Not my top pick of bidding sites that’s for sure. Low prices, tons of emails, and lots a junk to wade through. However with over 500,000 service providers, they must be doing something right!
While they are flooded with projects and there is never a lack of work to sort though, it can take all day and if you are very lucky you might find a project that pays half way decent wages. According to their statistics, there are about 300 projects posted everyday, so you are bound to find something that suits you!
If you sign up for their email notifications your inbox will certainly be flooded several times a day, which is sometimes annoying even to those desperately seeking work. It’s even more annoying when you have to sort though 5 emails with 20 or more projects in each one and the pay is $1.00 -$2.00 per article. We aren’t talking 100 words here people.
One good thing about this site is the payment terms. Up until recently they used Western Union to make payments which was very expensive and, let’s face it, with the icky rates of pay here anyways, this was just another reason to stay away. However things are looking up. They just began sending out prepaid MasterCard’s that can be used at ATM’s, online or in most all stores. This is pretty great for those of us who like our money right away. Also if it is lost or stolen, then Get A Freelancer will replace it and give you your money back.
Another thing that I really like about Get a Freelancer is that if you pay a $12.00 per month fee you can get what they all “gold membership” which basically means that you don’t have to pay a commission on your work. There are no other bidding sites that I know of that do this. If you do a lot of work here, this can save you a lot of money. For regular projects where you aren’t a gold member the company charges you a hefty 10% of the total price! This is more than any other site I have ever reviewed so becoming a gold member is definitely a good idea.
Overall, there are some really good things about Get A Freelancer. The number of projects (which can be a bad or good thing), the MasterCard option, and the gold membership option all make it worth looking into. However, the lousy pay seems to be across the entire site and there are very few projects worth actually putting much time into unless you are simply very broke or are just trying to get some good feedback.
You must remember though that making contacts, even with very low paying buyers, is key to bringing in the big freelancing dollars. These people have friends whom they may send to you for more work, they may hit it big and require some more work in which they can pay more money for, you just never know. Many times I have gotten emails with good paying projects from someone I met on Rent a Coder several years before or gotten an “out of the blue” email from someone who said that so and so referred them to me.
Happy Bidding!
Another Writer Wrangler Honest Review
By Amanda
April 28th, 2008
Thank you for reading another great Writer Wrangler Review
By Our Own Katie-Anne
Often as writers we end up with a batch of articles that we’ve had printed, the buyer only wanted specific rights, and we’re left with them taking up space on the hard-drive. There are magazines that take reprints if you want to explore that option, but check out Constant Content first. This site has been around a few years, and unlike many others, it has actually decreased the amount of commission it takes from the writers. There’s no fee involved to the writers for using the site, but if you sell anything CC takes 35% of your sales price. This seems a lot, but you have to weigh that up against the fact the articles are already wrote and are currently not earning anything! The negative side of the side isn’t the commission you have to pay, but the time it can take to get the articles loaded up. At one time there was only the owner who received the articles, approved them, and it took about a day before you could see your stuff live at the site. The site’s grown however, and now they have a team of editors who ensure that work meets a certain standard before it is approved for the site. Overall this is a good thing because it means the site gets a reputation for providing quality work, which sets it apart from the sites that allow anything to be published, but it can frustrating for the authors who must wait to see if their article will be accepted or not. Another downside is that they have a $50 threshold so you don’t get your payment until you have that much in your account (although they will sometimes release on request if you ask).
