How Much Do You Pay For Good Quality Articles?

95 replies
There's always discussion about how awful the articles are that you pay $3 or $4 to ghostwriters. However, how many of you are actually paying good prices for articles?

I'm talking about at least $20 for a 500 word article.

If you do pay such prices, how many articles do you get written and for what purpose?
#articles #pay #quality
  • Profile picture of the author edmltw
    If I'm going to pay $20 dollars for a single article, it's got to minimally have these following criterias:

    1. At least 1,000 words of solid information. Zero grammer errors and all facts are supplied with evidence.

    2. Properly SEO-ed and comes with a detailed report of the keyword research (competition, amount of backlinks to rank, etc.)

    3. Must be 100% Unique & Original.

    That's just my two cents worth

    Ed
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  • Profile picture of the author Matt Blake
    For a really high quality blog post for one of my popular niche blogs I hire someone local to do it for $50 per post every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday.

    It's about 1000-2000 words long and it's filled with links, pictures, videos..etc plus gets really good feedback from the blogosphere.
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  • Profile picture of the author InternetM39482
    Depends on the purpose.

    Back in the start of 2009, I used to pay $75 per post on my blog to a really, really good writer. The articles were pretty good, well received. I used to publish them on my blogs. They were around 750-800 words long. Sometimes they were also used as guest posts for authority blogs in my niche.

    How many? At that time, 2 a week.
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  • Profile picture of the author mattlaclear
    I purchase close to fifty 500 word articles a week for $7 a piece and absolutely love what I'm getting in return. I have to tweak maybe one or two of them a week so I am very happy with the arrangement.
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    • Profile picture of the author connorbringas
      Wow I'm amazed people actually pay that kind of money for a blog post
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      • Profile picture of the author Kendra Hanes
        Originally Posted by connorbringas View Post

        Wow I'm amazed people actually pay that kind of money for a blog post
        It depends on what you need for your niche. The bottom line is what's your ROI ... if $20, $50, $75 is what it takes to keep your readers happy, loving your stuff, spending money and you've quadrupled your investment ... the inital cash outlay is worth it.

        If your numbers prove you will be a millionaire in 6 months if you spend $200 dollars a week on service to enhance your site ... Would you do it?

        I would ... and work on scaling it up once I got there ... .

        When looking at costs ... always look at your return on the investment.
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        • Profile picture of the author Alminc
          You really don't have to pay $20+ for 500 words quality article.
          $12 is more than enough to get 500 words of high quality content.
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    • Profile picture of the author snagerries
      Can you share some of those sites from where you purchased the articles and not a scam..
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    • Profile picture of the author JGK
      Yes I pay around $7.50 an article...for a well seo'd ...well written 500-700 word piece with Paragraphs of 4-5 lines
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  • Profile picture of the author Trucker
    its cool getting your articles written by any ghost writers or freelancers who can do a similar thing which we are looking for in a desired article.

    whether it needs to put pics, videos, graphs to the article, writers do follow the instructions, because from both the sides, there is some sorta service been outsourced & both the parties are interested to see how one performs & how one pays back...
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  • Profile picture of the author ~kev~
    Originally Posted by DomenicoGrecojr View Post


    I'm talking about at least $20 for a 500 word article.
    $20 for a 500 word article - does the article come with images, and/or a video?

    Are these recycled images, or images taken just for the article. Will the images be given to other people for them to use?

    To me, $20 for 500 words - and nothing else - seems ok, but maybe a little on the high side. If you have someone that knows the niche, and does not have to waste time doing research, they could probably make a 500 word article in 30 - 45 minutes. In my opinion, $20 for 30 minutes work is pretty good for them.

    I guess one of the key issues is how much experience does the author have in the field? If you have someone with 5+ years experience in the niche, their going to offer better details then someone that does not have a clue as to what their posting about. I would rather buy from an experienced author, then someone who is going to have to research everything.

    $20 - experienced author that knows what their posting about.

    $5 - noob who has no idea, and only post what he/she has read on other sites.

    Those prices are what I "might" be willing to pay. Since I write all of my own content, I have not bought any articles yet. But it is something I have considered.
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    • Profile picture of the author Jerky
      Article pricing is like anything else: some are simply worth more than others.

      I write my own stuff, so I'm not talking from experience. That said, here's what I'd be willing to pay for the average 500-worder:

      A) $.02 if it's written like most $2 articles - that is, reads like garbage, full of errors and clearly written by either someone who doesn't understand English or just smashes the keyboard down a few times until a string of random letters reaches 500 words.

      B) $10-$20 if it's written by a professional writer with a concise, sharp style, even if the topic isn't his or her forte.

      C) $25-$50 if I'm actually trying to elicit a response from viewer with the copy (i.e. not just a filler blog post). And it's well written.

      D) $50 or More if I'm actually using it as sales copy. The better the copy, the better the ROI.

      E) $100 or More if it's written by a celebrity. I'd cut a $500 check to Brad Pitt if he'd write just one sentence on a blog about acting without batting an eye.

      And of course:

      F) $1 million if it's written by me.

      Okay, might have stretched that last one a bit
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      • Profile picture of the author JayKing
        With Ref to Jerky's Post:

        This point probably raises another question: How much would one be willing pay to have someone proofread articles in $2-3 range...?
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        • Profile picture of the author Dan C. Rinnert
          Originally Posted by JayKing View Post

          This point probably raises another question: How much would one be willing pay to have someone proofread articles in $2-3 range...?
          Proofreading or copyediting? Some of those $2-$3 may need more than a simple proofreading to make them usable.
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          • Profile picture of the author JayKing
            Originally Posted by Dan C. Rinnert View Post

            Proofreading or copyediting? Some of those $2-$3 may need more than a simple proofreading to make them usable.
            My Point Exactly
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      • Profile picture of the author DaveHughes
        My responses to an earlier post below, which sum up my feelings on this endless debate:

        Originally Posted by Jerky View Post

        Article pricing is like anything else: some are simply worth more than others.

        I write my own stuff, so I'm not talking from experience. That said, here's what I'd be willing to pay for the average 500-worder:

        A) $.02 if it's written like most $2 articles - that is, reads like garbage, full of errors and clearly written by either someone who doesn't understand English or just smashes the keyboard down a few times until a string of random letters reaches 500 words.

        Hey! The "smash the keyboard with your forehead method" is highly respected by my kids!

        B) $10-$20 if it's written by a professional writer with a concise, sharp style, even if the topic isn't his or her forte.

        If you can find a "professional writer with a concise, sharp style" willing to do it for that. The problem is, a professional writer isn't going to be making $10 or $20 an hour, and some would take longer than an hour to write that article. Not all, but some...that's what makes them professionals. And I'm sorry, how long it takes you to write something has absolutely nothing to do with how long it takes a professional, unless you are one. Name any other professional you can hire to provide a service where you (the buyer) gets to set the price.

        C) $25-$50 if I'm actually trying to elicit a response from viewer with the copy (i.e. not just a filler blog post). And it's well written.

        If you're not trying to elicit a response from the reader with a piece of writing, what purpose is it serving? Taking up space? Or just for backlinks?

        D) $50 or More if I'm actually using it as sales copy. The better the copy, the better the ROI.

        BWAA-HAA-HAA! Good luck with that $50 sales copy; let me know how long that search takes you, and what your response rate is.

        E) $100 or More if it's written by a celebrity. I'd cut a $500 check to Brad Pitt if he'd write just one sentence on a blog about acting without batting an eye.

