Warriors for hire section -- How to compete?

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How does one compete with the people offering to write 500 "informative" articles for 175$ over in the warriors for hire section.

I see a lot of copywriters offering bundle packages of an insane amount of articles..

What kind of articles are these? I see offers of 30 articles, 75, 300...

How does one compete with this? It's kind of disheartening--especially since I'm trying to start out. Or is marketing communications entirely different from copywriting, and the former is just a naturally expendable commodity?
#copywriting #compete #hire #section #warriors
  • In my honest opinion.........


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    • I agree. Dont even try to compete with them. It is not worth it. Offer quality and you soon have all the work you can handle.
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  • Thats right.Its about quality and quantity.Its a different set of buyers altogether.For example ,this is a typical case: The owner wants to sell his website in a month,s time - He tries to buy links,twitter follwers,facebook fans so that he can show his website as a big oppurtunity.Consider a case where a owner wants to build a business,he looks for targetted quality visitors then he cant rely on temporary stuff.He needs long standing reliable work.This is where quality works.And I can say from my experience Quality has a bigger market.
  • It depends - how good are your articles?

    If they're better than the rest, tell people to try the others first. Insist on it.

    And, if they feel your articles are not at least twice as good, they'll get their money back.

    Of, course, you'll need to make sure your articles are twice as good. (Just an example - could be five times as good, )
  • Do you have a "unique selling position". What makes you different from the other writers? It may well be quality, but there are still lots of other writers offering "quality" content. Work out exactly why people should hire you, and market yourself based on that.
  • Tell them you are the best. The best in the world...the best on The Forum. And be it. Don't ever be late. Don't ever hand something in without re-writing it at least 4 times and hopefully sitting on it for 24 hours.

    Then hand it to a proof reader, your friend, dog...grandma..whatever.

    Then ask, "How do I make this better?"

    And if you don't know something, just explain that although you do excel at nearly everything in life, you are now stumped over this one thing.
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    • Wait, your advice is to make sure to rewrite a piece at least 4 times, sit on it for a day, have a third party edit it and then still be "competitive" with people who charge next to nothing for garbage?
  • Well, on the plus side, most marketers I know don't need or want 500 articles! Plus I would assume these to be PLR arcticles and/or not very well written. I'm also trying to get a content writing business going (still working on it), and I agree with others here where you just put out top quality stuff, offer a free sample of your work, deliver on time, and get good feedback. If you do things right, people will notice and you will get work. There is plenty to go around.
  • Mostly buyers who need quality will not seeing the Price.So even your price is high,quality is giving you more customers.Keep in mind 100 long term customers is better than 500 one time customers.
  • Do not sell your self short. If your time and effort and skill is worth money. Then charge for it. Quality counts more than ever now.
    It is the reason that Brad and myself set up Writeswap.com Writers get paid what they are worth and content buyers get quality for their bucks.

    Decide what your work is worth, and stick to it. Good content writers will always be sought after.
  • You're talking more about writing content than writing copy, no?

    Because in that sense, I agree with you. Content writers go for dirt cheap here on the WF and based on the reviews, they're at least pretty good, too. That said, there's still a healthy market of buyers and if you sing your services in a way that happens to hit some ears, you'll get some business.

    Copywriting services here on the WF are competitive, but less so than content writing ones. World class copywriters offer letters for $1,000 and up their clients know it's a steal. There's also room for the ones starting out offering less expensive letters.

    What I ultimately mean is, all of the psychology and delicate fine-tuning that goes into sales copy allows for copywriters to be a bit more stratified than content writers, imo.
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    • Until you read the reviews a little more carefully, and then the bigger picture unfolds. Dirt cheap writers sell to dirt cheap marketers, and I wouldn't want to have anything to do with either of them. It's a world where writers sell themselves on a basis of price because they have absolutely nothing else to offer, and there's always going to be a cheapskate somewhere who wants something for nothing.

      Look at those who are advertising their work cheaply, and the people that use them. How many times do you see reputable WF members on there? I ran a WFH ad last week as a trial, and filtered those who applied for a sample article based on what they gave back to the forum. Seven samples, five new clients and every single one of them understands the importance and benefits of quality.

      We have a thing in the UK called 'Pound Shops'. There's no major science behind them. They're shops, and everything inside them sells for £1. Do you know what those shops are full of? Cheap, inferior merchandise. Who uses them? Penny-pinchers and those who don't understand the value in paying more for superior products. Pound shop writers offer the same merchandise, and they get the same type of people walking through the door to buy it. Nobody will ever convince me that there's such a thing as a good dirt cheap writer.

