I've been writing for others for a while including grant proposals and SOP manuals for a major non-profit. Point being that I'm a pretty good writer....or so I thought. During my first couple weeks at Mturk I had several writing HITs, which I was pretty happy with, rejected. I got the feeling that they were taking the articles, using them how ever they chose and not paying. Has anyone else had the same experience? I've shied from writing, which I really like and would like to do more, but not to have them stolen. Do you have insights and/or suggestions to have your writing approved?
Always keep copies of what you've written. After a few days/a month, do a google search of parts of the text. This is a good way to see how your work is being used, if the pages are indexed with google. Now, you may not be able to do squat about it - but it's always been when writing/submitting online writing work. If you have referrals and previous experience, there are other sites out there that are better if writing is your focus. I don't have experience and I don't have referrals, so I don't work there lol
ahhh, good point, I get a little lazy when not under pressure of the all mighty dollar. I do have have spell/grammar check and I do double/triple check before submitting. Spelling sometimes gets me though, plus my fingers walk where my brain isn't occasionally...LOL The editor in you catches things my eye skips over, maybe that's part of it. Good thought, Whimsy. I have copies and will check a couple just for my info. Thanks all, good advice
Definitely use TO. Weed out the bad requesters from the start. Don't write for anyone with super vague instructions unless they are very reputable -- these types of requesters tend to reject because their instructions weren't specific enough to what they wanted. If the requester has a style guide, read it thoroughly. I've seen rejections because one requester wants a comma after every instance of "and" where another preferred a different style. Some want a specific point of view so make sure you pay attention to that. Writing online is different than writing manuals and proposals. Online writing is all about keywords and getting traffic.
I am exactly the same. I do a lot of transcription and when I get to the forum my typing accuracy goes to pot! I edit most posts I make for a typo I only spot after hitting send
needed to hear that! Experience isn't always experience Also, wasn't aware of the vague instructions and things as "minor" as a comma. After all of your generous help, I might even try a writing HIT again
Yeah the difference between "x, y, and z" and "x, y and z" can cost you. Commas always get me in trouble. I've learned to go through after I'm done and remove at least 1 comma from every paragraph otherwise I tend to overuse them.
646count, I haven't had any writing HITs rejected yet. I have been sticking to well known requesters like Gaddy. The rest I have tried had good TO. If one of those 'good' requesters rejected you, you may be able to email them and start a conversation about writing for them again. If it wasn't one of those, do keep checking to see if they've stolen your work like Whimsy said. I do that. They may bide their time and post it when they think you've forgotten about it. I started a blog for that very reason. If I write for someone who rejects my work, I plan to post it on my blog. I don't know if that will work the way I want it to, but there really isn't much we can do when that happens except rate them accordingly on TO. If they didn't steal your work and rejected you, they may also be willing to tell you why it was rejected. Like you, I have previous writing experience, but no E-commerce experience. I did two for Gaddy without keywords, the ones that instructed you to write on any topic related to a particular blog. No feedback, but based on what others have said, that's means I at least did OK. With the others I tried, I left a comment that it was my first assignment for them, and I would appreciate any feedback on anything I needed to improve. I was hoping that would show that I was serious about giving them what they wanted and that I wasn't just trying to scam them. So far, that has worked out. One thing that is hard for me is self-editing. With Gaddy's HITs, you get 6 hours to do it. That gives me time to write it, go to another task, then come back. That time doing something else allows my brain to 'reset' and it's easier for me to find mistakes. I read that tip a few weeks ago on a writing forum (writers of all levels seem to have trouble self-editing), and it works! It has worked for me with writing and transcription. It doesn't work with the 60 minute HITs, but it does with the ones with long timers. As someone brand new to E-commerce/mturk writing, that's about as useful as I can be unfortunately. I would definitely contact requesters if you feel the need because most seem to appreciate that, and that may be something that helps reduce rejections. Hopefully, more of the experienced writers around here will post, because I, too, want to learn more about writing on mturk.
GREAT advice, nobody. I will definitely try that. Self-editing is a problem because I know what I meant to type and sometimes my brain sees that even if it's not written correctly. So far the tips and ideas have been extremely helpful and like you, I'd like to see more. To contribute and not just take; here's something I do. I jot down some ideas as I'm beginning to think through the assignment...sometimes on PLAIN OLD paper..LOL. That helps me get my energy going in that direction. Sometimes I'll number them to help organize. Then I type what comes to mind as a first draft. After that and as many times as I think it needs, I'll open and save as a .1doc (.2, .3, etc) and expand. I find that's helpful because sometimes my brain will take a little side trip and I'll get off track and if I have the previous "unmolested" doc I can get back on track. As suggested earlier, I read and re-read and re-re-read trying to put myself in the reader's position to make sure the point I'm trying to make is what appears.
There are only a few writing requesters that are not straight up scams, and there are even fewer that are not scams and pay a decent rate. My only advice is try to stick to a couple of good ones and learn their style guide inside and out. The guides tend to vary quite a bit among requesters.
It sounds like your writing isn't the problem; you're just getting taken in by scammers. Honestly, I haven't seen hardly any good writing work on Mturk in a long time. If you like writing, you should check out textbroker. They're legit, and you could probably move into the 2 cents a word category pretty quickly. They're really anal about using AP style, but there are really only a few AP-specific rules you need to know to make their editors happy. And they never reject (unless you're just terrible/scamming/etc, I guess.) (I just violated one of their rules in the former sentence, I just noticed! LOL. "Never begin a sentence with a coordinating conjunction.")
I would also like to take this opportunity to advocate the principal that good writers should never write a well-researched article for less than one cent a word. Experienced content writers should set the bar even higher.
Lol...I rarely follow rules in the forum, just a relaxed place to share But thanks for the encouragement and suggestions. I'm keeping a list and going to focus next week on improving my income. That'll probably include several of the other sites suggested. ?? I assume that's how most of you do it...find a few different sources ??
A lot of people do. I consider content writing to be a "skilled trade", and right now, Mturk just isn't the place for serious writers. But Mturk is good for other stuff, like well paying batch hits when they're available, surveys, etc. It sounds like it's good for transcription work, too, but I'm personally just intimidated by the elaborate style guides of the reputable requesters. I should probably get over that, though.
I have started looking more seriously in the past week. I don't have previous experience, so how to show them I can write? I started a blog on my own dot com so it's mine and won't disappear for any reason ('cept failure to pay my hosting bill). I want to do more content writing. I've actually come across a forum full of internet marketers and sometimes they need content writers. I have to get over my fear of doing what I like for money, for someone else's approval. You've had previous experience writing though =) This was also mentioned there...interesting read - even if I won't be putting all of my writing to numbers and math. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flesch-Kincaid_readability_test#Flesch_Reading_Ease
This is my biggest fear. I have comma issues, and I'm dreading when I write for a requester who is really anal about that. I joke about it, but it really is something I work on constantly. I just don't get all the comma rules. :/ I also worry about whether my content is engaging enough. These HITs are supposed to be bringing in money, and I always worry if my content will do that. Totally stressful, but as an aspiring writer, I'm sticking with it. I'll take any kind of writing experience I can get.
For textbroker, they ask for a specific kind of example submission on a topic they assign. From there (usually within a week) they rate you as 2-5 stars. Most people, no matter how well they write, initially get rated 3, but after doing 10 or 20 articles for them, most get bumped up to 4 stars. Here's their pay rate: http://www.textbroker.com/us/author-rates.php