        And here's a fundamental problem with the way this is looked at: Brad Pitt wouldn't WAVE at you for $500. It doesn't matter what you would pay for it...it's what he would charge to do it, and you could pay it or not. It's the same with talented writers. Someone mentioned that J.K. Rowling better have written an article if it was $20. Rowling has made over a billion dollars from the Potter series...a writer of that caliber wouldn't even take the time to laugh at your offer.

        And yes, I'm well aware that you weren't necessarily being literal with the name dropping; the point remains the same, however. You don't get J.K. Rowling quality for J.K. Nobody rates. Heck, if you think $500 is a fair rate to pay a celebrity to write for you, and $20 a fair rate to pay someone of the level of success as Rowling for an article, then you're officially out of touch with reality.

        Many marketers seem to think it's a privilege for someone to write for them, whether it be a person that has worked years to master their craft and do it for a living, or Brad Pitt. It's not. Writers provide value in exchange for payment. You pay what it's worth, and writers charge what it's worth to them.

        Those marketers that don't think it's a privilege to work for them (and there are plenty that don't think that way) seem to think what they're willing to pay someone is all that should be charged by anyone. Bull-hockey. If you don't want to pay more than $5 per article, then don't.

        However, that doesn't mean that you've set the market price for writing services, and doesn't mean you get to explain from your high-horse that anyone's rate is "outrageous".

        The same thing applies to the writers, by the way. If someone doesn't want to pay what you consider a decent rate, then move on to the next client that will pay what you're asking. No sense is griping...that time could be spent racking up even more clients. It's a no-win battle, I'm afraid.

        And of course:

        F) $1 million if it's written by me.

        Depends...if this is J.K.Rowling's account, then yep...that's about accurate. Otherwise...I'll be glad to undercut you and write a 500 word article for $995,000...that's a $5,000 savings for you!

        Okay, might have stretched that last one a bit

        Naaaahhhh.....lol
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  • Profile picture of the author tess47
    Exceptional quality is everything online, and it still blows my mind that some people will write a 500 word article for even $5! Consider the research time and writing of the article, and it would take most people at least 45 minutes to complete the project. I don't know about some writers, but I'm not going to offer my services and make minimum wage or less

    If a writer offers solid information and well constructed articles that are SEO'd properly, I think any 500 word article is worth $15 to $20 or more.

    Just MHO!
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  • Profile picture of the author CIKMarketing
    We don't buy articles, but we do write articles for people and charge approximately $18 - $25 per article. There seems to be a large demand for well written, grammarically correct articles. Typically, the word count on these articles ranges from 500-700 words.
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  • Profile picture of the author Scott Kennedy
    $20 for 500 words is ridiculous. A reasonable price for a top notch quality 500 word article would be around $7-$9 IMO. That's what I charge and have never had a complaint by a client. I usually spend 15-30 minutes researching and 7-10 minutes writing. I like to believe that I am a better researcher than most article writers as I am a research assistant for a number of well known Australian academics and I constantly edit their papers which have, in the past, been published by top tier economic journals. Any less than $1.20 per word and you're bound to find at least one grammar mistake. Anymore than $10 and you best be sure it was written by J.K.Rowling or someone similar.
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    • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
      Originally Posted by Scott Kennedy View Post

      $20 for 500 words is ridiculous. A reasonable price for a top notch quality 500 word article would be around $7-$9 IMO. That's what I charge and have never had a complaint by a client.
      I charge $25-$50 for a 500 word article.

      I've never had a complaint either.
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      "The Golden Town is the Golden Town no longer. They have sold their pillars for brass and their temples for money, they have made coins out of their golden doors. It is become a dark town full of trouble, there is no ease in its streets, beauty has left it and the old songs are gone." - Lord Dunsany, The Messengers
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      • Profile picture of the author Scott Kennedy
        Originally Posted by CDarklock View Post

        I charge $25-$50 for a 500 word article.

        I've never had a complaint either.
        Jesus lol. More power to you man.

        Originally Posted by Dan C. Rinnert View Post

        This topic comes up a lot around here. Out of curiosity, I decided to raise the question in a writers forum to see what freelance writers earn for their work.

        From the ones that have replied so far, no one would write a 500 word article for $5. Some have said that if those were the going rates, they would get into another line of work. So far, there hasn't been anyone that would do a 500 word article for less than $35.

        For one respondent, the low-end of her payscale per article is $200.

        And she's not J.K. Rowling.
        That is stupid money for a 500 word article, no matter who writes it. I can understand paying that if you are wanting a sales copy or a major pillar article for a blog, but for your run of the mill 500 word articles that are only generated in order to update content, $35 is ridiculous. $200 is just plain stupid. In all honesty, if you're willing to pay $200 for a 500 word article, you deserve losing/parting with the money.

        But hey, the writers love it. They're getting paid $35 for less than an hours work. That's a hell of a lot better than most normal jobs.
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        • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
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          • Profile picture of the author Scott Kennedy
            Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

            Scott, there really isn't a way to say this without it sounding dismissive or impolite - and for that I apologize, and sincerely - but this is simply nonsense. There's another level of article marketing and article production of which you're unaware. Sorry, but this is just factual.

            It saddens me to see an article writer holding such a limited perception of the potential value of articles. Why should a professional writer, with years of successful experience, whose work has proven results for his frequently returning clients, be earning less than any other equivalent professionals with considerable education, expertise and proven success? :confused:
            I stand by everything I said. I have my opinions, you have yours. But like I said, I can understand the value if the articles are pillar articles or are intended as a sales copy. But for the run of the mill 500 word article which is being used to update content and provide directory backlinks, $35 is ridiculous.

            Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

            Stupid - ridiculous - plain stupid?

            Or maybe you don't know much about writing - or anything about the business of writing outside the tiny IM niche????

            Most who hold forth with opinions in threads like this either have no experience in hiring a writer outside the IM niche - or are looking for work writing articles themselves.
            Hi Kay. It may come as a surprise to you that I have only ever written a handful of articles in the IM niche. Most of my clients come from outside the IM world, however it is only recently (past year or so) whereby I have offered my services to people such as yourself. My writing has been published and syndicated in various major Australian newspapers and local print media. I do not need to brag about my credentials so I wont. But please read the response I just wrote to Alexa, especially the part about the run of the mill content article, which was also in my original post. People hold different opinions. You know the old saying about what happens when you assume..

            Originally Posted by skyfox7 View Post

            I look at it like this, if I pay $50 and get a real article meant for humans, resulting in decent syndication and my list adding another 100 subscribers at $0.50 a pop, then that is cheaper than Adwords, especially in the dating/relationships niche.

            Totally worth it IMO!

            Chris
            Hey, to each his own. How many $50 500 word articles have added 100 subscribers to your list? If you wanted an article for the sole purpose of updating your site, would you spend $50 everytime?

            Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

            It's the same as a vintage Bordeaux wine.

            Some are unable to distinguish between a $25 wine and a $250 wine, and/or expect (often rightly) that their dinner guests will be unable to distinguish between the two, and cling to the knowledge that sometimes $25 bottles are sold for $250 (which indeed they can be, though not by vintners who expect to remain in business for long) in justifying their chosen perspective that "the expensive ones can't possibly have the matching additional 'value' and 'therefore' the prices are stupid".

            It's just another example of "What I don't appreciate myself, and/or am unaware of, can't really be worth the extra," and it deserves to be taken no more seriously than that.
            This analogy does not fit with what I was saying at all. You have guests around for dinner and you want to impress so you bring out the $250 bottle of wine. In the same fashion, you want to generate valuable content for your visitors and actually have people come to your site, so you post the well researched, expensive pillar article.

