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Article Writing - Test & Results

by Bev Clement
10 replies
Disclaimer: This has nothing to do with the rates people charge. Each person has set their own rates based on their own business model.

This is an actual test which I carried out and the results received.

This test was taken by 52 people, 43 of whom are active on the Warrior Forum. All offer services as writers, and they offer different services and prices.

The test was the following:-

Research and write a 500 word article on a specific subject.
Cite the sites used for the research material.

Using your current pricing structure is this a low, mid or high range article?

Results

Most people said their article was in their low range price range but felt the quality was a high price range article.

I followed through by asking if the article was in the low range, how would they change it to make it a mid or high range priced article.

The response was amazing.

Nobody said they would make any changes, if they could get more for the article then they would charge more.

I disagree with them.

I said if you are charging a low price for the article why anyone should pay you a higher price because there are no changes to the articles.

If I wrote an article the difference would be seen depending on the price paid.

Writers can't just change the prices because a buyer will pay more.

I also asked them, if you doubled your prices overnight, how you could justify the price increase to buyers?

The same is true for any services but writers need to understand their business and their business model. If they can't say to themselves why they are doubling their prices, then why should any buyer agree to the higher prices?
#article #results #writing
  • Profile picture of the author HowToMakeAWebsite
    this is definitely good to know thanx for posting this. Article marketing is something I need to do more of I hate writing ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
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    • Profile picture of the author kindsvater
      I think it's a matter of finding what the market will pay for a product.

      For example, I had a legal product for new business owners that I initially priced at $35. Where did I get $35? I took the time to prepare it, then arbitrarily discounted it as a leader to get better business.

      Over time, I began charging more and more for the exact same product. Up to $197 without any decrease in conversions.

      How do I justify charging someone $197 for a product I once charged someone else $35?

      Easy. I was undercharging at the outset. The "value" of a product is not based on the price. The value is in the eyes of the consumer, and the question is whether the price is reasonable for that value.

      Bev, it seems implicit in your question that one should never raise their prices. That doesn't seem reasonable. If there is demand for a product at a higher price, why would someone unnecessarily leave 'money on the table'?
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  • Profile picture of the author AaronSnider
    I really find this interesting but I bet this same result would go for many different products.

    I remember a couple years ago a tv reporter was interviewing a home builder and asked
    him why home prices were going up so fast. Were materials more expensive? was labor
    more expensive?

    The mans response was... If they will pay more, we will charge more.

    Simply amazing. No change in the product, or cost to produce it at all. Simply if they
    will pay it, we will charge it.

    I couldn't believe he would say that on TV. I am still unhappy about his response.
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  • Profile picture of the author Bev Clement
    Brian, no I didn't say people shouldn't raise their prices, but they have to justify them even if it's in their own mind.

    What I was saying to the writers, they can't just double their prices because someone comes along willing to pay more, without have different standards for different writing.

    Here was the problem.

    Person A wrote an article which they would sell for $10 because this was their normal rate. However, buyer B comes along and says I want a mid-range article for $15, and they sell one they know they would normally sell for $10. Buyer C comes along and says I want a high quality article for $30 and the writer does the same type of article they would sell to Buyer A.

    Before anyone says those are high prices if they are selling the article to many people, the test was about unique articles.

    The pricing question was based on the work they would produce for different people at the same time, not the same article.
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    • Profile picture of the author Tina Golden
      I have to go with what healymedia said. I already put a lot of research and thought into every piece that I write. The problem isn't that I need to increase the value of my work. The problem is getting the customer to see the value.

      You can't blame the marketers, though. When you run a business, you naturally try to source the lowest cost suppliers in order to maximize your profit. That's how you run a profitable business. I do think some are short sighted in this area but it's their business to run as they see fit.

      The other part of the equation is the amount of value put into the work by the different writers. I started out with penny a word content mills where I saw others getting paid the same rates for some of the lousiest articles. The same thing happens at most of the lower price points. You will find some that put their heart and soul into every piece they produce and others who paraphrase an article they found on the web.

      I really believe that as Google's algorithm evolves (assuming they truly do want the best content to be shown) you will see marketers realizing that they need better content to stay ahead of the competition. Those who can't produce that quality will be left in the dust and those of us who can produce content worth reading will have a much easier time getting a living wage.

      Tina
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  • Profile picture of the author Zeus66
    This also involves the writer's existing knowledge about a topic, too. I could write a superior quality article without any research about most IM/MMO topics. Might take me half an hour. But the lowest quality article I could sell without feeling ashamed in other niches might take me a couple of hours because I'd have to educate myself about it first. Which one do I charge more for? See what I mean? I could write 4 IM articles of very high quality in the same time it would take me to write one average quality article about something I have to research to know anything at all about before I write it.

    I could make a living in some niches charging bargain prices, while in others I would not make enough to pay more than the phone bill spending the same number of hours on the writing.

    I guess what I'm saying is that this is much more complex than merely comparing article A's quality to article B's.
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  • Profile picture of the author Lincoln Ryan
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    • Profile picture of the author thedogtreatjar
      I concur with Healy and TMG - no matter how great our writing, sometimes we need to lower the price to get any money at all.

      However... when I have 5 projects pending and one person is paying me $10 an article (WF price) and somebody else is paying me $20 an article (non WF price) I am naturally going to spend more time researching the higher priced product. Now, I don't keep an egg timer on or anything but, I schedule my day accordingly. I believe my product is good every time...but there will be room for improvement for the articles with a lower price tag.

      To me it all breaks down into an hourly wage. I set aside so many hours a week for lower priced products and once that is full I don't take anymore.

      And as far as justifying my price increases... it tends to do a lot more with my workload. That's just basic supply/demand. If I can get 45 hours a week worth of work at $15 an article, I could probably get 30 hours a week at $20. If a client complains I decide on a case by case basis if I care. I tend to bend over backwords for a nice people, others can take hike.
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      • Profile picture of the author Tina Golden
        If a client complains I decide on a case by case basis if I care. I tend to bend over backwords for a nice people, others can take hike.
        Love that...just had to say it.

        Tina
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  • Profile picture of the author Anna Johnson
    The problem isn't that I need to increase the value of my work. The problem is getting the customer to see the value.
    Bingo, and the reality is that a lot of Internet marketers don't care so much about how well written or interesting is a given article. They want the article for traffic generation (via SEO or otherwise) or some other purpose that may not appear to require it to be of a particular 'high quality'.

    The best thing an article writer can do to justify a higher price is to explain WHY they're worth it.
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