Copywriting - a low paying job??

[kenlinks]

Why do everyone consider copywriting as a low paying job?? Why do they pay just $2 to $5 for a well written article?? Is it really that much easy job to do?

[Steve Faber]

Article writing isn't copywriting. In addition, you won't usually get a very high quality article for $4. Even college students can't survive on that.

[Reeveso]

I agree, I don't know how people only charge a few bucks for an article.

My theory is that they write one, put it into an article spinner which creates 20+, then sell them off.

That way then spend 45 minutes or so but can sell 20 articles at $2-$4 a pop and they're technically "unique"...that's $40-$80 for 45 minutes worth of work.

[TianYan]

You caught my attention with the headline.
There are a lot of copywriters who are not
well paid though.

Two reason for this...

1. They target the wrong clients who aren't
educated to understand the value of copywriting.

2. They don't differentiate themselves and their
style of writing.

I'm personally learning about this and I found a good
resource to study copywriter differentiation further.

Check out this free recording by Shaune Clarke at John
Manley's blog.

Just google Craft Untouchable Copywriter USP

Opt-In is required, but the 2-3 hour coaching call is worth it.
You will come out 120% smarter in marketing yourself as
a copywriter.

Be Well,
- Tian Yan

[ecoverartist]

Article writing is different than copywriting. If you pay $2 for an article, expect to get a $2 result. My rates for article writing go from $12-15 all the way up to $25 or more per article. What you get is a fully researched, compelling and interesting piece that you won't find stuffed in any spinner software or plagiarized from the web.

People who do that kind of stuff give the rest of us a bad name...

[Ryan Dodson]

Originally Posted by ecoverartist

Article writing is different than copywriting. If you pay $2 for an article, expect to get a $2 result. My rates for article writing go from $12-15 all the way up to $25 or more per article. What you get is a fully researched, compelling and interesting piece that you won't find stuffed in any spinner software or plagiarized from the web.

People who do that kind of stuff give the rest of us a bad name...

I hear ya there...

I recently found out (earlier this year) that I was charging way too little for my article writing services. Now I understand the value of my own service and I rarely ever sell unique content for less than $6.00 an article (outside of the warrior forum).

[write-stuff]

I would guess that most copywriting projects don't earn very much money because they're not very good. Like ecoverartist said - you get what you pay for.

[Eric Engel]

Originally Posted by kenlinks

Why do everyone consider copywriting as a low paying job?? Why do they pay just $2 to $5 for a well written article?? Is it really that much easy job to do?

As already pointed out, article writing is different than copywriting.

As for the amount of money copywriters make...it's terrible. Stay out of that profession. We make peanuts for hours and hours of hard work. And then we tell people how they can make peanuts doing the same thing.

If you want to make more than $.50 per hour, find another profession.

This one is dried up and the people from India have taken ALL of our work.

:lol: <--ACK...why can't I have a laughing smilie?

[agentmulder412]

I think the main reason is that people don't appreciate good writing in general and what it can do for them. People see that some guy who barely speaks English and has no education past the first grade level is willing to write for $1.00/article, and then people see that some people are writing for that price. They don't know who is good or bad, so they tend to go with the cheapest, getting the best and brightest out of the profession since nobody wants to pay decent money to buy good articles.

[netfiltering]

Well, I wonder if those who don't appreciate or understand good writing are doing well. It's true that more and more people are writing and blogging with low standards, especially online. But there is still something to say about good writing, because good writing is effective writing. It will have a better chance of selling a project, or having a reader return to the publication, etc.

I don't know what someone could do with a low quality piece of writing, even if it is cheap.

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by kenlinks

Why do everyone consider copywriting as a low paying job?? Why do they pay just $2 to $5 for a well written article?? Is it really that much easy job to do?

I think cheap articles are that easy to do, yes. Because the standard's usually crap. But the real answer to the first question above, IMO, is that everything online is by definition in a global economy. And the countries with low prices are increasingly more able to compete in the workforce. In the long run, it's in everyone's benefit because the same causes that produce that also produce a global market for all of us. But if you're living in England and America and trying to make a living doing something that people in Eastern Europe and India can also do, your skill-set effectively gets devalued.

