November 2016

7 Ways to Get Paid to Be an Online Test Grader

Last Updated:May 14, 2020

If you’re looking for a work-from-home opportunity that you can do from your home office (or probably anywhere), any time of the day, and not have to talk to other people (at least, not every day), being an online test grader is a job that you should consider.

Online test graders read and score assessment tests, papers, or essays. Test takers are usually college students, but you may be assigned to score tests taken by high school students or even by professionals.

You’re given a standard set of scoring rules and rubrics by the individual, school, or organization administering the test. You may also be asked to provide constructive feedback for the test taker.

Today, you’ll learn how to get a job as an online test scorer: what you’ll need, what it takes, and where to apply so you can start your new work-from-home career soon.

What You Need To Work As An Online Test Grader

Test grader jobs will differ depending on the company you’ll work with. But whatever company you end up working with, you’ll need the following tools, skills, and qualities to be successful:

Equipment

Your own computer or laptop with up-to-date operating systems (confidentiality clauses usually mean you can’t use public or shared computers)
High-speed internet connection
High-quality headphones (for audio exams and in case conversations with your employer are needed)

Qualities

Fair and unbiased
Can apply scoring guides and rubrics
Able to meet deadlines
Organized
Detail-oriented
Self-motivated

Company-Specific Requirements

Education: usually requires a bachelor’s degree in any field
Experience: preferred, but not usually required
Training: normally free; you may or may not be paid while undergoing training
Qualifying Exam: may be required to take

7 Legitimate Sites That Offer Online Test Grader Jobs

1. ACT Online Scoring

The American College Test (ACT) is a standardized test taken by high school students, either during the spring of their junior year or fall of their senior year. ACT scores are assessed by colleges and universities to make decisions on whether to admit students.

The ACT exam is administered by the ACT organization, which is always looking for test graders to evaluate the written portion of the ACT.

To apply as an online test grader, a bachelor’s degree is required and high school teaching experience is preferred. Successful applicants are paid $12 per hour and there are additional incentives for top daily and weekly performers.

Strong performers can also eventually see their pay increase as they become faster and better at scoring ACT essays. Those better scorers might even be invited to work directly with ACT on generating material for future tests.

2. SAT Online Scoring

The SATs are another standardized test taken by high school students that are used for college and university admission decisions as well as scholarships based on merit.

SAT essay scorers can work by grading SAT subject matter essays for at least 20 hours a week. Scorers must have a bachelor’s degree, and they prefer those who have high school teaching experience, especially in English. Scorers are also required to pass their ETS qualifier exams.

The pay range is $15 per hour for SAT scorers, with the opportunity to earn more the faster you are at completing your workload.

3. Literably

This site works with teachers and K-8 students to evaluate students on their reading comprehension and ability.

As a Literably scorer, you’ll listen to audio recordings of students reading aloud, phonetically transcribe what is said/read, and grade those recordings. For example, if you hear a student pronounce newsreel as “nessreal,” you should write “nessreal” down.

If you want to get a lot of transcription work with Literably, you’ll need to sign on between the hours of 8am and 3pm, when school is in session. If you wait until the evening, most of the recordings will have been transcribed and scored by other Literably contractors.

The pay with this site is $10 per hour. However, if you live or intend to work in the states of California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Montana, Nebraska, or New Jersey, you can’t work with Literably.

4. Measurement Incorporated

This North Carolina-based company prides itself on being a leading provider of educational assessment services, such as scoring essays, developing testing methodologies, and providing innovative solutions for state governments, other testing companies, and various organizations.

Measurement Incorporated posts occasional openings for readers/evaluators on its website. The readers/evaluators score student responses to English language arts, mathematics, science, and other subjects.

At the beginning of a project, readers/evaluators receive paid training. Each project lasts 2-4 weeks, with the heaviest workload given from March to June.

They require you to have a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university to join as a temporary staff member.

While MI doesn’t list its pay rates for these positions, Glassdoor reports that MI pays around $11 per hour.

5. Pearson

Pearson is one of the most well-known companies in this list, as it has been around for 50+ years and has been recognized by reputable educational institutions as a leader in testing, scoring, and assessment.

