Is the Article Writing Business too overflooded?

[adventureman89]

I was wondering what you guy's thought on this. Is there too much competition for an average guy to be able to capitalize on having a skill for writing good content?

How much should I charge at first?
Is it hard to get customers?

[rapidscc]

If you can provide quality content then you can be in a profitable business. A lot of people are looking for good writers. In fact even here in the forum there are a lot of people looking for them.

Most of those who look for writers are the ones who earn enough but have no more time to write for themselves.

You can initially ask for $5 dollars per article just to prove your writing skills, after that its from $10 to $25 per article depending on how good your articles are (How much research you throw in it, how effective it is).

If you are really interested to provide an article writing service, then I recommend that you go write about 40 pieces then offer it as PLR for cheap. This will let people know how good you are and then tell them that you also do freelance writing service. Offer them $5 for the first 5 to 10 articles but also inform them that you'll charge higher after that. If you keep on charging $5 for every article, sooner or later you'll burn out and would get tired writing quality articles for cheap.

I hope this helps..


All the best,

Omar

[Scott Ames]

Not at all. I don't think for a minute there is too much competition. If you do good work and dare I say, market yourself a bit, you'll probably get all the work you can handle.

First: Start a thread here and offer to write an article free for about x number of people. Take those jobs even more seriously than the paid ones. Get them out, give them your best, then hit them up for more work. Ask them to post a comment about your work in the thread.

Join the Private forum for I think $37 one time. Then post good content all over the forum. Help people with problems. If you are a writer, you are good at research. Find answers for people that need help.

When you get established, post a WSO offering articles.

Price.. don't know... don't do it too cheaply or you'll hate it.

[Allan Rich]

Definitely not.

I would focus on Elance. If you have credentials such as being a college graduate or references, your already on your way.

The prices will vary. I've seen some people pay as much as $40+ an article.

Starting out with no feedback etc, do a $4-5 starting point for your price until you build feedback.

Once you build your feedback, raise your prices to the $7-10 mark.

If you want to work smart and not hard. Outsource your work and pay writers $1 per article, then flip them for more money on elance. You will have to proofread/edit articles, but 95% of the work is already done for you. I've helped several people do this and it works well.

Focus your time on building your brand/clientele rather than writing.

[adventureman89]

Originally Posted by Allan Rich

Definitely not.

I would focus on Elance. If you have credentials such as being a college graduate or references, your already on your way.

The prices will vary. I've seen some people pay as much as $40+ an article.

Starting out with no feedback etc, do a $4-5 starting point for your price until you build feedback.

Once you build your feedback, raise your prices to the $7-10 mark.

If you want to work smart and not hard. Outsource your work and pay writers $1 per article, then flip them for more money on elance. You will have to proofread/edit articles, but 95% of the work is already done for you. I've helped several people do this and it works well.

Focus your time on building your brand/clientele rather then writing.

How would I market myself?

Some ideas would be great.
I don't have much money though.

[scarface]

There is always a market for an excellent writer. Witness all the poorly written, poorly researched articles there are on the web. Folks were not only too lazy to write a valuable article in the first place, they run it through a spinner and distribute hundreds of copies of trash all over the net.

I preach constantly, but it seems seldom heard: An article is a promotion or an ad if you will, for your business and you as a person. Treat it as such, you never know where it will wind up.

Omar above has some excellent ideas, I think, on how to start. Perhaps we could get a few more.

Best of luck,

[Dan C. Rinnert]

A flood is an overabundance of water, but it doesn't mean that it's drinkable water (and usually isn't!).

[Allan Rich]

Originally Posted by adventureman89

How would I market myself?

Some ideas would be great.
I don't have much money though.

Go to Elance and register as a service provider.

Browse around in the writing category. Look at your competition's profiles. Get an idea of what you should put on yours.

Once you get an idea of things, Fill out your profile etc... Treat it as a business and show professionalism, correct grammar etc.

If you have any credentials like graduating college or work/client references.. Verify them. The verification costs around $15 a piece, I believe.

With a basic account, you'll receive around 20 credits to bid on projects. The basic account costs around $20 a month.

Before you go bid crazy on writing projects. Make sure your profile is beefed up.

and....

Hire your own writer. Either go to another freelance site such as Getafreelancer.com or Onlinejobs.ph

Create a project looking for writers offer them $1-1.50 per 500 word article. Yes, you have to screen through writers and sometimes it can be a pain to find half way decent ones but when you do it's gold.

Once you find several decent writers.

Start looking for projects on elance to bid on.

Bid Smart! Look at the person who started the project. Look at how many they've started vs how many they rewarded. If they've started multiple projects with non awarded, move on to the next project to bid on. Each bid you make costs you money.