[erinwrites]

Honestly, it depends on the client as well--a client who simply wants to stuff a site full of content so that he/she can flip it later isn't as concerned with the quality of the content as he/she is with the quantity of it. These are the clients who will tell you "u charge 2 much! Lowr ur ratez!" when you tell them that you charge more than $1/100 words. A client who is more discerning and who cares more about the quality of the content or the copy understands that creating that quality takes time and research and is willing to pay a fair rate for the time and effort it takes to give them what they want.

Of course, there are writers who charge super low rates because either they can (they live somewhere where the low rate actually goes a long way) or because they think they have to in order to be competitive. I used to be one of the writers who would lower her rates because I thought that's what I had to do.

Copywriting rates are also a lot more subjective than content rates which tend to be pretty straightforward: $X per word.

[Devesh]

Most of the times the writer thinks that he has to be more competitive and so charges too low. Another reason for it is that they are not sure that their article can be sold at higher rate because they are perhaps new to this field.
It is very clear that the output will be in proportion to input in this case. Because if you pay less than you will not get good quality but some times even the writer is not able to evalute his own article in proper manner and so he charges less.

[TianYan]

A lot of copywriters write report and content related materials. An example of this is Bob Bly who write white papers and I remember on one occasion, Ray Edwards was asked by Mike Filsaime to write the 7 Figure Secrets report.

Do you think that copywriters should provide this kind of service? it doesn't bring the prospect closer to the sale, thus it's hard to price for those.

What do you think?

[Alevoor]

It's possible only in theory. Would anyone accept 20 spun articles from one genuine article when what all you actually want is 20 articles on 20 different topics?

I haven't come across anyone asking for such a thing all these years.

Originally Posted by Reeveso

I agree, I don't know how people only charge a few bucks for an article.

My theory is that they write one, put it into an article spinner which creates 20+, then sell them off.

That way then spend 45 minutes or so but can sell 20 articles at $2-$4 a pop and they're technically "unique"...that's $40-$80 for 45 minutes worth of work.

[Alevoor]

Originally Posted by alexa_s

... your skill-set effectively gets devalued.

I don't think it is so unless you are talking of declines in potential earning in a crowded market. I, for one, would always think that your value is determined by what you are able to produce, not what the market offers, in the long run.

[Raydal]

It all depends on your skill set and how you value your time.
I don't go lower than $150 per article, but they are well-written
and something the client is proud to place their name next to.

The PURPOSE for the article would also determine how much
clients are willing to pay to get these done. If it's just for
webspace filling, and your name is not associated with the
article then I guess those $5 quality will work.

-Ray Edwards

[logosi]

If you hire an expert copywriter, you can expect to pay a substantial fee, and you should. If they put their time and creativity and skill into creating something that produces revenue (often on a continuing basis) that person is worth their salt.

[msverma]

Price per article has nothing to do with quality as it is a general perception.
I give just one example: The University Professor in Indian Universities gets $ 700 to 750 per month for 480 hours of work in a month. And these many of theses Professors have theirs Masters and Ph D from top US Universities and they keep lecturing in US Universities as well as Guest / visting Professors. The Professorship comes after hard academic and research work. The Professor must have a PhD and published research work in International Journals.... they have published books...
Now if an Internet / web article writer gets 2 or 3 Dollars for an Hours work , he earns as much as a University Professor... So

The quality at 3 or 5 Dollars should not be cheap.

[potionchris]

i agree with you guys much worst is that sometimes they only pay a buck on each article. wew its not easy to think what best to say on products especially when it is not true don't you think?

[Karen Blundell]

Originally Posted by alexa_s

But if you're living in England and America and trying to make a living doing something that people in Eastern Europe and India can also do, your skill-set effectively gets devalued.

That's true to a certain degree. I think, though, that there are still people who appreciate good quality and will pay top dollar if they like the person who's doing the work for them.

I personally think there's enough business for both low-end and high-end service providers. I just think that you need to stand out, you need to be unique somehow, and then you'll be successful no matter how much you charge.

[killercopy]

Copywriting and article writing are two entirely different animals. With copywriting, you've got to know how to sell.