      I know it's becoming something of a mantra around here, but we say it because it's true. It's just as easy to sell quality as it is to sell a price tag. Think of writing as an article of clothing. If I buy a home-brand shirt from a supermarket, it'll cover my back and hide my nipples. It won't make me a fashion icon but it'll give me $5 worth of value. If I go out and spend $100 on an Aquascutum shirt, I'll look the nuts, women will fall at my feet, my mates will envy me and it'll pay for itself in kudos the moment I walk into a bar wearing it. Some people don't need a $100 shirt, or fail to see the value of it. Others will, and they're the ones that are going to be walking home with that fit bird in the bar while the guys in $5 shirts are crying into their beer bottles.
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  • Article writing has nothing to do with copywriting.

    If you want to market your legitimate skills along with a ton of monkeys pumping out "content", then there's lots of ways that you can make your poop-slinging seem more appealing than that of other monkeys. Ultimately, you're still a monkey and it's still poop.

    If you want to dedicate yourself to supremely high quality work as mentioned so frequently in this thread, then you're talking about this range:

    Professional Sales Page: $1,000 (minimum)
    Professional Article: $25-$60

    So you need to decide which clients you want to associate yourself with:

    1.) Those that buy $2 - $5 articles in bulk

    2.) Those that understand one $40 article will earn much more money for far longer than 100 monkey-poop articles

    Personally, I see the high-quality content market as a great one for newbies to get into. If you can push out really high quality work at a lower price than more established pros, then you'll likely earn a lot of business very quickly.

    But competing in the market that you're talking about is futile in just about every aspect imaginable. Unless of course, you're a poop-slinging monkey too?
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  • I am mildly curious: Why? Why compete? And why here?

    Why offer anything ...at all? What on planet Earth do you imagine you'd accomplish?

    I would dearly like to know the marketing you've done which tells you this is viable? No, not "I'm here ...I got stuff ...why not?" I do mean Marketing.
  • Thanks for all the responses.

    I can always count on this forum to give weight to this profession. Not that it needs it, of course, when true business value is made evident to clients in the form of real results.
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    • Desert dweller complained about it was always a struggle to have food.

      He was asked "Have you always known it to be like this?

      He replied "yes".

      He was then asked was it like this for your grandparents?

      He replied "yes"

      Then why don't you move!

      Best,
      Ewen
  • My, you are an optimist: Good Enough.

    This is A-freaking-merica. Good enough gave way to "what is the absolute least I can get away with" a long time ago. Add in the customary "...and just a little more, to be sure" and you have what we got.

    I have this played out every day. Every purchase. Airlines that slam on the breaks at takeoff, to a famous name hamburger joint that can't be bothered taking seperator sheets off the cheese, to broadband that takes a month -- and SIX appointments -- to install.

    You tell me. Is that "good enough" or just whatever can be gotten away with ...plus more?

    And, in delving to that depth, we are not even close to the cesspool of artlcle writing for pennies. At least the hamburger joint knows what hamburgers are for.

    Quality is an accident. Good enough is a joke. It has descended to Dickensian nightmare. And the level below that; starts article writing.
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    • I'm confused with your repsonse? Good Enough is the name of the poem, but if you read the whole poem, you'll realize that ONLY THE BEST, is Good Enough. Did you get that far into the poem?

      Again, I am confused at what your trying to actually say in your post?

      The one thing that does clearly stands out in your post is anger, and hostility. :confused:
  • Here's my advice: Stop trying to get the attention of ANYBODY and start being more selective about who you work with.

    Here's the first thing you should ask yourself when dealing with a potential client: "Does this guy's business model make sense? Is he making money?"

    Now a lot of article writers think, "Why should I care? I just want to get paid!"

    Wrong.

    Wrong, wrong, wrong.

    And I'll tell you why -- because when you work with a bunch of know-nothing booger eaters who just want to get a dirt-cheap writer to scratch out some crap they can slap up and HOPE HOPE HOPE they make money from ... guess what? Here's what: you're gonna get nickle and dimed ... and cheated ... stiffed ... ****ED OVER.

    It's inevitable.

    And you won't get any repeat business. Why? Because those dummies don't know how to MAKE MONEY. And if they can't make money, they can't PAY YOU to help them make more.

    You want to work for the 20% of IMers who GET IT -- experienced, professional, business-minded people who know how to turn a profit.

    Get with one or two of these folks and you'll have all the work you can handle at a terrific pay rate.

