Hey everyone! With the holidays fast approaching, I thought I’d do a quick review of a site that is great for beginners as well as those who want to begin to establish an online client base. Zyrs is a nice little site that is a big believer in putting the writer first. If you are willing to put in the effort, you can make a nice living on this site but you need to get established here first.
Joining Zerys
This is simple: Sign up for an account. You will be sent a confirmation email immediately and after that you need to log into the site, fill out a profile and submit a writing sample. The writing sample if important so make it a great one!
Your Zerys Dashboard
This is a site that believes that you don’t need eye candy; you need a simple and straight forward format to get your work done. To that end, you will find that your dashboard is well laid out, easy to navigate and a breeze to learn.
Any important alerts you have will be immediately visible on the left side of the screen right at the top. In the center you have your earnings and to your right your mailbox. It’s all right there at the top of the screen as soon as you log in to the site.
Directly under the important information line is the job board. This will tell you at a glance what jobs are open, what jobs you have active and what jobs are currently inactive (this is where you will find your finished jobs.)
Scroll a little further down and you will find your stats as well as a quick list of your expert categories; more on those in a minute. You will find a list of your rank, reviews and your entire Zerys work history.
Setting up your Zerys profile
As with most online content writing sites, this is extremely important. Your profile introduces you to potential clients so make sure to fill it out completely and include as much information as possible. There is a free text space for a biography. Be sure that you do not include direct contact information or your website address as both are forbidden by the company. Beyond that it’s a simple case of filling in the blanks.
Expert Categories
Grab a snack…or two…because you could be here a while. There are hundreds of expert categories ranging from the broad to the specific and you get to pick a lot of them. In this way jobs can be targeted to you and you can fine tune your areas of expertise.
Some clients only open their jobs to certain expert categories. Some clients leave them open to all writers. One thing is certain and that is that the wider your range, the more opportunity you will have.
You are not locked into the areas that you initially select; you can change them at any time in the future.
Your Writing Sample
This is an extremely important part of working with Zerys for a couple of reasons. First of all this is how you will be assigned your initial rating that opens up the ability to apply for writing jobs. It also dictates how much you will be paid.
A unique aspect to Zerys is that you have the option of submitting either a published or unpublished sample. If you choose an unpublished sample it will be posted to their site YoExpert.YoExpert is a site where people ask questions and you answer them. While this site can give you some exposure, there is no payment for submitting an answer.
Finding jobs on Zerys
There are a couple of ways to get work on Zerys. The first is through the open job board. Clients list available jobs and you will accept the assignment, write the article and then submit it. After it’s accepted you will be paid.
The second option for finding work is the favorite job board. This is a board where clients have listed their favorite writers. If you are on the favorite list of a client (or a few clients) then you will have the option to select these jobs as well.
The final method of finding a job on Zerys is through a direct assignment. In this case a client will send you an assignment and you can either accept or decline the job.
While you are reviewing a particular job it will be unavailable to other writers. If you decline the job then it will go back into the queue. If you accept the job then it’s yours.
You can take one job from the job board at a time. After you submit it you may select another one. You may have as many direct assignments as you like.
One you have accepted your first job
Once you have accepted your first writing job you need to be aware of a few rules that are in play. First of all there is a deadline. The general rule is that you have 24 hours for every 500 words required in the article.
The conditions might be slightly different for any direct assignments that you are offered but they will be clearly spelled out before you accept or decline the offer. Be sure to pay attention to the deadlines because failure to meet those deadlines results in punishment; your account is suspended for a period of time.
Writing an article on Zerys
After you accept a job it will move from the job board into your dashboard as part of your active jobs. Clients have the option of splitting up jobs that are over 800 words into sections. Personally, I find this annoying and apparently so do the clients because it’s rare that it happens. If it does, you have to submit an outline as well as segments of the project as you go along.
Pay close attention to SEO and the requested keyword density if this is an issue for a particular client. This is easy to do when writing on the Zerys platform because the system keeps track of it for you. You will have both a minimum and a maximum word count to adhere to and this will also be counted for you. The content writing area will monitor these things and you cannot submit your completed work until all parameters have been met.
You could write the content in another format and copy/paste it to the box but there is really no need. Just to be safe I always copy the completed work from the writing area and save it to a personal file on my computer. That way if some glitch happens as I hit the submit button is clicked I don’t have to start over.
Editors
They exist but only in the most liberal meaning of the word. Mostly editors make certain that the parameters requested by the client have been met. You are expected to edit your own work. I’ve never heard of anyone having a problem with the editors at Zerys.
Communication
All communication between you and the client is through the Zerys system. You are absolutely prohibited from sharing direct contact information. Thankfully there is still the ability to send in house messages back and forth with the client.
Rejections
If your work is rejected by a client then you will not be paid for it. Some clients will offer you a kill-fee… though if you accept it they own the work and can use it as they see fit. This has not been a big problem but you have likely seen how it could easily be a way for a client to get your work at a reduced rate. My personal policy is to refuse to release the work at a reduced rate. Luckily this hasn’t happened. Rejections are really pretty rare on this site.
Earning money
Earning money on Zerys can be something of a grind at first. This is a great site for those just getting started and those looking for a site to build up over time while working other jobs. To be completely honest about it, the pay rates are insulting at the lower levels. Some of the jobs on the open job board are actually for less than a penny a word. Unless you have absolutely no samples, leave those alone. There is no point in encouraging those clients. On a happier note, the upper end is at $0.35 a word. You can set your own rate for direct orders.
It is also important to note that Zerys will keep 30% of the money.
Getting paid
You are paid twice per month on the 1st and 15th or within 3 days. Payment is via PayPal. You will be paid for all completed and accepted work done up to the payment date. Any work that hasn’t been accepted by that time will be paid for on the next payday.
On a very positive note, the 3 day window seems to be a buffer in the event of a glitch. Payments have always been on time and I’ve never heard of anyone complain about not being paid.