Review of the content factory Relevant Media
Most projects that require high-quality content find themselves in a quandary. On the one hand, of course, I want it to be mega-quality - and then the director will certainly point the finger at the best thematic sites. But, on the other hand, when it turns out the pricing of this very content (authors, editors, experts, man-hours on the selection of the team and the ability to manage it), then suddenly unnamed copywriters from free-lance.ru and the budget at the cost of going to the supermarket.
However, there is a middle path. Content is work, it can be produced in specified volumes with specified quality parameters, which are quite amenable to formalization. And it is quite possible to adjust the conveyor on which the letters will be folded into texts of a decent level, meaningless, readable, informative. It is enough to set all these parameters in the source TZ. Well, gather people who know how to work that way. Of course, the factory product will be inferior in many ways to the unique work of individual craftsmen, but it will have all the advantages of manufacturing: scalability and reproducibility of the result at an acceptable cost of the final product. It is this content factory that is the project Relevant Media , released by Fast Lane Ventures :
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The Relevant Media model is not unique, but is an adaptation for our market, opened in 2006 by the project Demand Media , which is the world's largest “content farm”. The idea was to hire online copywriters who work on a permanent basis and provide a “farm” with a steady flow of thematic content that the company implements at its discretion. The authors received regular payments, the size of which depended on their diligence and the success of the texts, and Demand Media posted materials on sites such as eHow and Cracked.com , and earned on contextual advertising. The topics offered to copywriters were based on popular search queries.
Relevantmedia.ru offers a kind of a more stable alternative in terms of earnings to the standard freelance: the authors are working on articles for small fees, but they are so offered that you can completely forget about the competition and the struggle for each order. At the same time, the advantages of freelancing do not disappear anywhere: you can work as much as you want, when and where you want.
The content produced on the “farm” of RM falls on the site of useful tips Kak Prosto and several other resources, among which is the search engine of airline tickets Jizo.ru, recently described by me .
To date, 2000 authors are registered in the RM system, and content production plans are being fulfilled - even without advertising support, the service grows faster than expected.
Before registering on the link on the main page, we can learn about the form of cooperation offered by RM, as well as look at the list of partners of the site. These are the very resources to which RelevantMedia “products” are being delivered. A cursory acquaintance with them to the future author does not hurt.
Tabs "Writers" and "Editors" will allow you to learn a little more about what the resource requires from the specialists of the corresponding profile. RM informs that the role of writers will fit "almost everyone, who feels the ability to work with the text and the desire to share knowledge." Editors are expected to have “perfect literacy and broad horizons, a rich vocabulary, a practical understanding of the principles of text construction and editing skills.”
It is impossible to get acquainted with the service in more detail without logging in to the system. The site clearly would not have prevented the opportunity to consider all its advantages and disadvantages from a guest account, which could, if desired, be “upgraded” to a worker.
On the registration page, in addition to the standard login and password, you need to indicate the areas covered by the copywriting skills of the writer, as well as download an example of work: as an attached document, or simply leave the text in a special field. At this stage, the presence of at least some portfolio, which is checked by moderators for compliance with the required quality level, is added to the piggy bank of requirements for authors. Well, or at least the general adequacy of a potential author.
The stated waiting time for processing an application is up to 48 hours. I left mine on Saturday evening and on Monday morning I received approval from the moderators.
After registration, the main page will look different: now it is the desktop of the copywriter RelevantMedia, which contains statistics on the taken and completed work and the necessary links.
To get started on the first article, we need to provide information about how to transfer money.
This is something like a visit to the accounting department after being hired: RM requires you to enter complete information about your bank details and passport data.
Money will be received once a week on the specified bank account. Unlike freelancing, where the payment of all taxes remains on the conscience of the author, RM, like a regular employer, deducts them from the fee. These are the same 34% of insurance premiums that make up a future pension. It is for this reason that one of the required fields is the number of the pension insurance certificate.
After filling out the form, the billing information goes to the chief accountant for consideration, and it will not be possible to correct them, for example, if an inaccuracy has been made. Data verification is established seriously: even simply enter an invalid pension insurance certificate number or an TIN is not possible - the system recognizes them and requires you to enter the data correctly. When choosing a place of residence, it will automatically load the list of streets and houses - it will also not be possible to fantasize here. Work with the service can be started only after verification of confirmation of data. The exact timing of the check on the site is not specified, but in my case it took less than a day.