The positive aspects of are the site are many and include:
- It’s free (except if you sell when you’re paid your set fee minus CC’s commission)
- You get to choose the fee you want for the work – which means you can get paid more for the reprint than you did for the original in some cases
- You can choose what rights you sell on the work – and set different prices for each category of copyright you have available on each article
- You can choose to only submit work you have already done
- You can choose to submit on spec for buyers who put in a request for articles on a certain subject area
- Payment is monthly via PayPal
When CC first started there was very little in the way of requested articles, now this is becoming more of a feature. With everything from product descriptions, to reviews, and from feature articles to blog entries being requested, there’s a lot of variety for anyone who wants to gamble on submitting something that fits the request but which may not be chosen. The amount that clients are willing to pay varies with some clients wanting to pay $5 an article, and others willing to pay $100-200, for the same size article! It doesn’t matter so much what the client is offering, but rather what you want to be paid for the article because you control the fee setting, not the client. If you don’t want to work for $5 an article, submit the work but put a higher fee on it. That buyer may not buy it, but another buyer in the same product area might. Navigating the site takes a bit of getting used to, it used to be so much simpler, but technology improved and with it an abundance of features that can make for a more efficient system, only you have to learn how to use it first! Take a tour around the site, read the forum posts that deal with the new system and see how other new authors have had their queries answered – if you’ve got a problem, you can guarantee someone else already had it and has an answer! If not, then put a note in the forum and ask! One thing that is very much a constant at CC is the friendliness of writers. Here you will find the kind of community-ship that the writing professional is known for – those with experience offering advice to those who need it. Although writing on spec isn’t such a good deal unless you know that what you’ve produced is good enough to outclass anything else that may be submitted from the other writers, Constant Content is a great place for putting your reprints. Yes it takes time, but once you’ve done it, they stay there until you take them down – and they sell over and over again especially if they’re in the “hot” topic areas. You’re not likely to get rich at CC, but that’s not really the nature of the site. However, what have you got to lose but a little learning and input time – and take a look at the top author stats, those writers may not be earning a fortune, but with hundreds of article sales to their name, they are certainly earning a great deal more than little pin-money!
July 3rd, 2007
By Clark Covington
For as long as people have been buying goods and services on the Internet, there has been only one major option to collect payment, the 800lb gorilla known only as PayPal. While the latter part of the name might lead one to infer it’s a friendly payment option, many writers have found it to be the contrary.
The only other option to date was signing up for costly merchant accounts to accept credit cards directly, which for anyone that has done this, knows is no small feat. Imagine the pain of going to the DMV combined with the agony of waiting in line at the bathroom during halftime of your favorite sporting event, and you have the precise emotional meltdown one feels singing up for a merchant account.
So what’s next, if PayPal is evil, and merchant accounts are torture, dare we ask our clients for cash?
Not likely, in the world of hyper authoritarian internet security, cash payments are a thing of the past. Luckily a new player has emerged, set out to offer writers a hassle free way to accept payment. The name most commonly associated with searching the Internet is now a full blown credit card payment gateway that is hassle free… Well, almost hassle free.
Google Checkout
The Good
Google Checkout takes about 2 minutes to sign up for, compared to a tedious 7 day PayPal signup time; this might be Google Checkout’s most attractive feature.
Accepting payment with Google Checkout is also extremely easy, with easy to create invoices that can be sent directly from the site. Similar to a money request from PayPal, these invoices include more info about you in them, and seem to arrive as soon as you click the send button.
Receiving payment is fairly easy, while Google Checkout does require the buyer to sign up for the service; it isn’t too hard to get a buyer to the payment information screen after a brief sign up.
The Bad
Google prefers tangible goods. I’m not making this up. They say it is in their terms of service. As writers we are selling a service, which of course isn’t tangible, but all and all I assume it’s better than selling Mexican pharmaceuticals, just a guess.
Payouts are mysteriously provided after 4 or 5 business days. There is no withdrawing function as many are familiar with in PayPal. Instead Google Checkout assumes the user would like to withdraw funds immediately. The problem? It’s not immediate.
I received a payment from my client on the April 26th as you can see below.
My payment was “processed” for 4 days before posting as a payout on April 30th as you can see below. It took 6 days from the time my client ordered to the time the money was in my bank account. Not bad, but not great either.
The custom order page looks like this for those curious about what an order page would look like.
All and all Google Checkout is a quality payment processor worthy of keeping on hand for clients that don’t like PayPal. I’ve personally been a fan of Google’s innovations for a long time, ever since their stock price hit $400 a share, and they received more money than Oprah.
I figure with all that money in their bank account, it doesn’t hurt to sign up with Google Checkout, they might start giving some of it away, and if I know Google, I know just how it’ll be distributed.