            On the other hand, say you have your extended family come over one Tuesday night for your average family meal. Will you bring out the $250 bottle of wine, or the $25 bottle? If you are looking to keep your website updated but have nothing special planned, will you use the expensive, labor intensive pillar article, or one that was researched and written in less than an hour and does the job it was created for? Both are two very different things for two very different circumstances. Implying that because one uses the cheaper option they must have no idea about the benefits of the expensive option is just not correct at all.

            This is an internet marketing forum. When people post questions here, it's a safe bet they are talking in the context of the IM world unless they say otherwise. So attempting to insult people by assuming they have no knowledge outside of the IM world is idiotic. The OP asked what you pay for an article and how you use it. If you're one of the people that pay $35+ for normal, everyday 500 word articles then more power to you. I for one would not pay that amount unless it was a pillar article or some sort of review/sales copy.

            I think some people in this thread suffer from selective reading.
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            • Profile picture of the author Silas Hart
              $5-$8 per article. I have 4 made per day by two different people.
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            • Profile picture of the author PeterGarety
              First of all - not always price is the main criteria between good and not so good article. I have a writer who works for me almost four months now. I pay $0,009 per work for original article.

              However, when I want to generate real traffic to my site, I pay only $2,5 per article, which is specifically constructed to get people attention and persuade them to click through to my site.

              I wouldn't pay for article $20, even if it would be written with a golden pen. I simply do not see a point doing so.

              I order 9-12 article per day, so I don't see the point to pay more then $2,5 per 400 words.
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            • Profile picture of the author Drizlek
              I know personally from experience just rewrites alone I may anywhere from $1.25 to $3.00 depending on the length of the article. Unique content, I have paid as much as $7 per article.

              As far as the rewrites go, yeah at that price many times you will get garbage articles. I would say it's about a 40 to 1 ratio... it takes about 40 horrible writers at that rate before you get one that's really good. From that point on you hope you can keep them around for more than a month or that they don't get overwhelmed and reassign the articles to someone else. It's a dead give away though when articles go from being totally legible to trash in a matter of one day to the next.
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              • Profile picture of the author HarrisAndrea
                I have been strugling to find a good quality writer (native english speaker) to write articles for my technology websites. Because these sites are highly technical with lots of "how-to" information (they were built by me), I would pay a good some of money per article if I could find an expert technical writer. It depends to the type of content that you need.

                By the way, if someone here is good at writing about computers, software, I.T, certifications etc, then drop me a PM.
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        • Profile picture of the author Chris Worner
          Originally Posted by Scott Kennedy View Post

          That is stupid money for a 500 word article, no matter who writes it. I can understand paying that if you are wanting a sales copy or a major pillar article for a blog, but for your run of the mill 500 word articles that are only generated in order to update content, $35 is ridiculous. $200 is just plain stupid. In all honesty, if you're willing to pay $200 for a 500 word article, you deserve losing/parting with the money.
          I look at it like this, if I pay $50 and get a real article meant for humans, resulting in decent syndication and my list adding another 100 subscribers at $0.50 a pop, then that is cheaper than Adwords, especially in the dating/relationships niche.

          Totally worth it IMO!

          Chris
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          • Profile picture of the author DomenicoGrecojr
            Interesting views.

            For me personally, I would not spend more than $3 for a 500 word article for a website that I was focusing on generating Adsense income from. As long as the article was SEO'd I don't care if the quality isn't good.

            For a website which I'm trying to become an authority and have to show my expertise, I am more than happy to pay for quality.

            $35 for a 500 word article? That's nothing if it gets me business and a good impression overall. With enough of these articles produced, you will get noticed.

            Take websites like copyblogger for instance. It was continuous quality content that managed to get them the success they have now.
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            • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
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              • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
                Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

                justifying their chosen perspective that "the expensive ones can't possibly have the matching additional 'value' and 'therefore' the prices are stupid".
                People who don't think a bottle of wine could be worth $250 have simply never had a $250 bottle of wine.

                I taught my girlfriend this last year. I also taught her why $80 for a steak is not too much at all, and just one glass of Scotch can be worth $200.

                Doesn't mean I won't eat lunch at McDonald's, or fix Hamburger Helper for dinner, or even pick up a box of Franzia Merlot at the grocery store. I don't have any illusion that everything you ever get must always be the best. But sometimes, you do need the best, and refusing to do it over something so trivial as price is just sad.
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                "The Golden Town is the Golden Town no longer. They have sold their pillars for brass and their temples for money, they have made coins out of their golden doors. It is become a dark town full of trouble, there is no ease in its streets, beauty has left it and the old songs are gone." - Lord Dunsany, The Messengers
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                • Profile picture of the author TKO
                  LOL This discussion is out of control...... Comparing Wine to Articles is hilarious.

                  Wine= years to make, vintage, rare, location and all the other crap..

                  Article= 20 minutes of communication, via writing, in hope that someone clicks an affiliate link...

                  Next we'll be comparing Holden's and Ferrari's
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                  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
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                  • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
                    Originally Posted by TKO View Post

                    Article= 20 minutes of communication, via writing, in hope that someone clicks an affiliate link...
                    If that's all you're doing with your articles, I can see why you don't hire real writers.

                    On the other hand, maybe if you hired real writers, you might be able to do more...
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                    "The Golden Town is the Golden Town no longer. They have sold their pillars for brass and their temples for money, they have made coins out of their golden doors. It is become a dark town full of trouble, there is no ease in its streets, beauty has left it and the old songs are gone." - Lord Dunsany, The Messengers
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                    • Profile picture of the author Dan C. Rinnert
                      About 7 years ago, I paid around $30 for a 500-word article.

                      Since then, it has been on page one of Google pretty consistently. It moves up and down now and then, but it stays on page one.

                      I did not build any backlinks to it. I did not spin it and put it on article directories. I just paid $30 or so for the article and put it on my website. So, my investment was about $30. And for 7 years, that single investment resulted in an article that has stayed on page one of Google.

                      How many $2-$5 articles would you have to buy to stay on page one of Google that long? How much time or money would you need to spend on building backlinks or submitting $2-$5 articles to article directories to stay on page one of Google that long?

                      I spent about $30. That works out to under $5 per year.

                      But I guess I'm ridiculously stupid for spending that kind of money on a single article.
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                    • Profile picture of the author MissTerraK
                      If you refuse to pay a premium price for a premium writer, giving premium results to your business, then perhaps you need to adjust your mindset regarding your business.

                      Many business owners never go on to be truly successful because they cannot envision their business going beyond a certain point. A blockage arises, and they just can't see past it.

                      They therefore merely settle, never bringing their business to a "premium" level.

                      Could this perhaps be the culprit here?

                      Terra
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                • Profile picture of the author dremora
                  Originally Posted by CDarklock View Post

                  People who don't think a bottle of wine could be worth $250 have simply never had a $250 bottle of wine.
                  Try the $2000/bottle Chateau Petrus vintage. People who drink the homeless bum liquor can't comprehend the idea that the wine that costs $2000 and the clientele that pays for that actually exist!

                  I taught my girlfriend this last year. I also taught her why $80 for a steak is not too much at all, and just one glass of Scotch can be worth $200.
                  Only if you could teach that to the clueless folks who don't know the difference between cheap bulk backlink articles catering to search engine robots and the actual quality web content catering to human readers who subscribe to your site, write comments, recommend it to their friends, email and tweet it around cause they like it. And they buy the stuff you recommend cause they trust you. That takes time and effort to build.


