Some Clarifications About Textbroker

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I know that alot of people on here do work through Textbroker, but because I get asked these things alot, I am going to post them here where hopefully people can find them. Textbroker is a third party "brokerage" firm. You work as an independent contractor and have no obligations to TB. They have no obligations to you. YOU are responsible for ALL the taxes and they do require that you send submit your tax information through fax or snail mail for verification. Yes this means you have to report it on your taxes, people! To join Textbroker, you must be a US citizen. Textbroker can be both easy and frustrating. Their system requires a sample writing when signing up to participate. The writing sample is used to derive a user rank. Approved users in good standing may be ranked 2,3,4, or 5 stars. 5 is the highest rank and seems to be relatively exclusive. Most decent writers, however, seem to rank as a 3 star or 4 star. One star status does exist, but it's reserved for people who have broken site rules or that may have been banned from the site. The available assignments are also given star rankings, 2-5. You can be a 4 star and write a 2 star topic, but you will be completely unable to write a 5 star topic. Doing Textbroker is ghostwriting, so if you're hoping to make a name for yourself, this is not necessarily the place for you. If you are looking to make money and don't care about your byline, then Textbroker is what you need. Textbroker just sets the most basic of guidelines and acts as a third party. You need a job, they find jobs, get the specifics, and post them. Then it's first come first serve. Articles can range from stuff that you would find on eHow, to boring website content, to blog posts. Sometimes you may even come across your sold works online later and be surprised! I know that I have and was! 2 star assignments are typically the lowest paying and easiest assignments in the pool. 5* articles are generally for professionals. There's never much action for the 5* writers - that's visible, but I'll get back to that in a minute. Clients typically choose the topic that they need and turn in a list of instructions and a deadline. Once Textbroker has that information, they job is posted in the assignments area, and whoever clicks it first has the chance to either write the topic or drop it back into the pool. Typical things included in instructions are the use of proper grammar, keywords that must be used a certain amount of times, the use of a certain writing style, and min/max amount of words to be used. Some topics are easy peasy, others may require a little research, and other things really just seem to remain one of life's mysteries! When an assignment is completed, you submit it and the client gets the chance to review it. If they are satisfied with the work, they accept it and Textbroker credits your account. Clients may rate your work as to how they feel your performance was in a way that you will be able to see it. If they are not satisfied, they are forced to give the writer at least one chance to revise the article and are supposed to tell the writers what they would like changed. The writer can then either revise it or dump it back into the pool. Clients may request as many revisions as they like, writers are never forced to revise. If you revise the article and the client is not satisfied, he may ask for another revision or reject it. Rejections do count against you, and any client may view your completed to rejection ratio on the site. Okay so you've completed three little articles and made $7.85. Now you want to cash out and head over to your favorite fast food place. Well, you can't - not quite yet. The minimum payout on Textbroker is $10.00. Requests for payouts must be submitted by midnight on the 5th and 20th of each month. Although it may take up to 5 days for your Paypal account to receive the transfer. I've always gotten paid the next day, typically by 12pm CST. They pay ONLY through Paypal. So you would need to get or have a Paypal account, and if you intend to use the money to do anything but shop and pay some bills online, you'll need to see if you qualify to get a Paypal Linked Debit Card. If approved, they're fast and free to get. This will allow you to remove funds from your paypal account in the form of cash. Some ATMs do charge for using this card at their machines. So, exactly how much money can be made? A substantial amount. Here's my payout chart from 3/20 - 4/20 04/20/2010 160.55 $ 0.00 $ 160.55 $ done - 04/21/2010 04/05/2010 213.08 $ 0.00 $ 213.08 $ done - 04/06/2010 03/20/2010 100.84 $ 0.00 $ 100.84 $ done - 03/21/2010 This week, I received a $190 payout on Tuesday. It's now Friday and my account is already back up to $80.00. I've written 511 total articles since I began in March, and nearly 300 of them have been just since September 25th and today. Yes, Textbroker is legit! Hope that clears things up for some folks! :)