What: Skyword matches writers, videographers, photographers and graphic designers with companies that want to tell their story. 

Expected pay: varies by assignment

Husl$core: $$$$

Commissions & fees: NA

Where: Nationwide

Requirements: Experience, a resume and samples of your work. 

Review:

Skyword connects Fortune 1000 clients with content creators, who produce blog posts, infographics and corporate videos. The client sets the rate of pay, which can be accepted or rejected by the freelancer. Skyword charges the client, not the freelancer, a fee for the matchmaking service.

Freelancers say that the work is not constant, but is generally well-compensated. For writers, rates range between 25 cents to $1 per word, depending on the complexity of the project. Payments are made through PayPal.

Kill fee

If the client decides not to publish a piece, Skyword makes sure the freelancer collects a kill fee equal to 50% of the agreed-upon price. This insures that freelancers won’t walk away empty-handed after doing substantial work. On other sites, clients are often able to renege on job assignments after the work is complete. 

The vetting process to get work on the site is apparently extensive. However, that’s also likely to keep out less experienced freelancers, who tend to drive down rates on other platforms. The one complaint we’ve heard consistently is the company’s software can be glitchy. 

Other sites to consider if you’re a writer are Contently and Cracked.

If you’re a photographer or videographer, you may want to look at Upwork or Fiverr. For those who do graphic design and web development, check out Belay, FreeeUp and OnwardSearch.

The Washington Post Talent Network is also worth considering for writers, photographers and videographers.

What their users say: (From G2Crowd)

The editorial teams are great to work with and Skyword pays very market-competitive prices. I’ve loved working with Skyword so much over the past several years that I’ve referred them to several other freelancers. There are few content platforms that really stand out as offering good pay and good management, but Skyword is at the top.

I am creating content for several small, midsize, and large businesses. I might have overlooked these businesses in my job searches previously. So the biggest benefit from the Skyword platform has been the chance to connect with businesses who share my values to create content I’m proud of.

It’s intuitive enough that you don’t really need any training to use it. I love the assessment feature that helps me make sure I have the right # of words, keywords, grammar, etc. before I publish the content. 

What I like most about Skyword are the editors and acccount executives I work with. Almost without exception, they are friendly, responsive and flexilble. They understand the needs and challenges of freelance contributors like myself and can be relied upon to assist with any issues that arise. There are minor issues with the Skyword contributor dashboard. The spellcheck function is erratic (doesn’t always recognize names of clients), there appears to be no way to save “comments to reviewers” at bottom. Word count is faulty (shows that written article is ‘over’ the limit when the actual word count is less than the limit.)