How Many Articles Should A VA Write Per Day?

That could be a reasonable volume, it all depends on the quality you get.

Do consider the effective per article cost for a $2.50/hr VA, ($2.50 to $3.33), is the going market price for simple rewrites like $2 while original quality is more like $4 - $8?

Just the relief from test new contractors every few weeks would be worth it.

2500++ words per 8-hour day, 20 days per month. This prevents burnouts and attrition. After a few months of having this daily quota, most tend to get faster without negatively affecting overall content quality. Of course, they'll ask for additional payment. That's what they see in such an arrangement: More work = More money.

My observations, inferences, test results and comparative result analysis show the things I mentioned above as statistically accurate, in my own experience, here in the Philippines. I'm referring to unique, extensively researched, freshly written and manually proofread content, incorporating writing format/tone/style needed to keep the target audience entertained and interested in learning and being informed of relevant topics then acting for their own benefit as well as the benefit of the author. I own and run an ICT (Information & Communications Technology) outsourcing firm here in the Philippines. We've been in the industry for more than 5 years. I've worked with more than 140 writers at a certain point. Now, I only work with 60 writers. The economy caused most companies to right-size, including mine, sadly. I've been in the ICT industry for more than 12 years. I've been in the English softsell content marketing writing and copywriting industry for more than 15 years. My purpose is to share my observations, inferences, test results and experience in such relevant things.

As Marx has said, to prevent burnout, you wouldn't really want a VA to be writing more than 6 - 8 400 word articles a day.

You also need to factor in a VA's time to proofread their work, possibly make amendments if you require them and so on, whilst maintaining a high quality of work.

If you attempt to get a VA to do more, you'll suffer through lower quality = more work for you in the long run.

Personally, I would focus on quality over quantity. I would prefer to have a VA create 1 piece of really high quality content each day, than 6-8 mediocre to crappy articles which have little chance of being syndicated and building my reputation, which is the whole point of submitting articles to places like EZA.

If you have the finances, invest in a talented ghost writer.

Chris