How Many articles a day should a pro do

Hi Sarah..

It really depends on what YOU want from your writer... sometimes it might take a writer all day to do 5 articles, but they could be exceptional quality.. on the other side, a different writer could do many more and still keep the quality intact.

It's not something you can put a scale on at all, really.

Sorry this doesn't help you much...

Figure out how many articles you require for your project(s) and then put it to the writer based on what you expect from him. He might bite your hand off, and he might say you expect too much, in which case, you'll need to find someone who can cater to your needs and keeo the quality of work high.

Peace

Jay

Sarah,

As someone who has hired lots of people to do article work, I can say that I don't agree with the "per day" thing.

When things are ambiguous, people will make excuses or BS you. That is why it is more efficient (for headaches and volume of production purposes) to go for a "pay per article" model.

However, to answer your post specifically, I would say for 600 word articles at 2 per hour on a 6 hr day that would mean 12 articles per day.

What fee are you paying per day. Total fee/12 articles per day (use what number you think is appropriate b/c this is just my opinion) shouldn't be more than 8-10 dollars per article.

Make sure you get that. I usually go for shorter 350-500 word articles and I pay 4-6 dollars per article...so those numbers seem to be the upper side of what is reasonable.

TANGENT: The more important thing with hiring writers is that they do quality work and do it ON TIME!!! When you hire a new writer...be on their butt for good performance b/c paying for performance is a smart model! Just a tip that will save you headaches.

END TANGENT:


Hope this gives you some good advice and thoughts

Cheers,


Brad Spencer

How much research is required for your articles?

What level of quality are you looking for?

Are you his only client?

How much do you pay him per day?

Quality not quantity is my way to go

Hi Sarah

the average writer can do 10-15 original articles a day for you

Gunter

Four.

Okay, maybe that's just me. It depends on the writer. My schedule is designed that I do from four to six articles on any given day. I occasionally do more, but the amount of time it takes me to research, compose and then edit is enough that going much beyond that is going to be difficult.

I'd say the best way to find out is to ask the writer you have in mind. Some people are prolific, and some aren't. When I'm determining how long a given batch of articles will take, I always use a rate of three per day, because I'd rather be ahead of deadline rather than behind it.

I agree with Kay, a "pro" will tell you how many they can produce on your topic and at your requested quality levels.

With that said I have to reiterate what some have already mentioned above, because it seems the term "writer" is used really broadly these days...

If they're doing a lot of research, writing on technical/specialized/difficult materials, fact checking, editing, interviewing, tracking down experts for quotes, etc then it will take longer. When I do these it can take one day to one week, and I tend to work on multiples at a time to keep things moving.

If all that "pro" stuff isn't required and it's a topic they know decently well, they'll probably produce at a nice regular rate for you. When I write about topics I know inside and out, I can crank out 20-25 high quality 500+ word articles on a good day (yes 10,000+ words). That's not easily sustainable for anyone I know of though. Ongoing averages are usually 5-10 a day depending on topic, other commitments, etc.

If they're just spewing out regurgitated basics then they'll churn and burn pretty fast. These are the types of "articles" that can be spit out at rates of 20-50 a day, day in and day out. These are also the kinds people complain about the most, because they're usually crap (and often ripped at least in part unfortunately )

I am a ghostwriter, and I have to say that how many articles you expect per day could also depend on the amount of work the writer you hired is doing for other people besides you. I write for many different clients, but I am always honest up front and tell them when I can start, and when I expect to finish.

For example, if I have 3 clients each needing 10 articles, I usually write 3 to 4 per day for each client. This way, in three days I will have all of the clients work finished. This also gives me the opportunity to send each client a portion of their articles within the first day or two so that they can go ahead and submit to article directories or put them on their site.

This works very well for me. Otherwise, speed and quality differ for different writers. I know I can average about 10 to 12 top quality articles per day normally.

I hope this makes sense. Most ghostwriters write for more than one client, so organizing a schedule is very important.

Good luck to you!

Personally, I don't write for other people. That's way too much like a J.O.B. (Dirty word) :-)

It also depends on a few things like:

Do I feel like doing it that day?

Is my brain clicking or am I just staring at the computer screen?

Am I writing about the same topic over and over. This is one that I really struggle with and I'm sure that others do too. You begin to sound like a broken record after about the 3rd or 4th article. Personally, I don't want to submit the same reworded content over and over.

I've found that I have my best success when writing 2-3 articles per topic, per day. 4-5 topics = 8-15 articles. I usually keep my articles around 300-400 words, more or less, depending on how long it takes to make my point.

Also, it will depend on how well I know the topic. It's easy if I'm already familiar with the topic, but, if I'm not, I'll usually only get about half as much done.

My two cents. :-)

Good luck!

Joe

For good articles on an extended contract, I'd stick around 5 per day. Otherwise there may be some burnout, loss of quality,etc. Especially if you have given them 200 topics on "pants".

In addition to all that's been mentioned, there's another consideration here--the writer's own business model.

For instance, I split my time 2:1 on copywriting and contracted content work vs. my own projects. However, I'd never let a single client occupy more than 1/3 of my hired work time over any given month. That prevents me from ever running into a situation where one bad non-paying apple can't sting me too badly. It also allows me to build a larger client base.

How many can the writer do? It might be worth considering how many s/he's willing to do, too.