I've never personally understood the appeal of the latter type. My take on it is, why do that when you can simply set up your own similar profile website on your own and not have to deal with middleman fees? Granted, I get that it provides a safe escrow-like service to both parties, as well as a pool of people who are already looking for writers. I guess I can see where it would be more appealing if you want to the process to be more passive and have a third party intermediator take care of some of the non-writing transactional details for you. Personally, I'm much more active about seeking clients and pitching, and I'm fine with negotiating contracts and payment terms with them, so I'd prefer to cut out the middleman to make a better deal, but that's me.
Anyway, the point of all this is that WriterAccess is one of those latter sites. Getting work is entirely reliant on maintaining a detailed profile and wooing clients who happen to be browsing the site. If this is the format you prefer, however, this does appear to be one of the better-paying options in the field.
NATURE OF WORK AND PAYMENT
Instead of grabbing orders from a general pool, writers seek out clients who are offering work and apply to their approval list. Once approved, they can take orders from that client's personal pool as they come available. That's where the detailed profile comes in, as that's a large part of convincing a client to approve you.
Another factor is your "star rating." As with many other content mills, you'll submit a writing sample and a grammar/punctuation test as part of your application, and that will be used to classify you with a rating of 2 to 6. Writers make 70% of the fixed fee charged at each of these tiers. That means a minimum of 1.4 cents per word for 2-star writers and 7 cents per word for 6-star writers, though clients can opt to pay more if they choose.
Payment is by PayPal only, and you can request payment on the 1st or 15th with at least $10 in your account. Their FAQ page specifies that writers must be residents of the United States.
SITE HISTORY / LEGITIMACY
WriterAccess has been in business since 2010, and is owned by Boston-based ideaLaunch, which has in turn been around since 2005. I can't find any significant complaints about slow or non-payment; this operation appears to be about as legitimate as it gets.
INTERNATIONAL ACCESS
None at present. Writers must be in the United States and will be required to submit tax information (their SSN) for a W2 if they earn over $600 in a year.
STARTING OUT
Emphasis on building a profile here is heavier than at any other content agency or mill site I've ever seen. Once you pass the initial tests, a member of their staff will actually take several passes reviewing your profile and critiquing it, requiring you to add certain information or re-word/re-arrange things.
Reports are it can take from two to three weeks from passing the initial tests and being accepted to actually working, between this profile creation process and some possible delay in getting your "star ranking." You can apparently improve your ranking over time as you complete assignments, which not only opens up more customers to you but also gradually allows you to claim multiple assignments at once.
PROBLEMS WITH WRITERACCESS
As with most mills of this nature, the one big complaint I'm seeing out there is lack of available work, this being more true the lower in the ranking system you go.
I've also seen complaints about their revision system being less than adequate, though I haven't personally gone through that so I can't verify. My experience has been limited to starting to set up a profile just to check the place out, getting frustrated with it and wondering why I was bothering when I maintain my own independent web presence and actively pitch clients anyway, and then wandering off.
FINAL VERDICT - SOME POTENTIAL
Even at the higher tiers, the pay is still lower than what a good writer can make on their own by forging direct relationships with clients. However, I recognize some people are only comfortable with the "mill model" and are just looking for the best ones to set up shop at. If that's the case for you, then this one at least seems to be among the better-paying and more transparent of the bunch.
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