Thank you for reading another great Writer Wrangler Review
May 3rd, 2007
*Another Great Writer Wrangler Site Review: www.guru.com
By Laura Spencer
I have been a member at guru.com since before it was called guru.com (the site used to be known as CreativeMoonligher.com. There also used to be related sites called ITmoonlighter.com, OFFICEmoonlighter.com, and BIZmoonlighter.com. All of the sites were part of an overarching site called Emoonlighter.com.). My involvement with the site has always been solely as a guru (independent contractor).
At one time I even had a paid membership. My current membership is a free membership. (Ironically enough, the times I did get work through this site I was not a paying member.)
Things I Like About guru.com
- Navigation. I have looked at several other job bidding sites. I find the interface at www.guru.com to be clean and easy to follow.
- Project tracking. This site provides a project list of projects that I’ve bid on (Project Tracker), a Watch List for project that I’m interested in, and summary of past jobs.
- Online resume and portfolio. I like the convenience of having a resume stored online and readily available for potential clients to see. (Some levels of paid membership also allow you to link to websites that you have created or to create an online portfolio.)
- Regular leads. Even as a nonpaying member I receive more leads (averaging about six a month) from this site than from any of the other bidding sites where I am registered as a free member.
- Invoicing tool. Not only does the site provide an online invoicing tool, but also it keeps a record of every invoice that you’ve ever sent. I can still see invoices that I sent out over three years ago.
- Prompt Payment. I was paid quickly (within a few days) by direct deposit for the jobs that obtained through this site.
- Feedback Rating. I like being able to see how other contractors rated employers. I confess that I was a little nervous about being rated myself thinking that I might be downgraded unfairly, but it turned out that I received a high rating.
- Help System. The online help for this site is excellent.
Things I Don’t Like About guru.com
Working with RentaCoder
RentACoder (also known as RAC) was one of the first freelancing sites that I joined when I decided that having been published in print I was no longer interested in query/submission process, but wanted to pursue a more regular writing job instead. A friend suggested I take a look at RAC and I liked what I saw – or more importantly, I understood what I saw!
Two years down the road, I’ve quite a lot of freelance experience, especially as a ghostwriter, and I’m still with RentaCoder and that in itself is a good recommendation but the site isn’t without its flaws. For writers who want to follow a similar work path to that I walk, it’s definiately a site that shouldn’t be discounted.
Main Advantages
Free! Well, there are no actual subscription charges unlike some of the other freelance sites that attract writers. They do however take a percentage of what you earn for each project – but the site tells you how much this will be as you submit your bid on each project.
Variety. There’s a huge range of clients looking for many different writing styles and offering a wide spectrum of topics and even writing types – such as web writing, technical writing and white paper writing.
Financially Safe. All clients must escrow their funds before you start the project, and RAC advises you not to start a project until they (RAC) inform you that the escrow payment has been made. You can’t access the funds until the client releases them upon project completion, but once they accept your submitted project, the funds are released to your RAC account.
Review System. Many sites offer a review system but RAC is slightly different in that you give your review “blind”. Until both the client and writer have given a review, neither review is revealed. This means that you get a fair assessment, not one that’s based on your review of the client.
Invitation System. Clients have an option of offering an open project where everyone can bid, inviting a selection of specific freelancers to bid, or even inviting one specific freelancer (especially if they’ve worked with them previously).
Personal Page. Here you get to write a bit about yourself, and what you specialize in. This helps identify you to clients looking to invite specific writers to bid on their project.
Main Disadvantages
Fees! Although there’s no subscription charge, the project percentage could take a larger percentage of your earnings than you’d like. You need to remember however that even some of the sites which have a subscription fee also take a percentage of the earnings from each project on top of their monthly/annual fee – it’s lower than RAC but when you add the subscription charges it often works out that RAC still costs less.
Unrealistic Clients. Some clients offer projects with ridiculous budgets – we’re talking $1 for 500 word articles! The upside to this is that you can ignore them and choose to bid on better paying projects. RAC isn’t the worst for unrealistic clients, but it does seem to get a fair share of them.
Arbitration System. This may at first seem like a good idea and an advantage, but having been through this because of no fault of my own, I know it to be a disadvantage because the system is biased towards the client. You can go to arbitration over a situation with a project, but if you lose, your account with RAC is closed – even if you were in the right! Arbitration is often a case of “he said, she said” so unless you are 100% certain that you can’t possibly be found to be in the wrong, it’s not worth it!
