Here's what to charge for articles and writing services

[DeePower]

I found this site interesting for both writers who would like to know what to charge for their services and for webmasters who want professional seo services through content. It seems a 750 word squidoo lens written by a 4/5 star writer costs $96.75, a package of 10 300 word articles $240.00, a 500 word press release $81.25. Discounts are given for quantity purchases.

https://secure-order.interactmedia.com/order-form.html

Dee

[Valorie]

Holy Wow .



Do you think they get that much work?

-Valorie

[CliveG]

So long as you get what you pay for this seems reasonable. Too many $10 articles look like $10 articles and are not worth reading. Don't the people who commission them realise that their quality reflects on their reputations.

[Jeremy Kelsall]

Originally Posted by CliveG

So long as you get what you pay for this seems reasonable. Too many $10 articles look like $10 articles and are not worth reading. Don't the people who commission them realise that their quality reflects on their reputations.

That is an unfair statement. There are a lot of good writers at a fair price floating around the internet.

You don't have to pay some one $1 a word to get decent content.

[Jon Alexander]

depends why they commission them. If they want to win awards for classy websites, they frankly can't spend enough.

Pretty much every other reason tho... sheesh.

[Shana_Adam]

Jesus that's steep!

plenty of newbies could do the same make some easy dosh!

Its fodder for people not in the know.

That is why we have the WF - where quality and quantity are in balance!

[lisag]

Originally Posted by Shana_Adam

Jesus that's steep!

plenty of newbies could do the same make some easy dosh!

Its fodder for people not in the know.

That is why we have the WF - where quality and quantity are in balance!

I don't know. I have a number of Warriors as clients dating back from before I even knew about the WF. My rates are an order of magnitude higher than any of my competitors on RentACoder, yet I am the #2-rated service provider there out of over 250,000. Not all are writers, of course, but still.

When I win projects there I can see what the others have bid. I won an article project for ten 500 word articles recently. My fee was $500. That's .10 per word. The other bids ranged from $10 ($1 per article) to $100 ($10 per article.) Yet the buyer, a first-time customer for me, selected my bid.

Why?

For the same reason a businessman in my community owns Lexus, Hyundai and KIA dealerships on the same highway; different people put a different value on the things they want in their life.

There is a a direct correlation between price and quality in most things. For people who are trying to build an expert reputation, v.s. those who simply want to stuff the SERPS with keywords, they want to buy articles they will be proud to put their name on. For those people, I'm a bargain.

[Jeremy Kelsall]

Originally Posted by lisag

I don't know. I have a number of Warriors as clients dating back from before I even knew about the WF. My rates are an order of magnitude higher than any of my competitors on RentACoder, yet I am the #2-rated service provider there out of over 250,000. Not all are writers, of course, but still.

When I win projects there I can see what the others have bid. I won an article project for ten 500 word articles recently. My fee was $500. That's .10 per word. The other bids ranged from $10 ($1 per article) to $100 ($10 per article.) Yet the buyer, a first-time customer for me, selected my bid.

Why?

For the same reason a businessman in my community owns Lexus, Hyundai and KIA dealerships on the same highway; different people put a different value on the things they want in their life.

There is a a direct correlation between price and quality in most things. For people who are trying to build an expert reputation, v.s. those who simply want to stuff the SERPS with keywords, they want to buy articles they will be proud to put their name on. For those people, I'm a bargain.

Lisa,

I'm not knockin your hustle, but I think it is fair to put things in perspective.

When I place bids at rent-a-coder sometimes I will select a higher bid too - usually because the other people bidding are non-English speaking writers and their content isn't worth FREE if that makes any sense.

On the flip side, there are some VERY talented and exceptional writers that charge 1 cent or 2 cents a word. The articles that I've received from them have been every bit as good as some of the 30 cent a word writers that I've seen floating around.

I'm not saying that people should not pay $20 or $30 for an article - especially if they have a writer that they are comfortable with. I'm just saying that they don't have to in order to get quality content.

[lisag]

Originally Posted by Jeremy Kelsall

Lisa,

I'm not knockin your hustle, but I think it is fair to put things in perspective.

Yep, you're correct. That's what makes a marketplace!

