Native vs. non-native English writers

by Bence Ur

Posted: 13 years ago 26 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

Hi,

I have several questions regarding outsourcing article writing...

1. The mantra is to outsource to the Philippines. But how come there are native US English writers in the "Warriors for hire" section and on Fiverr, who can write 100 words for as low as $1? And if you need content just for link building, you can find a native US English writer for as low as $0.5 / 100 words. You can't get much lower rates from the Philippines.

What I don't understand is that how can some US writers charge so little, that they compete with Filipino writers in price? And is it still better to hire a writer from the Philippines?

2. What do you think, which option is the better?

A) Hire a native English writer.
B) Hire a cheap, but decent Filipino writer, and a cheap native English proofreader, and let him proofread all the articles written by the Filipino writer. I have looked around and there are individual proofreaders (natives from Canada or USA) for as low as $1 / 500 words. Hiring a decent Filipino writer for $3.5 / 500 words is possible, and if you combine it with the proofreader, you end up with a well-researched article, with perfect English.
C) Hire a Filipino writer, without the native proofreader.
D) Just buy articles from a content writing service.

I think the B) is the best option when I need high quality articles for a money making website. Because the A) option is too expensive (or not?), the C) option is hard to achieve if you want real quality, and the D) option is also too expensive, because the content writing company makes money on top of the writer's salary. You save money if you just hire a writer directly. But I admit, the most convenient method is the D) option.

When it comes to articles needed for link building, I think the C) option is the best (or the A) option, again?).

#english #native #nonnative #writers

GMD

Banned 13 years ago

I really don't think price is the issue. There are many "native" English speakers/writers that are trying to get into the business and offering lower rates to do quality work is a good way to do that.

I think a lot of these people realize the following: they can sit around all day earning nothing or they can take what they can get. If they spend all day writing 10 articles for $10 dollars (and earning a potential long term client), that's better than making zero money.

In the end, it's about what somebody is willing to pay and what somebody is willing to accept. Offering cheap prices doesn't necessarily mean the work delivered will also be "cheap." It's case-by-case.

Lastly, I think you should just get away from the labeling of whom to hire from which country. This is the internet and there are no borders.

Thanks
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Alexa Smith

Banned 13 years ago

Originally Posted by usuallyclueless

There are many "native" English speakers/writers that are trying to get into the business and offering lower rates to do quality work is a good way to do that.

Please excuse a contrarian viewpoint, but I think it's an extremely misguided and fallacious way to get into the business.

If you compete on price, imagining that later, after you have some customers and you've done some work, you'll be able to increase your prices, you discover that what attracts customers to very low-priced writers is their very low prices. And you'll just lose them all and be back to square one. In other words, it doesn't work.

There are many ways to compete, as a writer. "Price" is the very worst.

What one earns as a writer ultimately boils down to one thing: the markets in which one chooses to compete, and those depend on one's marketing skills more than on one's writing skills (assuming only a basic level of competence for the latter).

Thanks

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Bence Ur 13 years ago

Originally Posted by usuallyclueless

Lastly, I think you should just get away from the labeling of whom to hire from which country. This is the internet and there are no borders.

Why would I do that? $1 is worth more or less, depending on the country.
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colinph970 13 years ago

A will always be the best option......and you can find decent prices.....a good native English writer can be found for $0.015 per word.
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- Bence Ur 13 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by colinph970
  
  A will always be the best option......and you can find decent prices.....a good native English writer can be found for $0.015 per word.
  
  I understand your point. You think that native English writers produce the best output.
  
  $0.015 per word equals to $7.5 / 500 words.
  
  But how about this option: You can find a Filipino writer with decent English (ok, maybe not as good as a native) for $300-$350 / month, who can finish 4 x 500 word articles a day. So one 500 word aritcle would cost you $4.
  
  And you find a native English proofreader for $1 per article, and you end up with a well researched, grammatical and spelling error free article for $5.
  
  This is website content for money websites, like product reviews, buying guides, tutorials etc. Articles for link building, and sales letter are another topic.
  
  However, there are even native English writers for $5 / 500 words... But I don't think that they perform enough research for that low price, and maybe they cannot sustain that price for too long.
  
