Textbroker is a content-writing marketplace where webmasters can tap into a network of professional writers. The company was founded in 2005 in Mainz, Germany, and has since expanded to an impressive international presence with sites catering to several popular languages.

The company delivers what it promises: it’s a place to buy written content. There are more than 80,000 writers in the Textbroker network, and unlike a virtual assistant or freelance site, you don’t have to do any decision-making in terms of who to hire. Just submit your job and it gets done.

Plans and Pricing

The articles are priced based on the length of the piece and the quality desired. The rates start at $0.012 per word and the quality at that price is optimistically described as “legible.”

If you want content that is readable and valuable to actual human visitors and not just search engine spiders, you’ll have to pay a bit more.

The next tier, labeled “average,” is $0.016 per word. That equates out to $8 for a 500 word article. However, “excellent” content can be had for just $0.022 per word, or $11 for that same 500-word article.

The most dramatic jump is between “excellent” and “professional,” which costs 3x as much! I think this is Textbroker’s way of steering demand toward the lower tier.

After you spend some time in the Textbroker marketplace, you may begin to develop relationships with your favorite writers and want to use them over and over again. The DirectOrder and TeamOrder features allow you to do this.

In this case, you set your own price per word (subject to a $0.0195 minimum) and get to work with those writers who have proven themselves to you. The company tacks on a $0.30 fee for facilitating this transaction.

Turnaround time is usually 24 hours or less.

Quality Control

So what about the writers? Are they any good?

The company utilizes a short test writing assignment that every writer must complete before they can start working. The Textbroker editors assign the writer a rating, based on their demonstrated skill and writing style.

That rating determines which writing jobs they’ll be eligible to work on, so no “legible” writers get assigned the “excellent” work.

I had the opportunity to test out Textbroker’s services in 2011, and I found the quality pretty good. In total I tested four different articles, including this Virtual Assistant Assistant blog post on President Obama’s jobs proposal.

Looking back it’s difficult to judge the true “out-of-the-box” quality, because I’ve never been able to publish anything without editing it myself. Well I guess that is in indicator of the quality – that it wasn’t up to my standards to be published as is.

But I still think there’s value in copywriting services because it’s still faster to tweak an existing article than to try and create one completely from scratch yourself.

Related: My Outsourced Content Writing Process: A Step-by-Step Guide

TextBroker Alternatives

I’ve also purchased copywriting from Fiverr, HireWriters, and more recently, Copywriter Today.

Your Turn

Have you worked with Textbroker? If so, please share a quick review of your experience below.

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As business advances into the digital age, it’s becoming more and more important to create online content, whether it’s for promotion or as part of a product or service. In fact, if you’re reading this, it’s probably because my content marketing worked to bring you here … muahaha <– insert evil laugh!

Scripted is a custom content creation service that allows businesses to release blog posts, social media posts, website pages, press releases, and more — even if they don’t have time to write the content themselves.

About Scripted

Scripted was started in 2008 as Scripped.com, which provided a space for screenwriters to work on screenplays together and attract the attention of producers. By 2011, it had grown to 80,000 writers, and the business changed to its current name and service of Scripted.com, offering non-entertainment content to businesses across the nation. In 2013, Scripted received $4.5 million from Redpoint Ventures, and expanded its team to 13 people in addition to their massive network of writers.

Scripted’s mission is “to better the quality of written content on the Internet by helping businesses create it at scale.” Its executive team consists of Sunil Rajaraman (who I met briefly at Affiliate Summit a few years ago), Ryan Buckley, and Jake Kring.

The company is based in San Francisco, CA, but its writers come from across the nation who all work in their own areas of specialization.

Services

Scripted offers customized content on demand; the process begins when a business or individual orders content through Scripted’s order form, and sets guidelines for the length and details of the project. Scripted writers then claim the work and complete the assignment; afterwards, the whoever ordered the content originally can review and revise it as needed before publishing.

The services offered by Scripted include:

• blog posts (both standard and long)
• white papers or reports
• social media content (such as tweets and Facebook posts)
• website pages and product descriptions
• press releases
• video scripts

Businesses that require a high volume of content can work out an arrangement with a content manager, who builds customer support and ensures timely publishing.

The service is aimed at businesses rather than individuals (as you’ll see by their higher price points). If you’re looking for cheap content by some overseas writer to hopefully get picked up by the search engines, Scripted is not going to be the right choice for you.

Scripted Intro Video

Plans and Pricing

A “standard” blog post starts at $58, with “specialist” or longer form posts commanding a rate of $85 or more. Here’s a glimpse at the rates for the various types of content Scripted creates:

The interesting thing is you can’t just go on Scripted.com and order an article. You need to become a member first (your first month is free, and you can use code “vaa” for 50% off your next month).

The Scripted membership gives you access to their pre-screened database of writers, of whom they only accept the top 1-2% of applicants. They have 3 different membership tiers, cutely named after famous authors.

The Dickinson plan is only $49, but you have to pay a 25% “transaction fee” on top of all writing you order.

The Hemingway and Austen plans, $149 and $299 per month respectively, eliminate that transaction fee, let multiple members of your team login and order articles, and give you access to a blog analytics dashboard.

At first glance I thought the analytics dashboard was a little goofy to include as a feature, since it requires you to sync your Google Analytics account. But it actually has some interesting data overlays where you can more easily see which of your content initiatives are performing well and get some traffic metrics on new posts vs. “evergreen” content.

Scripted is ideal for businesses that require or desire online content, but do not have the time, resources, or expertise to maintain a regular publishing schedule or develop quality content. Scripted writers are all pre-screened by the company to ensure a high quality end product, and can specialize in any areas required by the business ordering the content, from art and design to law to tech hardware.

At these rates, Scripted is positioned as a premium entry in the market, especially compared with the “$5 article” type of outsourced writing services.

Scripted Alternatives

The most compelling alternative to Scripted I’ve come across so far is Copywriter Today. They run a similar membership model, but instead of ZERO actual content being included in your membership fee, Copywriter Today offers “unlimited” content writing. (It’s actually limited by 1 article request at a time and the turnaround time.)

They use a team of all US-based writers, though may not have as strict a vetting process as Scripted. But it struck me as a little weird that I could pay Scripted up to $300 a month and not get any writing done; everything you order is on top of that membership fee. They likened it to a gym membership–your membership gets you in the door, and then it’s on you to actually lift the weights and see results.

For similar high-end content creation, you might consider BELAY, which offers this under their umbrella of services. On the cheaper side, you have “content mills” like HireWriters and Textbroker, where your price per article will be much lower and the quality often reflects it.

Your Turn

Have you worked with Scripted? If so, please be sure to leave a brief review of your experience below to help others with their decision.

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