[Karen Connell]

Originally Posted by CliveG

So long as you get what you pay for this seems reasonable. Too many $10 articles look like $10 articles and are not worth reading. Don't the people who commission them realise that their quality reflects on their reputations.

Wow, that's a bit unfair.

I don't charge $10 (yet) for fellow Warriors and I like to think that the quality of my work speaks for itself.

Karen

[Zeus66]

Jeremy's right. If you can get $50 for a 500-word article, Lisa, more power to ya. But I'd venture to say - and I don't think it's a stretch - that someone else charging half that could do the job just as well. There's getting what the market will bear (what you're doing), and then there's being a smart buyer (what the person paying half your rate does).

John

[Patrice Le Vexier]

It's good to hear that there are writers out there who charge enough to make a real income with their skills and not working their a** off to make at the end of the month an average of $10 bucks an hour...

PS: I'm not a writer, I'm just saying...

[robdraw]

I pay between $20 - $30 dollars per 500 word article depending on the research and complexity of the article. It is written by a lady in the States and she produces top notch stuff. I couldn't sit down and do it for that price but she has a flair for it. So to me its great value.

[Bryan Zimmerman]

There's plenty of college kids that are english majors that are more than willing to write 4 or 5 articles for you for beer money They're good too and could care less about the price as long as you just paid for their beer tonight. Go to your local university and post a note in the commons area or in the dorm entrance and see how many calls you get.

[Patrice Le Vexier]

Originally Posted by Bryan Zimmerman

There's plenty of college kids that are english majors that are more than willing to write 4 or 5 articles for you for beer money They're good too and could care less about the price as long as you just paid for their beer tonight. Go to your local university and post a note in the commons area or in the dorm entrance and see how many calls you get.

You just have to hope they won't write your article after the beers...

[Bryan Zimmerman]

Originally Posted by Patrice Le Vexier

You just have to hope they won't write your article after the beers...

LMAO, I don't know. Somtimes people get inspired and creative after a few Carona's

[Jimerson Farveez]

Hey man, I don't think we have to pay such a big amount for that, if you go for freelancer sites, there you can get more freelancers for very very low cost than this.

[Lance K]

I make my decisions based on value and time frame.

Here's how I define value...Value is derived by taking BOTH quality and price into consideration.

Now I'm not trying to squeeze writers. But if 2 writers deliver the same quality for a 500 word article and one charges $0.04 per word and the other charges $0.05 per word, I'll likely select the one who charges $0.04 per word.

I say "likely" because I also said that time frame is a deciding factor. If the higher priced writer can deliver the article in 2 days compared to 5 days for the lower priced writer, I'll go with the higher priced writer if I need the article ASAP.

[Patrice Le Vexier]

Originally Posted by Lance K

I make my decisions based on value and time frame.

Here's how I define value...Value is derived by taking BOTH quality and price into consideration.

Now I'm not trying to squeeze writers. But if 2 writers deliver the same quality for a 500 word article and one charges $0.04 per word and the other charges $0.05 per word, I'll likely select the one who charges $0.04 per word.

I say "likely" because I also said that time frame is a deciding factor. If the higher priced writer can deliver the article in 2 days compared to 5 days for the lower priced writer, I'll go with the higher priced writer if I need the article ASAP.

There's another factor to consider that you didn't mention, it is how long the person will accept to work for the given price.

It's easy to find a decent writer for $5-$10 bucks 500 words article, but how long are they gonna stay at that price?

You can bet that as soon as they get a lot of work, they're gonna charge more and will start to ignore their old customers. So at the end, you're constantly in need of new writers and the overall quality of what is produced will be not constant.

On the other hand, if you pay the person a price that is US-fair (and not India or Phillipine-Fair), you keep the same writer and the quality is constant.

The you is not you Lance (based on the price you give), but I'm just using your arguments to make a point.

Patrice

[Lance K]

I agree Patrice. The reason I left that out is because I try not to use writers who are charging $0.01 or $0.02 per word. Even beginners are worth more than that if they can produce quality content.

[lisag]

Originally Posted by Dhrousha

Wow, that's a bit unfair.