A separate issue is the security of your information. In addition to the text message on data protection, other confirmations are not given. Here RM should pay attention to the experience of Western companies, which guarantee their honesty not only with a good name, but also with various certificates of trust.
The two-level registration system for RM reflects the whole “seriousness of intent” of the project, but, of course, it is inferior to the standards of convenience and usability of modern web projects. Of course, there is a difference between an online store, where developers try to remove as far as possible all the obstacles to your money in their pocket, and a site that offers a steady income. But still, the process, in my opinion, is unreasonably complicated for the first acquaintance and imposes excessive demands on the confidence of the newcomer copywriter: after all, the author must make considerable efforts to get into the project before starting work. A model generally accepted in this case would be an opportunity to start working immediately (especially since the first selection - for a portfolio - was passed), and to provide payment data closer to the point - when the withdrawal of the first money earned is needed. However, as the project developers say, they, nevertheless, do not have a shortage of authors - word of mouth works, and people know where they are going and why.
So, the billing details of the new user have been sent and approved. It's time to take up the first job. The role switch (and, accordingly, the tasks offered to us) is in the upper right corner, above the menu bar. For beginners, only the role of the writer is available; in her example, we will consider the interaction with the site when writing an article.
The submenu item “Find Jobs” on the desktop leads to the list of available jobs. There is a filter to the left of the table: you will need it if you only want to write content for certain sites or their sections.
The principle of forming themes on the site is their relevance, that is, orders are received for materials that will not lose their usefulness over the years. That is, news texts go by, they rule perpetual topics such as recipes or "how to tie a tie."
By clicking on the topic name, you can go to the page with information about it. It is not clear, however, why: there is no more information than is presented in the table. There will be no introductory information on what specifically is required of the article. This can be explained by the fact that the material is offered short and very much. Clicking the “Run” button will transfer the selected work to the “Tasks”, which can be accessed via the desktop submenu.
"Tasks" are the same table, only it consists exclusively of works taken by the user. For beginners, the limit on the number of simultaneously taken work - three pieces. Clicking "Write", we get to the article writing page.
Do not be surprised at the unusual toolkit: as mentioned earlier, the articles here are more like instructions or recipes. The one who got into the “admin panel” for the first time will lack instructions explaining the purpose of specific fields. It's easier to figure out by looking at a specific example of the text - on kakprosto.ru I literally in a couple of clicks found the material suitable for the example, containing all the fields. The material feed is usually in the form of step-by-step instructions; sometimes it is required to additionally indicate the necessary tools for its implementation. For this, there are separate fields in the admin panel. However, sometimes the material may be similar to a regular note . Mandatory elements are always the announcement, title image and the body of the article.
The site is equipped with a system for checking texts for plagiarism. In addition, quality control is carried out by live RM staff and freelance editors from the authors of the project.
After sending the text goes to users who have taken on the role of editor. They can approve and reject articles, as well as make changes and leave comments, giving the article to the author for revision. The approved article is due for payment, the declined item becomes the property of the author, sent for revision - must be corrected, after which it will be accepted, or it will not. The time given to the editor to check the article is two days.
Recently, RM has offered its users one more post - “headline writer”. His job is to offer the site new original topics for articles. After the approval of the title by an RM employee, the author will have priority on creating an article on it: the topic will be available only to its creator within 48 hours, and only after that it will be included in the general list.
Beginning authors should pay attention to the "Resources" section. This is a library of quite useful reference materials on how to write interesting articles and edit them wisely. This is exactly the toolkit that ultimately ensures the compliance of the produced content with the specified quality criteria and its stability. Here, the basic requirements for network texts are set out in a concise and accessible manner. The minus of this certificate is the form of submission: the material is laid out in the form of a heap of separate notes, to read each of which you need to go to a separate page. Few people read the instructions even to complex technical devices, and in order for the user to read the help on using an Internet resource, it is necessary to make it at least very easy to navigate. However, if you recall the specifics of working with RM, then everything will fall into place: it is like reading official documents. Boring, but absolutely necessary.
The most interesting thing is how much you can earn on it. Forced to disappoint optimists: on the same freelancing for one article you can get more. But at the same time, an order must be found, received, executed, taking into account the specific requirements of each specific order - and it will still be only one article.
