First, I have to apologize for the ridiculous amount of time it has taken me to write a new post for this blog. For an insight on my life over the past month, if you care to know, please read this post on my fitness blog. You will also find some helpful exercise tips.
Now, down to business.
Overview
MediaPiston is a sort of content mill with a dash of cloudsourcing throw in, just for flavor. Clients ask for work to be done, usually an article to be written and the job is posted to the pool. You, the writer, claim it and write it. Once it passes the extensive editorial and rating process and the poster accepts it, you get paid.
The type of job ranges widely but you will generally find yourself writing content for the websites of various companies. In my first two jobs, I wrote about steel roofing materials and waterproof digital cameras. I've had no jobs in my field of fitness. So, if you have a specific field you favor, don't expect to be able to be selective.
The poster always buys the writes to your article, meaning that you no longer own it and get no credit for it outside of the MediaPiston realm, which doesn't really help someone trying to build a portfolio but will give you experience.
My Experience and Impressions
The application process for MediaPistion was fast and easy. They pretty much accept all applicants but you have to qualify for higher paying, more specialized assignments. Once you're set up and ready to work, you can search through the pool for assignments. The jobs vary in size, type and pay but don't expect to get paid much for these jobs. Generally, an 800 word article which will require research will get you about $8 base pay. But, we'll talk more about the time involved a little later. Hang tight.
And the payment scheme is a little hard to understand. The payments shown on the assignment pool page are a sum of both the payment offered by the poster and the maximum bonus you COULD receive depending on how good the article is. So you won't always get the amount you thought you would when you accepted the article.
The writing platform is pretty easy to use and has a built in spell-checker that you MUST use before you proceed. Once you write the article and submit it for editing, my real problems with MediaPiston begin. The article must pass through several editors and can be send back an unlimited number of times for rewrites and edits, for which you don't get paid any extra. With any pay-per-job opportunity, you essentially lose money with each rewrite because you are investing time. The less time you can spend on an article, the more you get paid before that's more time you could be working on another one. Because MediaPiston doesn't pay that much to begin with, it's hard to justify investing a lot of time in rewrites.
Once the job passes the editors, it goes to the client for acceptance. The client has a limited amount of time to accept or deny your work, as well as give you a bonus amount they feel you deserve. If they don't make a decision within their given window, MediaPiston immediately accepts your work and you get a full bonus.
Based on your performance on a job, you receive a star rating which could qualify you for higher-paying jobs in the future and satisfied customers could specifically request you again in the future.
Payments are processed weekly, which is nice.
It should also be noted that MediaPiston doesn't just want you to write articles. There are other types of jobs, including Native English Check, but these are scarce and usually don't pay much at all.
Overall, MediaPiston is a decent way to make some extra cash when other wells have run dry. The editors are easy to work with and the payments are reliable by my experience. Because the pay is relatively low compared some larger mills, this probably won't be your primary source of income but they also don't have any weekly, monthly or even yearly work requirement. So, MediaPiston is nice little website to have tucked away in your back-pocket as a backup.