I don't charge $10 (yet)

Karen

Keyword: Yet

When you build your reputation, and your confidence, you'll raise your rates. I started out writing $5 articles until I paid my dues and then raised my rates a notch at a time. I haven't hit the 'what the market will bear' ceiling yet because I know people who charge more than I do.

I look at it this way.

I win 30% of my bids. That means my competitors win 70% all combined.

But, here's the key: I work 30% as hard as they do and I make more money doing it.

If person "A" bids $10 for a 500 word article and I bid $50, and assuming it takes us each 1 hour to write it. I made $50 per hour and they made $10.

They have to do 5 times the work I do to earn the same amount. I can lose 4 bids to them and still end up with the same amount of money in my pocket.

And the good news is, while I'm not writing those other 4 articles, I'm building my passive income sites.

Here's an interesting story...

Before I met my husband he was a private investigator who specialized in working white collar crime cases for corporate clients. He lived in the Caribbean at the time on one of the well-known islands.

Many U.S. and European companies had business interests in that region and would hire him over local PI's because he had a good courtroom demeanor and wrote excellent reports in business English. The locals were not as polished as him.

He charged New York City fees and his clients gladly paid them. One client in NY would fly him in, first class, to work on cases for them. Between his rates, air fare and Per Diem, it cost them a bundle.

He once told me "There were probably 10 PI's within 10 blocks of that client's office who could have done the same quality work I did and for less money. But they hire me because their friends tell them I'm the best."

He also said clients were enamored by what he called the "James Bond mystique." After all, a PI who lived on a Caribbean island must have some good connections, right?

Another quick story if you're not bored yet.

We have a friend who owns a foreign car repair garage. Well he did; He's dead now...

He specialized in top-end cars. He charged much less than his competitors and did as good a job as they did. His business was terrible. He hired a business consultant who told him to...

Paint the garage bays white.

Apply white high-gloss concrete sealer to the floors.

Dress his mechanics in white coveralls and have them change throughout the day when dirty.

Dress his service writers in coats and ties.

Serve food and beverage in the waiting room for free.

Provide Internet and plenty of electrical outlets and work stations.

Create a cigar-smoking room

Buy a limo to drive his customers home or to work and lose the mini-van.

RAISE HIS RATES HIGHER THAN HIS COMPETITORS

My friend died a rich man.

Everything, EVERYTHING is a matter of perception. Please understand. I'm not knocking anyone's rates or capabilities. I am simply saying the marketplace is very elastic, and it's very big.

You and I and everyone else here are not your NORMAL consumers. We look at the market differently because we are market insiders. But no matter how many WF members there are, we represent a tiny pinprick of the total universe of people who consume our products and services.

Just like I know there is a huge universe of prospects outside of RentACoder that I have barely begun to tap, there is also a huge universe of people who think $50 is chump change to pay for something that's going to be carrying their name as Author.

Your mileage may vary...

[Bryan Zimmerman]

Originally Posted by Patrice Le Vexier

but how long are they gonna stay at that price?

You can bet that as soon as they get a lot of work, they're gonna charge more and will start to ignore their old customers. So at the end, you're constantly in need of new writers and the overall quality of what is produced will be not constant.

On the other hand, if you pay the person a price that is US-fair (and not India or Phillipine-Fair), you keep the same writer and the quality is constant.

Patrice

Not always. If you give them bonuses for the performance of their work, then you can keep them and somtimes even get them cheaper. Once you prove you will deliver on the bonuses IF they deliver on the content, you'd be suprised what you can get done for certain prices. Once they understand if they do good, you'll do good by them, it opens up all kinds of avenues.

[empress9]

Well geez! Seems like a little friendly controversy going on here. I classify myself as a new freelancer. As a beginner I would certainly price my services on the low end. But once I gain more experience and a good reputation my prices would surely go up.

[Jeremy Kelsall]

Originally Posted by lisag

Everything, EVERYTHING is a matter of perception.

True...very very true.

[Zeus66]

Honestly, if you could get a lot of work at 10 cents per word, you could get really rich! Just hire a team of excellent writers who would be happy to work for 50% of that and be the business owner instead of owner/operator. Take on all comers, give them what they perceive to be the best, keep half what they pay you, and sit on the beach all day long.