Keep in mind that Pearson requires its scorers to have at least a bachelor’s degree. If you pass the training and testing phases, you’ll need to devote at least 30 hours/week to the job.

Most temporary positions open up from February to June. Pay is $12/hour, with the potential to earn bonuses for speed and quality of assessments.

Pearson also offers something to its part-timers that few work-at-home companies do: health insurance. Once hired with Pearson, you can obtain insurance coverage not only for yourself but also for your entire family.

6. Educational Testing Service (ETS)

ETS develops, administers, and scores exams for students and professionals that colleges, universities, and licensing authorities use to admit students and teachers.

This company is similar to Pearson in that Raters score educational exams and essays. Unlike Pearson, however, remote Raters work on a project-by-project basis. Thus, you must undergo the whole application process for each project you want to work in.

Once approved, scorers sign up for set work shifts. The extra certifications and applications might be worthwhile, though, as some ETS scorers claim to make up to $20/hour.

Because ETS scorers score exams like the GRE, TOEFL, and PRAXIS, you are required to have completed at least a bachelor’s degree before applying. You’ll also have to train to use their proprietary software for scoring exam responses, as well as take a certification test.

The extra steps can prove to be worthwhile, though; some ETS Raters claim to make up to $20 per hour.

7. WriteScore

WriteScore works with schools and other learning institutions to provide learning resources, assessments, and their results to help teachers know their students’ strengths and weaknesses.

This site pays its scorers to review and grade essays submitted by students in elementary, middle, and high school. Scoring season is from late July to early August, but they accept applications all year round and place them in a waitlist. As positions open up, they contact people from the waitlist.

You are required to have at least a two-year college degree in any field to be considered. Applicants undergo orientation then take qualifying tests. Once you pass the final qualifying test, you can begin scoring actual student responses.

Payment varies and depends on how quickly you can turn around your work; however, the range is $9-$15/hour.

Apply To Become An Online Test Grader Today!

If you enjoy flexing your mind and reasoning skills while helping students and other test takers, you should definitely consider becoming an online test grader.

As you’ve seen, the demand for online test graders is seasonal, as certain exams and standardized tests are only given at certain times throughout the year. Also, the hourly rate ranges from $10 to $20 per hour, which is on the low-end of the scale.

Thus, unless you’re lucky to snag a full-time, year-round position, being an online test grader probably won’t replace your day job as your main source of income. But you can make enough at a time to build a little nest egg for emergencies or investments.

Other education-related jobs

If online test grading doesn’t sound like a good fit for you but you’re interested in other education-related jobs, here are some articles that might help you:

Have you tried applying as a remote test grader or scorer? How was the overall experience? Share your thought with us in the comments!

10 Alternative Selling Platforms to Amazon, eBay and Half.com

Written By:Halina Zakowicz

Published On: November 20, 2016

Amazon, eBay and eBay’s book-selling platform, Half.com, are what most people think of when they want to sell their stuff, unwanted holiday gifts, books or other inventory.

Unfortunately, each one of these platforms has been steadily increasing its seller fees over the years, to the point that many sellers can’t make enough of a profit to justify the time and energy spent on listing.

eBay is a prime example of a platform that has been steadily jacking up its rates over the years. Currently, the platform lists the following basic fees for its auction-style and fixed price listings:

ebay

Unfortunately, there is more than meets the eye when it comes down to just how much money you will eventually pay in the form of commissions. In addition to the 10% final value fee, you must also consider Paypal, which is the payment system that eBay now requires all sellers to use.

With Paypal, you’ll be paying an additional 30 cents per transaction, plus a 2.9% fee on the amount transferred in from the buyer. Furthermore, that 2.9% is charged on the entire monetary amount -which could include a significant portion devoted to shipping costs. So, if you’re selling anything heavy, like a textbook, beware: You might just end up giving your merchandise away for free!

In the past, a safe(er) haven for sellers who wanted to sell big, bulky books was the Half.com platform. Here, you could list your books as long as you wanted. If something sold, you paid a more reasonable commission, and you also were reimbursed for shipping costs by the buyer.

