those disputes anyway so I closed them and the refund is in my account now.

 

Though satisfied with the compensation I do find it odd that they allow such writers at their 3 star level as some articles really made zero sense at all, others had issues that were easily editable but same as they said, some, were complete garbage. I mean how can that slip through, especially when you realize that some of these writers have 300+ approved articles with a fairly low rejection rate.

 

It's the fiverr phenomenon.

 

Seriously, look at fiverr SEO gigs, they're junk but they always get good feedback because the buyers are unwitting dolts. If they knew better they wouldn't have bought in the first place.

 

Case in point, the wordAI example above. I don't have to buy to know it's spun junk.

[wedreamseo]

The wordAI example sucks.

 

• hxxps://wordai.com/version3sample.php

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Really, company & man?

 

 

 

 

Is false such a bad thing?

 

 

 

 

Really, we're doing the company & man thing again in the same paragraph?

 

 

 

What should we do, play lawn darts with our audience?

 

 

 

Really, we're doing the man thing for a third time in the same paragraph?

 

I likely tried another option of theirs a long time ago, what I tried resulted in sentences being rewritten, well actually not rewritten, just words that were moved, for example:

 

"I go to the bakery" --> "To the bakery I go"

 

Not much uniqueness in that.

 

There's one guy that does an awful lot of writing and I feel he plays the system but haven't figured out how, his content is always readable, he doesn't use any symbol changing modifications to fool Copyscrape, it ain't spun either, it ain't copied neither in part or in full (I checked many of his articles), but still I feel something is off. What I suspect he does is using a default template where he fills in the blanks, however he would have to fill in a ton of blanks as each piece he delivers contains an awful lot of uniqueness and in fact it's quite decent, at least you don't struggle over the sentences while reading.  Once he send me a load of crap and seeing how much of my orders he accepts it's impossible he writers it all himself. So I send him a PM that I won't accept such garbage and since than I only received pretty decent content at $3/500 words. Now it sure ain't money site content but it's very readable and very suitable for my lower level PBN.

 

I think some people are actually a team of writers in countries like India, Phillipines so once they know you they dedicate their somewhat better writers.

[wedreamseo]

It's the fiverr phenomenon.

 

Seriously, look at fiverr SEO gigs, they're junk but they always get good feedback because the buyers are unwitting dolts. If they knew better they wouldn't have bought in the first place.

 

Case in point, the wordAI example above. I don't have to buy to know it's spun junk.

 

Odd considering they can get content en masse at lower rates, you'd think people have some sort of expectations when paying almost twice the amount, I mean the $5/500 words is pretty much of a common price so to say.

 

The reason it upsets me is that Textbroker is supposed to have a manual rating/approval process, at least when I hear all the ex-writers complain about them that they were set back from 4 star to 3 star and so on. Maybe that only applies to downgrading and not to upgrading... Eg customer reviews make you move up from level 2 to 3 to 4, and manual intervention sets you back at 3, 2.

 

Anyhow, I hope they learned a lesson from my complaints and will go through there whole database of 3 star writers and put everyone at the appropriate levels. What I also still suspect is that they might've approved more 3 star writers when I placed a ton of orders. Reason I think that is that it took much longer for my articles to be accepted by writers opposed to the last few weeks where they were snapped away almost instantly. Eg normally when I placed an order for say 20 articles it took about 3-4 days before all were set in progress, while later on when I placed like 100 articles at a time they were all in progress in two days max. That's quite dubious.

[alexitisisimo]

 

Case in point, the wordAI example above. I don't have to buy to know it's spun junk.

 

Ever ordered from iWriter? What you get sucks. The only tier that's any good is the top one in my opinion, unless you spend ages trying to find the decent writers (as we discussed above). If you order a lower-end article from iWriter it's going to read like broken English or spun. And I've used WordAI quite a bit in the past - you can get a readable article with a few edits on Turing. Anyway, I think we're pretty much on the same page. Both of these platforms are terrible. 

 

I think some people are actually a team of writers in countries like India, Phillipines so once they know you they dedicate their somewhat better writers.

 

I think you are 100% right on that guess. 

[Oziboomer]

 

Ever ordered from iWriter? What you get sucks. The only tier that's any good is the top one in my opinion, unless you spend ages trying to find the decent writers (as we discussed above). If you order a lower-end article from iWriter it's going to read like broken English or spun. And I've used WordAI quite a bit in the past - you can get a readable article with a few edits on Turing. Anyway, I think we're pretty much on the same page. Both of these platforms are terrible. 

I've considered some of the services discussed and always thought you would have to go top tier to get the quality necessary to reflect one's personal level of commitment to a topic.

 

Generally my output of written material has come from extracted transcriptions of live content that I've delivered to members and guests and then usually I get REV to transcribe the content I want to turn into text.

 

Sure...you still have to edit but at least you capture your unique "voice" on a topic and you can be proud to use the material with your name attached as opposed to content you might have just purchased and used for fill in the past.

 

Quality may just win in the end.

What do you think?