That's what I'd do in Lisa's shoes.

EDIT: Seriously... fifty 500-word articles a day at 10 cents/word = $2500/day. You keep half = $1250/day. That's $456,000/year (and change). Business model, anyone?

John

[lisag]

Originally Posted by Zeus66

Honestly, if you could get a lot of work at 10 cents per word, you could get really rich! Just hire a team of excellent writers who would be happy to work for 50% of that and be the business owner instead of owner/operator. Take on all comers, give them what they perceive to be the best, keep half what they pay you, and sit on the beach all day long.

That's what I'd do in Lisa's shoes.

John

That would put me in the article mill business and I HATE that business. I prefer to lovingly hand-craft each of my creations. But know this: When the time comes that my other businesses make more than what I make writing...

...I live 3/4 of a mile from the beach!

In fact, I frequently take my wireless air card, my portable power supply and a cooler to the beach to work. I go to a place called Honeymoon Island, a State park near my home. I go to one of the covered picnic areas and spend the day. I lock my laptop in the trunk when it's time to take a break and go for a dip.

Honeymoon Island State Park Visitor Photos Florida State Parks

[mRamses]

Quality matters. The problem is how do you judge quality as a first time buyer of a digital product via the Internet?

It sounds like Lisa has built up a reputation and has a branded product. It works for her, once you're aware of her and her quality.

As I first time buyer I'd still want to 'try her out', and see if the Cost-to-Quality mix was what I was looking for.

Personally, I hire Indian writers for $3 an article. I then spend about 5-10 minutes scanning, editing, and correcting grammatical errors. For me, this is a good trade off. I get a cheap article and I spend about 1/3 the time on it that would be required to write it myself. So I give up $3 to save 20-odd minutes per article.

[Rod Cortez]

Originally Posted by Patrice Le Vexier

You just have to hope they won't write your article after the beers...

...or hire them after a few beers, I've made that mistake before!

[Patrice Le Vexier]

Originally Posted by Rod Cortez

...or hire them after a few beers, I've made that mistake before!

What happened, they didn't remember you?

[lisag]

Originally Posted by mRamses

Personally, I hire Indian writers for $3 an article. I then spend about 5-10 minutes scanning, editing, and correcting grammatical errors. For me, this is a good trade off. I get a cheap article and I spend about 1/3 the time on it that would be required to write it myself. So I give up $3 to save 20-odd minutes per article.

That's a good solution but not always for my clients, the bulk of whom are not IM folks. Most of the people I write for are professionals in other disciplines; lawyers, doctors, financial planners, consultants.

That's what I meant when I wrote about keyword stuffing the SERPs vs publishing content you'd be proud to put your name on. My clients aren't selling e-books, for the most part, they are selling themselves.

Here is an example of a project I won today on RAC. I've redacted client and industry identifiers:

Content/Copy Writer Needed
We need to write the content of our new website.
Here there's the brief for writing one page (Who we are).
We would like to receive some samples from the copywriter.
It would be appreciated if the copywriter knows about technologies and in particular about ***.

Here's my bid amount:

9/1/2009 10:52:00 AM Lisa_G In Palm Harbor, United States
(see local date/time) 9.89 (Excellent) out of 1525 ratings. Ranked #2 out of 266,783 (higher than 99.99% of their peers).


$270.00 was accepted (view)

That's $270 for a one page About Us. I already delivered it. It came in at 400 words (.675 per word). Here's why they hired me over bidders ranging for a low of $5 to a high of $99:

On the client's web site they list some of their clients:

BMW
Daimler
Mercedes-Benz
Bank of China (Suisse) SA

and others.

They want to portray a certain image and $270 probably represents 5 minutes of consulting time for them. In fact, they are likely gloating over what a deal they got.

It's all a matter of perspective.

[FrankPinch]

I'd never pay that for article writing! With freelancers, you need to search a little, but you can find great writers for 5$-10$ per article. Sure there are some that deliver low quality for that price (same as every industry) but some deliver great articles!

[Kay King]

The ongoing arguments about what constitutes reasonable fees for writers seem to hit some nerves here and there.