The average text on Relevant Media has a volume of 1500-2000 characters, the rate for fixed material is 115 p. (of which 15 rubles - 13% personal income tax, the remaining taxes - from above), and the abundance of available topics allows you to work without being distracted by the search for an order. In its FAQ, the project promises an average income of about 30,000 r. per month. It is easy to calculate that when working 22 days a month, this means 12 texts per day, or about 40 minutes for one text with a standard working day. This conveyor, yes. However, already as a city legend on the project, they tell the real, however, story about a woman from the region who earned 85,000 r. per month, writing nearly 800 articles. This mad skillz.
For editing the text pay 15 p., For the title - 4 p. When you make up a headline for a new post for half an hour, torturing yourself and everyone you get at that moment online, the amount seems ridiculous. However, if we discard personal ambitions and return to business indicators, the following fact will be curious: just an hour after the introduction of the title writer role on the project, more than 700 were already made. And it is easy to calculate that the cost price of the article is 134 rubles. Taking into account the volume, it is very inexpensive: August produced more than 18,000 texts, with the number of active authors a few hundred people.
Despite the overfulfilment of the plans and a fairly decent “staff” of authors, the creators of the project understand that there is much to be improved and they plan to redesign.
The earning model of the project itself copies the experience of DemandMedia : the sale of advertising on the Kakprosto.ru website, which in this scheme turns out to be the main one - the front office, whose uninterrupted supply of texts and busy RelevantMedia. In addition, content is delivered to partner sites - first of all, other Fast Lane Ventures projects. In principle, RelevantMedia is open to partnership with other projects that require good content in large quantities, but only on an individual basis, because the project creators do not consider this as the main source of income.
Perhaps closeness - the main disadvantage of the project. He could change the Runet ecosystem, offering a huge amount of quality texts at an affordable price, and in terms of price / quality / volume, he probably would have no equal.
However, while the project remains to some extent a “thing in itself,” and its trick, thanks to which he deserved this review, lies in the very approach to the organization of the process. My high school literature teacher would have grabbed a blow by reading these lines, but RM clearly demonstrates that writing texts is a common craft that is not very different, for example, from creating stools - it is enough to have certain skills and the right tools to work. Good or bad, it works.
However, there is a middle path. Content is work, it can be produced in specified volumes with specified quality parameters, which are quite amenable to formalization. And it is quite possible to adjust the conveyor on which the letters will be folded into texts of a decent level, meaningless, readable, informative. It is enough to set all these parameters in the source TZ. Well, gather people who know how to work that way. Of course, the factory product will be inferior in many ways to the unique work of individual craftsmen, but it will have all the advantages of manufacturing: scalability and reproducibility of the result at an acceptable cost of the final product. It is this content factory that is the project Relevant Media , released by Fast Lane Ventures :
')
Project history
The Relevant Media model is not unique, but is an adaptation for our market, opened in 2006 by the project Demand Media , which is the world's largest “content farm”. The idea was to hire online copywriters who work on a permanent basis and provide a “farm” with a steady flow of thematic content that the company implements at its discretion. The authors received regular payments, the size of which depended on their diligence and the success of the texts, and Demand Media posted materials on sites such as eHow and Cracked.com , and earned on contextual advertising. The topics offered to copywriters were based on popular search queries.
Relevantmedia.ru offers a kind of a more stable alternative in terms of earnings to the standard freelance: the authors are working on articles for small fees, but they are so offered that you can completely forget about the competition and the struggle for each order. At the same time, the advantages of freelancing do not disappear anywhere: you can work as much as you want, when and where you want.
The content produced on the “farm” of RM falls on the site of useful tips Kak Prosto and several other resources, among which is the search engine of airline tickets Jizo.ru, recently described by me .
To date, 2000 authors are registered in the RM system, and content production plans are being fulfilled - even without advertising support, the service grows faster than expected.
check in
Before registering on the link on the main page, we can learn about the form of cooperation offered by RM, as well as look at the list of partners of the site. These are the very resources to which RelevantMedia “products” are being delivered. A cursory acquaintance with them to the future author does not hurt.