Well, Half.com must’ve realized that it could squeeze a lot more money from its sellers because I received the following email today. The bad news? Some fee tiers are about to increase by as much as 200%!

half

As for Amazon, it doesn’t fare that much better. Sellers who don’t have subscription plans with Amazon and who are just looking to sell a few low-priced items are in for a surprise:

Fortunately, other selling platforms have emerged in recent years. These alternate platforms are not as expensive to use as Amazon, eBay and Half.com, yet they offer many of the same key benefits.

1. Etsy

This well-known arts-and-crafts site charges listing and final value fees on its fixed-price listings; however, the fees are significantly lower than those of eBay and Amazon. With Etsy, you pay a 20 cent listing fee and just 3.5% on the final value of your sold item. Also, for the same price, your Etsy listings will run four times as long as those posted on eBay.

2. Bonanza

Like Etsy, Bonanza offers sellers a platform where they can sell unique and quirky items at a fixed price, yet the items don’t necessarily need to be homemade or “crafty.” Also, the site also doesn’t charge any money for simply posting a listing. Once an item sells, Bonanza’s average fee per sale is as low as 3.5%.

3. eBid

If you’re looking for an auction-style platform, give eBid a try. This easy-to-use, intuitive platform charges no listing fees whatsoever and asks for just 3% of your item’s final value. Best of all, if you’re looking to constantly sell items online, you can become an eBid “lifer” for just shy of $50.

ebid

4. Ealtbay

This site looks like eBay, but it isn’t. For starters, Ealtbay doesn’t charge sellers any money to list their products on the platform. The final value fee charged for all items, regardless of their tier, is just 1.60%. And finally, Ealtbay doesn’t force you to use only Paypal as your sole payment method.

ealtbay

5. Craigslist

If you have bulky and/or heavy items to sell and wish to avoid exorbitant shipping costs, your best bet might be to list those items on Craigslist. This platform caters to local sellers who pay no money whatsoever for listing their items for sale. When those items do sell, these sellers don’t pay any final values either. In other words, Craigslist is completely free to use.

6. Facebook Marketplace

This platform operates much like Craigslist but offers both the seller and buyer additional information about each party, ensuring a better sense of personal security. Like Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace is completely free to use. Most sales transactions and item pickups occur locally; however, you could potentially list your items in several geographic regions, then pay for shipping charges out of your own pocket.

7. Nextdoor

This neighborhood-based social network platform and app enables neighbors to message each other about area crime, curb freebies, school news, and items for sale. With Nextdoor, there are also no listing or final value fees. Best of all, you may already know a good majority of your buyers.

8. Newegg

This site started out as a place to buy and sell computers and software, but it has since expanded and now offers other product categories such as apparel, hardware, toys, jewelry, etc. The site has much of the same look and feel as Amazon but without the huge seller fees.

newegg

Newegg features reasonable seller commissions ranging from 8% to 15%; these commissions include credit card processing fees. Perhaps best of all, Newegg offers an Amazon FBA-like service called Shipped by Newegg.

9. iOffer

This platform operates very much like eBay and has been around since 2002. There are no listing fees with iOffer, and the final value fees range from 5-10%. If you have lots of items priced from $25-$100, this is a good site to use because you’ll pay only a 5% fee on sales.

ioffer

10. eCRATER

This online marketplace is not only free to use, it even offers a free online store builder. Sellers have the option of using Google Wallet at checkout and can also import their listings from eBay.

ecrater

Don’t put up with high seller fees

As a seller, you don’t have to tolerate unreasonable seller fees and other required commissions from online marketplaces. Luckily, there are many other selling platforms out there that don’t gouge you for trying to make money by selling your items online.

How to Prevent, Spot and Stop Affiliate Fraud

Written By:Halina Zakowicz

Published On: November 16, 2016

If you are a merchant and are selling your products online, you might also be working with fellow affiliate marketers and paying them a commission for every click, conversion or referral they direct to your website and its products. Unfortunately, anytime there is money involved, there is the risk of affiliate fraud.

What is affiliate fraud?