When I give a quote on a writing project, my quote is made based on how I value my own time. I don't write $5 articles - so I don't write articles for $5. That's not an arrogant comment. I'm not a "system" writer and approach every article like it's the only article I'm doing.

That's not to say others might not write fine articles at $5. I don't have to - and I don't. Much of my price is based on the subject or niche - some niches I have loads of experience and they are easy to write great copy on and I will quote lower prices for that reason.

Others require a lot of research and/or are on a topic I have 0 interest in which means they will feel like "work" - and I charge more.

I've had times in the past month when I've quoted what I considered to be a high bid on a project - and had the buyer say "fine, do it". Have quote prices lower than I normally would because I had some extra time and had the buyer say "too expensive". That's how it works.

What I'm saying is that every writer is open to setting his or her own pricing. I can't imagine setting a price that is cast in stone and charged for every writing project.

My personal choice is to set an hourly rate (in my mind) that I am willing to work for - and then quote prices based on how much time I anticipate the project will take. It works for me and if I miss some cheaper jobs so be it.

When I started writing for others this summer my goal wasn't to write as many articles, reports and ebooks as possible - it was to earn a certain amount each week from writing. So far, it's working.

I think marketers often argue about writing prices based only what they see in the IM area - which is one of the most cost-conscious buyers areas I've found. There are many places where $25 for a 4-500 word articles is considered normal.

There's room in the field for everyone - from $3/article writers and up.

kay

[Paul Hancox]

I'm constantly amazed when people seem to marvel at prices they say are "too steep".

Do you think Stephen King would write a $10 article? Do you think he would outsource his books to India at $1 per 500 words?

In fact, if those $5 writers are so good, why doesn't he?

Do you think John Carlton would? Or, come to think of it... our very own Paul Myers?

Why doesn't John Carlton just sit back and let the $5 gang do his work?

Or could it be that there really IS a difference between $5 writing, $50 writing, and $500 writing?

I'm sure this won't be the last time I'll say this, but...

Not all writing is equal.

Quite frankly, a lot of content on the Internet is snoreworthy. Sure, it may hook the search engines, but I bet a lot of it doesn't hook avid readers, fans, subscribers and CUSTOMERS - you know, people with wallets.

I appreciate some content is spun out primarily for search engine backlinks, Adsense revenue, etc... in which case, quality doesn't matter so much.

But QUALITY is in demand.

And not only quality, but highly RESEARCHED articles... and by research, I don't mean a quick scan of the Top 10 listings in Google. I mean research.

How many writers, for instance, can ferret out a real SECRET that most of their audience can't easily find elsewhere? That takes real research, not merely scraping a few Google listings.

You can often get what you ask for in terms of price, as long as you can demonstrate VALUE FOR MONEY.

For example, consider a great 500 word article that acts as LINK BAIT on a blog. If it successfully causes other blogs to link to you, it's probably worth far more than $10. You could easily market such a service and charge $20, $30 or $50 an article... especially if you actually offered to promote the article as well

Yet how many writers are doing that? I guess they'd prefer to just "get by".

Not all writing is equal.

It's why some blogs will always remain obscure, while others will become the next generation of authority sites over the next few years.

[Kay King]

For example, consider a great 500 word article that acts as LINK BAIT on a blog. If it successfully causes other blogs to link to you, it's probably worth far more than $10. You could easily market such a service and charge $20, $30 or $50 an article... especially if you actually offered to promote the article as well

Yet how many writers are doing that?

Some of us do exactly that! So right!

kay

[Zeus66]

I still think anyone paying 10 cents per word for an article is simply paying too much because they don't know any better. I would exempt highly technical or scientific articles from that conclusion.

I'm not in any way "blaming" Lisa or suggesting for a second that she come down at all in price. She's filling a portion of the market that simply is ignorant of their options for quality. I'm sure a lot of equally talented writers would love to figure that out like she has!

Also...

That would put me in the article mill business and I HATE that business. I prefer to lovingly hand-craft each of my creations.

No, if you read what I wrote carefully, you'll see that I was specifically not advocating the article "mill" business. I said to hire excellent writers for half your rates. That's the point here. If you paid someone 5 cents per word to write your articles, your clients are going to get the same level of quality they're paying you 10 cents per word to write. I mean, don't take it personally, but you gotta know you can find a few very high quality article writers to do it for you for half what you're charging. Seriously. You do know that, right?

