Warriors... How do you negotiate rates with expert writers?

I think the best method you can use is to set a (fair) fixed price, something that you think they would agree to, as well as something you are willing and able to pay.

If you have fixed rates that you are fine paying with, they are more likely to accept them knowing there is no room for negotiation. Don't let applicant writers set the first price - it is much harder to negotiate from there.

BTW, it's great to see you are not compromising on the quality of writers.

If they really are expert writers, there's very little you can do about it.

They know what their time is worth; the know what their hourly rate is; they know roughly how long work's going to take them; they have enough work to fill most of the working time they have available, and they know that if you don't pay their going rate, someone else will. Otherwise they're not really "expert writers".

So it's not going to be easy. Possibly you might manage to negotiate some sort of "discount for bulk", if it's going to save them some time and effort, in the long run. But otherwise pretty difficult, I think.

There's no easy answer, I'm afraid. The value to clients of their work tends to be such that it's pretty easy for expert writers to fill all the time they want to work.

As long as you're willing to properly reward your writer, you could make it clear that you have other options. There are lots of expert writers who offer their services at fair prices.

Set a rate you are willing to pay for good writing.

When writers contact you, ignore their rates and offer them that.

Tell them you will pay when you get the writing, and if you don't like it you will send it back and not use it and they get nothing.



If they say no, ignore any counteroffer and tell them to have a nice day.

There is one exception to ignoring the writer's quoted rates: if the writer is more important than you. If you have a heavy metal guitar site, and K.K. Downing of Judas Priest contacts you saying "hey man I'd like to write an article for your site," chances are you had better STFU and pay him whatever he wants.

But if people are not going to flock onto your site clamouring to read the new article from whomever, you pay what you pay and that's that.


It is worth noting that because you are ignoring their rates, you may be offering more than they want, which is exactly as it should be. If you buy writing on an ongoing basis, you pay what you pay and everybody gets the same thing. Either the writing is good enough, or it is not. If it is good enough, they get what everyone else gets. If it is not, they get nothing.

This is how real writing outlets work; professional writers are accustomed to working this way, and would-be professionals will rapidly discover that everybody works this way so they'd better get accustomed to it.

Their rates are not "off the mark." They know what they're worth. You just don't want to pay it.

Appeal to a writer to work with your budget. For example, if you want 50 articles but your budget only amounts to what they would charge for 25 articles, then hire them for 25 articles and pay their rates. You'll be glad you did because quality is endlessly more important than quantity, and even less articles than you expected can do more when you work with a good writer.

I faced my example situation with one Internet marketer client, and after he used the first order of 25 articles, they paid for the next 25 (and then some [

Best wishes on your writing projects!