Crowd Content is just one of the many content mills out there, but is it a good one? Is this a trustworthy place to work for? Do they provide good amount of work? What’s the pay like?
Or is Crowd Content a scam that is just going to be mostly a waste of your time?
Well, I’ll jump straight to the point here and tell you that, NO, Crowd Content it’s definitely not a scam–however, it might not be the best fit for many freelance writers (or aspiring freelance writers) out there and in this review I will be going over all you need to know beforehand, such as how it all works, what I like/don’t like, etc.
Overview of Crowd Content
As mentioned, Crowd Content (which I’ll be referring to as CC) is what you call a “content mill”, like Constant Content, Textbroker, and Writer Access (if you have ever heard of these places). They are a bit on the smaller side, claiming to have around 5,000 writers working for them, but are still decent.
A content mill is a content creation platform that draws upon a pool of large writers for client submitted projects. Agencies, Brands, retailers, small website owners, Etc go to places like CC to get their unique content for their websites. The reason they do so is because it is easy and usually fairly cheap–they don’t have to try to vet people to find the perfect writer and don’t have to think about prices–they just go to a content mill and pay the price, then their submitted project is matched with an appropriate writer from the pool of writers.
The types of content that clients are usually looking for consists of things like…
- Blog posts
- Articles
- “How to” guides
- Product descriptions
- White papers
- and even things like Facebook posts
As a writer for CC these are the types of things you will be writing and making money with.
You will read some negative reviews from clients who feel as if they got ripped off by getting poor quality content, but generally speaking CC has higher prices than many of the other content mills out there and delivers better content–which means they generally have better writers and higher standards.
How It Works
One of the big upsides to freelance writing at a content mill like this is that you can work on your own terms–when you want and how much you want to. But the big downside comes along with this–and it is that you’re not guaranteed a certain amount of work regularly.
Once you become a writer (I’ll go over the signup process shortly) you will have access to two different writing areas where you will be able to pick up projects and get paid, these include…
- The Freelance Writing Marketplace
- and Managed Content Projects
Freelance Writing Marketplace
Most of the writing projects that will probably be your best bet when starting out will be posted in the freelance writing marketplace.
Clients will specify exactly what type of content they want created and what quality level they want. Depending on your writing level (which you will be assigned) you will have access to all of the available projects at your level or lower.
As you write for clients you have the ability to build relationships with them and if they like you they will be able to send you work directly–and many of the veteran writers at CC earn a good chunk of their income from direct work like this.
Managed Content Projects
The other option you have are managed content projects, in which you have to apply for and wait to get accepted. These are for larger projects that you will work on with project managers–such as high-volume Enterprise projects for big companies.
The pay you can get writing for a managed content project can be a lot better than working in the freelance marketplace, but of course these jobs are a little bit harder to get.
How Much Do They Pay?
The rates below are what they pay for work done in the freelance marketplace. The first rates listed are the “street rates” and the second rates listed are called the “bonus rates”, which you will earn if you have a fast enough turnaround time.
- 1 Star: 1.2 cents per word (up to 1.4 cents if you submit your work quickly)
- 2 Star: 2.0 cents per word or up to 2.3 cents
- 3 Star: 4.4 cents per word or up to 5.2 cents
- 4 Star: 6.6 cents per word or up to 7.6 cents
The star rating you have depends on how well you write. You will be assigned an initial star rating when you join and after that it will change depending on how well you do.
In addition to their normal rates, they have specific pay rates for writing Tweets and Facebook posts. These rates pay per project, not per word, and they are as follows…
Tweets
- Standard: $0.70 or up to $0.80 if you get the bonus rate
- Professional: $1.05 or up to $1.20
Facebook Posts
- Standard: $1.05 or up to $1.20 with the bonus rate
- Professional: $1.55 or up to $1.75
Once you have $10 in your account you will be able to get paid, which happens via PayPal. If you have less than this it will just roll over into the next pay period until you have enough. The good thing is that they pay 2 times per week, every Tuesday and Friday–so you won’t have to wait long.
Application Process
If you are interested in applying the process is pretty simple and straightforward. First you will start by opening your account and providing some basic information, answering some questions about your experience, Etc. This won’t take more than a few minutes to do.