                  Doesn't mean I won't eat lunch at McDonald's, or fix Hamburger Helper for dinner, or even pick up a box of Franzia Merlot at the grocery store. I don't have any illusion that everything you ever get must always be the best. But sometimes, you do need the best, and refusing to do it over something so trivial as price is just sad.
                  99 cent tacos and the 99 dollar gourmet dinners each have their place. You don't take the hot chick you are trying to impress to the 99 cent taco stall. You take the search engine crawlers there
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  • Profile picture of the author ASCW
    I write my own stuff, so I'm not talking from experience. That said, here's what I'd be willing to pay for the average 500-worder:

    A) $.02 if it's written like most $2 articles - that is, reads like garbage, full of errors and clearly written by either someone who doesn't understand English or just smashes the keyboard down a few times until a string of random letters reaches 500 words.

    B) $10-$20 if it's written by a professional writer with a concise, sharp style, even if the topic isn't his or her forte.

    C) $25-$50 if I'm actually trying to elicit a response from viewer with the copy (i.e. not just a filler blog post). And it's well written.

    D) $50 or More if I'm actually using it as sales copy. The better the copy, the better the ROI.

    E) $100 or More if it's written by a celebrity. I'd cut a $500 check to Brad Pitt if he'd write just one sentence on a blog about acting without batting an eye.
    This is dead on the money in my opinion. I have so many clients who have been burned by .02 writers in the past. Even if they order in bulk I won't go a cent under 10 dollars per article, I'll also add 10 dollar articles makes the math really easy =p. I must say that 50 dollar sales copy sounds like crazy talk. I would be scared and would not have confidence in the sales writer if they only charged $50.
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  • Profile picture of the author Margo Tuul
    I will never pay more than $1 per 100 words. And articles for this price, are very good. I have personal writer and very happy with his work. Have used his articles on many blogs also. Many articles are ranking first in Google, without any backlinks. Just SEO in articles.
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    • Profile picture of the author ~kev~
      Originally Posted by Margo24 View Post

      I will never pay more than $1 per 100 words.
      So you see no difference in an article written by an authority in his/her field, and one written by a high school drop out that can barely read and write?

      Lets say you had a blog on health and fitness, and you had the choice between 2 articles:

      1 - written by a medical doctor with 20+ years experience in family practice.

      2 - some kid in college that has not been to a doctor in 5 years.

      Article 1 establishes your blog as an authority, because it pulls from the experience and resources that the doctor brings with him/her. The doctors biography, education and experience can be posted as part of the article.

      The other article does nothing to very little for your blog. Its just an article with nothing to back it up. The second article, does not help establish your blog as an authority, because its not writen by someone that is an authority in his/her field.

      And your still only willing to pay $1 per 100 words?

      Why do you think sites like the Center for Disease Control and WebMD are considered authority sites?
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      • Profile picture of the author RentItNow
        Originally Posted by ~kev~ View Post

        1 - written by a medical doctor with 20+ years experience in family practice.

        2 - some kid in college that has not been to a doctor in 5 years.
        It depends on their writing skills. Don't know many doctors with good writing skills but know many college kids with their ears to the ground and can write just fine.

        This is the same argument about the city I live in compared to a city 500 miles away. My city pays $10 for unskilled, $15 for skilled labour and the other city pays $21 for unskilled and $30 for skilled. Why? What's even worse is some companies are getting people from my city to drive to the other city and not pay them the usual rate in the better city. Go figure! Now look at that on a global scale.
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  • Profile picture of the author bgray
    I pay $10-12 for most of my quality articles but it really depends on the niche and the expertise to attract the target audience. I've paid as much as $75 for 500 word articles in a super high expertise field where the writer was a retiree with 30 years of executive experience.
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  • Profile picture of the author NetWorth
    I have written articles for people and now run a service where I outsource the writing and deliver them to clients. I charge about $1.00 per 100 words and my staff delivers high quality articles.
    I understand how some people pay more for articles because it can be hard to find good writers. I have been through a dozen or so before finding the staff that I use now. When I was writing for myself I used to use voice recognition software and once I was familiar with the topic I could write and proof about 4 500 word articles in an hour and fifteen minutes.
    I then realized that for the quality I was able to give that I could get people to pay $6, $7, or $8 for my articles so quality does matter.
    I now produce videos, sales copy and re-writes for many clients on a regular basis.
    As a rule of thumb on price, for most people who just need original content for a site or who need articles for a link wheel $5 for 500 words is a OK price but if you want great quality you need to pay a little more.
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    • Profile picture of the author Dan C. Rinnert
      This topic comes up a lot around here. Out of curiosity, I decided to raise the question in a writers forum to see what freelance writers earn for their work.

      From the ones that have replied so far, no one would write a 500 word article for $5. Some have said that if those were the going rates, they would get into another line of work. So far, there hasn't been anyone that would do a 500 word article for less than $35.

      For one respondent, the low-end of her payscale per article is $200.

      And she's not J.K. Rowling.
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      • Profile picture of the author NetWorth
        Please send the people who are willing to pay this for a 500 word article my way. I would be more than happy to charge them that!!!

        Fact of the matter is you can get quality for $5.00 per article. But if it makes you feel better about yourself I'm more than happy to charge anyone more.

        Originally Posted by Dan C. Rinnert View Post

        This topic comes up a lot around here. Out of curiosity, I decided to raise the question in a writers forum to see what freelance writers earn for their work.

        From the ones that have replied so far, no one would write a 500 word article for $5. Some have said that if those were the going rates, they would get into another line of work. So far, there hasn't been anyone that would do a 500 word article for less than $35.

        For one respondent, the low-end of her payscale per article is $200.

        And she's not J.K. Rowling.
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        • Profile picture of the author Kay King
          That is stupid money for a 500 word article, no matter who writes it. I can understand paying that if you are wanting a sales copy or a major pillar article for a blog, but for your run of the mill 500 word articles that are only generated in order to update content, $35 is ridiculous. $200 is just plain stupid. In all honesty, if you're willing to pay $200 for a 500 word article, you deserve losing/parting with the money.

          But hey, the writers love it. They're getting paid $35 for less than an hours work. That's a hell of a lot better than most normal jobs.
          Stupid - ridiculous - plain stupid?

          Or maybe you don't know much about writing - or anything about the business of writing outside the tiny IM niche????

          Most who hold forth with opinions in threads like this either have no experience in hiring a writer outside the IM niche - or are looking for work writing articles themselves.

          Please send the people who are willing to pay this for a 500 word article my way. I would be more than happy to charge them that!!!
          You are the one who sets your fees. If your writing is worth more than $5 you could charge more - but if you look for customers on IM forums, you have to compete with price expectations in that niche. There are some good writers in the for-hire section here and I'm sure some write for higher fees and fill in their workload with quick IM articles or outsource to their own writing teams.

          There are excellent writers on the WF who do not advertise their services here because it doesn't fit their business or their fee schedules.

          It's not an "us vs them" argument. There are writers in all price ranges and buyers in all price ranges. It's all relative, sherlock.

          kay
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          • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
            Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

            Or maybe you don't know much about writing - or anything about the business of writing outside the tiny IM niche????
            Or even within it. I've got a contract right now for an ebook. The $1,200 it's going to cost involves roughly 60 hours of research, writing, and editing for a total of 20,000 words. That winds up being about an hour and a half per 500 words, $20 per hour, and $30 per "article."

            But Scott does have one point: less than a third of that time will be spent writing. The research is well over half of the process.

            From his perspective, I'm sure I "just sit around doing nothing" for a couple weeks, then get paid over $60 an hour when I finally get off my lazy arse and write something, and then insist it's "almost done" for several days before finally handing it over.

            A lot of people will scratch their heads at the idea that 30 hours of research takes more than a week, but this is intensive work. You can't do it all in one sitting. It takes time.

            The reason clients and other writers alike sit there with their arms folded and saying "that doesn't make any sense at all" is quite simply that they have no damn clue how the work I do actually happens.

            But in the end, this project is going to generate a lot more than $1,200 for the client, and he knows it. If he didn't, he wouldn't pay these prices.

