TB: Author Profile, TO and DO Questions

[tenderone]

Originally Posted by anng

My profile shows it's 100 percent completed. To get to the 100 percent, I had to fill the profile with samples (I think it was 3). Photo is required too.

I haven't had any direct orders. I had one person send me a message asking if I would consider lowering my rate, which is at 2.5 cents. With the extra 30% that TB adds on, the rates shows up as just over 3 cents per word and the client said he couldn't go over 2 cents. To get to that I'd have to lower my rate to 1.5 cents, which I won't do.

Of course, I don't do a lot with TB normally. I think I've completed a total of 40 articles, in the three years I've been with TB. My private clients pay far more, so it's very rare that I'll do TB work, but I always keep it for a slow day or as back up.

I certainly agree with you by not lowering your rate to 1.5 cents. The lowest I want to go is 2 cents. I am hoping that I can add private clients to my pool, as well as upping my level to 5.

[Hoping2]

My rate is set at .03 a word, and I won't change it for anyone. I got 14 direct orders yesterday. Don't sell yourself short.

[tenderone]

Originally Posted by Hoping2

My rate is set at .03 a word, and I won't change it for anyone. I got 14 direct orders yesterday. Don't sell yourself short.

WOW! That is amazing! Congratulations!

Now, do you have any tips on how to gain these DOs?

[beanandpumpkin]

Well, I've never done it before, but I just finished a biggish project for a TB client, and s/he rated it as excellent, so I sent a message offering to do more work in the future as a direct order. It would be really cool to hear back!

[Hoping2]

Originally Posted by tenderone

WOW! That is amazing! Congratulations!

Now, do you have any tips on how to gain these DOs?

Thanks! I nearly hit the floor when they all came in. Honestly, I never had a DO before last month- ever. Then, sometime in mid-September they just started pouring in. I did fill out quite a bit of the profile, including the picture, and applied for a lot of the teams that came up recently. Other than that, I'm not sure why they've been coming in like this lately. I think clients are just starting to like DOs better than open orders.

[cwilson26]

I wish I could get some DO's! I have been rated excellent by many of them and have messaged those who rated me this and still haven't gotten any. Oh well, guess I will just have to be more patient.

[beanandpumpkin]

Wahoo! The one that I contacted said that he liked my work, and asked how many more I could do in 24 hours. Thanks so much for the tip on contacting them!

[megank]

Originally Posted by beanandpumpkin

Wahoo! The one that I contacted said that he liked my work, and asked how many more I could do in 24 hours. Thanks so much for the tip on contacting them!

There needs to be a like button - awesome!

[tenderone]

Originally Posted by beanandpumpkin

Wahoo! The one that I contacted said that he liked my work, and asked how many more I could do in 24 hours. Thanks so much for the tip on contacting them!

Way to go! Congratulations!!!!!

I have sent two thus far, so I hope someone will respond to my messages too.

[di99]

I am not a writer at TB but I am a client, from my point of view the only way to get DOs is excellent quality.
For example, I recently ordered 5 articles in a specific niche (level 4)
I got articles from 5 different writters
2 of the articles were acceptable but it was obvious the writer wasn't an expert on the topic
2 articles were a blatant attempt to just hit the word quota, I sent them back for revision and they didn't even bother correcting them
the last article was excellent, well written and it was obvious that the writer was really knowledgeable about the topic
Needless to say that I have sent the last writer about 15 DO articles this week.

If you can show me (and I suppose most buyers) that you can write consistently good articles on a topic and actually know what you are writing about you are probably going to get all future articles in that niche. The reason is simple, webmasters prefer to deal with only one writer so that the content on our sites is all written in the same style.

One of the mistake a lot of writers do imho is that they consider an article that has proper grammar,spelling and is well written adequate. Personally, I don't mind a couple of spelling mistakes as long as the article provides good, solid information.

For example, I have ordered in the past some nutrition related articles (I am a dietitian), I received some well written articles (better than I can write) in terms of grammar etc, however they were full of inaccuracies, wrong statements, missing important details etc. Because of that, it doesn't matter how well written they were, I am definitely not sending any DOs to these writers.