Article Writer that's not Delivering?

I'd like to know the member name too please, feel free to PM me the information, rather embarrassing them in public. I'm always looking out for travel content writers, and wouldn't want to hire this individual by mistake.

 

When I looked at the "feedback" process, I got the impression that if the original negotiation was not conducted via a public thread, giving negative feedback was not allowed.

I think a lot of these situations come about via PM.

 

Yeah I typically pay $7.50 a article and they are normally pretty good, have you got the phone number- I always make sure I get one bfore I begin with them.

 

I personally think that its better to pay MORE for one quality article rather than paying LESS for MANY poor articles.

Being a professional freelance content writer, I myself charge about ($7-$15) for each ORIGINAL article which i write MYSELF. And for each article I atleast take a day. Because if i'm not very familier with the topic I do my research first before i start writing.

And I don't believe in any word limit! Usually my articles are 100-200 words longer than what my clients pay for! So a 500 words will mean 700 or more as per the topic.

I have seen many content writers who are offering cheap service with poor quality! My question is - is there any point in buying poor articles which you can probably write yourself by combining 3-4 existing articles?

If you are really looking for something Original for your website then you should not care to pay few bucks extra!!

Unique Article is the Key... 1 Good article is hell lot better than 20 poor articles when you are thinking of SER/PR/SEO.

 

I'm curious about something. Would you guys be willing to pay a higher premium for a good writer who does original work? Typical freelance rates for quality writers start at .25 a word and go up to 3 dollars a word.

Would you be willing to pay someone 1.00 a word if they provided original articles and were reliable? What would be the highest you would be willing to pay?

 

I doubt there are many people here on DP who could afford professional writers' rates nextbizguy. That's one of the reasons I don't apply for article postings here myself. I charge $.35 / word just for non-exclusive online-only rights for articles, $.50 / word for exclusive online-only rights for articles (not including copyright, which is a separate buyout fee). I charge extra on top of that if they want any print rights, other other kinds of electronic rights... depending on the total use they want access to. And I have clients who pay those rates, so yes, some people do. I write articles on topics in my areas of expertise, and I write from experience and my educational background rather than having to assemble a bunch of research from other articles written by other content writers and such. I have colleagues who probably make a good bit more than I do. With the time I put in versus the amount I charge, it generally falls in the $400-500/hr range, sometimes as low as $200/hr if I need to dig up some extra background on something.

They key to rates like that though (in the $3 range you mentioned) is having a name that readers will automatically trust. No content writer can give you that kind of backing like a professional specializing in the field can. As for being willing to pay those rates, if I had hundreds of dollars ready to be allocated towards it I would. I'm still at a point where I prefer to write the majority of my own content though. I'm testing out my first freelance writer for a personal site hopefully this fall, and I actually chose the writer with the higher rates, simply because I knew I could trust her quality when it came down to it. It all depends on what the buyer's goals are I guess. Do they want long-term reputation for their site attached to the articles (looking at them as a real "investment") or do they just want a bunch of keyword-riddled content tossed up quickly for SEO purposes? Makes a big difference in what they have to pay.

Jenn

 

I think you may need to step back, take a deep breath and look at the number of words being written. Maybe a terrific PR of 300 words is worth $900. But when you start looking at web content, like say 100 articles of around 500 words, that would be $150,000.

No how .. no way!

A typical novel runs somewhere around 70,000 words. I think all but the A List would be pleased as punch with $70,000 for one .. which is only $1/word.

I doubt very seriously if the top magazines pay $3/word for articles .. although it has been awhile since I have seen rates. But a 3,000 word article bringing $9,000 is pretty rare, I think.

$1,500 per page for web content .. please show me where.