Tabs "Writers" and "Editors" will allow you to learn a little more about what the resource requires from the specialists of the corresponding profile. RM informs that the role of writers will fit "almost everyone, who feels the ability to work with the text and the desire to share knowledge." Editors are expected to have “perfect literacy and broad horizons, a rich vocabulary, a practical understanding of the principles of text construction and editing skills.”
It is impossible to get acquainted with the service in more detail without logging in to the system. The site clearly would not have prevented the opportunity to consider all its advantages and disadvantages from a guest account, which could, if desired, be “upgraded” to a worker.
On the registration page, in addition to the standard login and password, you need to indicate the areas covered by the copywriting skills of the writer, as well as download an example of work: as an attached document, or simply leave the text in a special field. At this stage, the presence of at least some portfolio, which is checked by moderators for compliance with the required quality level, is added to the piggy bank of requirements for authors. Well, or at least the general adequacy of a potential author.
The stated waiting time for processing an application is up to 48 hours. I left mine on Saturday evening and on Monday morning I received approval from the moderators.
After registration, the main page will look different: now it is the desktop of the copywriter RelevantMedia, which contains statistics on the taken and completed work and the necessary links.
To get started on the first article, we need to provide information about how to transfer money.
This is something like a visit to the accounting department after being hired: RM requires you to enter complete information about your bank details and passport data.
Money will be received once a week on the specified bank account. Unlike freelancing, where the payment of all taxes remains on the conscience of the author, RM, like a regular employer, deducts them from the fee. These are the same 34% of insurance premiums that make up a future pension. It is for this reason that one of the required fields is the number of the pension insurance certificate.
After filling out the form, the billing information goes to the chief accountant for consideration, and it will not be possible to correct them, for example, if an inaccuracy has been made. Data verification is established seriously: even simply enter an invalid pension insurance certificate number or an TIN is not possible - the system recognizes them and requires you to enter the data correctly. When choosing a place of residence, it will automatically load the list of streets and houses - it will also not be possible to fantasize here. Work with the service can be started only after verification of confirmation of data. The exact timing of the check on the site is not specified, but in my case it took less than a day.
A separate issue is the security of your information. In addition to the text message on data protection, other confirmations are not given. Here RM should pay attention to the experience of Western companies, which guarantee their honesty not only with a good name, but also with various certificates of trust.
The two-level registration system for RM reflects the whole “seriousness of intent” of the project, but, of course, it is inferior to the standards of convenience and usability of modern web projects. Of course, there is a difference between an online store, where developers try to remove as far as possible all the obstacles to your money in their pocket, and a site that offers a steady income. But still, the process, in my opinion, is unreasonably complicated for the first acquaintance and imposes excessive demands on the confidence of the newcomer copywriter: after all, the author must make considerable efforts to get into the project before starting work. A model generally accepted in this case would be an opportunity to start working immediately (especially since the first selection - for a portfolio - was passed), and to provide payment data closer to the point - when the withdrawal of the first money earned is needed. However, as the project developers say, they, nevertheless, do not have a shortage of authors - word of mouth works, and people know where they are going and why.
Beginning of work
So, the billing details of the new user have been sent and approved. It's time to take up the first job. The role switch (and, accordingly, the tasks offered to us) is in the upper right corner, above the menu bar. For beginners, only the role of the writer is available; in her example, we will consider the interaction with the site when writing an article.
The submenu item “Find Jobs” on the desktop leads to the list of available jobs. There is a filter to the left of the table: you will need it if you only want to write content for certain sites or their sections.
The principle of forming themes on the site is their relevance, that is, orders are received for materials that will not lose their usefulness over the years. That is, news texts go by, they rule perpetual topics such as recipes or "how to tie a tie."
By clicking on the topic name, you can go to the page with information about it. It is not clear, however, why: there is no more information than is presented in the table. There will be no introductory information on what specifically is required of the article. This can be explained by the fact that the material is offered short and very much. Clicking the “Run” button will transfer the selected work to the “Tasks”, which can be accessed via the desktop submenu.
"Tasks" are the same table, only it consists exclusively of works taken by the user. For beginners, the limit on the number of simultaneously taken work - three pieces. Clicking "Write", we get to the article writing page.
