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What is this person using my articles for?

by moonzombie
17 replies
Hi everyone,
I need some advice, hopefully I am posting this in the right place.

Basically, I have written a few articles for someone on fiverr, 500 words using their keywords for $4. They said the articles were excellent, top-notch quality and hoping I will give them a discount. They give me the topics "Homemade facial scrubs" or "Organic face mask recipes" for example.

I found this forum because I started to wonder - What are they using these articles for? For it to be worthwhile for them to pay me $4 per article, they must have something set up where they are either re-selling the articles for more, or using them to generate more income than the $4 they paid. I have a limited understanding of MFA websites, but could they really be making enough from an MFA to justify spending $5 per article? What else could they be doing with the articles?

So, this got me wondering. They're asking for a discount now, they want three 500 word articles for 2 "gigs" (For anyone not familiar with fiverr, that puts $8 in my pocket for 1500 words..) Which HARDLY seems worth it, but I do enjoy writing on random topics and I have the time to do it. I know there is a forum here for posting jobs, but I'm not offering any services in this topic - I'm just curious, could I be doing a lot better for myself than what this person is offering? If I either setup my own site, or sold my articles elsewhere?


Thank you all for advice, again I hope I have followed the guidelines properly - I'm sure you guys are swamped with newbies here. I'm going to explore options and likely start a thread in the jobs for sale forum soon. If anyone could read the articles for me, and tell me if they actually are any good, please PM me I would greatly appreciate the feedback.
#articles #fiverr #person
  • Profile picture of the author Richard Van
    Let me tell you right off the bat that $5 for 500 words is very cheap, especially from a native English, grammatically correct writer.

    I use my articles for the purpose of having them republished on relevant sites, where there are other people that are interested in what I have to say that lead them back to sites I own which provide solutions to their problems.

    This way I get subscribers to my lists and sales.

    If they want a discount from $5, personally I think they're taking the p*** and judging by your post above you could get that and more all day long here.

    If they think what you've done already is top notch, why on Earth do they now need a discount? That's like me agreeing to pay $20 dollars to get my car cleaned and being so impressed with the excellent work I turn round and say...

    "That's such a great job, you've done so well and performed way beyond my expectations, how about I give you less than you want?"

    If anything I'd give them extra. Respectfully to your clients, I suspect they don't hold on to quality writers very long.
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Based on your post above, you are selling yourself way short. If you want to do that kind of gig for fun, because you have the time, no problem. If you're doing it as a source of income, you can do much better right here.

      As for wanting a discount, some people seem to have that ingrained in their genes. Everything is negotiable. He wants to see just how low you are willing to go.

      In your place, I'd tell him the price is the price and no discount. Then the ball is back in his court - he'll either hire you at your price, or he'll go looking for someone who will discount themselves into starvation.
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    • Profile picture of the author BuyLandOnline
      He's probably using the articles to thicken up content on his webpage. I think your getting the short end of things here though. We paid $10 an article for our guy and rightfully so. The work was top notch. Good Luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author Scott Burton
    Most likely they are using the articles as a mixture of content on their own website(s) and/or for building backlinks to their websites (links from other sites leading to their sites), where they are expecting to earn money from the sale of products, services and information related in some way to the subject of the articles.

    Unless you really need the money, I would probably not accept the discount request, but that's your decision. In response to the inquiry of a discount, you could say that your fiverr gig is to build new clients and is already well below your normal rate.

    Their application of your articles may not generate as much money right now as they are paying you, but if an article you write for $5 for them leads to 50 cents per month in income, it only takes 10 months and it paid for its self. If it produced that 50 cents per month income for 2 years, it paid back $12. $12 in 2 years on a $5 investment isn't anything to ignore. That's like putting $5 into an account paying 120% simple interest annually (not compounding), or buying a stock for $5 that pays $6 per year in dividends.

    Exactly how they are using your articles I couldn't tell you, because there are too many ways they may be using them.

    I'm sure this explanation is about as clear as mud... But there's not any one 'single' explanation of what they are doing.

    If you go to the SEARCH button in the forum and search for "article marketing" , "backlinks" and "traffic generation" (separately) you'll find a lot of threads that will explain this better than I am doing at the moment.
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  • Profile picture of the author laurencewins
    I agree with the others here. I earn my money from writing and earn more per article than $5. I tried fiverr to see if I could get a couple more clients but I found they are more fussy and expect the earth for their measly $5.
    DON'T agree to even less pay. I find it insulting when they even ask.
    I am sure you can earn more money elsewhere.
    Check out vworker.com and you'll find clients who pay more than that.
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    • Profile picture of the author Kay King
      Them them "no special deals for anyone".