            I'm certainly not getting any 80-article orders for Joe Blow's next dozen niche sites, where I have to write about thick yoga mats and folding chairs. You $5 writers can handle those. I've done enough of them.
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        • Profile picture of the author DubDubDubDot
          Originally Posted by NetWorth View Post

          Fact of the matter is you can get quality for $5.00 per article. But if it makes you feel better about yourself I'm more than happy to charge anyone more.
          From a writing sample on your site:

          -----
          If you are considering the purchase of an Ipod docking station, the Bose Ipod docking station is a really great choice. It has great performance with compact convenience and is also portable. You no longer have to purchase a complete stereo system just to listen to your Itunes in home. The cost of a full stereo system can be very expensive, so this compact system is really economical.
          -----

          This is a perfect example of why people choose to pay more than $5 for an article. It isn't bad if all you want is SE food, but it hardly reads like an authoritative piece that will incline readers to bookmark the site. Those are the kind of articles that people are paying $50, $100, $200+ for.

          Those of you paying peanuts to poor middle eastern and Asian writers have no idea what kind of long term damage your are doing to your sites. Sure, you are building a large body of content relatively cheaply, but it's a body of content that nobody wants to read. There is a reason why these writers are dirt poor and literally beg for work online. You don't want these people anywhere near your sites if you are trying to build a long term project.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ronald Nzimora
    I charge 5-8 dollars per 350 -500 words article.It is not how high you pay that makes the articles to be well written.
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    • Profile picture of the author Dan C. Rinnert
      Originally Posted by john55 View Post

      I charge 5-8 dollars per 350 -500 words article.It is not how high you pay that makes the articles to be well written.
      What you pays for more is often such like what that you will get.
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      • Profile picture of the author TheAnnoyingOrange
        Originally Posted by Dan C. Rinnert View Post

        What you pays for more is often such like what that you will get.
        I LOL'd a little bit.
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    • Profile picture of the author dika
      Originally Posted by john55 View Post

      I charge 5-8 dollars per 350 -500 words article.It is not how high you pay that makes the articles to be well written.
      I agree with you, there are good freelance writers who want to start their careers and increase their ratings on freelance sites, so they accept less than $5 per 500 words article. It's much like having a good trainee in a company who just focuses on having experience and enjoys the money earned while training.
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    • Profile picture of the author Greg guitar
      Originally Posted by john55 View Post

      I charge 5-8 dollars per 350 -500 words article.It is not how high you pay that makes the articles to be well written.
      No offense, but in this and several other posts of yours, you make typical grammar and spelling errors that native English speakers almost never make, whether in an article or in daily conversation. I doubt your articles are free of such mistakes. In my mind, you probably wouldn't make them if you were even aware of them.

      I see this sort of thing all the time, even in samples provided by $5 article writers in the Warriors for Hire section of this forum. Sometimes, amazingly, people even make glaring mistakes in the sales copy for their writing service. Nothing can kill a sizzling sales page for me, better than mistakes that make it a poor example of the skill it's advertising.

      Personally, I'm in the process of hiring content writers from John Jonas' site, and finding it quite difficult to find anyone that doesn't make at least one or two mistakes per paragraph that would instantly mark them as a non-native writer. Some of them make more than one noticeable error per sentence, and they believe their English is "expert" level.

      I have found a couple that actually make less mistakes than the average American, and probably write better overall, but still might make an occasional mistake of the type that an American would recognize right away as having come from an non-native writer.

      So in other words, the saying, "you get what you pay for", still rings true, for the most part. The only way to do better is to spend a lot of time searching for an exception, such as a Filipino that has excellent English skills, and knows how to research and write quickly and convincingly-a tall order. It's costing me a lot of time and money to find one who not only has such skills, but is also dependable, wants to work every day, follows instructions, and gives me a detailed report at the end of the day, as well as turning in the work on time.
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      • Profile picture of the author Barry Unruh
        All of these posts beg one important question, doesn't anybody test?

        If you are buying $5 articles what is your return on investment?

        If you are buying $20 articles what is your return on investment?

        If you are buying $50 blog posts what is your return on investment?

        All the other speculation is just wasted breath. You should know whether the articles are making you a decent profit or not. If the $20 article gives you a higher ROI, then it is the proper choice. If the $5 article gives you a higher ROI in your niche, it is the right choice.

        Which is more valuable to you an expensive article from Alexa which gets a reasonable CTR and closes sales like gang busters, or a $5 article which gets slightly lower CTR and almost no conversions? While I'd love to say Alexa's article is the obvious choice, it may not be. If you are making more profits with a series of $5 articles for the same cost you spent to buy one of Alexa's articles then...........
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  • Profile picture of the author millionairenewbie
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    • Profile picture of the author Tina Golden
      Those couple of you that essentially posted ads for your services - go pay the fee to post an ad like the rest of us.

      For everyone one else, someone above said that getting the articles passed and posted at EZA and other article directories is "good enough". That is a point that is rarely made in these kinds of threads - it should matter what you plan on using the content for.

      It's one thing to post a "good enough" article at a directory with a pen name, where the main goal is often just to get a backlink. It's quite another thing to settle for "good enough" on our websites with our name on the content.

      Anywhere that you plan on using your own name as author would be when you want to go with the higher caliber of writer. Do you really want "good enough" articles to be what is associated with your name?

      Tina

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  • Profile picture of the author NicoleBeckett
    The people that are charging peanuts for their articles are banking on sheer volume to make a living. That means they're cutting corners - like not proofreading, not doing any research, or outsourcing to god-only-knows-who just to make sure they get everything done as quickly as possible.

    They don't care about your results. They don't care that their work is a reflection on you. After all, your name is going on it, not theirs.

    I've never understood why people put their business and reputation in the hands of a writer who cranks out junk. Personally, I wouldn't be willing to risk my credibility just to save $10 or $15 on a writer.

    Would I write articles for $5 a pop? Absolutely not! I know my expertise is worth way more than that. Plus, I take alot of pride in what I do, so I'm not looking to crank out 50 sub-par articles in a day just to make ends meet.
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    • Profile picture of the author JPROPS
      I have made a healthy living as a web copywriter for the last 3 years and I charge significantly more than the figures quoted here. You get what you pay for and Nicole is absolutely right about working in volume, you just do not have the time to do the job well.

      My clients are paying anything between $25 and $75 for my work, no one complains and about 70% of my clients come back.

      The truth is, if you're paying $5 an article, you are probably getting PLR content that is spun. I have a JV with one of the leading article writing services selling $5 articles and he openly admits, there are 2 reasons why he can provide articles so cheap.

      1. The work is all outsourced abroad, predominantly to India and the Phillipines with writers who have limited knowledge of the English language.

      2. Most of the work is PLR content that has been spun. While the article may be 'unique' it is not custom-written.

      Essentially, you're talking about filler content when you use these services. There is no informational value and certainly no skill involved. If you want relevant words on a page, it's fine, but no skilled and talented writer will work for $5.

      Originally Posted by NicoleBeckett View Post

      The people that are charging peanuts for their articles are banking on sheer volume to make a living. That means they're cutting corners - like not proofreading, not doing any research, or outsourcing to god-only-knows-who just to make sure they get everything done as quickly as possible.

      They don't care about your results. They don't care that their work is a reflection on you. After all, your name is going on it, not theirs.

      I've never understood why people put their business and reputation in the hands of a writer who cranks out junk. Personally, I wouldn't be willing to risk my credibility just to save $10 or $15 on a writer.