    The best part? Now you don't have to spend time prospecting or dealing with time-wasting jerkoffs.

    But here's the catch: You have to be worthy of their pay and loyalty. And that means you have to be both GOOD and RELIABLE.

    No flaking out like most writers.

    My advice is to demonstrate your skills my rewriting existing material from other, cheaper writers. Show 'em side by side. If you're good .... and the client is good ... they'll see the difference.
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  • Okay, quality is a "sweet nothing." Anybody can say it, everybody has it.

    Which makes in a pointless claim. You must immediately demonstrate what quality accomplishes for the reader, the client. In other words, everybody's got the poem (or more probably some vapid Motivation Poster -- which is just as useless), nobody has the goods.

    Quality article writing is okay. What sets apart the quality article?

    ...Linkbait articles are 100% performance based. No unsolicited inbound links, no linkbait.

    ...Does a quality artcle outpull or otherwise outperform one of less quality? Anything performance based is valid, anything opinion based is a "sweet nothing."
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    • That is your opinion. It is a valid opinion.

      However, there are also a good many buyers who don't judge vendors by performance but rather by the congruence they perceive with their own standards of quality.

      For example, people looking to sell their house do not necessarily choose the realtor who has the best record of sales. They may instead choose the one who most "gets" what they are selling, the one they have the best personal rapport with, the one they have the best reason to trust, or - I'm sure there are many other possibilities.

      The same goes for those hiring copywriters.

      Marcia Yudkin
    • Yes. It definitely does. The age-old tactic of filling websites with inferior articles with a ridiculously high keyword density are behind us, and a good bloody riddance to them as well. However, let's remember that you and I are talking from different places. You are talking as a copyrwriter and marketer. I'm talking as a freelance writer who primarily produces content, probably for people like yourself.

      I have several things that I need to achieve when I produce an article and surprisingly, there is one thing that comes before the quality itself. The first thing I have to do for my clients is to keep traffic on the page, especially when that traffic arrives looking for the right information. My work lives or dies with a killer opening paragraph or, in some cases, a killer opening sentence. If I don't do that, my clients lose customers and I'll break my back researching their articles to make sure it doesn't happen.

      I also need to think about layout. My work has to look readable. If I send in ugly blocks of text, my content will do nothing. If my work looks great, readers assume it will be easier to absorb and they stay on the page. I know these are writing basics, but they count for everything. To a greater extent, you could say that these two concepts are 'qualities' in thmeselves.

      However, once I have their attention, I have to deliver the right written quality of article. It needs to compel, inform and educate. In some cases, it might need to amuse or titillate. It really does depend on what the client wants, and how much ability you have to deliver. Clients are my biggest critics, and I always make sure I give them my best. That's a quality as well.

      What would you prefer on your website? Articles that are optimised to help give you a page one ranking, yet lose you visitors because they're not authorative enough to give your site credibility? Or would you prefer a page two ranking with a regular flow of strong traffic that buys your products because they trust you, and the content on your website?

      We throw the 'Q' word about very carelessly, and only a few understand the true meaning of it. However, quality is a neccessity in any form of income generation unless you want to be part of the thousands of 'here today - gone tomorrow' writers and marketers who choose to ignore it.

      I'll never regard my own qualities, and the quality of work that I produce, as 'sweet nothings'. I try to bring legitimate skills to the table every time I take on a project and it seems to work. My greatest source of pride comes from the feedback my clients provide, and they love the quality of my writing. There is no bigger or better testimonial to your beliefs than that.
  • Which have nothing whatever to do with performance? Scratch a mutually agreed upon idea of quality, there's performance.

    Because they think this will do what? The objection goes that the people who "don't get" what they are selling won't perform as well. For example, yes they might get sales -- not repeat business. Yes they'll get business -- but also a high rate of returns (which is non performance, ultimately).

    They'll make a sale happen by force, but word-of-mouth will suffer. Which can be measured. And beware those who establish whatever might get you to stop paying them money can't be measured: They're tying to sell you something, and it ain't what you paid for.

    Even the people talking branding actually want branding to happen. Which is performance.

    Let's say the branding is "We're modern." And it goes against what customers expect, for some reason. Or the article doesn't convince customers a company has modernized, perhaps. How would that be detected, and corrected.

    In no way, apparantly, because the people who are trying to say something isn't going to plan "don't get it." All we need is somebody to pronounce it "quality," and case closed.

    Performance isn't always dollars and cents, immediately. That's probably why it's spelled differently from m-o-n-e-y.
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