What's your experience with iWriter?

Jenifer,
I can't answer your question about Iwriter because I've never work for them.

But I'm curious if you've tried running an ad in the Warrior for Hire section of the forum?

If you write an ad that sets you apart from mediocre writers it can be a good way to get long-term clients. Though the pay won't be as good as finding offline clients; it will generally be better than Iwriter.

You can also link to the ad in your signature so it keeps working for you even when the ad has moved from the first few pages.

Rose

I have been a writer at iwriter for the last one year or so. I have written more than 1000 articles there. Based on my own experience with iwriter I can say that it is one of the best freelancing sites on the Internet. There are many satisfied writers there. I have a lot of respect for its owner Brad Callen. He often interacts with members here too. I respect his honesty. He is a very hard working person. iwriter is his brain child. I wish him all the best in his endeavors. Although many might point out that iwriter pays low for a 300-word and 500-word article, they may not be entirely true. You can get requests there for which you can earn even more. Of course everyone cannot become elite writers there. As a matter of fact I am only a standard writer there. I am not even a premium writer there. Yet I am satisfied with what I am earning there. It is always a pleasure to work with someone like Brad Callen!

Just checked iWriter and indeed, the rate is so low. If you are a very good writer, why not try oDesk or WF Warriors For Hire section. Or set-up a website where you can have your own writing services offered at your own terms and rates.

I've used them in the past, and wouldn't recommend them for anything that goes into your main marketing messages.

Most of what I've gotten is pretty much junk, not written from a marketing perspective at all.


Think about it:
You're paying someone $2-$10 for an article, which in most cases you know more about the subject than they do.

The writer is going to take your keywords and do a search for them, summarizing the first few results they see, and in many cases copying and spinning the content from article directories.

It's true that you can disapprove submitted articles, but that happens quite frequently. It affects your approval rating, which writers see when considering taking on your article or not. So, lets say you put in a request, and get spun crap and other articles that just plain suck as if their written by a non native English speaker. Your approval rating will become lower, and the writers will be less interested in trying to compete for your request, knowing that they may waste time by submitting their work.

It depends on how you look at it. If you build up your writing business at iwriter, the pay may be low at first. Since you are already a great writer, you'd probably build your business fast and be in the elite or premium catagory of writers with multiple potentially happy repeat buyers. If I am a buyer, I'd be looking at the top rated writers.

The rejection rate would be high due to a crappy writer, but if you are a good writer - you have a better chance of getting accepted.

I always say, try it out once to see if it works out. It may bring in some cash.

Also, stay with your website ghostwriting service.

Like everyone else has mentioned, services like you're describing aren't for native English writers. Most who use those services either need a great deal of content to plaster their sites with, and aren't terribly picky about the quality -- or have no budget to speak of and will be a major PITA for you: expecting high-level content at bare-bottom pricing.

Market yourself on this forum and other marketing forums that have subforums for selling products and services, offer a few freebies to get reviews, and watch the money start to trickle in. Selling your services for less than $2/100 would be a shame, as there are people who respect a well written document with proper grammar, spelling, punctuation, and flow.

It isn't as hard as you might think, and you're in control of what you're willing to write about, refunds, customer service.

I got my start doing this kind of stuff years ago, and even create sales threads for writing when/if my copy writing service slows down.

Cheaper prices will always get the ball rolling for you quickly; but if you charge what you're worth, you only need a couple of good reviews to get a buzz circulating about your writing/service skills.

Good luck

How much is an average 1000 word article written with decent quality cost?

I used iWriter several times. Are you trying to buy content or are you trying to become a writer there?

There are 3 levels of writers: Basic, Premium and Elite. Try not to use "Basic" writers, although they are cheaper, you might be disappointed at the results. I always go for at least "Premium" level and above. The writers usually do a decent jobs.

You can preview completed works from the writers. If you don't approve, they don't get pay. However, you are not allow to use the disapproved work in any way also.

I have written a lot of articles and published on ezinearticles , squidoo hub etc. but when I write at iwriter , a 1000 word unique article was rejected although the article is very informative and original.
The approval rate of articles are not very good at iwriter.
Instead of this I prefer writing for warriors here.

Thanks for all of your input! I think I'm going to go a different way for now. The starting pay is just too low for me and I am starting to build a great client base that is willing to pay a little more for quality. I can see how iWriter would be good for some, but I'm not sure it's right for me at this point.

It's far too low. I wrote some articles on iWriter and got sick of it. All my articles were accepted and I got the maximum stars on them... to the point I was getting special requests (not boasting, am sure it's very easy to achieve this as long as your content makes anywhere near some sense). However, I couldn't be bothered working for the rate. I'm guessing it's a decent place to get your spam content from but I would not put any of it on my site. I haven't tried many of the elite authors, though.

I've also bought some content from iWriter and it was all pure drivel (about 10 articles) - this was when I first started with niche sites and was looking into tiered link building. I was happy to accept the content at the time as I wasn't expecting much for the price.