So again, I'd take all comers, charge that 10 cents per word, outsource to excellent writers, keep half, GO TO THE BEACH BABY!!!

John

[Jeremy Kelsall]

Lisa, no wonder your getting those prices...

You are writing for people that are searching for COPYWRITERS not article writers.

If I'm looking for someone to write content that is essentially going to be my "sales content" then I have no problem paying top dollar. I don't care how much it costs as long as it converts.

However, if I'm looking for ARTICLES for the purpose of directory submission or backlinks, I would pretty much have to be a moron to pay top dollar.

So, one other thing that comes into play is PURPOSE.

I gotta be honest though, it hasn't happened in this thread yet, but some of the people that get paid decent coin to write are pretty rude in their responses. Almost to the point that they are insulting to those that do write ARTICLES for marketers to use for directory submissions and backlinks. I work with a few such writers on this forum and they are great writers and write killer content for me.

[lisag]

Originally Posted by Jeremy Kelsall

Lisa, no wonder your getting those prices...

However, if I'm looking for ARTICLES for the purpose of directory submission or backlinks, I would pretty much have to be a moron to pay top dollar.

My point exactly. It isn't worth the cost if you're looking to create backlinks or stuff the SERPs. The articles I write (not talking about copywriting, but actual article writing), are mostly for people who publish them as authoritative documents on a subject they are considered experts in.

For example, I have one client who pays me .25 per word to write his articles. He's a nationally known expert in his field and his content is syndicated. I write his blog as well.

He tells me the subject and gives me bullet-points. I do the research and write the article. He publishes it under his name and people tell him how much they enjoy reading his articles and blogs. He gets business from the articles and he earns money from the syndication.

He charges $700 an hour for his services. He pays me .017 of one billable hour to write an article that enhances his reputation and makes him money. Do you think he thinks he's paying too much?

Do you think he would risk hiring a writer at .01 per word and then "dust the article off" before sending it to his editor?

These are mostly the kind of people who are my clients. I don't serve the IM market much, but I do have IM clients.

Why do IM people choose me when they know they can buy articles cheaper elsewhere?

You'd have to ask them. You can check my RAC ratings page and read about 1500 or so answers to that question.

Here's an excerpt from a $50 article project I wrote for an IM'r just this week:

Article in *** niche
I need a high quality, original content article written that is optimized for the keyword phrase "****".

View All Bid Responses

8/13/2009 9:45:50 AM *** 10 (Excellent) out of 24 ratings. $20.00
8/13/2009 12:03:56 PM *** 8.83 (Superb) out of 6 ratings. $10.00
8/13/2009 2:26:42 PM *** 10 (Excellent) out of 4 ratings. $15.00
8/13/2009 4:04:22 PM *** 9.98 (Excellent) out of 56 ratings. $15.00
8/14/2009 2:21:23 PM *** 8.33 (Very Good) out of 3 ratings. $10.00
8/15/2009 6:13:38 PM *** 9.85 (Excellent) out of 381 ratings. $15.00
8/16/2009 1:56:20 PM *** 9 (Superb) out of 1 ratings. $25.00
8/17/2009 11:48:11PM Lisa_G 9.89 (Excellent) out of 1525 ratings. $50 (was accepted)

Here's what he said when he accepted my bid:

"Hi Lisa, I am very excited about this article. I have never paid more than $10 for an article before and I think the quality or lack of showed."

Here's what he said when I delivered:

"Hi Lisa, The article is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you very much,"

Could he have bought that article for less? Sure, just look at the bids. But it was a very important article for him and he looked at the prices and compared experience levels and made what he considered the best decision for his circumstances.

That might not be the best decision for someone else. But I don't expect to work for everyone who comes along, so I'm not concerned when people pass me up because of my rates.

I feel a little hostility in this thread. That's OK, I'm tougher than I look, but I don't understand it.

Some IM wizard comes along a launches a WS or a mainstream IM product and rakes in 100k and everyone praises him or her.

