Bustle Review – Work at Home as a Writer

Today's post is a Bustle review. This is a company that is frequently hiring freelance writers to work from home. Our post today gives an overview of what it's like to work for them, what they pay, who qualifies, and more.

Bustle is a big name media company headquartered in New York City. In addition to their main hub page, they have several branded websites focusing on a variety of different topics, including health, lifestyle, news, and fashion. Most of their marketing and content seems to be aimed primarily at younger women.

Bustle's team of writers is composed almost entirely of work from home employees, and they seem to hire pretty frequently.

Below, we'll take a closer look at the company to give you an idea of what the job is like, and help you decide whether or not it's worth your time to put in an application.

Bustle Review – Working For Bustle

The Bustle network includes a wide variety of different websites, and because of this the writing jobs tend to be fairly distinct and unique.

For example, if you work for their Elite Daily site, which seems to focus on a mix of lifestyle articles and pop-culture news, you'll be expected to scan the web each morning looking for hot trending stories that might be of interest to Bustle's readership, and then pitch article ideas to the editors.

Another example is their “Commerce Writer” position, which involves creating informative lists designed primarily for promoting certain products to consumers. Basically, you'll be writing stealth advertisements, and your success will depend on convincing folks to click on affiliate links.

Since Bustle offers so many different types of writing gigs, it should be possible to find one that's a good fit for your talents, but it might require a little patience. They usually only have a handful of openings for writers at any given time, so you may have to wait a while for a job you really like to become available.

Bustle Pay Rate

Bustle's hiring website isn't exactly overflowing with information, and there's nothing at all about the pay rate or how the money is delivered.

I did a little bit of extra digging, and the most reliable salary number I could find (on Glassdoor) was between $12 and $24 per hour.

There's no indication whether they pay on a per-article-basis, or by the hour, but the wide variance in reported salaries makes me think it is the former.

With a per-article system, faster writers will tend to make a lot more than slower ones, which can lead to a big difference in reported earnings numbers.

Scheduling With Bustle

This is one area where Bustle seems to be very different than most other content sites. All the writing jobs currently on offer require you to be available two or three days a week during business hours, and you're expected to deliver your work on Bustle's schedule rather than doing it on your own time.

So, if you're looking for flexible work at home jobs, this one doesn't quite fit that bill.

According to reports from current and former employees, there is a bit of flexibility in terms of choosing the days you want to work, but this definitely isn't the kind of job where you can do your writing whenever you want.

Also, all the jobs seem to be part-time, so you'll probably need to take on some additional freelance work if you want to earn a full-time living.

Requirements To Apply

Each separate writing job has its own unique set of requirements, but I did notice a few trends that seem to always apply.

Every job apparently has a two or three year experience requirement, and none of the jobs I looked at had any mandatory educational minimums.

Feedback

I used Glassdoor to find reviews of Bustle from current and former members of the writing staff.

Luckily, there were a fair number of reviews available, including several from remote workers, and almost all of them were fairly positive. The articles are apparently fun to write, and the editorial guidelines are easy to follow.

A few people complained about an emphasis on speed and SEO skills over writing quality, which made them feel like they were working for a content mill.

Others were upset about the lack of advancement opportunities, and some thought the pay was a little low, especially considering how successful the company appears to be.

Fortunately, even those who complained seemed to be very happy with the job overall, and I could only find one writer who gave Bustle less than three stars.

Bottom-line – as long as you don't mind the restrictive scheduling scheme, this looks like a pretty good gig, especially for newer writers looking to build some credibility with a big-name company.

How To Get Started

If you like the sound of everything we've mentioned in our Bustle review, and you want to become a writer for them, go here to have a look at their current openings, and put in your application.