• Textbroker

Textbroker

Overview

Textbroker has a rating of 3.75 stars from 150 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally satisfied with their purchases. Reviewers satisfied with Textbroker most frequently mention customer service. Textbroker ranks 2nd among Website Optimization sites.

  • Service
    22
  • Value
    22
  • Shipping
    14
  • Returns
    15
  • Quality
    22

This company does not typically respond to reviews

Positive reviews (last 12 months): 50%
Positive
3
Neutral
0
Negative
3
2
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What reviewers want you to know

Positive highlights

  • The service is safe, fast and it provides quality content.
  • I took two writing jobs that paid a tiny bit of money for 500 words, same client, approximately.

Critical highlights

  • Bad customer service, crappy writers, DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY!
  • Before agreeing to work for textbroker, I suggest really taking some time to consider that.
How would you rate Textbroker?
Top Positive Review

“Good”

Jefer M.
9/3/23

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Top Critical Review

“They Don't Pay You for Articles You Write”

Danielle H.
10/6/23

I was asked to write something in transparent.ai. The platform wouldn't save my certificate (I received an error message), so I copied and pasted it into a google document. When I asked about submitting the article, I was told that I needed to completely rewrite the content! All of this for a $5 article and because of a glitch in the platform they use. I refuse to rewrite 500 words all because one of their tools isn't working. It's not worth writing for textbroker since they provide their writers with 0 support.

Reviews (150)

Rating

Timeframe

Other

Reviews that mention popular keywords

customer service (12) work (50) quality content (5) article (47) clients (29) 6 years (3) 4 star (7) 500 words (3) customer support (3)
Thumbnail of user me87
1 review
4 helpful votes
December 16th, 2018
Verified purchase

I've used this service before at my job and now set up my own account to use for my clients. The payment system was frustrating to begin with. Once I got all that sorted out I started putting in orders. Several of the authors did not follow instructions and refused to do a revision, at which point the content was due to my client so I wrote it myself. Apparently, when the authors kicked back the articles into the pool it removed the due date and I was charged for three pieces of content even though they were past due.

This and several other issues (including setting up my own author pool, tracking changes, customer service, etc.) have led me to be hesitant when using TextBroker. I can't write everything myself so I have my own writers I use and will still use TextBroker but only in case of emergency. Its also not the highest quality content but its worth what you pay so if you pay the premium it might be better, I just haven't had an experience that warrants spending more money than I have to.

Thumbnail of user carlenep3
Carlene P. – Textbroker Rep

Hi ME, I'm sorry to hear that your experience didn't go smoothly! The best way to ensure that your orders are completed in a timely manner is to use the Author Search feature to locate a suitable author and work with them on an ongoing basis. The next time you're thinking about placing an order with us, feel free to get in touch and we'll walk you through it:)

Also, please remember to delete orders you no longer need so that you aren't charged for them!

Thumbnail of user joshuam354
1 review
3 helpful votes
July 29th, 2019

I'm not sure what this company wants from me. I chose to get content written for m to make my life easier. I submitted an order with instructions and it has been declined at least 7 times. I then changed what they advised me to change, without success. It's now been a week without the job even being started. I called last week and left a message for a rep to call and walk me through exactly what they are looking for. No call back. I've emailed for them to explain what I need to do, and no response. I then researched to see if this is legit, and from what I read, it is. (At least for a consumer; I feel bad for the content writers). I'm at a point where I'm asking myself if I should cancel and write the content myself. I am about to give up. Today is the day.

Thumbnail of user regans
Justin C. – Textbroker Rep

Hi Joshua, I'm sorry to hear about the trouble you're having getting your order placed! Our staff have a duty to ensure that your order is placed with the necessary information needed to be properly completed, and without violating our Terms of Services. If you'd like to email us at clients@textbroker.com, I'd be happy to look into why specifically your order was declined and work to get the issue resolved.

Thumbnail of user sarai28
1 review
4 helpful votes
May 5th, 2017
Verified purchase

In the past I have used Upwork for projects but had been referred to textbroker by someone who has many articles written. I felt very removed from the process when using textbroker, like I had no say in who would ultimately write my article. I felt like the price was somewhat high considering we had the article written, just need a more businessy tone... they maybe added 50 words and moved a paragraph or two and it cost $46... I will be using upwork in the future or another site.

Thumbnail of user regans
Justin C. – Textbroker Rep

Hi Sara,
Thank you for your review of our services! I'm sorry to hear that you felt removed from the process. Should you continue to use our services in the future, we would recommend using the Author Search feature to locate a suitable author of your choosing. This allows you to choose the author you would like to complete your order as you would place the order with only that author as a Direct Order. Please reach out to us at clients@textbroker.com if you would like further instructions on how to use the Author Search feature or place a Direct Order!