      Would I write articles for $5 a pop? Absolutely not! I know my expertise is worth way more than that. Plus, I take alot of pride in what I do, so I'm not looking to crank out 50 sub-par articles in a day just to make ends meet.
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  • Profile picture of the author montykarl
    if the article is worth paying for, i can go on to pay any amount for a good article.
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  • Profile picture of the author Steven Carl Kelly
    There are some accomplished, college-educated workers who are excellent researchers and writers who take great pride in their craft, yet they demand substantially less for their work because they happen to live in a place like Manila, one of the least expensive places in the world to live.

    I have used low-cost, college educated writers from the Philippines and have been generally very pleased with the work I've received. Of course I've taken great care to interview each applicant thoroughly before contracting them. I've also found my contractors to take great pride in their work, and to strive to provide excellent quality. A low price doesn't exclude a person from being proud of their work, price is relative to their circumstances.

    According to a study completed less than a year ago, workers in Manila earn an average of $1.60 per hour gross -- that's $8.00 a day ($6.40 per day NET). If that worker can work from home and research and write two or three $5.00 articles a day, they're already earning more than if they went to work at a local shop or laundry.

    The internet has afforded that person this opportunity.

    Of course, in Zurich (according to the study) the average hourly wage is $30.30 per hour. I seriously doubt that anyone in Zurich would be willing to write too many articles for $5.00 a piece. Zurich is one of the most expensive places to live in the world.

    Take all that for what it's worth.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mark Jordan
    At least $ 24 for a good 500 words article. And I agree with montykarl - "if the article is worth paying for, i can go on to pay any amount for a good article."
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  • Profile picture of the author thanp73
    I pay $6 max for a 500-word article
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  • Profile picture of the author larrybrown
    I have one site where the articles need to be researched quite a bit. For these I pay $10 each for appx 500 words.

    Larry
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  • Profile picture of the author GetItDone
    I'm amazed at the range of price that people pay for articles. I'm writing my own and feel that is best for now. I can see every one has their own best opinion and most seem satisfied with their price point and their results. Very interesting to read peoples thoughts. Thanks for the education.
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  • I pay around 14 USD for 600 words
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  • Profile picture of the author Chris Worner
    I pay $0.00!

    I pay a good ghost writer initially, then once I have finished syndicating the content and using it for whatever else I need it for, then I license it out as PLR and recoup my investment plus a little profit as well.

    Chris
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  • Profile picture of the author nettech
    I can get exceptional quality for $5-7 per 500 word article. I don't see the sense in paying over $10 per article unless it was for a product that would make you some serious cash.

    It does depend on the purpose, if its backlinks from article directories or just some hubpage articles then yea probably. I've never paid that kind of cash HOWEVER if I saw a product that was worth several thousand and I knew I could earn some good commissions then its def worth the money.

    Zaheer
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  • Profile picture of the author Chris Worner
    It depends on your strategy,

    do you want to build a reputation for producing quality content which get picked up and syndicated by other websites dramatically increasing your overall exposure and bank account?

    Or do you want to waste money flooding EZA and other directories with mediocre articles which rarely(most likely never) get syndicated and in the long run, dramatically decrease your ROI?

    To each their own but I would rather pay $50 and gain a piece of content which will add 200 high quality subscribers to my list, than spending hundreds of dollars on mediocre trash which wont build any authority and only lead to 80 crappy quality leads on my email list.

    Respectfully
    Chris
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    • Profile picture of the author danyray
      In all the posts above I did not see anyone address writing source articles that can be spun and create several "original" versions passing CopyScape and EZA criteria when the goal is steady submission of "original" articles to multiple directories.
      I am interested in finding out the cost of a good writer that can provide a quality source article and than generate a spinning version with a spinning tool like The Best Spinner which will be able to generate numerous articles that will all make sense English wise and grammatically to get several good articles from the same effort.
      Obviously such article will call for higher pay, but may turn out to be a better average cost per article.
      Any input on that?

      Dany
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    • Profile picture of the author Crew Chief
      Originally Posted by PeterGarety View Post

      I wouldn't pay for article $20, even if it would be written with a golden pen. I simply do not see a point doing so.

      I order 9-12 article per day, so I don't see the point to pay more then $2,5 per 400 words.
      The point is... its like putting unleaded regular gasoline in your Porsche Carrera GT versus premium unleaded.

      The point is... its like constantly eating fast food and junk food versus going to a grocery store or farmer's market and purchasing fresh fruits, vegetables, whole wheat foods and fresh fish.

      The point is... its like deciding on saving money by using Indianapolis Colts backup quarter back Curtis Painter versus using Peyton Manning in a game that counts.

      The point is... its like hiring McDonalds Fast Food Restaurant to cater your important After Six Fund Raising Event versus hiring Emeril Lagasse.

      The point is... its like using Google Keyword Tool versus using Market Samurai to perform your keyword research and SEO analysis.

      Giles, the Crew Chief
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  • Profile picture of the author pheonix44
    $20 for 500 words is ridiculous. A reasonable price for a top notch quality 500 word article would be around $7-$9 IMO. That's what I charge and have never had a complaint by a client. I usually spend 15-30 minutes researching and 7-10 minutes writing. I like to believe that I am a better researcher than most article writers as I am a research assistant for a number of well known Australian academics and I constantly edit their papers which have, in the past, been published by top tier economic journals. Any less than $1.20 per word and you're bound to find at least one grammar mistake. Anymore than $10 and you best be sure it was written by J.K.Rowling or someone similar.
    How is that? Take me for instance, I write my articles for a low price but that is because I know how to work. If someone were paying me 20.00 per 500 words the only thing that would change is I would quote the source of all the information I put in the article. Doing this would take more time, because if a client was going put their name on it then it has to have verifiable information from top notch sources. This is well worth way more then 20.00. In the offline world people would laugh at even that price.
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    • Profile picture of the author Justin Jordan
      The IM world definitely leads to a certain myopia on the value of writing. Right now, my rate for Warrior is $15.00 for a 500 words article, and that's ridiculously cheap*. Yes, cheap.

      As a point of comparison, I used to write a pop culture column for a small to medium sized newspaper, and I was paid $75.00 for about 500 words, and they apologized to me for the low price.

      A copywriter (and by this I mean people who write brochures, newsletters and what not, rather than the sales copy variety) make a minimum of $50.00 an hour, with $75.00 being more typical, and a $100.00 an hour is not seen as ridiculously high.

      I wrote pitches for short videos for an online humor site where I got paid $125 dollars for maybe a hundred words. It took me about ten minutes.

      Most people that are buying articles in the IM world don't want or need great articles, articles that actually engage the reader and make them think about what they've read, and that's fine.

      I've found that even at my Warrior price, nobody is really hiring me to write articles that they are just going to chuck up on Ezinearticles. By and large, my business is helping them build their reputation and authority.


      * Why do I do it, then? Because the high paying projects I do almost always require a big investment in time, usually weeks. Where as doing 500 word articles allows me a lot more flexibility in my schedule, which in turn allows me to work on my own fiction stuff, which at this point is only making me a trickle of money.
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  • Profile picture of the author jpattric2
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  • Profile picture of the author harro1
    I have paid a maximum of $10/400 words article, they were pretty good.
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  • Profile picture of the author dmadnani
    Wow, I see this thread has been flooded with opinionated responses but if you look it at somewhat technically it's not that difficult to understand the concept (Highly opposing ideology?).

    Honestly with a question like this people are surely going to ask themselves if they think an article can be worth $876,582, but the deciding factor is a little more economic than that.

    "High quality" is perceptive. To a niche website builder looking to build backlinks and average content for his 15th website I'm sure by now he's realized he's going to need to spend roughly $x for his article.

    Whereas, to the owner of a single authoritative site looking to make his weekly post, a $x article just isn't going to make the cut.