People that really understand the value of copywriting will pay well. However, there are waaaayyyy too many copywriting newbies stuck in what Jogn Carlton refers to as "the shameless whore period." These people trying to get their feet wet, charge low fees to get experience.

And while there is nothing wrong with this, it is the reason why there are copywriters being paid peanuts. And because not everyone has thousands to spend on a good copywriter for their start-up, they turn to low paying copywriters to get their sales copy churned out.

[ymon]

I think it is a pretty good job

[Li Weng]

It definitely isn't a low paying job. Think about it, sales letter is what makes the conversions for you. It's the one thing that makes your traffic into buyers or subscribers. It's definitely worth seeking expert copy-writers especially if you have a big product to launch.

[sam12six]

Originally Posted by AnarchyAds

Until people REALIZE the value of good copy
they cannot be convinced to pay top dollar for it.

Totally agree!!

While I agree with all those who have stated that writing articles isn't copywriting, that's one of the things a lot of people don't know. That said, the impression I got from the original post was that it was referring to writing articles.

There are 2 types of people who want $1 articles:

There are people who only need something as a vehicle for their keywords. These are the same people who used to have websites whose pages were just a long list of repeating keywords. This doesn't work anymore - enter the cheapie article. They don't care about their content being good, just that it's unique enough to get listed for their keywords. They are getting exactly what they want for their $1.

The second type I feel sorry for. These are (usually) new people who have a dream and just aren't (or don't think they are) good enough at writing to create their own content. These people are appalled when they see the quality of the $1 article and usually get a bad taste in their mouths for outsourcing (and maybe IM) forever. The reason I feel sorry for these people is on various forums I see these people post asking their fellow members to give them some help finding some unique articles and someone will invariably reply that they should go to rentacoder or elance and drop a hundred bucks for 50 articles. There are even ebooks that tell people this.

Maybe it's a learning experience, but it tends to be a painful one for cash-strapped beginners. I don't really see a solution in today's market since it's pretty impossible to impart an education on all new people to help them understand the difference between getting the cheapest and paying more and getting something valuable.

It's really no different from the real world. It's amazing how many times I've seen someone hire their drunken brother-in-law to paint their house to save a few hundred bucks and end up with a paint job that not only looks like crap, but needs to be redone in a year when it starts flaking because the brother-in-law didn't know to wash the house before painting.

Personally, I do copy and write articles. The Warrior forum is the only place I cut people a deal (that's because a lot of good people here helped me get things started way back when). If someone wants quality and understands what that means, they will be willing to pay for it. If they either don't want quality or don't know the difference, I don't bother trying to change their minds...

[precious007]

It all depends on the location and living standards or expectations. People are willing to write for as low as 1$ even in the United States and let me explain why.

Usually these people are`nt great copy-writers, they do it for a spare change, say like and extra few hundreds $ a month.

In my case I can`t afford to write for as low as 1$ because I`m too busy taking more serious projects, everyone sets his/her own value.

I`ve seen a thread these days, I suppose on digital point or was it here.. that there are copy-writers charging $50 - 60 / hour. In my opinion it`s a bit too much. Why ? Because they would end up writing 10 - 20 articles a day, because maybe that is what they do as a full-time job.

In short that means with 200 hours of work per month, cause there are plenty of projects available, they are making more than $18K a month.

Basically there are copywriters earning more than an oil engineer, which may average a salary of $10K a month.

I gave these two examples for one reason, because it all varies. It depends on the quality you can offer, and what your expectations are. It`s really that easy.

Alex

[gdwebs]

If anyone actually knows of a good writer that charges the rates quoted here, then please let me know.

I write around 15 hours a week, but its only for one client.

I have tried to outsource various topics for writers ranging from $0.01-0.03 per word, with very poor results.

[AndyBlackSEO]

Good copywriting is a well honed skill that deserves the right amount of money in return. The problem, like many other niches boils down to fact that people can get articles written from overseas writers. Quality may be debatable, but I think if you are a good writer and your work speaks for itself, then building up a good client base over time shouldn't be a problem.

Andy

[gdwebs]

As i said, i've bought a few one took me 15 minutes to edit which i ended up junking 100 words from, and the content wasn't all that great either!