Thumbnail of user andrews286
1 review
6 helpful votes
July 9th, 2017
Verified purchase

You get what you pay for, and the bar is set low. We've had an unbelievable amount of highly rated writers completely fail the most basic of articles. We are planning to start paying two writers for the same article just to be able to get some quality. There is something wrong with the rating system for sure.

Thumbnail of user regans
Justin C. – Textbroker Rep

Hi Andrew! Thank you for your feedback. It looks like you are working with the same two authors. If you feel you are receiving content that is below the quality level of the authors you are using, we encourage you to find another author to work with. In addition, please always feel free to reach out to Client Services at clients@textbroker.com with your concerns so that we may do a quality check on the author!

Thumbnail of user amberh40
1 review
18 helpful votes
June 12th, 2016

I have been a writer with Textbroker for three weeks. I started as at 3 star level and after submitting my first five, they jumped me to 4 star rating. My first 40 articles was accepted with no issues. All of a sudden, I got a revision request because I did not have "voice" in my writing and I had too many facts. First of all, the client instructed to do research so of course I'm going to put facts and evidence to support my claim. After already taking hours of researching to insure high quality finish work I became extremely frustrated. It was a 940 word article so I wasn't getting anymore than $13 to write it. It wasn't worth it. I cancelled it. I was absolutely not going to revise anything after I took so long to write it in the first place.

Clients expect so much for so little pay. Im going somewhere else that will pay me what my high-quality research and writing is worth. Good-bye text broker.

Thumbnail of user daved35
2 reviews
17 helpful votes
May 4th, 2014

I started with Textbroker years ago and thought "Yea, this is cool." Now a few years later I realized it was a shady scene. It did help me to start writing articles for people but not much else. The pay was low and obviously many writers (if you want to call them that) are from overseas. The end result was I bailed after a couple years and tried to freelance which worked over time. I actually started on Fiverr.com and offered services for blogging and article writing. Now I get orders that can be 25.00 to 40.00 for blogs that are around 750 to 1000 words. I noticed the more positive feedbacks I got, the demand grew. It's more personal and your in control of what you accept or dont. So, yea Textbroker is good for practice and maybe beer money but not much else. I felt like I was a writing wh@@e for them, Fiverr, I don't.

Thumbnail of user tn34
1 review
11 helpful votes
July 28th, 2016

Sadly, this company appears to be in a slide and they were once super responsive and great to write for. Worked for them on and off a few years, right now poor staff author response now and other mischief. Till they work out their slide in services and author response, you might want to give this company a miss.

Thumbnail of user kittyt2
1 review
21 helpful votes
September 1st, 2016

When I first started my career in freelance writing, I began at Textbroker.com. For a new writer, the pay seemed okay, although certainly not enough to pay the bills, and the articles that were ordered covered interesting topics. After adding several other similar writing sites to my arsenal of work sources, I saw that Textbroker is one of the lowest paying companies for writers. They have not improved their pay rates at all since I joined them five years ago.

Over the past couple of years, their clients who place direct orders and team orders are increasingly needy, unnecessarily nasty in their communications, and they all promise "tons" of work that never materializes. There are always chances to apply to write for specific teams, but after being accepted to join numerous teams, 99% of them never posted any work. I recently was accepted to a team, was unable to begin writing immediately, as in that very day, due to another writing project commitment, and was dropped from the team less than a week later. I guess they expect people to be satisfied with making only the pennies that Textbroker pays without taking on outside gigs. I have a direct order client, who I will be dismissing soon due to his poor communication, who has been sending me messages that he is sending work "on a couple of minutes," then "can you start today?" (when I had already stated that I was available on that day), then "I will send work tomorrow" and here I am still waiting. His instructions for assignment number two, which is the one I am waiting for, contradict his rewrite instructions for assignment number one. He must have liked my rewrite of assignment number one because he accepted it, rated it highly and paid a substantial bonus for it - the least he could do since the article took much, much longer that it should have due to his strange demands. Finally, I do not like being asked to write material that is either unethical, misleading or downright incorrect, which seems to be too frequently at Textbroker. From what I have read, clients for whom a writer has never written before can blacklist the writer - based on what reasoning, I have no idea

The forums seem to have no moderators, and so they seem to be hotbeds for nasty attitudes and pointless snarky comments. This is not the case on the forum where I do most of my content site writing these days.

Finally, the article topics on Textbroker have become more trivial and ridiculous than ever. 90% of the titles are just little product description blurbs. Gone are Textbroker's days of writing informative articles about relevant topics, it seems. Where health topics used to cover illnesses or treatments, they now want product descriptions for supplements and rehab clinics.