Do not be surprised at the unusual toolkit: as mentioned earlier, the articles here are more like instructions or recipes. The one who got into the “admin panel” for the first time will lack instructions explaining the purpose of specific fields. It's easier to figure out by looking at a specific example of the text - on kakprosto.ru I literally in a couple of clicks found the material suitable for the example, containing all the fields. The material feed is usually in the form of step-by-step instructions; sometimes it is required to additionally indicate the necessary tools for its implementation. For this, there are separate fields in the admin panel. However, sometimes the material may be similar to a regular note . Mandatory elements are always the announcement, title image and the body of the article.
The site is equipped with a system for checking texts for plagiarism. In addition, quality control is carried out by live RM staff and freelance editors from the authors of the project.
After sending the text goes to users who have taken on the role of editor. They can approve and reject articles, as well as make changes and leave comments, giving the article to the author for revision. The approved article is due for payment, the declined item becomes the property of the author, sent for revision - must be corrected, after which it will be accepted, or it will not. The time given to the editor to check the article is two days.
Recently, RM has offered its users one more post - “headline writer”. His job is to offer the site new original topics for articles. After the approval of the title by an RM employee, the author will have priority on creating an article on it: the topic will be available only to its creator within 48 hours, and only after that it will be included in the general list.
Beginning authors should pay attention to the "Resources" section. This is a library of quite useful reference materials on how to write interesting articles and edit them wisely. This is exactly the toolkit that ultimately ensures the compliance of the produced content with the specified quality criteria and its stability. Here, the basic requirements for network texts are set out in a concise and accessible manner. The minus of this certificate is the form of submission: the material is laid out in the form of a heap of separate notes, to read each of which you need to go to a separate page. Few people read the instructions even to complex technical devices, and in order for the user to read the help on using an Internet resource, it is necessary to make it at least very easy to navigate. However, if you recall the specifics of working with RM, then everything will fall into place: it is like reading official documents. Boring, but absolutely necessary.
Earnings
The most interesting thing is how much you can earn on it. Forced to disappoint optimists: on the same freelancing for one article you can get more. But at the same time, an order must be found, received, executed, taking into account the specific requirements of each specific order - and it will still be only one article.
The average text on Relevant Media has a volume of 1500-2000 characters, the rate for fixed material is 115 p. (of which 15 rubles - 13% personal income tax, the remaining taxes - from above), and the abundance of available topics allows you to work without being distracted by the search for an order. In its FAQ, the project promises an average income of about 30,000 r. per month. It is easy to calculate that when working 22 days a month, this means 12 texts per day, or about 40 minutes for one text with a standard working day. This conveyor, yes. However, already as a city legend on the project, they tell the real, however, story about a woman from the region who earned 85,000 r. per month, writing nearly 800 articles. This mad skillz.
For editing the text pay 15 p., For the title - 4 p. When you make up a headline for a new post for half an hour, torturing yourself and everyone you get at that moment online, the amount seems ridiculous. However, if we discard personal ambitions and return to business indicators, the following fact will be curious: just an hour after the introduction of the title writer role on the project, more than 700 were already made. And it is easy to calculate that the cost price of the article is 134 rubles. Taking into account the volume, it is very inexpensive: August produced more than 18,000 texts, with the number of active authors a few hundred people.
Despite the overfulfilment of the plans and a fairly decent “staff” of authors, the creators of the project understand that there is much to be improved and they plan to redesign.
The earning model of the project itself copies the experience of DemandMedia : the sale of advertising on the Kakprosto.ru website, which in this scheme turns out to be the main one - the front office, whose uninterrupted supply of texts and busy RelevantMedia. In addition, content is delivered to partner sites - first of all, other Fast Lane Ventures projects. In principle, RelevantMedia is open to partnership with other projects that require good content in large quantities, but only on an individual basis, because the project creators do not consider this as the main source of income.
Perhaps closeness - the main disadvantage of the project. He could change the Runet ecosystem, offering a huge amount of quality texts at an affordable price, and in terms of price / quality / volume, he probably would have no equal.
However, while the project remains to some extent a “thing in itself,” and its trick, thanks to which he deserved this review, lies in the very approach to the organization of the process. My high school literature teacher would have grabbed a blow by reading these lines, but RM clearly demonstrates that writing texts is a common craft that is not very different, for example, from creating stools - it is enough to have certain skills and the right tools to work. Good or bad, it works.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/104010/
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