Avantages
Content demands are flexible in terms of published articles per month, and there’s a good work / life balance depending on how much you want to work and earn. Payments for published work are made twice per month, and are always on time. Most editors are also forthcoming and easy to talk to, should you need more time, or wish to take a break from writing. Unfortunately, that’s kind of it when it comes to positives.
Inconvénients
Android Police, much like a significant portion of the industry now, is owned by Valnet, and Valnet is notorious for its low freelance rates. Right off the bat, I was misinformed about rates during the interview process. The rates were not stellar, but the actual ones turned out to be half of what was agreed upon, and I had to make a separate arrangement with an editor to somewhat rectify this. Rates are bottom of the barrel. Not only that, but they’re fixed per article type and don’t take into consideration any additional work, such as image procurement and editing, link implementation etc. During my 18-month stint at the company, rate increase was never brought up. Any views-based bonus systems were also either abandoned or made significantly worse over time. There was no tangible incentive to care about the fate of an article. Also, depending on the category you’re in, you could be writing news and reviews, or just SEO-driven garbage with no substance. Think along the lines of “How to turn on your phone”. A lot of the time, I was forced to draft fluff pieces that clearly didn’t have a large audience, and then had to take an L because a particular article wouldn’t get the views that were expected.