Releasing Funds. Although your funds for a project may have been released to your account, you can’t access them! RAC pays out either once or twice a month depending on which option you choose. Payment is sent via PayPal around the 15th and 30th of each month only.
The disadvantages of RentaCoder are not to be dismissed lightly, but when they are looked at against similar sites, they aren’t that different. The advantages of finding work at the site far outweigh any negative points the site has. Despite one not so nice experience, I’m still working with them and have met some of my best repeat clients there. As with all freelance sites, as long as you clarify exactly what’s expected before you accept the project, you shouldn’t have a problem.
If you’re looking for a site that will bring you freelance work, RAC is worth at least a second look – after all, it costs you nothing to sign up! VISIT RENTACODER
Katie-Anne
Another Great Writer Wrangler Reviewer!
Katie-Anne Gustafsson freelance writer and owner of wakeupwriting.com, the site that kick starts your creative muse.”
April 18th, 2007
If you ever wondered what kind of products that the writers from Writer Wrangler produce … Here is one of our recent published ebooks. I wish I could just give it away free to all members to show off how cool we are! But alas, I cannot due to the copyrights attached to it. This ebook is for anyone who needs to understand how intellectual property rights work online, how to avoid violating anyone’s rights inadvertently, and how to protect your own. Comes with audio too so you do not actually need to read it! If you can take a few minutes to read the sales copy you will be reading more from a Writer Wrangler Writer. Also.. That is exactly what I am looking for when I say hiring for sales copy. Leave a comment and tell me your thoughts! You can view the whole sales page here: http://www.writerwrangler.com/copyrights/index.html
January 14th, 2007
We are rolling! Check out The Forum and get involved with this growing community for content writers.
If you are interested in accepting work from us, this is how it works…
First, fill out The Form (you can access it under “Links” on the right side of this page). After completing it, look at The Forum and find out if new assignments are available.
If you are at least eighteen and have a PayPal account, simply ask an Administrator for the password to the Working Writers area. Assuming the sample you provided when you completed the Form is fine and you meet the age requirement, we will send you the password via a private message at The Forum.
You can then take on any of the offered topics, write some great content and get paid! It is that easy!
While you are browsing The Forum, feel free to add a line or a paragraph or two in the “Follow me” thread. Members are spinning an adventure about “Lefty” the left-handed fry cook from Vermont, who is having a grand time in the land of Ninniecanippions. Feel free to add your spin to the hilarious tale.
Hope to you soon,
The Admin
April 6th, 2006
We need writers. Plain and simple.
The administrators of Writer Wrangler.com have clients all around the world looking for quality content at global prices. We are here to attract writers who want to work.
Whether you are a seasoned professional who wants to avoid dealing directly with clients or an inexperienced newcomer who just needs to add content to a portfolio, we are looking for you! We are looking for writers that are interested in getting a lot of work–writers who are ready to produce articles for 1 to 2 cents per word.
We are also looking for other writers who can do copywriting and other specialized writing (higher rates are offered in these cases). If you are an experienced writer and would be interested in being placed on the writers list at WriterWrangler.com, please fill out the writers information form.
We hand out a lot of work, but that is not all we do. In addition to supplying writers with great projects, we have also found a way to let writers share their workloads!
As independent writers you may find that unforeseen issues with family, health and life in general will often interrupt an assignment, making it difficult to complete. This can lead to hurt feelings and lost revenue. It can even place a “black mark” on an otherwise impeccable writing record.
That is why we have opened our WriterWrangler community forum at (http://forum.writerwrangler.com/index.php). The forum is a place to hand off assignments to other writers when you are in a pinch. This creates an opportunity to avoid a great deal of hardship and keeps writers and customers satisfied! We have a great deal of experience in hiring writers to complete content jobs, but this website is a new project. If you have any suggestions that can help us produce a better site, please feel free to contact me personally at support@writerwrangler.com.
Thank you,
Senior Administrator
You will find this reprinted on the about page because this page will be about news and information to help writers succeed.
March 24th, 2006