      Think about it. They want three for the price of two - but it takes as much time to write article #3 as it does #1 and #2. Don't GIVE your time away just because someone asks for it.

      With buyers like that, the more you give the more they want.

      kay
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    • Profile picture of the author alistair
      If you write quality articles then yeah they could be using them for their own sites or as you suggest they may be having you write articles for their own clients and charge them more. I myself had someone writing articles on fiverr for me. She was from England and was really top quality but unfortunately she wanted to concentrate her time on less time consuming gigs which was fair enough but it just goes to show that if you look hard enough you can find real gems on fiverr.

      I remember about 2 months ago reading a thread on here which was somebody looking for a logo design. They didn't have a lot of cash but were willing to pay $30. I wondered how many people offering to do the work for her would just be going to fiverr, getting the work done and bobs your uncle, a $25 profit for 2 minutes work. She left her email to contact her so I told her to take a look at fiverr and she was over the moon.

      It's a common practice selling IM services like backlink packages etc, including here on this forum and just outsourcing it to somebody on fiverr. All you got to do is be the middleman but take all the profit. There's nothing wrong with it I don't think although I'm not sure on how it works with articles. Do you own the articles or the copyright to the articles you write and sell on fiverr or as soon as you sell it does it become the buyers property to do what they want with? Not sure on that.

      Also I would say that if you could live without writing this guys articles then don't write them or if you need the money then carry on, but I wouldn't give a discount. If he likes your work so much then I think he wouldn't want to lose you. You can always try calling his bluff and tell him that you're so in demand it could be beneficial to you if he did go elsewhere.
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  • Profile picture of the author moonzombie
    Wow - So many responses instantly.. I feel like I've stumbled onto a gold mine with this forum.

    Firstly, thank you all for the insightful responses. It's clear that I can do better for myself. This person's desire to save a few dollars has opened my eyes to the possibilities, so I should be thankful to them as well.

    Here begins my journey. =)
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    Find out why I get hired by other article writers to help them when they're busy. Premium content, reasonable prices. PM me if you're interested.

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    • Profile picture of the author Jeff Lenney
      Originally Posted by moonzombie View Post

      Wow - So many responses instantly.. I feel like I've stumbled onto a gold mine with this forum.

      Firstly, thank you all for the insightful responses. It's clear that I can do better for myself. This person's desire to save a few dollars has opened my eyes to the possibilities, so I should be thankful to them as well.

      Here begins my journey. =)
      Welcome aboard, you could easily ask them for $100 an article...don't discount them a DIME!
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      Too lazy to write something clever here, so check out my marketing blog and learn from a REAL Super Affiliate at JeffLenney.com

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  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    Originally Posted by moonzombie View Post

    Hi everyone,
    I need some advice, hopefully I am posting this in the right place.

    Basically, I have written a few articles for someone on fiverr, 500 words using their keywords for $4. They said the articles were excellent, top-notch quality and hoping I will give them a discount. They give me the topics "Homemade facial scrubs" or "Organic face mask recipes" for example.

    I found this forum because I started to wonder - What are they using these articles for? For it to be worthwhile for them to pay me $4 per article, they must have something set up where they are either re-selling the articles for more, or using them to generate more income than the $4 they paid. I have a limited understanding of MFA websites, but could they really be making enough from an MFA to justify spending $5 per article? What else could they be doing with the articles?

    So, this got me wondering. They're asking for a discount now, they want three 500 word articles for 2 "gigs" (For anyone not familiar with fiverr, that puts $8 in my pocket for 1500 words..) Which HARDLY seems worth it, but I do enjoy writing on random topics and I have the time to do it. I know there is a forum here for posting jobs, but I'm not offering any services in this topic - I'm just curious, could I be doing a lot better for myself than what this person is offering? If I either setup my own site, or sold my articles elsewhere?


    Thank you all for advice, again I hope I have followed the guidelines properly - I'm sure you guys are swamped with newbies here. I'm going to explore options and likely start a thread in the jobs for sale forum soon. If anyone could read the articles for me, and tell me if they actually are any good, please PM me I would greatly appreciate the feedback.
    They could be reselling them, in which case, you could be making more money from your writing. They could be using them on their sites for affiliate marketing. Hard to tell.

    If I were you, I would pay the $20 for a Warrior for Hire thread and offer your writing there, and charge $5 per article. You get the whole fee with the only expense being the Warrior for Hire thread.

