Zerys Review

Zerys is a "content mill" writing site. I first signed up for Zerys way back in 2014. I've never once actually done a single assignment for them.

So here's what happened.

My memory is a bit fuzzy as this was about three years ago now, but when I signed up, they had the odd policy of having you pick 25 of about 100 or so "experience categories" you feel you are qualified to write in. I remember it taking a hell of a lot of time.

I was never clear on whether only assignments from the categories you selected were available to you. I do know that email notifications of new assignments were very rare, and that by the time I logged in to check on them they were either all gone or for some job paying an insanely low rate. In 2014-2015 I would still say I saw a few email notifications most months, but around 2016 or so I noticed they almost never sent emails anymore.

I really wanted to do a deeper dive for this review to provide a fair assessment, maybe actually take at least one assignment. I hadn't logged in since sometime in 2015 or so, however, and when I logged in recently I was greeted with a "activity score" warning; apparently they set some policy of making you less visible to customers if you aren't regularly logging in, even if there's no work available.

I was hoping to update my experience categories, since it's been three years and I know a whole lot more about certain topics that I used to. Their interface always used to be a colossal pain in the ass, and it looks like they've since improved it a little, but I saw no way to even view experience categories let alone change them.

What I can tell you is that when I clicked on the "writing jobs" area, the site crashed out to a 404 Error page. Welp.

That was enough to convince me Zerys was no better than it used to be, but a little browsing around the web has raised some even more serious questions:

* This site indicates that they actually do seem to have work, but are sporadically missing payment dates; they also allude to unacceptably low rates of pay, non-payment for mandatory samples, and non-responsive customer support for writers. They were also apparently banned from the platform for their critical blog posts.

* This Reddit thread indicates that they are allowing clients to stiff writers

* Another Reddit thread also indicates that clients may be allowed to leave pieces floating in non-payment limbo indefinitely to avoid payment; another poster indicates there is no way for writers to directly contact the company other than through their account

FINAL VERDICT: NOT WORTH IT

Everything I see about Zerys indicates they are on the edge of going out of business. I'd actually heard from one other writer I trust that they used to have lots of work and the pay was at least OK. I couldn't even begin to tell you how to access it if it does still exist, however. In three years of having an account I've only seen a trickle available at best.

Until I see some real compelling evidence to the contrary, I feel like Zerys belongs in "not recommended to anyone" status.