In brief, affiliate fraud refers to the cheating of merchants, affiliate marketers and/or buyers out of money and/or product using illegal practices. Typically, affiliate fraud involves tricking merchants into paying out affiliate commissions for nonexistent purchases.

Affiliate fraud occurs a number of ways. In some cases, the tricksters employ third parties or software to click on CPC/PPC ads while they collect the profits (i.e., click fraud). In other cases, fraud affiliates hijack a sale and redirect it to a duplicate site that then accepts the buyer’s information. As a result, the merchant pays a commission to the duplicate site (and the fraudster behind it) instead of to the original affiliate marketer who generated the sale.

Some entrepreneurial fraud affiliates go as far as using stolen credit card numbers to make purchases from the merchant. Those purchases are eventually refunded to the buyers, but the affiliate commissions have long since disappeared to the perpetrators of these bogus sales.

Buyers can be affected by affiliate fraud too. In some cases of fraud, buyers are directed to checkout pages that contain a typo in the merchant’s domain. These fake checkout pages not only steal buyers’ money upon checkout, they eventually lead to a high rate of chargebacks, resulting in merchants losing out on their profits.

Other fraud affiliates clone entire product pages and redirect traffic there, harvesting clicks and conversions.

Fraud affiliates can also combine their deception strategies, such as by tricking buyers into clicking on a merchant’s banner ad in order to ‘learn more’ about the product or to contact support.

How to spot affiliate fraud

In many cases, you can determine that there is affiliate fraud at play. If your CPC ads are suddenly experiencing a sharp increase in clicks yet their conversion rates remain low, then you might just have affiliate fraud. If you see massive increases in traffic from locations that aren’t your typical customer base, you may have an unethical affiliate on your hands.

You can do due diligence to a point, such as by regularly checking referring URLs to spot typos. You can also examine payments at the transaction level to better understand where that transaction originated and who the buyer actually is.

However, such vigilance only works up to a point and will take up more and more of your time as your affiliates and buyers grow. To this end, your best bet is to invest in affiliate fraud detection software. There are many different platforms available, including ScrubKit, CPA Detective, Improvely, Corsearch, RiskIQ, TypoAssassin, and PlanetPayment. Some of these platforms, as their names suggest, focus on one key aspect of the affiliate marketing process, while others are more generalized and detect many types of fraud.

Also, some affiliate networks, such as Clickbank, offer their own fraud detection solutions for merchants. Before you sign up with various affiliate networks, ask them how much fraud protection they offer as one of the perks of being a member.

How to prevent affiliate fraud

It is highly recommended that you “vet” new affiliates before working with them by checking out their websites and finding out if that website is related to the products your selling.

It also doesn’t hurt to sign up to your own affiliate emails and promo offers to spot spamming issues and/or marketing practices that don’t fall in line with your established rules. Naturally, you should maintain separate and dedicated email addresses for this exercise so that you don’t end up flooding your own personal inbox with email.

Consider having a yearly sales conference with your affiliates to find out how they are doing and to bring them up to speed with developments and issues.

You should also maintain a list of affiliates that you have rejected or excluded from your network. Such affiliates often reapply by simply plugging in a different website or IP; however, if you have some key information on them, you’ll rediscover them long before they start pitching your products.

In some product industries, merchants maintain files on affiliates who have engaged in fraud. It’s useful to ask about such possible records, and to keep those violations in mind should those same affiliates come knocking on your virtual door.

Is affiliate fraud avoidable?

Affiliate marketing is now in its tenth year and shows no signs of decline. Because it is a big business, fraud and scams are naturally going to become part of the equation. However, you can take steps to spot and stop con artists from taking advantage of you, your legitimate affiliates, and your customers. Affiliate networks are also growing more cognizant of affiliate fraud and ways to prevent it.

How to Earn Extra Cash by Sharing Online Coupons and Promo Codes

Written By:Halina Zakowicz

Last Updated:November 28, 2016

You may already use online deal and coupon sites to get discounts on your .com shopping excursions. However, did you know that you can also earn money by submitting discount and coupon codes to these sites? The following deal and coupon sites award you money when you submit promo codes to them.