Some copywriter charges $10k and up for a sales letter and he or she is worshiped for being able to command those fees.

Some 5'2 Florida girl has managed to carve out a niche in a very competitive market and people want to diss my business model.

I'm just say'in...

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by Zeus66

EDIT: Seriously... fifty 500-word articles a day at 10 cents/word = $2500/day.

No, not seriously, John: I typically ask for and get about 5 or 6 cents per word for articles (I don't really quite charge by the word, but that's roughly how it works out, on average), and I'm fast-ish, and there's no way I could do anything like fifty 500-word articles a day. And customers paying those prices won't be wanting to buy articles of the quality of which anyone could possibly produce anything like fifty in a day.

Originally Posted by mRamses

Personally, I hire Indian writers for $3 an article. I then spend about 5-10 minutes scanning, editing, and correcting grammatical errors. For me, this is a good trade off. I get a cheap article and I spend about 1/3 the time on it that would be required to write it myself. So I give up $3 to save 20-odd minutes per article.

Interesting - yes, I can see that if you can really correct them adequately in 5-10 minutes each, and don't mind doing that, this can be a realistic and viable trade-off, for some purposes.

($81 does seem a little bit on the high side for a 500-word press release, I must say.)

[Jeremy Kelsall]

Originally Posted by lisag

I feel a little hostility in this thread. That's OK, I'm tougher than I look, but I don't understand it.

Some IM wizard comes along a launches a WS or a mainstream IM product and rakes in 100k and everyone praises him or her.

Some copywriter charges $10k and up for a sales letter and he or she is worshiped for being able to command those fees.

Some 5'2 Florida girl has managed to carve out a niche in a very competitive market and people want to diss my business model.

I'm just say'in...

I don't sense any hostility in this thread at all. However, the "angry" side of these threads usually shows itself when high priced writers start saying that people that don't write for .10 a word write crappy content...

Just sayin...

With that said - you are obviously writing for a different clientele than myself. As long as the person that you are writing for sees your value, that's all that matters.

I've already conceded the fact that if I were looking for someone to write copy for me price would not be an issue, but content at least for me - Is a different story.

In addition, sometimes perception is a bad thing. I'm not going to get into any names or start throwing stones, but there are a few writers here on the forum that swear their stuff doesn't stink and that they regularly get big bucks from their clients. Just for ****s and grins, I decided to check out some samples that were publicly available on their websites and almost fell off my chair...in a bad way.

Just to make sure that WE don't have any misunderstanding - I was in no way saying that YOU are not worth whatever you charge (wow that sounded dirty) , I was simply stating that different purposes require different things.

Hopefully, on an upcoming product I can contact you and let you dig into me for some big bucks on some sales copy

[lisag]

However, the "angry" side of these threads usually shows itself when high priced writers start saying that people that don't write for .10 a word write crappy content...

I know you weren't pointing that comment at me, so don;t worry.

I don't judge people by what they charge. I put in plenty a time writing $5 articles in order to build my brand. If my market collapsed, and I was hurting for money, I'd write $5 articles again.

Just as the Asian labor market has all but killed the U.S. programmer's ability to make a living, the threat from overseas continues to grow for writers. Once the Indian education system gets its act together and starts teaching English grammar and composition as a first language, we're hosed.

[Zeus66]

No, not seriously, John: I typically ask for and get about 5 or 6 cents per word for articles (I don't really quite charge by the word, but that's roughly how it works out, on average), and I'm fast-ish, and there's no way I could do anything like fifty 500-word articles a day. And customers paying those prices won't be wanting to buy articles of the quality of which anyone could possibly produce anything like fifty in a day.

Alexa,

Please re-read what I wrote. I was definitely not saying or even suggesting that ONE person could or should do 50 articles in a day! LOL I wrote that a TEAM of excellent writers could be hired for 5 cents per word. So you - as the business owner - would farm out the 50 articles per day to a team of writers. No single writer would do anything even approaching 50 by himself or herself. You pay each of them whatever they've earned. You get half. You all do quite well. I think if I was in Lisa's position, that's what I'd do. Good business model.