    So the theory isn't about $5 being reasonable and $230 being ridiculous it's more about demand and supply.
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  • Profile picture of the author dremora
    As for the $200 per article, all I can say is I'd pay someone like Steve Pavlina or Seth Godin $1000 for a 500 word guest post if I could afford it. Hell even $5000, cause that kind of name will bring the droves of quality audience worth far more than that few grand. (those of you who aren't familiar with these names, google them and read their blogs to see what I'm talking about)

    If it's not a big shot name, but top notch quality that will make human readers stick around, write comments, email me, subscribe to my list, tweet my post around and forward it to their friends, I'd jump on a bargain price like $200. I can write stuff that gets the attention from human readers myself, so I outsource the boring grunt work backlink articles at dime a dozen prices. I pay the higest I can afford for a decent sales copy. I am planning to hire a certain copywriter who charges $200 per few hundred words email for autoresponder broadcasts when I can afford it.

    Learn psychology. Learn enough psychology to be able to spot and hire a writer who knows how to manipulate human psychology to create the emotional state that makes the people buy your stuff. Not just buy once but come back for more. Basically manufacture virtual crack that gets them hooked for good. When you talk to the primordial reptilian beast buried deep under their human brain, grammar doesn't matter. But that's a whole another topic
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    • Profile picture of the author Greg guitar
      Originally Posted by dremora View Post


      Learn psychology. Learn enough psychology to be able to spot and hire a writer who knows how to manipulate human psychology to create the emotional state that makes the people buy your stuff. Not just buy once but come back for more. Basically manufacture virtual crack that gets them hooked for good. When you talk to the primordial reptilian beast buried deep under their human brain, grammar doesn't matter. But that's a whole another topic
      I agree overall with what you're saying here, but want to make a cautionary distinction. It's true enough that getting to the real drives; the fears, doubts, dreams, and hopes of your audience is the key to marketing with words.

      But I wouldn't get too carried away with the idea that grammar doesn't matter. Actually it does, and there are some markets where proper grammar would lose sales for you, so grammar matters there too; you just have to understand the ways in which your market misuses it, and do something similar to create a bond.

      Just because the kids in your target audience have a habit of cursing and using slang and sentence fragments, doesn't mean you will bond with them by using bad grammar of a kind they'd never use, as in the following: "I am developed the application with turning your Iphone into skateboard. It a really great application, that will making you happy for many times in future. It make you ancestors sing from grave."

      In most markets, you can get away with minor grammar mistakes, and a certain level of casualness might enhance your message. But if you make obvious mistakes that mark you as a non-native English speaker, it will turn off 99% of your English speaking audience.

      So the bottom line is that to get to the level where you can address the prospect's inner beast, usually requires that you use reasonably good grammar, or at least match the grammar that your audience uses. Don't try to use slang until you really understand how your audience uses it-there's no bigger turn off than an outsider posing as "one of us". Once someone's been turned off by your lack of writing skill, or lack of familiarity with their group, it's pretty hard to speak to their dreams or fears in a way that they will feel.
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  • Profile picture of the author khp
    I've been writing my own articles, and really enjoy the process. One of the essentials that I'm discovering though is 'good information'. Alot of people do their research just by reading other articles, and after a while the info gets watered down. Right now I'm thinking about outsourcing my articles in order to step up the pace. The thing I'll be looking at is .. .the quality of the info. Think that the comments others have made here about the expertise of the writer cant be ignored. It can make a difference in the usefulness of the information to your reader.

    Will see how the outsourcing experiment goes.
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    • Profile picture of the author hawkhill88
      I've written over 530 articles on a very micro, micro niche that has very few resources for research, but that is something I know about through 30 years or so of following it. OTOH, as a freelancer, I've written probably over a thousand articles on subjects I knew very little about until I got the assignment. This is why my local public library has a bench in the reference section with my name on it. (Well, they don't, but they should.)

      I also use the library's online databases, the same ones that cost individuals big bucks to use online. Although I write articles that get submitted to article directories, I avoid reading ones about any subject I'm writing about so that I won't unintentionally get any of that content into my own articles. Throughout the week, I read many books, magazines, periodicals and even the backs of cereal boxes, because I'm curious and love to read.

      I get paid from $25 to $50 an article, depending on the length and depth of it and I've had no complaints and steady work for several years. I'm tired of it though and would like to stop doing assigned work. Apparently, if I do, I'll starve, because there's no way I can write enough decent articles at $5/article to make a living and I won't write crap just to fill up the article directories. I know it's hokey, but I think there's too much crap on the Net already and it's there because the "information highway" has become the "infomercial highway."

      It IS possible to sell products whilst still giving people value in the information you give them to lure them to your site, and get them interested in buying what you have to sell. That takes good writing and good writers, people who care about what they write even when it doesn't have their name on it. You don't get people like that for $5 an article.
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  • Profile picture of the author Steven Carl Kelly
    The bottom line is, whatever works for you, works for you... it's all subjective.

    In my case, I have found a very reliable writer who holds a master's degree in education, who does outstanding research and writes articles at a very reasonable price (the last batch of articles, 1,000 words each, cost me $3.50 a piece -- or 0.0035 per word), and this arrangement works very well for all of us.

    On the other hand, I ghostwrite twelve highly specific and laser focused 350-word blog posts monthly for another big name in the industry on a contract basis for $500 per month (some of you may actually read those posts and not realize they're not written by him), which works out to 12 cents per word.

    So I understand both sides of the coin, and as I've stated above, whatever works for you, works for you. When it comes to the price of writing, I don't believe that there's a "right" or "wrong" here.
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  • Profile picture of the author jamespitt
    Your ideas are all good points. The posts are awesome. TY
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  • Profile picture of the author sarahberra
    Well I write all my own articles, but if I ever decided to outsource I would pay $5 to 10 per article depending on the topic. If you search you might be able to find a really good writer in another country and give them top dollar which would be really low in US dallors. My insurance broker found a really good writer in another country.
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  • Profile picture of the author ArticlesThatRock
    It takes a lot time to test whether the $10 articles that I sell earn more profit than a $5 article written outside the United States. My customers are repelled by the quality of writing that comes from people in India and the Phillipines that work for a low wage. There are good writers in those countries, but they charge $40 per article, which is the market rate for a good article written by a native English speaker.

    A cheap article should be used only to create links to your site, or links to a feeder site that links to your site. It should never be on your site where it will be read by your potential customers.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rod Cortez
    Originally Posted by DomenicoGrecojr View Post

    There's always discussion about how awful the articles are that you pay $3 or $4 to ghostwriters. However, how many of you are actually paying good prices for articles?

    I'm talking about at least $20 for a 500 word article.

    If you do pay such prices, how many articles do you get written and for what purpose?
    Article price points, for me, depend on:

    1. What I'm going to use them for.
    2. What the currency exchange rate and cost of living is for that writer's particular country. While I pay writer's well, I'm not going to vastly overpay someone if I don't have to.
    3. The expertise and experience of the writer. For example, I needed a skilled writer who had at least 10 years of family law experience that also had extensive court room experience. He charged me per hour and not per word and he was worth every penny. You won't find someone like that ever writing a $7 article unless it was a paragraph. lol

    I'm considered an expert in one particular niche and I charge a minimum of 50 cents per word (and I get it too and people are happy to pay it).

    For those of you that would never pay a certain amount for an article, well, that works for your business model, but don't assume that others should never pay more than you do.

    RoD
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    • Profile picture of the author mcmahanusa
      I've been following this thread with great interest. It is especially noteworthy to see the responses from people like Nicole, CD, and Alexa, just to name a few.