I rarely write at Textbroker anymore. I have held on to one client who is pleasant to work with and provides interesting and enjoyable topics, and I will give a new direct order or team order client who approaches me a chance. I would not recommend this company to writers these days. Even as an entry level writer, there are other sites where you can do significantly better.

Thumbnail of user madeleinet1
1 review
10 helpful votes
October 5th, 2015

I would like to add that money should not be our main concern. Our main concern should be if we find fulfillment in what we do. Anyway, I still have my doubts about Textbroker and would not outright recommend it. God bless. :)

Thumbnail of user christinec30
1 review
40 helpful votes
February 5th, 2015

The one good thing I can say about textbroker is that getting paid is easy. I've never experienced any issues in that area. However, that is basically where the good ends. The rate is ridiculously low. You'd probably make more just taking a lengthy walk around your neighborhood, looking for loose change. Sometimes there will be good topics to write about, but for the most part your choices will be about hemmeroids, penile enhancement and where to score cheap pharmaceuticals online. Their clients also don't want to pay, so theyll ask for a miracle to be crammed into 300 words. Also, it doesn't matter if you've written 8000, level 4 articles for them. All it takes is a few poorly rated ones and you're demoted. Before agreeing to work for textbroker, I suggest really taking some time to consider that. Can you imagine producing over 8000 assignments all at a 4-rating, but a mere three articles will be what they'll determine your worth is? Garbage company.

Thumbnail of user joec98
1 review
33 helpful votes
March 25th, 2015

Good
There is work on-demand. No searching work or bidding on contracts. Getting paid is easy.

Bad
The pay is terrible in terms of real world income. Even 5 stars writers are under paid. They do not rate work in a timely manner which slows the promotion process.

Thumbnail of user creativew
4 reviews
35 helpful votes
May 2nd, 2015

I have been writing for Textbroker for about 6 years. Sometimes I do well and at other times it seems that nothing I do is right. I have been mostly a level 4 writer, but lately it seems that I have been targeted to be smacked back to a level 3 for minor offenses.

My biggest complaint is how the editors nitpick. Can't an editor add a comma or make a minor change to an article? Since writers don't own the articles I don't understand why that would be a problem. Is that not what editing is --or is it to act as a teacher who grades the paper and gives it back to the student?

Many of the instructions are confusing. When I get something back because the instructions were confusing, I copy it and save it for one of my other writing sites and cancel the process on TB. What's interesting is that I write for a site that rates me higher and pays more than TB for the same types of articles, so I can almost always use what TB turns down.

Some orders have several links that one must click to read pages of instructions An article that seemingly pays well ends up paying a few cents per hour by the time one reads all of the instructions and watches the accompanying YouTube videos. I guess people who want to feel like they are real writers praise TB. However many of us who write for TB know that we are hobbyists at best. We probably would not give them a second look if we could land some really good paying freelance gigs. Unless one has nothing else to do but sit a computer all day, it is just a another content mill and o. K. for some vacation change.

Thumbnail of user regans
Justin C. – Textbroker Rep

Thank you for your interest in Textbroker! Please note that Textbroker does not endorse nor support information found on this website. Due to the high volume of inquiries, we are unable to address specific questions on external websites.

Clients can reach out directly to Textbroker Support with any questions they may have at clients@textbroker.com or visit our FAQ at https://www.textbroker.com/faq/client

Authors may direct their questions or concerns to authors@textbroker.com.

Thumbnail of user sams139
1 review
18 helpful votes
March 29th, 2014

That's nice, Michael. I'm glad you're happy with what you're making on Textbroker. Personally, I make more elsewhere, so I really don't need the little lecture about being serious as a writer. Cheers.

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From the business

Textbroker is the leading digital content creation site. We bring clients and authors together to create custom content, such as blogs, product descriptions, press releases and more!

Business History

The idea behind Textbroker is to satisfy the growing demand for custom content. As an SEO provider, Textbroker founder Jan Becker-Fochler experienced first-hand the increasing importance of unique content to his clients; after all, unique content leads to a better ranking in search engines, more traffic and more revenue. Then, in 2005, Becker-Fochler came up with the idea to search for authors, motivate them to write, rate the quality of their work and compensate them for their effort. To accomplish this, he commissioned the development of a preliminary version of the Textbroker platform.

Within a short time, thousands of authors eager for the chance to earn money with their writing signed up. In 2007, Textbroker launched the Internet’s first content marketplace. Today, Textbroker authors deliver high-quality product descriptions, blog posts, press releases, social media posts, news stories, and technical articles and a wide variety of other written content to clients around the world. In essence, Textbroker is a better, faster, easier and less expensive way for companies to get freelance written content.

Company Representative

Thumbnail of user regans
Justin C.
Manager of Marketing Operations
Typically does not respond to reviews
Justin is the Manager of US Marketing Operations.

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