Palladous is a London-based content mill. They style themselves as an "agency", but they're a content mill. You'll see why shortly.
I had an unfortunate experience with them years ago when I was more naive and desperate. After seeing some mentions of them on forums, I decided to check in and see if anything has improved over time. It has not.
NATURE OF WORK AND PAYMENT
Palladous has you churning out SEO-focused crap based on a target search phrase. They seem to focus on shorter blog posts of about 400 words.
Payment is by PayPal and they won't let you invoice them until you've accumulated at least £50.
The most recent information I have on them is that they pay $6 USD for 400 words, which is awful.
SITE HISTORY / LEGITIMACY
I know they've been around since at least 2015, but it's hard to get a bead on their history based on the way they do business. They don't have a company history posted, they only advertise for writers through temporary job listings that they seem to scrub quickly after each use, and the only social media presence I can find is a Facebook that was set up (and then promptly abandoned) in 2016.
They do at least appear to pay as agreed, however. I never personally got to the point of actually turning in any work with them, but I have yet to see a complaint of non-payment online.
It's a legitimate company with actual physical headquarters in London. The issue here isn't scamming, it's what they expect from you for what they pay (like similarly awful UK outfit London Brokers).
As a side note, they also appear to engage in clumsy astroturfing whenever criticism pops up (so don't be surprised if you see bullshit comments on this post). Check out the positive comments on this thread and this one. All from accounts that were created on the post date and have a grand total of one comment in their history. Lol c'mon man. If you're gonna post fake positive comments at least put an ounce of effort into it.
INTERNATIONAL ACCESS
Again, because of their practice of having only temporary and scanty job listings, I can't link to firm info on this.
However, based on what they pay I would guess they are not real particular about where you are located.
STARTING OUT
Palladous doesn't have a central recruiting page - they simply pop up unpredictably on sites like Craigslist and Problogger from time to time. For bonus fun, they often don't give their name in the listing so you have no idea who you're applying to.
You're asked to do an unpaid 150 word "writing test" by email to start out. I'm guessing they are not very picky about this. You're then given a login for their platform, where they have a "first come first served" claim system for available assignments (similar to Textbroker and etc.).
FINAL VERDICT: NOT WORTH IT
Their pay rate breaks down to 1.5 cents USD per word, which is literally almost as bad as it gets. That's simply an exploitative and unacceptable rate even for just tossing crap off the top of your head, but it gets worse when you see the editing process. "Edit requests" can consist of a long, non-specific list of items that basically have nothing to do with the quality of your work, could not have been anticipated and virtually require you to rewrite the whole thing.
Their janky ".us" website (palladous.com appears to be available - why not register it?) that hasn't been updated since 2016 and has a bunch of grammar and spelling errors peppered throughout is a big red flag for both writers and clients alike. The lack of updates since 2016 lead one to wonder if the company is even still alive, but I've seen job listings from them as recently as late 2018.
Whatever the case, stay away until Google improvements drive them and all the similar crummy hackwork business models into the ground.
Completely agree! STAY AWAY FROM PALLADOUS! I have a similar experience and ended up quitting over the fact that multiple edits were asked of me with conflicting requests from editors based on hidden information not given. I am an accomplished, professional writer with many credits to my name who was doing this as a side gig to earn vacation money. Yet, when it came down to it, I was not only treated extremely unprofessionally and condescendingly, but was also paid pennies for time put in. I tried to ask for guidance but editors only protected themselves and blamed me, even when I pointed out an error with the system that was surely just a technical mistake. In the end, I gracefully said this job wasn't for me, and rather than a professional response, I was promptly locked out of the system (including the instructions on how to get paid... and I am now having trouble being compensated for work I had already completed.) What's more is that if you look at the websites these articles are going up on, some are websites that already pay freelancers to publish under their own names. Palladous is acting as a middle man here, paying less and having your work published under someone else's name. Ghostwriting is one thing, but this is not that. Completely unprofessional and, as someone with experience, I can truthfully say that this is NOT a real freelance writing gig!
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with the comment above, multiple, conflicting edits, rewrites and then as soon as I said this wasn't for me, I was completely locked out...
ReplyDeleteHey can someone please inform on where to find their ads? i would appreciate
ReplyDelete