I have been using Amazon Turk for far longer than I have ever been writing this blog. I think I signed up for it back in 2013. I don't know if it would really be considered freelance work either to be totally honest. You really are working for Amazon when it boils down to it but somehow, your also not.

It is classified as a crowd sourcing platform really and there are all kinds of available assignments to do (called HITs) that range from doing surveys to date entry. I would never consider comingneven remotely close to make a living with this one but some of the stuff is at least interesting.

The data entry is pretty self explanatory. It's as simple as looking at a recipt and typing in the product cide and price 10 times for a few pennies. The surveys are not like what you would find on SwagBucks though. No one on Mturk wants to know if you want to buy car insurance. They are surveys on some intresting stuff and when your completing them you are usually helping a student finish his thiesis in psycology. They usually take a few minutes and pay a buck or two. Overall, its definately not a living, ive made enough to put gas in my car for the week.

Ive been with textbroker for a couple weeks now, so I thought I'd give it a quick review. I have signed up with dozens of freelance sites but this is the first one I have actually gotten paid for my, what are apparently mediocre, writing skills.

Now, with mediocre skills, I'm not saying I've made $300 per article or anything but still, easy to write content turned in to easy to spend money. All of the articles that I have written have been no more than 300 words and subjects have varied from biographies to why someone should play rugby. I've written 10 articles and I cashed out for the first time today at $18. Thats about $1.80 average.

Mind you, my attention span sucks sometimes, especially when I am working on two or three diffrent things at once. There were plenty of assignments I could have been writing but instead I was also Googling and reading other writers posts about places freelancers can find writing gigs and applying to other sites. If I really sat down and got busy only doing writing assignments, I likely could have made far more than that. Overall, I have to say Textbroker is probably the best site ive come across for beginning freelancers so far.

       So after many hours of setting up profiles, emailing tax information (like W9s and copies of my ID), editing profiles and picking my topics of interest, I am finally starting to get the wheels turning.

Freelance writing isn't an easy field to establish one's self in but I have been determined to make money and earn a real living wage with it.
       See, I live in Oklahoma, a state that leaves the average hourly worker out in the cold. More food service jobs than you can shake a stick at and no opportunities to grow. If you don't fit into a certain model, you won't even be looked at once much less given a fair shot at a decent job. So my answer has been to refine my writing skills and make my own way.  Because I know how much time, research and dedication I have had to muster to accomplish it, i have literally thrown my hands up in despair, I am going to try to help out anyone else that wants to follow in the footsteps of countless others before and save them a whole lot of wasted effort.
         First things first. When you run a Google search using the term "Freelance Writing jobs....you know what? Actually just go google that real quick and come back tell me what your results came up with, don't worry, I'll wait.....
         Yep, a sea of useless leads. No explanations, no directions on getting established. It seems freelancers like to keep thier money making secrets rather hush-hush except to use keywords that get make thier ranking higher but tell the reader nothing useful. Well, I don't like keeping secrets and I'm really bad at lying so I am going to try to give the freelancing noob a hand up.
       Many articles will tell a new freelancer to stay away from content mills. I have to say, to some degree, I agree with that mantra but entirely. Content mills have their place in the online world just the same as Burger King does in the fast food world.
       Content mills like Freelancer.com,  or   www.upwork.com, or any of the other dozen or so that will show up in your search results are very difficult to establish a new freelancer with. They are what I cannot bid to work sites and its exactally what it sounds like. Clients post a job that they need done and then thousands of workers are able to view and bid on the job. Usually the client will award the job to the lowest bidder with the best sales pitch.
       I don't know about you but when I decided I wanted to start writing for a living I didn't have a single word published online - unless you count personal rants on Facebook, which I don't. So without an already established product to show the client you are able to perform the task proficiently, it tends to be an overwhelming task that makes an otherwise talented writer skitter away with their tail tucked in. That's what happened with me at least I ended up so overwhelmed at the idea of not only having to figure out a way to prove I could create quality articles but that I could also compete against thousands of other qualified candidates to get the assignment that I just threw my hands up and gave up....for about a year. Then I decided I would do a lot more research and find a way to get my feet wet that didn't seem so traumatizing.
       When weeks of research had been spent between my day job as a live in caretaker to a disabled military vetran seemed to be going nowhere, once again, I was really just aboiut ready to give up again and go live in a cabin in the woods with candles for light. But finally I ran one last search through Google with a different set of keywords and.....low and behold! Jackpot!
       If you want to find freelance sites that allow you to write and get paid for your content WITHOUT having to sell yourself to every client, simply find the sites that allow you t choose assignments, write them and then let the client decide if its good enough for their purposes. These sites DO exist! Holy cow!
       Now don't get me wrong, these sites would still be considered content mills but they are a lo easier to navigate and a lot more likely to get you started in the world of content writing!
       Instead of running Google searches for freelance writing jobs, being just a tad more specific got me a few very promising results. My fortune has begun to turn! I'm not saying its goin to earn you a fortune, but the winds of change are upon you!
         Try these two sites out and see how well they suit you first and see if you will even like being a freelance writer. It seems like a great idea but you will be your own boss and you can easily slip into a routine of not earning enough t make ends meet. It may help you make some grocery money though and who can argue with that!
                         www.textbroker.com

                          www.iWriter.com
       Both of these sites are dedicated to freelance writers only so there is no wading through page after page of posting looking for the writing projects. I am a member on each of them and I know that they are legitimate companies. If you like them then come on back here for my next post where I will continue to add more dedicated writers only opportunities.