How do you know it's a high quality article?

Tune into your feelings as you read the article. Does reading it cause feelings of enlightenment as it delves into new material that you've never heard before...or does it sound like every other IM article you've read?

Well, it's possible that I already know the information from the article, but that information might be valuable for someone who doesn't know it.

I would love to see an example of an article that worth $10.

The quality of an article is only subjective until ou publish it. If you're a good writer yourself you will normally be able to recognize good writing from others. Otherwise, if you enjoy reading it and learn something from it it's probably fair to good quality. If you're not dealing with your native language it can be very difficult to judge.

The only true indicator of a quality article is its results. A quality article will be published multiple times, will get plenty of views and should contribute to site conversion by pre-selling the reader.

In my experience you will rarely ever get a quality article for $10. I've been very lucky a couple of times but good writing will usually cost a minimum of $20 and as much as $50.

Heya ForumJoiner!

I think your post is made up of 2 questions, really:

1. How can one be certain that an article he ordered isn't a rehashed piece of work from an existing article?

2. How can one gauge the value of an article?

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With regards to the first question, the answer is quite straightforward: you can't. Unless, of course, you've encountered a similarly structured article before among the billions of articles published on the internet, you cannot know for certain that an article you ordered is a "rehashed" piece of work.

But such would be a hasty and unfair assessment.

You see, there is a confusion between the idea propounded by an article and the style of the writing of an article, when it comes to determining "rehashed" content.

I firmly believe that enlightenment regarding the issue can be achieved by clarifying the terms we use. What should we consider when we are to determine if an article is "rehashed" or not: the ideas shared by the article; or the manner by which the article is written?

Order an article about dog grooming, for example, and the writer will research existing works about the subject to discover facts he can share in the article he will write for you. Does this make the article unoriginal?

What can be considered as an original piece of work, then, when an overwhelming majority of written pieces merely discuss ideas that are already in existence?

Writers will write based on existing ideas. There are times when they will come up with ideas of their own - like when they conduct their own surveys, do their own experiments, or personally experience their own discoveries - but most of the time, they will take existing ideas and discuss the same.

Bad writers will make the simplest of these ideas confusing.

Good writers will make the most imcomprehensible of these ideas easy to understand.

Great writers will make the most common ideas beautiful.

In adjudging the uniqueness of the article, I believe that the style, the structure and the spirit of the work - and NOT the idea discussed - should be made the basis.


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Your second question is actually two-fold:

1. How valuable is the article for you? What is your purpose for the article, anyway? As link bait? Then it should be highly informative, novel and even revolutionary. You will want websites to link to it because they won't be able to find the information anywhere else. Or are you planning to use the article to pre-sell a product? Then it should utilize "controlled exposition," revealing enough information that will lure people in, but strategically leaving out crucial information that will leave them curious enough to click the link to your sales page. Or will you use the article as a blog entry? Then the article should have a more personal and a more intimate feel, and it should read like a piece that is conveyed by the blogger as if he was a friend of the readers. Integration of SEO techniques is a given, but will vary per requirement as well. So, how valuable is the article for you? It would depend on how well it will serve the purpose you have assigned to it.

2. How valuable is the article for your readers? Does it contain the information they are looking for? Does it answer the questions that have been haunting them? Is the information presented new for them? Is the information conveyed in a manner that is easy for them to understand? Is the information shared in a manner that captures their imagination and engages their intellect?

Whether or not such an article is worth $10 or less, well, that's a question worthy of another thread, eh?

As I said, not having native skills in English makes it very difficult. I know I would have a lot of trouble judging articles in Romanian!

The best thing you can do is to hire a writer on the basis of good referrals from people you trust. I've had mostly good results with referrals from here on the WF.

Do you actually have articles that have been supplied to you and that you may have doubts about? I would be happy to take a look and give you my humble opinion. I've been writing for many years and my articles tend to perform well. You can PM me if you like.

Sometimes, you'll find high quality articles with a unique twist and/or thoughtful examples.

Rehashed articles will most likely be a rehash of common steps. So you're likely to just see a barebones article like: "step 1, do this... step 2, do that..."

A higher quality article goes beyond that stuff. It may have "step 1, step 2" stuff, but weaved in you might find unique examples, unique language, etc.

Example:

Rehashed article = "Rude refund requests can be upsetting..."

Something unique = "Have you ever been hit with a rude refund request? They'll make you madder than a cat falling into a swimming pool..."

Cheers,
Becky

Quality is kind of subjective.

If people are commenting and getting into a discussion on the article or socially bookmarking the article on their own, it's a pretty high quality article for that niche.