First off, I would like to thank Andrew - the Webmaster at ContentSPREE - for giving me an exclusive interview of his beta
freelance writing site. We had a good discussion about the future of ContentSPREE and what he wants to do differently than other providers. He had many interesting points concerning future plans and his back-story is just as compelling. I'd like to cover them all here as well as an overall review of the beta site.
Watch
"Let's Review A Freelance Writing Site : ContentSPREE Writers" to learn more.
Now as Andrew and I spoke over Skype he explained in detail his vision for his site. But before I go into that I would like to fill you in on his background and why he decided to create CS. It's highly relevant because I believe we all have gone through what he did.
Andrew began just like 99% of freelance writers out there, myself included: Bidding on multiple projects on multiple sites. Bidding on project after project only to have it suddenly closed, awarded to another writer or, if luck (or bad luck) was on his side, himself. After dealing with unscrupulous employers that never paid, user-UNFRIENDLY interfaces that took hours to setup a simple profile, low-pay for writers and lax security for buyers, Andrew had seen, learned and been upset and angered enough to create a plan; a vision.
This is his vision:
• Ease of use
Through Andrew's dealings, whether good or bad, with other
freelance sites he began to see a disturbing trend. As he explained it to me, and I am paraphrasing here, "Most sites are extremely difficult to navigate. And when I say that I mean on both sides of the coin: the writer’s side and the buyer's side. The navigation is confusing and typically difficult to use. With ContentSPREE, we want the writer to be able to easily jump from open projects to works-in-progress without having to switch screens or even tabs. We want to streamline the entire bidding process and make it quicker and more efficient for the writers."
He said that last after we both had agreed and laughed about the arduous and time devouring nature of other freelance sites and their bidding processes.
In my honest opinion, Andrew has delivered a sound platform that is simple to use. When you check out the video reviews of ContentSPREE you'll see more clearly what I am describing here. Because if a picture is worth a thousand words then what's a video worth?
• Higher Pay For Writers
As we continued our discussion, Andrew went on to describe how he wanted to implement new ways to pay writers more for their work. A current implementation on the Beta version is a higher minimum bid than any similar freelance site that I have seen. This basically means that ContentSPREE will only allow employers to post projects at a set lowest bid amount. On Andrews’ site it is currently set at $50 with no way for the buyer to lower that amount. This translates into more money for the writer.
Some of his future ideas are interesting and promising for a freelance writer. He mentioned increasing pay based on word count and higher payments depending on the type, urgency and difficulty of the project. These are all unique and clever ideas that I have never seen on a bidding portal such as this and if Andrew follows through with them all then I have no doubt that his site will prosper and help writers do the same.
• Contests
Another idea he briefly went over was contests. We’ve all seen the typical contests on other sites. They are difficult to enter, require massive amounts of input and entries and, sometimes, even cost the writer to participate. Andrew wants to go in a completely opposite direction. However, as he explained it, he’s treating it as an experiment and has not decided on whether he will implement it into the finished website. I explain how his current contest concept works in my
freelance writing video review.
The number one thing that I love about CS so far is that it is strictly for writers. There is absolutely no competition between web-designers/writers or logo creators/ghost writers, etc., etc. When you bid on a project your bidding against other writers only. This ensures quality freelancers for the employers, which is very important for the overall prosperity and growth of this
freelance writing website. I delve into the buyer side of CS in an upcoming video and written review.
I have high hopes for Andrew’s direction with ContentSPREE. This could be a prosperous and reliable source of lifestyle sustainable income for anyone that can write fluently in the English language.
Be sure to watch the video review and make any comments you like. I would love to hear about what you think, any new things you may have learned or answer any questions you may have. Stay tuned.
Freelance Mike Signing Off!
