Article Writers Rates - What's a Fair Price?

by ripsnorta2

Posted: 16 years ago 18 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

I'm considering supplementing my early attempts at IM/AM by offering to write articles for a fee.

In order to check what the going rate is, I had a look over on the Digitalpoint forums. I was surprised to see that there are a huge amount of offers to write articles for 1 cent a word, or even less. This seems to be an extraordinarily low amount. I can't see how anyone can scrape together a living on this.

It also occurs to me that the old cliche possibly applies here. You get what you pay for.

I'd like to throw open the discussion to both sides of the equation here. If you are both buying articles from freelancers, or writing articles for others, is this a reasonable rate?

What are your thoughts?

#article #fair #price #rates #writers

Vince Runza Online

16 years ago

I charged 5 cents per word for articles. I'm retired from that business now, but I may take an assignment for $5 per word!

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ripsnorta2

16 years ago

Hi Vince, thanks for replying.

To me 5 cents sounds more reasonable, but didn't you constantly get undercut? Or did you provide the quality necessary to overcome that?

I did some freelance programming years ago, or tried to anyway. I always quoted what I thought were reasonable if low rates, and still always got beaten to the punch by undercutters. One potential client even told me that he was sorry about giving it to the other guy -- a $2500 job lost to a guy quoting $150 -- and thought that he'd probably get what he paid for anyway. :rolleyes:

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Mac Wheeler 16 years ago

Don't compete on price, compete on quality, leave the $0.25 per 100 words type of work to the pond life.
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monitorit

16 years ago

Originally Posted by ripsnorta2

The going rate for an article now is around $5 - $8 for 500 words

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Chaiwriter

16 years ago

Originally Posted by monitorit

The going rate for an article now is around $5 - $8 for 500 words

Umm, I don't agree. If you have a writer who can provide unique and quality content for $5 then you are one of the luckiest people on earth. A great writer for $8 is rare too - unless it's a WSO.

I would say that .03 a word is about the going rate. But at that rate you won't get much business on the freelance sites. They are dominated by non-English speakers who live on a few bucks a day. Sad but true.

Instead try to find work on forums just like this one and also market yourself on social sites.

Good luck,

Chai

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monitorit 16 years ago

im very lucky then
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WinsonYeung

16 years ago

Nope, you are wrong, i know people who write 300 words for around 3 - 4 dollar

Originally Posted by Chaiwriter

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Chaiwriter 16 years ago

Originally Posted by WinsonYeung

Nope, you are wrong, i know people who write 300 words for around 3 - 4 dollar

There's a difference between writing and writing well. Though some people can't tell the difference.

But if you can find great writers on the cheap then good for you.

Chai
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Tirmizi 16 years ago

3 to 8 $ seems fair depending on the niche and word count off course .... all should pass copyscape and duplicate content test off course
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- impact-productions 16 years ago
  
  I can get outstanding writing (perfect grammar, spelling, structure, original research) on the DP forums for $2 per 100 words, in many niches, less for bulk orders. I can't imagine any reason for paying more than that for Web work (printed journalism is a different kettle of fish).
  
  I've used RentACoder and other auction sites, and the quality is not as good, even if the price is lower.
  
  I've had good work for $1 for 100 words; but I only go for native writers. In this market you tend to just get people looking for some quick money (work at home mums with time to fill, students on vacation etc) but you don't get any valuable long term relationships.
  
  Pricing higher than that is very difficult, and even the $2 per 100 word writers don't always get as much work as they'd like.
  
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  Mac Wheeler 16 years ago
  
  Of course, this whole discussion so far has been about what is a fair price for the customers, this is the wrong way to approach the question asked by the original poster.
  
  In his situation, the correct price would be whatever his minimum rate per hour needs to be to make a living, divided by how many words he can write an hour. This will give him a fair price to charge his customers, as he will not be forced to reduce his lifestyle, and will not feel obliged to work cheaply just to win work.
  
  Put simply, a fair price is whatever you NEED to earn, any less and you are on a negative trend, any more and you are hitting profits. Of course, nothing wring with making profits, but he didn't ask what a profitable price would be, only a fair one.
  
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  Bev Clement 16 years ago
  
  I have seen many people who say that they have great articles written for peanuts, and when I have seen them, well they are rubbish.
  
  I have seen people claiming to have quality article directories yet the articles mainly are also rubbish.
  
  I charge $0.10 per word.
  
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  pwebbiz 16 years ago
  
  I agree that the going rate is $.03 - $.04 - if you can convince your customers that your writing is worth more than then they you can use that pricing as a starting point and raise as needed.
  
  I started just by charging just short of $.02 per word and now I'm up to about $.03 - sometimes higher depending on how established I am with the customer.
  
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  RobinSkeen 16 years ago
  
  You get what you pay for. I'll not undercut and compete to get work. I have plenty to keep me busy. I write high quality and if you want something from scratch with research and all, it's going to cost you. Good writers should never undervalue what they provide. Rewriting PLR costs considerably less.
  
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  tamtu 16 years ago
  
  If you want to do it on the side the rate is up to you, take it when it comes otherwise leave.
  
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  MizzCindy 16 years ago
  
  ETA - Sorry. I misread your original post. I thought you were looking to purchase articles, not provide them for a fee. So just reverse what I wrote below to what you would provide as a professional service. Sorry for any confusion!
  
  ***************
  
  Hmmm...this is one of those questions where the responses will be all over the pay scale. I do indeed believe you get what you pay for!
  
  So ask yourself how important quality content is to your overall business. While I hate to say it, I have seen sites with pure crapola for content that are still making money. However, if you're looking to establish an authority presence in a particular niche, then I would consider paying more.
  
  The price is not only about the individual word written. It's about the quality of the research, the grammar, the spelling, the original content, the 'readability' factor and the long-term relationship you create with the writer.
  
  Obviously, you have to make decisions based on your bottom-line. However, it's smart to consider the hidden cost to your business of paying someone for low quality work. Also, over time, as google becomes more savvy about weeding out questionable content - and they are - you may find yourself in a pickle if your sites are populated with lower-quality content. It would truly suck to work on a site, build traffic and page authority...and then get slapped by google for sub-par content. Yuck!
  
  Good luck in your search!
  
  Cindy
  
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  dvduval 16 years ago
  
  A lot of what I base my projected payment on is the amount of research required to complete the task. If someone is just writing off the top of their head, and the research takes them 10 minutes, that is a low end article, unless they are some kind of highly regarded expert.
  
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  lakerk 16 years ago
  
  I write articles to make a living. Here's my perspective:
  
  If I can get someone giving me constant work, like on a daily or a weekly basis, I can charge them 6-7 dollars for a 300-500 word article.
  
  If its just a few articles, it needs to be more like 8 dollars an article to get by.
  
  Now obviously these are web articles, with some research required but not a thesis paper.
  
  Anyway, just my 2 cents.
  
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Article Writers Rates - What's a Fair Price?

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