I was a features writer who had the opportunity to work with some tremendous editors during my tenure. However, the quality of content took a severe nosedive in the year I was there, going from substantive pieces among clickbait to almost entirely the latter. I mentioned I worked with a few editors who were terrific and challenging (in the best kinds of ways), but also with others who missed the point of my pieces making baffling edits or sanding off any edges to speak of. Then there's the matter of pay -- you'd need to write four+ articles a day, seven days a week to even approach a liveable wage, and the only writers I saw doing that were writing simplistic garbage or wringing every last bit of material out of the latest show/movie. It's less a place for real, quality work than a content mill, producing articles for someone to kill time on the toilet. I got the impression on multiple occasions there was an assumption that an article could be written in 20 minutes, which, even if true, didn't factor in the additional 10+ links required in each article that the writer had to add, formatting the article for publication, and image sourcing. Still, I sold some very esoteric ideas and was able to develop my skills in writing and graphic design, so it wasn't completely awful. But the negatives outweighed the positives before too long.

CBR's a terrible rag sheet to write for. The managers and editors lack communication and become curt when you ask basic questions like why it's taking so long for them to work through a backlog and why we weren't even told there was such a logjam of articles in the first place. You'll go weeks without getting anything published at this point, taking away from your paycheck and overall will to write. Since this backlog started, I've seen some of the site's best writers quit writing for the site. If you're consistent enough, they add you to the "updating" team, which essentially allows you to go in, rewrite someone else's work, and cash out on it while stealing views from the original author. In terms of workplace culture, the managers and editors are rather hostile to writers, often sweeping valid concerns under the rug because it'll make them look bad in the general Discord server. Good luck getting an email response, because none of the upper managers or editors actually do their jobs when it matters - they'd much rather bark condescending comments at writers over missing a deadline by a day or overusing passive voice (only to, of course, ruin a writer's work with typos that prove how misinformed they are about the content going up on the site). Stay away from this rag sheet. Valnet's a sinking ship. 

My "career" at CBR was over before it even began. Despite the company's promises of hands-on training, it often took them more than 24 hours to respond to basic questions. After about a week of this back-and-forth, I received an email that read in part: "While we appreciate your efforts in the Classroom, your training article unfortunately didn't meet CBR's publication standards at the rate we expect from trainees, and we don’t believe we could bring you up to speed in the time required. At this point, we won't be progressing further with your training." 

The thing is, I’ve found multiple CBR posts that contain flagrant spelling and grammatical errors, redundancies, and even factual inaccuracies. It's obvious their "publication standards" don't include good writing. The pay is also abysmal-- it's a fixed amount per article depending on the word count, and you're expected to do all your own formatting (including linking to a certain number of other stories on the site, even when they're only tangentially related). 

0/10, do not recommend. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
If you want to be a write you get to write. You’ll just be doing it for close to free.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
You must pitch your own ideas and sometimes they get deleted and no one can tell you why. From pitch, to acceptance to research, to notes, it could take a month to get one thing published; that equates to a full time job that pays you 10 dollars a month.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
One editor is far to nice and excepts everything. The other micromanages the paper until it doesn’t make any sense and blames the writer for following the notes given.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Waiting. You wait days for a pitch to be accepted. You wait days to hear notes. Then you’re given a couple hours before asked, what’s taking so long?

You do get to work at home. But that's the only benefit. Everything else about this job is miserable.

For $15-20 an article you're expected to do backlinks, search for your own images, do the alt text for those images, make your own feature image, and more. That doesn't count time spent researching an article and writing it. 

You'll spend half the time working on an article editing that same article.  Also they don't have a clear cut editing template, it changes and they're constantly asking the writers to do more.

The turnover for upper management is insane, there's always new people coming in. Presumably because they're also poorly compensated.  To make any decent money as a writer, you'll likely have to write upwards of 50 articles a month.

The parent company is ripping everyone who works there off. The only benefit to working at any of them is it's a remote position.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The fact that they fired me without warning at 14 weeks pregnant after keeping consist communication and assuring me that I was doing well. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
See previous response. Also, for the entirety of my six months employed with the company, I was paid basically nothing. It was considered a good sign if I made $200 by the end of every month. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Relaxed, welcoming, completely deceptive. They don't care about you, your finances, or your situation - you're essentially a content farm, quality doesn't matter, and even if you're performing at an adequate or even above average rate, it doesn't matter. You mean nothing to these people. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Great until I realized how little I actually mattered.

I would not recommend working here (or at any company owned by Valnet). The pay is extremely low and you will more than likely end up working every day of the week in order to meet quota. Some people are very nice but sadly, management is fairly awful, and every single writer (and probably everyone else who's not upper management) is freelance only. No salary, zero benefits, nebulous "bonus" payments based purely on article clicks. Get ready to work weekends, Christmas, New Year's, and other national holidays - and even with all that, you're unlikely to earn more than minimum wage.

Working at CBR has been a journey of self-discovery and skill development. The environment is friendly and supportive, with passionate people who are dedicated to their work. The job is always changing, which keeps things interesting and prevents boredom. However, with so many changes, things can sometimes get a bit chaotic, and clearer communication would make things smoother. New writers could benefit from more thorough training to better prepare them for their roles. Improving these areas would help balance expectations with the realities of our daily work, creating an even more positive and productive atmosphere.

This is a good job if you learn fast & can dedicate yourself to the job. The pay is very low for the amount of work they want you to do per article. You only get paid per article not for your time writing the articles. Also, they make decisions on your status with the company without communicating with you beforehand. Apparently they terminate writers without talking with them first. The only positive is that the editors are very nice & go the extra mile to make sure you understand what CBR wants from their writers. If you’re looking for a steady side job, look elsewhere. They terminate people without prior notice. Really horrible way to run a business. 

While it was interesting to be able to write articles and analysis about films and TV shows through a professional organization, it quickly became an unrewarding, hurried, and isolating experience. All communication with supervisors and upper management was through text messaging through Slack; it was difficult to pitch stories given the rigid restructuring in focus that I experienced during my time there; and overall there was little to no room for growth and self-actualization, as well as unique ideas for articles.

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