Skyword Review: Is It Worth Your Time?

Content writing is one of the most popular options when it comes to making money online. Skyword is a platform that hires writers to write on various topics for clients. There are different programs within the Skyword platform, such as Daily Glow, Bounty and Gather News. Here is my Skyword review on whether it is a worthwhile platform.

Offers Two Types of Payments

One way that Skyword beats other platforms is that it offers bother upfront and residual payments. Some programs, such as Gather News, only offer residual based on page views but many others offer from $5 up for original content and then pay residually based on page views afterwards. The Daily Glow News program offers the lowest rate of $5 for a piece of beauty news between 250 and 500 words. The majority of the programs offer $10 upfront but there are some programs that offer $30 and $40.

The residual payments are only available for a limited amount of time so it is worth promoting articles. The news articles only have a shelf life of one month while evergreen content earns over the period of 12 months.

Write Topics You Like

With there being different programs available, it is possible to write on topics that you are an expert in or that you favour. For example, I started writing within the Daily Glow program and then branched out to Daily Glow News. I also wrote for the Lowes program, which was all about DIY projects.

If you sign up to the Gather News, you can write on technology, entertainment and many other areas that are newsworthy. While this only gains residual amounts, it is possible to gain thousands of views within a month, depending on the topic that you choose to write about.

Keyword Scorecard

The platform offers a scorecard for articles before they are sent for submission. This makes it easier to determine whether you have placed keywords into the article too much, whether the content is written in the active voice and whether it is easy to understand. The scorecard is easy to understand. It offers a letter grade for SEO and a number range for how easy the content is to read.

Excellent Training Tools

There are strict guidelines in each of the programs but there are some excellent training tools to help you get used to writing. It is important to look at the training tools regularly as the guidelines can change without being warned. This is something that I found after returning from a break from writing there.

Minimum Quota

And now for some of the downsides; the first being a minimum quota. This differs between programs, some only ask for five per month while others ask for 10. This starts from the first full month within the program. You need to meet the quota, unless you have arranged it with the program manager, or you will be removed.

Only One Shot at Approval

You only have one chance at being approved for a program. Once you have used that chance up, that is it. There are many reasons why you will be rejected, including your sample being unsatisfactory or there simply being too many people applying. This leads to some problems though as you are never warned upfront that the program has very limited spaces.

At first, they used to hold applications when this was the case but eventually they stopped doing this. I ended up wasting applications for two programs because of too many writers, even though my samples were great for the program. In my opinion, there needs to be a change where it is possible to reapply after a set period of time – such as six or 12 months. This avoids the chance of wasting an application and also helps writers gain more experience.

Will Not Say Why You Have Been Removed

Unless it is because there are too many writers and they will hold the application, you will not be told why your application has been rejected. This makes it difficult to know what you can approve on for other applications on the program. Their reasoning behind this is that they have too many applications to be able to give each writer a reason, even when asked.

Just Remove You From Waiting

Even when they say that they will hold your application for the future, they will still just reject it after a while without explanation. This was when I really started getting annoyed with the platform. I could never understand why they would say they will hold an application and then just remove it without explanation. It obviously wasn’t the writing sample so I’d love to know the reason.

Removal from Programs

They will also just remove you from a program without warning. As I stated, I took time off for personal reasons and explained this to my program manager. After coming back, I found that the guidelines had changed but there had been no warning about it. I wrote as I used to only to find that articles were being returned due to the changed guidelines. The problem is I sent a few at the same time so I had revisions on each of these articles. This meant that I had “too many revisions” and was removed from the program. While some people will need too many revisions, maybe it should be looked at on a case-by-case basis. I had never had a problem in the past so it didn’t make sense now simply because I assumed, since there was no message, that the guidelines were the same.

Slow Acceptance Times

When I wrote in the Daily Glow program, the topics were evergreen so it didn’t matter that the queue became backed up – although it was annoying! However, with news it did matter. I found that, at times, news pieces were sitting in a queue for a day or two so by the time it came around for approval/rejection they were no longer relevant – and I was penalised for that.

There have been attempts at fixing this issue. For a while, all keywords and topics were closed on the Daily Glow program to be able to catch up with the approval process. However, it soon became clear that there were too many writers and not enough editors so they simply cut a load of writers. Their excuse was a “change in direction to evergreen content” even though that was the type of content I was already writing. Maybe they should have just said “we’ve hired too many people, sorry!” I have a lot more respect for a company that is willing to be honest.

I wouldn’t say definitely don’t write for Skyword but keep an eye on them. Many of the programs are currently closed to applications due to a large amount of writers, which is no surprise. There are a few new programs that are added now and then but I’m not sure how long they stick around. The Lowes program was meant to open up in May 2012 but then got pushed to September 2012. By the time September rolled around, it was announced that the program was closing – they had only started looking for writers around November 2011 so it seems a little pointless to me. There was news of other programs opening but they either haven’t happened or are still in the planning phases.

It could be a worthwhile venture and they do pay on time but definitely do not put all your eggs into this basket. I learned a long time ago never to put all your eggs into one basket and I’m glad I didn’t with Skyword. At one time I enjoyed it but now I’m not too sure whether I will ever bother applying for programs again.