John

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by Zeus66

Alexa,

Please re-read what I wrote. I was definitely not saying or even suggesting that ONE person could or should do 50 articles in a day! LOL I wrote that a TEAM of excellent writers could be hired for 5 cents per word.

I did wonder. But not for long enough! Sorry - thanks, John.

[KillinTheTime]

Thanks for the tips! That is definitely a great site with some very useful information regarding how much to pay for articles. I'll definitely be referring to it in the future.

[CliveG]

Originally Posted by Jeremy Kelsall

That is an unfair statement. There are a lot of good writers at a fair price floating around the internet.

You don't have to pay some one $1 a word to get decent content.

Sorry Jeremy, I did not intend to be unfair. I agree that there are some (maybe quite a lot) of decent writers who are relatively cheap but I still think that too many people use poor articles on websites, blogs, etc. Of course, I don't know how much they paid for them.

However, I would have thought that a really good low cost writer would attract so much work that his/her rates would increase.

[CliveG]

Originally Posted by Dhrousha

Wow, that's a bit unfair.

I don't charge $10 (yet) for fellow Warriors and I like to think that the quality of my work speaks for itself.

Karen

Hi Karen,

As I said to Jeremy, I did not mean to be unfair.

If you don't mind, let me ask you some questions about your last 500ish word article - give a very general answer if you don't want to quote figures.

How much did you charge for it?
How much do you think it was worth?
What would you have paid for it?

Cheers, Clive

[heatwave13]

This has been a very interesting thread. At this stage in my own writing career, I am taking clients and charging on a case-by-case basis. The amount I charge is often decided by factors such as article length, how much time I will have to invest in research, and how busy I am at the time.

I think that we should use caution when assuming that lower priced articles are of poor quality. Some people (shameless plug for me!) can write great great pieces at a very reasonable price. What I usually do is offer to write a free 300 word article for the client. They give me their title, keyword phrase, and their intended audience and I write accordingly. If they like the article, then we'll go forward. If they think it sucks (cross my fingers it hasn't happened yet) then they could simply look for another writer.

So, for me, it just depends on the assignment. I don't know if I'll always operate this way as my business grows and as my number of clients increase. Really, I am humbled and consider myself to be blessed to have worked with great clients. As writers, we cannot take them for granted and we should be as conscientious as possible when working for them. When a client sees this dedication, they will often want to develop a long-term working relationship.

[TMG Enterprises]

($81 does seem a little bit on the high side for a 500-word press release, I must say.)

I've been paid $97 for a 500-word press release so this doesn't seem out of line to me.

Tina

[HenryH]

Originally Posted by Zeus66

Alexa,

Please re-read what I wrote. I was definitely not saying or even suggesting that ONE person could or should do 50 articles in a day! LOL I wrote that a TEAM of excellent writers could be hired for 5 cents per word. So you - as the business owner - would farm out the 50 articles per day to a team of writers. No single writer would do anything even approaching 50 by himself or herself. You pay each of them whatever they've earned. You get half. You all do quite well. I think if I was in Lisa's position, that's what I'd do. Good business model.

John

This <i>is</i> an ingenious business model for an article writing service (at least "on paper"). As long as you proofread and evaluate each article for clarity, spelling errors, relevance to the topic, etc., I can't see how this wouldn't be both a lucrative and "ethical" service. And like you said, there are plenty of native English-speaking writers who are not only skilled at their craft, but have also honed their talent through some form of higher education. And even if you opted to charge 5 cents/word instead of 10, you'd STILL be earning over $200k/year even while paying your writers half the 5 cent/word fee.

Of course, the only challenge would be finding clients willing to pay $25.00 for a 500 word article...

[pbennett]

what a funny thread. I would never write for you guys!

[miwriting]

I think business owners, webmasters, marketers etc. always fall into one of two camps - either they want as much content as possible for the lowest price or they are comfortable paying more, but expect a high quality product. It works out well and supports what the market will bear.

As a writer, I definitely fall into the higher priced category because I decided early on that's how I would value my writing. And while there is definitely nothing wrong with writing articles for less, I'm always a little sad to see that writers don't value their own writing services at a higher rate. It's just my opinion, but I don't think any writer should be charging $5 for an article. Decent writing takes time and that doesn't even earn a writer minimum wage.