500 reviews over 3 days for $200 - Should I subject myself to this torture?

United States
June 29, 2009 2:03am CST
So I'm trying to find a way to make at LEAST half of what I earn from my weekly paycheck at work. I make $380 a week at my job. I figure if I can get at least $200 from online a week then I won't have to continue looking for a second job. It's already a pain in the butt as it is to find a second job even though I currently have one of the most respectable careers on Earth (EMT) but no employers fail to realize that. The only sites to look for in order to do this are the ones that pay upfront and not per commission. The only sites I've found that are the most profitable in that department are ReviewStream and Associated Content. They are all guaranteed upfront payments, no competing, none of that crap. So with ReviewStream, I've been aiming for the bulk rate of 40 cents a review (I don't aim for the $2 because that's not guaranteed, only the bulk rate is, you see). I previously wrote 125 reviews for them over about a month and got my first payment of $50 from them. Associated Content I've only written 7 articles for and got about $25. My average AC pay is $3 per article. I have 3 days off a week from my job and that's the only time I can find to do this crazy idea I came up with: 500 reviews for ReviewStream over 3 days, 166 reviews per day. 500 reviews x 40 cents = $200. I decided to try that experiment today and found I was only able to write 10 reviews in one hour and needed a break. Maybe I'm just being lazy? It is so possible to to get paid the amount I mentioned by writing that many reviews, but the only problem is its a BIG pain in the butt to do. The money is there, the work is there, but the willingness to insaneness to do it sure isn't for me. Even if I had a big healthy meal and good motivating workout, I still don't think I can do it. I would have to be like a cyborg. Then there's Associated Content. If I write 20 articles per day, 3 days each, that gives me $180 (remember, I average $3 per article). That's dandy and all, but the problem is coming up with enough topics to write about. I can write reviews for them because they don't pay upfront pay for reviews. If they paid upfront for reviews, I would have no problem whatsoever, heck I would write 30 a day. I just feel like I'm running out of options here. Everything outside of ReviewStream and Associated Content is way toooooo much labor to deal with, paid to post sites, ptc sites, commission sites, all they pay is pizza money. That's cool if you want some money to buy an extra sandwich every week, but I'm serious here. Other writing sites suck compared to Reviewstream and AC. Helium is too strict and has too many requirements, plus there's competition on there (I'd rather compete if I was rich, that way I can sit back and enjoy it without worry). Compared By is constantly changing their site so there's a lot of uncertainty associated with that (heck they did it while I was with them). Ciao is probably the worst of them all, what do they pay now like 25 cents per review? Ha, might as well go to reviewstream in that case and get the extra 15 cents per review. And every other writing site only pays by CPM, page view, or whatever.
9 responses
@browneyed (2522)
• United Kingdom
29 Jun 09
No, I definitely don't think you should subject yourself to that kind of torture. It's insane to attempt to write that many reviews for so little money. It's not worth your energy, time and talent. I think part of your problem might be that you just don't know where to look for writing opportunities that pay better. Once you do, I think you'll do well 'cos if you can write that many reviews in one month, then you obviously have the determination. I've been writing online since Jan '08. I don't make a full-time income as yet, but I've made close to $5000 since I first started. I have an ebook that you might find useful. It's called 'Writing Online: 3 Tried & Tested Ways to Make Money'. The link's in my profile if you wanna take a look. In the meantime, you can start looking at the following sites: - http://www.freelancewritinggigs.com - http://www.chrisblogging.com - http://job.problogger.com Those might help. I really think you can do much better. And I think you know that. Good luck whatever you decide to do. take care...
@browneyed (2522)
• United Kingdom
29 Jun 09
Sorry, it's http://jobs.problogger.com
• United States
30 Jun 09
I hear you man! I have been debating whether I should really put a lot of effort into postings to get a good payment or just do in my free time to get a few extra bucks. Every time I get a chance to breathe and get online, I end up doing something else. I log onto my sites to post but I never get to doing it because I just dont feel like it. I am trying to push myself to post more because I am in a desperate situation but it really sucks to take time to post something and then you get liek you said "pizza money". Anyways, I dont think you should dedicate your entire time off to making that money. I think it is a good option in your free time to type up some reviews/articles and get some extra money but I dont think you should "torture" yourself with it ! You will just hate it and get discouraged. If you do it when you feel like it without any pressure, even if it only buys you a sandwich, hey that's still a free sandwich ;) hope you figure it all out without stressing out about it!
@piya84 (2581)
• India
30 Jun 09
How much torture one should take.WEll that depends upon ones financial situation and desire for bright future.
@cbantly (236)
• United States
29 Jun 09
I too am an EMT, and I work 24 hour shifts. I drive to a neighboring county because it is a much slower system. With such a low call volume, I actually have time to work on online ventures while on duty. As I write this now, I am at Medic 5! I also write articles for Text Broker, and have not gotten around to starting with AC yet.
• United States
29 Jun 09
Wow! That sure sounds intense. I don't know if its worth it. I mean, you will definitely be working REALLY hard but let us know how it works out. Just don't hurt yourself writing those reviews though! It is definitely an interesting concept though. I mean, I really don't make very much online. Its more of a way to occupy little bits of spare time and eventually the earnings add up, but well, if you can do it, then definitely more power to ya!
• Canada
30 Jun 09
Your eyes would be tortured, your eyes are what you use daily. It's better if you work and actually interact with the outside world. It's good for a side job or optional time killing activity, but full time, wow, is this what you want to be doing for the rest of your life? No! Interacting jobs make you feel way better, socialize, and talk, be active with the world, when you write reviews, your caged up in your own little room, very challenging, and boring.
29 Jun 09
Well whilst the idea maybe theoretically possible in practice I would say it wouldn't be. The first thing to take into consideration is as you churn out review after review will the quality of them slip so that in fact you will be earning less per review. Secondly do have enough source information to write that many useful reviews. Finally I would say that even if you managed to complete just 1 day of doing this by day 2 you will most likely reach burn out and write nowhere near enough. Have you ever considered creating your own blog instead of writing reviews for other sites. Done efficently one decent review could earn you $1.00 every day and will continue to earn for as long as it's on the net. Get 100 quality reviews on your blog you could be earning $100 every day. To me this would make more sense and instead of using an hour to write 6 reviews you could use half of that to write 1 decent review for your blog and the other half hour marketing it.
@khayshenz (1384)
• United States
29 Jun 09
WOW - you had it all figured out huh? Good for you. This is all good information for me. Thanks for sharing. There's not much I can help you with though. All I've made so far have not paid out yet. So all these cents are sort of stuck in those programs. I'm thinking of getting more serious with review stream though. AC I haven't tried it out. Maybe you should try BUKISA - though I've written one article for them and haven't gotten a cent. You can check it out though. Maybe it's for you. I don't think that you should subject yourself to that many reviews (that's a lot, what are you reviewing anyway?). I think you definitely should find other avenues with your writing. A blog maybe?
@busky5 (3164)
• Thailand
29 Jun 09
Why you can write more. You are a great person really.