If you want access to the freelance marketplace then you will have to have a sample writing and they will grade you on this–giving you an initial star rating that I just talked about.
One of the cool things about crowd content is that you get to create your own pen name and this is the only thing the clients will be able to see, which is good if you are concerned about privacy.
What We Like
Overall the Crowd Content platform is well laid out and easy-to-navigate. One thing that is really nice is that they have performance metrics you can check on to keep updated on how well you are doing–the better you do and the higher quality work you deliver, the better your performance levels will be–and this means more pay potential.
They also have a decent support team that you can submit support tickets to and usually get answers back within 24 hours–in addition to a forum that you can often get help on.
Oh…and they pay two times a week like I said, which seems a bit unnecessary but I am certainly not complaining–everyone likes this about CC.
Compliants
Some of the complaints that are worth mentioning include the following…
Bad Editors
By far I would say that the biggest complaint I came across was about editor’s giving writers a hassle–such as by giving bad feedback and not providing it in a timely manner–which then can lead to the writer submitting their work late and getting penalized for it, when if the editors had done their job in a timely manner it would have never been submitted late in the first place.
Also there are a number of complaints about editors not approving applications to get onto managed projects and not giving any reason as to why.
Writing Is Timed
Going along with that which I just mentioned, the work it’s timed. I have no problem with this, and I think it should be, but the problem arises when editor’s get in your way.
Not a Lot of Work
The amount of work will vary, but as I mentioned in the beginning, you are not guaranteed regular work here and you should definitely not count on earning a full-time income if you’re just starting out.
One writer complaint I found on Glassdoor was about only being able to get 4 writing jobs from January to Mid-March–and there are other similar stories to this–but of course a lot of this depends on your star rating and how much work you have access to.
One thing about CC and other content mills is that if you want work you have to be quick to claim it. It always seems that there are many more writers than there should be, which creates a lot of competition and projects get claimed quickly.
Low Pay
This just comes with the territory. If you want to get paid more then try landing some jobs on freelance websites like Upwork, Freelancer.com, etc.–but of course getting jobs on these types of sites will be a lot more difficult.
In actuality CC pays better than a lot of other content mills out there, although it is still not that great.
Client Rejection for No Reason
You will find complaints about this for any content mill you look into–what I’m talking about is people complaining about clients rejecting their work for no good reason, such as having their work being rejected for reasons not specified in the instructions. This should not be allowed, but of course CC doesn’t really do all that much about it–writers seem to always be the ones getting screwed over and not the clients.
Scam or Not?
As mentioned in the beginning, Crowd Content is definitely not a scam. They are a legitimate website and you can make money working for them–they can be trusted.
Yes, there are complaints, but there are always going to be complaints. What you also have to realize is that you will often find an unproportionately high number of complaints online because people usually like to voice their opinion more when it comes to negative things rather than positive things.
Overal I wouldn’t consider CC bad at all–in fact I’d actually consider it to be one of the better content mills.
Conclusion – Worth Your Time?
Is it worth your time to join as a writer and start making money freelancing? Well, I guess this all depends on what you are looking for. Joining CC gives you an easy way to get started in the world of freelance writing, but the pay isn’t that great for most.
There are some writers that have learned the tricks of the trade and are making $500 to $700 per week with a 4-star rating, but you have to learn the ins-and-outs of it and have to get good at monitoring for jobs so that you can pick them up quickly if you want to earn good money like this.
Overall it’s a good platform and I would recommend it particularly to beginners looking to get started in freelancing (I suggest reading the Crowd Content’s Writers Guide for best practices beforehand). Alternatively you could check out this list of freelance writing websites I compiled for beginners.
Another good option that I would like to bring to your attention, which I think you might be interested in, is writing for yourself. Why not start your own small website and right for yourself? There’s a lot more profit potential doing this and this is actually how I make a living working online. If this is something you might be interested in then I’d recommend taking a look at this training program which will help you get started (same program I used).
What do you think about crowd content? Have you worked for them before? If you have I would love to hear from you in the comments section below. Also leave any comments or questions down there and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can 🙂