      I know that in their own writing, these three (as well as others) do a lot of research both online and offline, and they pay close attention to not only grammar and spelling, but they strive to involve the reader emotionally, even viscerally to what is being read. Consequently, they achieve long-term, positive results that eventually end up as positive balances in their bank accounts.

      They are successful, because they have established reputations for quality and integrity. They have not done so through taking shortcuts and settling for "good enough".

      You are known by the company you keep. If you are known for providing material that is "good enough", your results will reflect it. If you are known for interesting, factual, well-researched information, your results will reflect that as well.

      Rather than utilize the services from non-native English speakers, or even native English speakers who lack truly top notch skills, I will do the work myself. Many well-known marketers go for the cheap labor, and their sales pages reflect it. Spelling errors, grammatical errors, things that, at least to me, repel rather than attract me.

      I'll stick with true quality. That is the kind of reputation I want.
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      • Profile picture of the author Steven Carl Kelly
        Originally Posted by mcmahanusa View Post

        Many well-known marketers go for the cheap labor, and their sales pages reflect it. Spelling errors, grammatical errors, things that, at least to me, repel rather than attract me.
        I've seen it myself. But then again, sales pages are a different matter than the topic of this thread...
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  • Profile picture of the author Steven Carl Kelly
    When it comes to subcontracting articles, advising others in broad generalities and absolutes is folly. Every circumstance is different.
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  • Profile picture of the author Chris Thompson
    For those asking is it worth it to spend $50 for a blog post, or more ... YES, it can be. It all depends upon the nature of your business and how you monetize your site.

    If you have an established blog that gets GOOD traffic and makes GOOD money, then you need to keep pace by publishing awesome content.

    So by outsourcing 3-4 awesome posts at $50-75 each, per week, you maintain the flow of awesomeness.

    If your blog is making you, say, over $1000 per week and you spend $200 on content, then you are doing well.

    If you let it die, it dies. So does your income.

    So if you outsource quality writing, you maintain or even GROW your income, while you are free to focus on building another business.

    It's very much in line with The Four Hour Work Week. Spend what is appropriate.

    For those who don't have a proven business model yet, you will need to hire new writers from overseas, train them, possibly edit their work, and put in more grunt work.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rex Wright
    The thing that most IM folks have missed in the whole content discussion is entertainment. You can say an article without grammatical errors and that has a few facts in it is good enough, and that may be true. It's also completely worthless for many situations.

    There are people who write books that never get published because they suck as entertainment. There are writers who get 20 million dollars in advance for their books because they will more than likely hit the best seller list. So no one can say there is no difference in ok writing and great writing.

    The internet is all about information and the social contract. In order for your site visitors to feel any obligation to do anything for you (such as buy some crap from some link you've pasted up there) you have to give them something of value first. Good writers know that entertaining has value - real value - HUGE value.

    We took a blog site with less than 1,500 visitors a month and by writing awesome content had it over 100,000 unique visitors every thirty days; all in less than six months. With nothing but content. What is 98,500 visitors worth to you as an internet marketer?

    People search with intent using words. If you provide facts they may find them and read them - and they will be bored out of their minds and leave and go to another site and another until someone grabs their attention. You will either get their attention by entertaining them like a good book or you'll throw some "good enough" 5 dollar poo up there and they will ignore it.

    Most people writing content can't write their way out of a wet paper bag compared to professionals who know how to rivet them to the page. Add in that content writing for the internet also requires a working knowledge of true search intent, keyword density and all other kinds of arcane expertise and it's kind of a "no duh" thing to learn that there are superstar internet writers that get paid very well to do professional level work.

    Information is power, use the right words and the scales tilt in your favor. Words that are ok just don't cut it for long term profits. Do excellent work and you will be rewarded, skimp on the most important thing and ....
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    • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
      Originally Posted by Rex Wright View Post

      There are people who write books that never get published because they suck as entertainment. There are writers who get 20 million dollars in advance for their books because they will more than likely hit the best seller list. So no one can say there is no difference in ok writing and great writing.
      One of my early writing clients had me write several articles about a specific brand of squirrel-proof bird feeders.

      Usually, you would cover this subject by talking about how vulnerable feeders are to squirrels and how this particular feeder protects against them.

      I chose, instead, to write a series of indignant and outraged articles about how nobody ever feeds the "squirrel bird" when it frequents their yard... and how they actively prevent the poor, innocent squirrel bird from using their feeders.

      And they got a hell of a lot more traffic than the other articles on the client's blog.

      Think about it. You read some dry, boring article about the features of squirrel-proof bird feeders that makes you stroke your chin and say "hmm." Maybe you buy one. Maybe you keep researching.

      But you read a big rant about discrimination against squirrel birds that makes you laugh your arse off, and you're probably on Twitter and in your IM client and writing emails to tell your friends about it.

      And that beats the crap out of SEO and organic traffic all day long.

      The difference between a $5 article and a $50 article is largely about whether a reader is likely to drive more traffic to it. It's the "tell a friend" script, without the script: you don't ask them to tell a friend. You just make them want to tell a friend.

      Get enough content like that on your site, and traffic is never going to be an issue.
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  • Profile picture of the author ArticlesThatRock
    Can you give more details about the site that you dramatically improved with good content?

    One of my customers is a lawyer, and I normally charge $10 for 400-500 word articles, but I'd like to convince him to pay $40 for high quality articles that require deep research and an engaging writing style.
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    • Profile picture of the author Rex Wright
      I can tell you what we did, but you're still going to have to sell price based on results. What we know how to do is turn words into either traffic or sales or both. PM me and we'll see if there is anything we can do to help.
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  • Profile picture of the author Anna_O
    I only pay about $1 per 100 words. I tend to revise/edit whatever I am given anyway (I have a writing background), but it is much easier and faster for me to outsource the basic article writing and structure and then do some basic revisions to increase the quality.

    I have found one writer who is particularly good at delivering quality for this price when I give him examples and explanations of what I'm looking for.

    Best wishes,
    Anna
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  • Profile picture of the author sarahberra
    It really depends. You can find really good articles from other countries for $5 bucks a pop, but you need to dig. Some people in other countries have stellar writing while others just plain suck. Good luck.
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  • Profile picture of the author good2go4
    I have been writing quality articles and ebooks for ten years and I am gutted by this post, lol. I could have been charging so much more for what I had been doing; and will be seriously reconsidering my prices especially in topics that I do have some expert status in; and in product creation that involves more than just writing the text.

    Thanks for the eye opener everyone
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  • Profile picture of the author jclz3d
    I don't know why you're paying $20+ per article. I would have thought $10 was a limit really. I'm paying $1/100 words tops lol.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rock Solid
    I've paid large amounts for "good" articles and had about the same quality from my standard 8 dollar per article writer. I think finding a writer with a "voice" and not just someone who writes copy that sounds like it comes out of a machine.

    -Collins P
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  • Profile picture of the author jclz3d
    Yeah, i mean if i really want good articles.. Hell i'll just write them myself.
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  • Profile picture of the author jennyfritter
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author DeePower
      I'm in the middle of doing some research on how much writers get paid. IMers should be aware of what the big boys are paying. As a buyer ask yourself "why should a freelancer write for me, when they can write for a bigger outfit that pays more? Additionally the writer knows they'll get paid. paid.

      Demand studios pays $15 for 400 words. Some articles pay up to $30 for 400 words

      Bright Hub pays $10 for 450 words and revenue share

      Textbroker pays up to 5 cents a word, but there are very very few articles available at that rate. Today there aren't any. Most pay between .7 cents to 1.4 cents per word.

      Break studios pays $8 for 250 words.

      Dee
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  • Profile picture of the author pista05
    $4-5 an article
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