Textbroker Review: Legit Way to Make Money Online?

With so many bloggers looking to outsource their writing work nowadays, it’s no wonder more freelance writers are looking for work – and platforms like Textbroker seem to be a perfect platform to find it.

But is it really a legit way to make money online? Well, I decided to take a closer look to find out, and in this review I’ll show you exactly what I found.

Review summary:

• Textbroker is an online marketplace that connects freelance writers with people who are looking to have content created for their website.
• You must be a U.S citizen to become a writer for Textbroker and, once qualified, you can earn anywhere from $.007 to $.05 per article, depending on your quality rating which gets assigned after your test article.
• Textbroker is legitimate, but many people complain that there’s not enough work, and that the platform doesn’t pay enough. So, overall, it’s probably more suited to people who are looking to earn extra money than a full-time income.

Read on for the full review.

What’s Textbroker About?

Textbroker is an online content marketplace that was launched in 2007 by Jan Becker-Fochler. It was formed on the idea of solving the problem of the growing demand of custom content.

There are many people who want to have custom content written, but don’t want to spend all the time looking for an author or putting an ad listing up. 

Textbroker is available in many languages, including: 

• German 
• English 
• Spanish 
• Danish 
• Russian

In order to ensure the best quality, each language has its own platform. So, Textbroker.com, for instance, is only available to U.S. based authors because it focuses on U.S. English content (as opposed to British English, which has different spellings).

With Textbroker, freelance authors are connected with people looking for content. Customers get the content they desire and the freelancers get paid to do something they love.

Plus, it’s a great way for aspiring freelance writers to potentially gain some experience before applying to higher-paying, specific jobs. 

How Does Textbroker Work?

In order to become a writer for Textbroker.com (US site), you first have to register and verify that you are a U.S. citizen. 

Then, you’re going to be asked to provide a writing sample that has to be a minimum of 200 words and should be about something you are familiar with. This sample is going to determine a lot, so you’ll want it to be your best work.

After submitting this, it may take a little bit to hear back from Textbroker, but when you do, you will receive a quality rating. 

This quality rating is anywhere from 2 to 5 stars. It will affect how much you get paid for projects and what content you get to work on. The higher your quality rating, the more you’ll get paid – but more on that later.

Once you have done all of this, then you’ll complete your author profile. This just includes basic information, like your experience, languages known, and so on. 

And after this you are all done and ready to get started working! And with Textbroker, there are three different types of content you can make money creating:

• Open Order: You get to choose from orders based on your quality level and your earnings will be affected by your quality level.
• Direct Order: These are when a customer comes directly to you and you get to set your rate, regardless of your quality rating.
• Team Order: These are open to anyone on the team on a first come first serve basis and the customer gets to set the pay rate for these.

When you have completed an article and have submitted it, it is reviewed for any necessary revisions. It will then be sent back to you (if necessary) and you have 24 hours to complete those revisions. 

On your Textbroker account you can browse through all of the available assignments, and you can click on an assignment to see the full details of it.  However, once you click on an assignment, you only have 10 minutes to accept it or the system will time out.  

Also, when you are going to accept and complete orders, your quality rating can go up – so long as you follow the revision guidelines that get submitted to you. So, there’s an opportunity to earn more money and eventually be eligible for more work.

Is Textbroker Legit?

Textbroker is not a scam because there is actually work available and you actually do get paid for said work. There are, however, two common complaints. One is that there is not enough work, and the other is that they don’t pay enough. 

With regards to not having enough work, you have to take into consideration the fact that most freelance companies have many other freelancers looking for some work too and most never promise you full-time income potential. 

This may be a good thing if you are looking for part-time work or supplemental income though, or just trying to build up your experience for your resume.

So as long as you go into it with the expectation that there might not be much work and it would be more of a side income, then you are not going to have much of a problem.

Looking at the complaint of the pay not being enough, their rates are pretty low unless you’re a 5-star rated writer. In fact, most intermediate writers charge between $0.10 to $1.00 per word.

So, this isn’t the place to go if you’re looking to make a lot of money or are an experienced writer whose used to charging higher prices.

How Much Money Can You Make?

How much money you can make with Textbroker depends on what sort of writing job you select (Direct Order, Team Order, or Open Order) and your quality rating as a writer.

You can make a minimum or $.02 per word on Direct Orders, a minimum of $.01755 per word on Team Orders, and with Open Orders it varies based on your quality rating as follows:

• 2 star: $0.007 cents/word
• 3 star: $0.01 per word
• 4 star: $0.014  per word
• 5 star: $0.05 per word

There is a noticeable difference between 4 star and 5 star rates, and this is because in order to have a 5 star rating, you have to pass a test and pretty much have content that requires no editing upon submission. 

To get a better, quantitative idea of how much you can make, let’s assume you completed one 500-word article per day. Depending on your quality rating, that would be:

• 2 star: $3.50 per article
• 3 star: $5.00 per article
• 4 star: $7.00 per article
• 5 star: $25.00 per article

So, if you did one of those articles per day, five days a week, you’d bring in about $70-$500 per month. Of course, that’s assuming that there’s that level of work available, which might not always be the case.

Either way, if you’re a 5-star writer, this wouldn’t be a bad way to earn extra money in between your regular writing jobs.

Conclusion

Textbroker is a legitimate way to earn money online. However, you probably won’t make very much because of either the low rates or the lack of work – or a combination of the two. So it may suit you if you want to gain some experience as a freelance writer if you’re just starting out, or if you want to make a few extra bucks on the side.

There are other legit sites out there that pay you write too, like Verblio for example, so if you wanted to increase your earnings you could signup with more than one site. Or you could put your writing talent into creating your own affiliate website. Which won’t make you money right away, like a freelance writing gig, but can be far more lucrative over time if you stick with it.

Whatever you decide, I hope you found this article helpful.