How long it takes also varies.
When I started working for them, I sometimes made like $1.25/hour because I was homeless and deathly ill and blah blah blah and it would take me all afternoon to complete something wroth $5.
Eventually, I was making more like $15-$20/hour.
Something I wrote previously on the topic:
https://writepay.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-value-of-not-chasi...
You do need to work at it and get good at it, but it can become a middle class income. I was clear it had a lot of potential upside when I began and it worked within the restrictions I had, so I kept working at it and slowly getting better.
I absolutely haven't yet hit any kind of ceiling. I could still work longer hours, increase my rating, etc. There is still a lot more money I could make. It's just up to me to make that happen by getting healthy enough, arranging my life that way, etc.
b. Quote from my post today:
Some years ago, I wrote a blog post trying to encourage people on Hacker News to develop other services on the Textbroker model. It was basically ignored. Maybe this time it won't be.
And maybe I should expand on that in specific. At some point.
I didn't post it here to suggest laid off programmers should become low paid writers. The people most people are worried about are things like restaurant workers making minimum wage.
Just as you replied to something I originally said to a different person, you aren't the only person reading any follow up remarks, nor will I be the only person reading your remarks. It's like a conversation happening on a stage with an audience of indeterminate size, but potentially thousands of people (or even tens of thousands).
It's always hard to figure out how to craft replies that both make sense to the specific person to whom I am replying and to the larger audience.
And this conversation has maybe gone places I didn't really want it to go and it would perhaps be best to just walk away at this point. I don't like being pitied and then people get mad about that and feel I am ungrateful.
Yes, I have a serious medical condition. But I also have a lot of mojo and a lot of accomplishments to my name, though they are accomplishments that don't do a heckuva lot for a resume and that people tend to be actively dismissive of.
I'd rather get real respect from people, not tea and sympathy. That's no doubt part of why the past decade has involved so much social friction
Anyway, thank you for your interest. If you are as brand spanking new as your handle suggests, let's just assume you simply don't have context and leave it at that.
Cheers.