  Thanks
  
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MoneyMonkey 13 years ago

A is always the best option but be a little wary of A at low prices (Unless as mentioned they are just starting out in the trade) as this will often turn out to be either a faker or someone who will just then outsource the work to c!
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BabyMama 13 years ago

I agree with what was said above. I am a writer and I would much rather be working and making a steady stream of money every day from clients than sitting around waiting for someone to hire me.
I think if you are a writer in a very specialized topic of looking for a writer in a very specialized topic then yes you should expect to pay more and earn more!
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J Bold 13 years ago

I don't care what language is your first language, as long as you can write in English like a native speaker or nearly like one, and I know several Filipinos who can write this well, though I think they are the exception. A number of them are personal friends, not people to whom I outsource (thought maybe I should!).

Just find a good article writer, wherever they may be and wherever they may be from.
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Benjamin Ehinger 13 years ago

I am a native English speaking writer and I also run my own websites that I have writers for as well. With writing you really get what you pay for and when you look at it properly you may realize why quality is so much more important than cheap and quantity. If you pay $1 per 100 words for a writer you will pay $5 for a 500 word article. It only takes one sale from a product to double or triple your money from that article.

You need writing that you can use right away and it is better to pay a little more and get high quality writing than to go cheap and have to edit and change the articles.

Benjamin Ehinger
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KabirC 13 years ago

I do it for cheaper because it is easy to do for me as well as the fact it is a side business, not my main source of income.
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Goldenboy 13 years ago

Does it really matter whether a writer is a native English writer? I mean, as long as they provide us the quality and meet our standards of the article, I don't see the point of choosing native from non-native English writers.
Writers both native and non-native English, will always present their services to the internet that they can provide services to their employer. They can claim as they can be both, and what matters here is how much you are willing to pay. There isn't that difference of choosing, whether native or non-native, since it all boils down to the rate if the amount is worth of his/her work.
Doesn't matter whether where he/she is from, as long as they will meet our standard, rate and quality, then go ahead hire that person.
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- Alexa Smith Banned 13 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Goldenboy
  
  Does it really matter whether a writer is a native English writer?
  
  As can be seen from reading the endless discussion of this subject in this forum, it clearly matters to some people far more than to others. For myself, I think a more interesting (and perhaps equally relevant) question is whether the writer's client is a native English-speaker.
  
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  affilcrazy 13 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Alexa Smith
  
  For myself, I think a more interesting (and perhaps equally relevant) question is whether the writer's client is a native English-speaker.
  
  Beauty, is in the eye of the beholder...
  
  I, perhaps, wouldn't 100% agree about "whether the writer's client is a native English-speaker", however, I believe I understand where you're coming from.
  
  If a client is unable to tell the difference between a $5 bunch of crap and a $250 masterpiece, it makes no difference (to them) what they pay anyway IMHO, i.e. A client such as this will always go with the cheaper option, regardless!
  
  With that said, if a client is able to truly appreciate great content, and is aware of its potential, whether they are native-English or not, the price is typically irrelavant.
  
  Remember ROI (return on investment), whether that's traffic, subscribers, sales, etc...
  
  Cheers
  Partha
  
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laustinseo 13 years ago

I suggest hiring a native english writer, this saves the time of two different people having to write and check a post ( which can be time consuming ). the only time i would suggest using a non native write and a native proof reader is if the costs add up to about 50% less than the alternative.
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- John Morrod 13 years ago
  
  A friend of mine who runs a successful article writing business has found that the cheaper you are the more fussy the customer is.
  
  She keeps her prices higher and says that the customers that she attracts tend to be more appreciative, less picky and they turn into regular orders, resulting in less requests that the articles be re-written.
  
  She feels that when she was cheaper the customer seemed harder to please.
  
  Just my take
  
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  Alexa Smith Banned 13 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by John Morrod
  
  A friend of mine who runs a successful article writing business has found that the cheaper you are the more fussy the customer is.
  
  That was almost universally my experience when I was originally promoting my services as an article writer (that's nearly 3 years ago now: I don't write for other people any more).
  
  I started off in the $20/$25 sort of price-bracket (and thereby had a much easier time of it than people trying to start off by writing articles for $5/$7.50) but almost always found that "$50+ customers" were both (a) easier to please, and (b) more likely to return. No surprise on the latter point, of course: they were the ones who knew how to get articles syndicated and earn significant money out of them.
  
  Originally Posted by John Morrod
  
  She feels that when she was cheaper the customer seemed harder to please.
  
  Exactly what one would expect, I think: clients at the bottom of the market quite often don't really know how to use the material (typically they just put them in as many article directories as they can and then wonder why they don't get much targeted traffic or SEO-help out of them :rolleyes: ), are unaware that "there's a whole other world of article marketing out there", and tend to have struggling businesses, which makes them more anxious, overall, and therefore harder to deal with.
  