    As for a discount ... tell him to put it where the sun don't shine. You're already working working pretty cheap especially if you are a good writer.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by moonzombie View Post

    I'm just curious, could I be doing a lot better for myself than what this person is offering?
    Yes, you could.

    It's clear from your long post that your writing is way above the typical $4 article standard.

    I "started online" as an article-writer and I had more or less your question, 3 years ago. I had to understand a lot of stuff, some of which I learned the hard way, to answer it. Here are six threads which will, between them, give you a lot of information about "the article-writing business" and will repay careful reading (like many forum threads understandably and necessarily compiled with absolutely no "quality control" at all, there's some nonsense and misinformation in some of them them, as well as some sensible perspectives from experienced writers - use your powers of interpretation and judgement to work out who's who! ).

    http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...g-pricing.html

    http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...g-service.html

    http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...e-writing.html

    http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ng-career.html

    http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post4218809

    http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...les-money.html

    Good luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author Elle Davies
    I write articles on Fiverr too and offer the same prices just because I worked out that it usually takes me between 15 and 20 mins to write a 500 word article. So I can probably churn out about 3 or 4 an hour, however if you are offering the same and it takes you longer, it may not be worth it - decide what your time is worth!

    If this person is offering you the work then they obviously like your writing style, so good for you!

    Many people go on Fiverr to buy articles for SEO purposes, don't be wary of people that keep coming back to you for more work, it just means they think they are getting great value for money.

    If you want to "up" your prices, either offer less words (e.g. a 300 word article for $5) or go onto larger freelancing websites to bid for gigs and charge more for your services.

    Hope this helps
    Elle
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  • Profile picture of the author AmandaT
    Based on your post, you can probably easily charge $10-15 per 500 word article or more. Don't sell yourself short! I get orders like crazy at $15 per article. Once you get some feedback the orders don't stop coming.

    I would highly suggest starting a Warriors for Hire thread, offering some discounted articles to people wishing to review your services, and then finding writing gigs that way. Put a link in your sig and you will be advertising while you post.
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  • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
    Originally Posted by moonzombie View Post

    could they really be making enough from an MFA to justify spending $5 per article?
    Um... yes. Many MFA sites make $5 a day or more.

    They're asking for a discount now
    I like to ask them whether they expect a discount for overtime when they hire people.

    When you ask people to do more work than usual, you don't get a discount. You pay extra. Not asking them to pay extra is their discount.
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    "The Golden Town is the Golden Town no longer. They have sold their pillars for brass and their temples for money, they have made coins out of their golden doors. It is become a dark town full of trouble, there is no ease in its streets, beauty has left it and the old songs are gone." - Lord Dunsany, The Messengers
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  • Profile picture of the author Ronno99
    My suggestion is to write a couple articles and see where they end up. Deconstruct how the guy buying articles from you is making money.
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  • Profile picture of the author moonzombie
    You guys have really opened my eyes here.. Why sell myself short? I have the entire internet internet to find customers..

    Next order of business is to learn about clickbank, affiliate marketing, etc. It's exciting having so much to learn, and great resources at your fingertips. Off-topic but the other day I asked a friend to take a look at a website, "I'm too lazy" he replied. How can lazy ever be an excuse when you're sitting at a computer? You have the combined knowledge of generations at your fingertips, nearly everything that has ever been known by anyone .. EVER! You don't even need to move an ARM, just a finger - And you're too LAZY? Sorry, I'm starting to rant. LOL
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    Find out why I get hired by other article writers to help them when they're busy. Premium content, reasonable prices. PM me if you're interested.

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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Originally Posted by moonzombie View Post

      You guys have really opened my eyes here.. Why sell myself short? I have the entire internet internet to find customers..

      Next order of business is to learn about clickbank, affiliate marketing, etc. It's exciting having so much to learn, and great resources at your fingertips. Off-topic but the other day I asked a friend to take a look at a website, "I'm too lazy" he replied. How can lazy ever be an excuse when you're sitting at a computer? You have the combined knowledge of generations at your fingertips, nearly everything that has ever been known by anyone .. EVER! You don't even need to move an ARM, just a finger - And you're too LAZY? Sorry, I'm starting to rant. LOL
      It isn't moving his arm or even his finger...

      It's using that mush in his skull for more than keeping his ears apart. Compared to sitting in front of a TV or watching someone getting hit in the crotch with a cute kitty on YouTube, actually thinking is way too much work...
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