It will take you some time to get jobs/feedback since your new. That's why you want to bid low. $4-5 per article. You still have a good net gain if your only paying your own writers $1 per article.

Keep doing it until you build a good 10 or so feedback, then start raising your prices to around $7-$10 per article. When you start getting more money for your jobs, hire better writers with more money offered. You'll spend less time editing the articles they write. Time = Money.

If you have $100, you can start doing it today.

I could keep going on but I think you can figure it out

[Scott Ames]

Originally Posted by Dan C. Rinnert

A flood is an overabundance of water, but it doesn't mean that it's drinkable water (and usually isn't!).

I suspect you are right.

[davis9461]

Originally Posted by adventureman89

How would I market myself?

Some ideas would be great.
I don't have much money though.

Offer to write a few articles for FREE for an exchange for Testimonials. Then leverage the Testimonials. If they like your work, I would bet they would continue using your services and refer you more business.

[cscarpero]

There are a lot of writers out there, but most of them suck! Quality will get you hired anytime.

[Dennis-White]

Get a blog, post some samples, insert some testimonials, offer to write x number of free articles. Run WSO build a list of clients... and so forth... work will never run out in this market, someone somewhere will always need fresh content

[scarface]

I know you don't want to hear this, but "fast" and "free" don't exist at the same time.
Not in IM or anywhere else when It comes to business.

I'll admit that I know nothing of your particular skill or selling of same. I do not use writers myself, but many do.

There have been many suggestions, I can only tell you this is a business, free is evaluated to be wort exactly that. I would suggest you put an ad in WSO, give a free example if you must, but remember, what you consider your worth to be, others will perceive as well.

[M Thompson]

Sure there are a lot of writers but for the consumer competition is healthy. If you find a good writer then you hold onto them as they are an invaluable resource. I do notice though that some writers do either

a) under price themselves and get too much work and then have problems with deadlines

b) over price themselves and try to charge $20-$30 or more for a 500 word article then struggle to get customers.

If you are starting out I would always recommend that you work out how many articles you can easily write in an hour and how many hours you can easily work for in a day and finally how much you need each day. then work out your price from there.

[Jason Pereira]

Yes, the article writing business is overflooded. Starting out, you'll find it difficult to get work, especially on forums where you'll be competing with users / companies that can supply articles in a) bulk b) at bulk prices and c) with a history of delivering d) quality.

None of which you have starting out.

I've posted ads which have literally gotten 100+ replies within days, from writers all looking for work. It's great if you're outsourcing but not so great if you're writing.

Firstly, I'd say there is no long term benefit bar perhaps credibility in writing articles for internet marketers - you're developing income based on work, which means as soon as you stop working you stop earning, and there's also no guarantee (as soon as they find someone equal or better at a similar/lower price - which they will, they'll drop you). However, there is money made writing for internet marketers, you just have to think out of the box.

If you can write, you should be able to make a reasonable amount of money monthly. Not from articles, but here's some ideas...

Marketers are always willing to pay more than your standard $0.01 per word generally offered to starting out writers (it's less nowadays) for a) quality and b) intelligence.

So what you could do:

Learn how to write reports. Everything being equal, you'll generally get paid more for a 5,000 word report than you would for 500 x 10 articles. The report is also easier to write as it will all be on one topic. You can charge double or treble (or even more once you get good at it) as good quality report/eBook writers are difficult to find (whereas article writers aren't).

Learn how to write copy. If you're quality, you can get a foothold by offering to write copy cheap (to get some rock solid testimonials) at $97-$197 for a short sales letter. Once you improve and get better, you'll find demand for your services skyrocket and depending on your quality you'll be able to charge practically what you like. There's no reason you couldn't make at least $1,000 your first month writing copy if you have the flair (10 letters x $97 is a lot easier than 200 articles at $5).

The rule is that longer is easier to write assuming there's enough information as it's all on the same topic and you'll generally have more sources to draw upon.

Look into creating website packages using your intelligence (example, learn how to do basic keyword research and create an eBook + sales letter package or blog optimized with X articles around a low competition but buying keyword). You'd earn a lot more than you would writing articles, for sure.

Last but not least, as mentioned above look to outsource and practise what I call service arbitrage - hire writers cheap and offer mass content. If you pay $2 and charge $4 you're making $20 for every ten articles without doing much work yourself... it adds up quickly.

Good luck

[MJGrae]

There is a lot of competition everywhere.

It is best to build a list, wherever you go.

[rapsolo]

I advice you start out here on warrior forum. As someone has said, there is competition everywhere. write sample articles and post them on this forum. If your articles are good, members will offer your services.

As for the prices, do not price yourselves too high or too cheap. Look around on this forum to get an idea of prices people offer.

All the best.


Rapheal