The Perfect Article Writing Proposal

As a writer that has had success with 'cold calling' prospective clients - avoid the words: cost, spend and spins.

Win them over with your abilities, professional attitude and a clear explanation of how you can help them.

If you start off by talking about the costs, they will just freak out. First you need to make them want your services, so when you finally talk about money they are already valuing you highly themselves.

When you finally mention money you want them to think, "Is that all?" They won't think that at the start of your pitch as they haven't heard what you offer, so will only see any reference to money as a potential expense.

If you mention the word 'spin' in your proposal you will automatically make them think of the spun content they have seen in the past. You don't want a prospective client to think, "Arrgghh not that," while reading your proposal. Stick to explaining what you can bring to their business.

Stay positive and make your pitch, keeping their mind on how you benefit their business. The truth is that you can make them more money by offering quality content. Content is what fuels their business (if you have targeted your prospect correctly), so explain how you can help them. Just to clarify, don't tell them what you can do, tell them what you can do to help their business.

Cheers,
Colin Palfrey

Hypothetically if I was hiring someone for this...

How many articles do you want every month?

I would expect at least 3 a week.

How much do you want to spend per month?

No more than $10 per 600 word article

Does professional writing experience matter to you?

No. I prefer to judge by the quality of the work.

Should the writer's first language be English?

Generally yes. You want a writer who can relate to your audience.

Do you want original articles or do you just want spins?

Original articles. It's only a matter of time before Google cracks down on spins.

• How many articles do you want every month?

3-4 a week is usually what I post up to my niche site.

• How much do you want to spend per month?

I want well researched articles that are high quality and engaging. For articles I would actually be able to use I would be happy to pay $15-20 per 500 word articles, maybe a bit more.

• Does professional writing experience matter to you?

It is helpful, but I base quality mostly on samples provided and quality of the first few articles written.

• Should the writer's first language be English?

No, as long as their grammar is up to par. I have a writer from India who struggled at first but as I showed him his mistakes he got better and now his grammar is top notch and I order from him all of the time.

• Do you want original articles or do you just want spins?

Original articles only. Spins aren't worth the time or money to me.

That's really a big deal in finding a perfect article proposal, Professionalism is an aspect about what should he/she is doing .

Depends on niche.

$10-20 per 500 word article for higher quality content, $5 for SEO content.

Nope. Just quality of work.

Again, depends on what I'm doing, but for $10-20 per article, yes.

Original.

Professional writing experience is the main attribute I look for in a writer. The ability to do research and produce original, quality articles is equally important.