It wasn’t until I was cleaning out my inbox that I realize I had written to them inquiring about their need for freelance writers.

Start from the Beginning

Let me back up and give a little background on Content Divas (at least the little I know about them). Content Divas is a writing service. They hire freelance writers, editors, virtual assistants and customer service reps. According to their website they’ve been in business since 2007. They also seem to run a top-notch operation.

Their information seemed interesting so I contacted them to find out about employment opportunities. Here’s the response I received (which is probably the same response my reader received):

How this Works:

Content Divas aims to provide the best quality outsourced content on the Internet. Clients come to us with their content needs, be it for articles, blogs, e-books, reports, or press releases. We then decide which writer would be best suited to a particular project. To that end, we ask that you submit a list of subjects with which you are familiar, although you should be prepared to do research and write about unfamiliar topics as well.

The content we provide is written using LSI, or “latent semantic indexing.” In a nutshell, this means that we are looking for natural sounding articles that use verbiage related to the keyword rather than focusing solely on keyword density.

If you are accepted, you will be expected to write approximately 1,000 words per week day, per project.

Submission Requirements:

I need you to submit two 500-word articles of original, previously unpublished content (Content Divas has exclusive rights to all submitted materials.) You will find the submission details below. Please attach your samples to your submission email in .doc (Word document ’97/2000/2003/XP) format. Make sure to send your very best work. These attached articles will count as your job application.

1. Select one keyword from Group #1 and one keyword from Group #2 to write your articles:
Keyword Group #1: Email Marketing, SEO, Article Marketing, How to Drive Traffic to Your Website, Internet Marketing, Rogue Antispyware
Keyword Group #2: Puerto Rican Vacations, Debt Management, Diabetes in Children, Organic Gardening, Bento Boxes, Mortgage Refinancing

2. Each sample article must have the keyword listed at the top of the document (above the title). The keyword must be used in the title and within the first two sentences of the first paragraph. You cannot change the keyword in any way.

3. Please write an informative article written for a general audience. It’s in your best interests to make certain that your writing is as smooth, error-free and professional as possible.

4. Each individual article should be saved as its own document (remember, .doc) and named in this format: Your name, Sample #, keyword used
Please send writing samples to employment@contentdivas.com.

We have a great need for writers and plenty of ongoing work. We look forward to hearing from you!

Sincerely,

Content Divas

My Gut vs. My Brain

My gut tells me that Content Divas is a reputable site but my brain won’t allow me to write sample content without getting compensated for it. The parenthetical “Content Divas has exclusive rights to all submitted materials” sealed the deal for me.

After reading through the email a second time I noticed the expectation of writing 1,000 words per week day per project. I translate that to mean 2 articles a day, 5 days a week.

The one huge missing element in their response is “What do I get out of all this?” They do an excellent job of explaining what they want, how they want it and why they want it, but they don’t give as much as a hint as to how much a writer can earn.

Thanks, but No Thanks

Based on the information received, I decided to pass on this particular opportunity.