  I agree wholeheartedly with Istvan's post immediately above. You can be sure, if a new Warrior asks for advice about making money online, that before his thread is completed several people will suggest that he should write articles for marketers - regardless of his apparent standard of literacy.
  
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  ladywriter 13 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by John Morrod
  
  A friend of mine who runs a successful article writing business has found that the cheaper you are the more fussy the customer is.
  
  That's one of the reasons I just bumped my prices up. Cheaper clients are fussier all around. One client paying $2 for an article send a piece back because I didn't include an h2 tag. Really? For 2 bucks you can't insert your own tag?
  
  Not all cheaper clients, of course. I have one private client I write $5 articles for, but he provides me with so much information that I'm really just putting it all together. He was also my first private client.
  
  I will say that it is easier to find cheap clients-being able to write a bunch of articles a day feels a bit more secure than one $150 piece a week. I am trying to talk myself out of that thinking.
  
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Istvan Horvath

13 years ago

A few remarks, if I may (as a non native English speaker).

There is a bad tendency around this forum: if a clueless new member asks about making money... every Joe and their dog is suggesting "write articles" - even if the original post is full of misspelled words

I wouldn't buy anything from that kind of "native writers".

Many times a native English speaker is just the front-man for an article writing service... and in the background it's all outsourced work (to Philippines etc.)

Just because you are native English speaker, it doesn't mean:
- you have talent to write
- you can spell
- you know grammar...
... or that you are clever enough to be able to put 500 words together :rolleyes:

No offense, but I noticed quite often in this forum a few non-native English speakers, who can spell better than the majority of the natives...

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affilcrazy

13 years ago

Well said Istvan, I completely agree.

I often find myself reading through threads (whilst simultaneously banging my head against the proverbial brick wall) about making "quick money" and the like, and almost 90% of suggestions are to "offer a service" and to "write articles for others".

As mentioned, their posts are strewn with grammatical/spelling errors, and yet they still manage to secure clients, who apparantely are "extremely happy with their work".

As I have pointed out above, and as Alexa has alluded to, some clients may not even know the difference between an article that can potentially increase their ROI, and an article that is nothing more than a pile on horse-dung!

To me, non-native or native doesn't even come into the equation. The question really should be - Are they are real writer or simply a chancer looking to make some quick $$$?

Cheers
Partha

Originally Posted by Istvan Horvath

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ladywriter

13 years ago

Originally Posted by affilcrazy

I often find myself reading through threads (whilst simultaneously banging my head against the proverbial brick wall) about making "quick money" and the like, and almost 90% of suggestions are to "offer a service" and to "write articles for others".

As mentioned, their posts are strewn with grammatical/spelling errors, and yet they still manage to secure clients, who apparantely are "extremely happy with their work".

I find that extremely irritating as well.

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ladywriter 13 years ago

And I'd like to add that if price is the most important thing to you, just pay .99 cents or whatever and don't agonize over it lol!
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BabyMama

13 years ago

Looks like this thread has become quite a little conversation starter.
I am not against hiring Native or not native writers. I have used both and find them both good, I think every writer varies and the only way you can tell is by requesting a sample article or hiring them to do a few jobs at a cheap rate before they put their prices up.

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Bence Ur

13 years ago

Ok so for how much can I hire a relatively cheap native English writer from the US or Canada, full time (40 hours a week)?

I don't like paying per articles, I prefer paying by the hours. I also prefer workers who work exclusively for me. That's why I am asking about the full time US or Canadian salary.

Thanks
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Gail_Curran

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Bence Ur

The math doesn't work. "Relatively cheap" writers in the US and Canada can't afford to work full time doing writing alone. They would have to be doing something else to make ends meet. Unless you're prepared to pay $3000-4000 per month, of course. Then you might have some takers.

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Ducksauce 13 years ago

How do people find American English which is used by Filipino's is accept for a site targeting the UK or Australian market?
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- Kay King 13 years ago
  
  If you are hiring a writer you hire the best for YOUR budget. Better to hire a good writer who has an excellent command of English as a second language - than a poor writer with first language English.
  
  YOU decide what level of writing you need and what YOU can pay - but you better check out your competition as well.
  
  I write exclusively for a few European niche site owners. They have authority sites that target the English speaking market and they pay me a lot of money to write for them.
  
  Their websites are kicking butt in niches where US site owners are outsourcing to cheap writers. Go figure.
  
  Kay
  
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Native vs. non-native English writers

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