I have written for iWriter for a few months now, and have a love/hate relationship with it. In theory, it is a fantastic way for talented writers to get a start earning money writing online. I have had some great feedback from requesters, and some who have rejected for seemingly illogical reasons. I try not to be bothered by rejections unrelated to my quality, but I have gotten riled up when one requester stopped short of actually accusing me of plagiarism and spinning (especially when I had know idea what that meant, lol!).

I worked hard to move above Standard level, and I live in fear of those requesters who leave poor ratings with little or no feedback. I always strive to give 100% to every job I take, and it is frustrating to think I could go back to writing for a lower rate without being informed of exactly why.

I signed up for them but never really hired anyone over there. Looks like gig site specialized for writing gigs only.

You get what you pay for. Ask any warrior in here that outsources good content.

I have paid $180 or so for an article in here, warrior for hire section, however, that article went viral and we still get subscribers and sales from that to this day. SO it was worth far more than that $180

I've used iwriter a few times for articles to be written. I approved >80% of the articles, which is a reasonable rate for the price.

For high quality articles, I have my own writer who has published her own books and writes for various magazines. Obviously her rates are a lot higher than iwriter, but when I want high quality, she is my first place I go to.

I was a little disappointed when I used the 'forgot password' function, to have my password emailed back to me. That is not a secure method of password storage.

If you need some advice on safe storage of user details then give me a shout, Brad.

I have used iWriter for general content and have found the quality to be pretty good. I do reject articles that are are not up to the standard I expect (about 15-20%) but will accept them if they can be improved with just a bit of light editing.

You cannot use the rejected articles as none of hte articles are downloadable until you accept them.

As you can 'save' writers who are particularly good, over time you can ask to have your job shown only to your 'private list' first, so the quality you receive will improve.

All in all I find it an excellent service.

I've used iwriter.
The thing is, you should be ready to work with a few writers and pick the best for repeat business.

I check ratings before selecting and communicate how I want articles written clearly.

The ability to reject those which do not meet my requirements is a feature I really appreciate. I also tell the writers upfront that this will happen if their articles are low quality.

Like anything else it's a learning curve.

Keypoint to note, the fact that some writers are rated as higher quality doesn't necessarily mean their work is always better than others.

I used to do some writing on iWriter and actually picked up a couple of decent clients on there that I went on to work with for more money outside of iWriter.

Yes, pay is really low at iWriter. The reason I'll never do anything with that site, though, is that the website is very heavily slanted to benefit people requesting articles, and the writers get the shaft.

I've had people reject well written articles for no good reason, citing non-existent spelling or grammar issues, or because they wanted something specific they didn't bother to list in their instructions. When your article gets rejected, you can't give that person a star rating, meaning the ratings are utterly useless from the perspective of a writer.

The final straw, though, was when I did leave negative reviews of requestors, I actually had a few of my reviews deleted. Since the star ratings are useless, I relied on those reviews to find out if somebody was worth writing for. If they remove bad reviews, there's literally no way to tell if somebody is a piss-poor, scumbag thief who will reject your work for no apparent reason. It's just not worth it to me to risk my time writing an article that might make a couple pennies per word.

Theoretically not, but word on the street is that it happens all the time.

I've had it happen twice on iWriter. The first time, it was dealt with quickly and professionally -- except that instead of providing me with the money that the client owed me for stolen material, I was given a credit that I had no use for.

However, it just happened again, and I feel that I'm getting the runaround from their support team. I provided a link to where the client had posted the stolen copy, and the response I got from someone named Amanda there was that I would only get paid for it if they determined that the client was a "serial rejector." I'm pretty pissed; it shouldn't matter if the client makes a practice of this or if this is her first time; a thief is a thief.

Most article writing services have a feature where the clients have to download the articles after accepting them, and this probably helps cut down on the thieves to an extent, but it doesn't prevent it. The scammers have ways around it.

Other than that, I use iWriter for pocket change. It can be a good source of extra cash, but be careful there. There's a definite slant against writers, and I believe that it contributes to the stealing. Also, as much as Brad likes to say that the rating system keeps bad writers out and good writers in, that's not the case. Many five-star writers there got that way because they gamed the system and partnered up with someone and "became each other's clients" so that they could get to those "lucrative" five-star articles. Those who operate this way seem to be from Third World countries.

I'd like to keep it as an occasional egg, but I don't think that I will. Other sites are paying much more, and it's probable that until and unless something changes at iWriter, all that will be left will be the ESL writers who produce content that Google no longer wants. Their elite prices are at the very low end of the scale for even marginally skilled native English writers.

IWriter almost seems designed to rip writers off. I've actually enjoyed writing some of the articles there, though, but I can't take the chance at those rates that I won't be paid for work that I've done. I'm pretty tuned in to the online writing community, and many other writers feel the same way about the place.

I had bad experience with iWriter since I bought articles that were stolen from other peoples websites. I dont know how can iWriter approve that, since they claim to have CopyScape in process.

I dont know how about other buyers but I usually dont check the article for originality when I see they were already checked and passed the test.

My experience? Generally appalling articles. Had to close my account as the quality was dreadful.