Coupon Chief

This site’s “Pays 2 Share” program pays out 2% of the sale when someone uses the coupon code you submitted- and that includes you. Cashouts are possible once your account is at $25 or more. The downside with Coupon Chief is that you are limited to making up to $25 per store per month for each coupon code you enter.

Once you enter a candidate coupon code to Coupon Chief and it’s accepted, you’ll receive a message like this one:

Coupons.com

Find and submit an online coupon code on the Coupons website and you’ll earn $25 in your Paypal account. You will need to submit codes that haven’t been listed before, that aren’t limited to only one retailer or one use, and that aren’t personal referral codes. Payouts are made 30 days after coupon code submission. Additional details are provided here.

Dealspotr

This recently launched coupon site and blog offers members points-based incentives for coupon codes and deals that they submit. Those points can be redeemed for e-gift cards.

Dealspotr accepts coupon codes for any brand, not just brands already listed on its website. Also, the Dealspotr community rates submitted coupon codes and deals based on their validity, accuracy and discount amount. So, the better your submitted deals perform, the more points you are awarded. For example, here is a promo code I submitted to the site for free shipping, which earned me 56 points:

Here is a promo code I submitted to Dealspotr for free shipping at Harry & David, which earned me 56 points:

Savelex

If you share coupons and/or product deals on this site, you’ll earn “S-Dollars,” which can be exchanged for real money. Every 100 S-dollars equal 1$, and there is a monthly payout limit of $25. You earn S-dollars by either sharing information about discounted products with your Savelex friends, which earns you 10 S-dollars; alternately, you can submit coupon codes, sales and online deals to the general community and earn 25 S-dollars.

savelex

Hunting promo codes for fun and profit

So, how do you locate coupon, discount and promo codes that haven’t been listed before? Here are some covert methods for finding those elusive promo codes.

Join coupon and deal sites. The first thing you’ll need to do is to sign up with as many daily deal and promo code sites as possible. Big name sites include RetailMeNot, Krazy Coupon Lady, Slick Deals, CouponPro, etc. You are best advised to create a unique email account and use only that address when signing up; otherwise, your inbox will be flooded with daily notices and other marketing collateral from these companies.
Generate checklists of store codes. Maintain an Excel file of coupon codes you come across and to which stores these codes apply. By maintaining organization up-front, you’ll be able to quickly and easily submit codes to numerous sites.
Look for exclusive coupon codes. Individual deal sites often make arrangements with retailers for unique discount codes that are showcased only on their site. However, once these codes are published, they can be considered public domain and used by anybody, including another deal site. Even if the eventual credit goes back to the originator site, the big draw with promo codes is their SEO power. This is why other sites will often publish exclusive promo codes.
Create and/or use a deal aggregator. Many industrious affiliate marketers use or generate apps that scour the Internet and retrieve all kinds of codes and coupons for them. Such deal scraper apps are useful for quickly finding deals; one example includes the Chrome plugin DealTrunk.

Extra credit: Create your own coupon code site

What’s arguably the best way to make money from coupon and promo codes? By using them on your own affiliate website and/or blog. Here are a few reasons why:

SEO. You can use the lure of discounts and coupons to improve your rank in search engine results pages, which will generate more traffic to your website. This extra visibility and traffic will inevitably help you better promote and sell your products.
Audience loyalty. By employing promo codes as a kind of “clickbait” on your site, you create a reason for your audience to return there. A loyal following of readers is more likely to sign up to your email list and to eventually purchase from your website. By pairing coupon codes with your affiliate products, you also provide a reason for audience members to use your website as a “one-stop shop” for their online shopping and checkout activities.
Retail agreements. Once you have sufficient traction on your website and/or blog, and shoppers mention your site as their referral, retailers will eventually take notice and offer you exclusive deals of your own. These exclusive deals will give you a far better profit margin than the 4-6% rate that Amazon provides. Having exclusive codes will also further improve your site’s SEO and audience loyalty, creating a positive feedback loop.

Online shoppers are becoming ever more price-conscious and coupon-savvy, and you can take advantage of this trend by finding and, in essence, selling coupon and promo codes. These codes can also be utilized on your own website and/or blog to generate extra SEO, traffic and affiliate income for you.