Pros
I joined WriterBay in 2013. Here are some advantages of working with them: 1) On-time pay. Over the past six years, there have been no payment delays. They always write off the payment (there’s a $100 minimum) on the 16th of each month, and it always arrives within a couple days (I use PayPal). 2) A sufficient selection of orders. No matter high or low season, I’ve always been able to find an order I could do. Some months I would do orders every day, and some months I’d be so busy I would only do a couple here and there, but I’ve never felt like there’s was any shortage on the available options. 3) 24/7 online support team. They are available any time you need them and it’s a huge help especially when you’re in a different time zone. It may take a while to arrive at an agreement sometimes, but in the end of the day I always get my resolution and don’t have anything bad to say. 4) Flexible working hours. Although there are deadlines to meet, essentially you are the one picking an order and making sure the time is sufficient. It’s a huge advantage though to be able to work as a freelancer on an online platform because you can do orders anywhere. One time I took an order to do a poem analysis and wrote notes on it while walking on a treadmill at the gym, got home, formatted and edited what I wrote, and uploaded it. I appreciate this flexibility, especially while juggling a full time job and college.
Cons
1) Customers don’t reply right away. Sometimes you can’t start working on the order without clarifying a few things first, and customers might take a while to reply while draining the deadline. I usually go to live chat and ask the guys there to call customers and ask them to respond, which usually works. Still, it’s a drag to wait sometimes. 2) I don’t know anything about standard rates because I am a promoted writer, but it’s difficult to negotiate a higher pay for some orders. They usually are good about raising the pay for urgent orders, but it’s challenging to get them to do it if you agreed to a certain pay already and then realized the project is more complicated than originally expected. Customers do agree to pay extra sometimes, but it takes a while until it’s approved. A little more flexibility on that wouldn’t hurt. 3) Little time given for revisions. Once in a while, customers would send completed orders for revision and give little time for completing those, disregarding the fact that writers can be in different time zones or busy with something else. I wish there was a standard minimum of 8 hours for revisions like it used to be some time ago.