 

The fact of the matter is that, yes, top big name clients do in fact pay writers that much. So do major industry trade journals. It all depends on how important you are in an industry and how badly they want you, because your name lends credibility to their entire publication. I never said rates like that were common. But I am saying that the ridiculous rates you see webmasters wanting for content of just a few cents per word or even less are non-existent in the professional writing community. I do have clients who pay my higher rates. It takes me about 30 minutes to write a one-page article if it's in my area of expertise, and 60 if I need to do any further background on it. I make $200-250 for the vast majority of articles I write (in the 500-700 word range). I have colleauges who can get away with charging even more than I do. You also need to consider that no one at these rates is doing writing at those rates 40 hrs per week. I pick up articles very selectively for clients now, and I do a few a week at most. I'd rather (as would most professionals) spend a few hours making some decent money to supplement our general businesses by writing, than to resort to what "content writers" often do of undervaluing themselves. It might take some of them a full 40 hour week to make what I make for hammering out 5 articles in a few hours on an otherwise slow day. I'd rather do that, have the bigger clients under my belt, and have more time for other projects, either personal or business-related.

I don't charge my article rates for PRs, and I don't know anyone who would pay $900 just for having one written. The special I'm running now is for $25 through August. Obviously, that's a monstrous difference between that and my article rate. But I'm also not making any money on press releases (after taxes, expenses, etc.). I do them simply as a way to market my business... and because I enjoy them for the most part. Just running that one special and taking the hit financially broke me into an entirely new market of website owners. So sometimes you need to pit one benefit against another.

No major client is usually going to order 100 articles at a time from a writer... it's not about quanitity in the slightest. They know in the end that quality trumps quantity any time, because it's what keeps people coming back. They're more interested in building reader trust and letting quantity accumulate more slowly over time. However, I do have a client that was contracting about 1000 articles from a group of writers, who are paying those rates I mentioned above. So yes, there certainly are some companies willing to put in a very large investment to have content backed by industry professionals.

Jenn

 

My comments referenced the conversations you and nextebizguy .. $1 to $3/word. The rate you are getting ($250 for 700 words) is about $ 0.36/word.

I still won't believe $700 - $2100/article for web content except on a very rare situation and 1 or 2 articles by a big-name marketer.

You can take a stroll throuh Guru.com and look for writers. There are some real pros over there. As an example what you can get for $100/hour:

I doubt very seriously if s/he gets $1/word. Just my opinion.

 

I was just using my rates as an example, and that does work out to the $.35/word I already said I generally charge in those cases. But as I also said, I know I have colleagues who make much more than that. $1/word is not uncommon at all in major publications... more common in print media obviously, but it's absolutely not unheard of. You don't see a lot of positions advertised at those rates, because they'd have to deal with every wannbe writer in the world applying for the project. The higher paying gigs professionals take on come about through networking and referrals. I'd guess less than 5% of them are ever announced publicly.

Something else a lot of people here don't understand is that what you consider a "big name marketer" (as per your example) are really nobodies in the real marketing industry. The top professionals are the ones who will appeal to a professional audience, not to the general public. That's also why many of the highest-paying publications online and offline are niche trade publications, unheard of to most of the general public. As I said, they pay for the professional credibility they lend. It's never about SEO and driving Web traffic to make a little advertising money. Publications that can afford to pay those rates are the sites that don't need to worry about things like that, b/c it's not where they get their money.

Jenn

 

To avoid getting ripped off, test the writer by giving a "test assignment". Assign a topic, give ample details such as: a.)target readers b.) number of words you are expecting c.)the tenor of the article you'd like to have (serious, funny, relaxed, whatever). Little details like these would lighten the up the load of any writer.

After assigning this sample task, the writer will of course respond with the finished "trial" article. Accept if it satisfies you, discard if you don't. If you have plenty of time, you can share to the writer some of your opinion regarding the finished product, you can either stick to the writer and have the artilcle re-written. But then again, you can always go look for another writer if you think that this particular one is really incapacitated to satisfy you in any way. At least have the courtesy to tell the writer (in a nice way)that you can no longer continue doing business together.

That's it, no harm done. Trial and error for both parties. Nobody has to be ripped off with money. Next time, do hire a writer that sticks by his/her words, follows deadlines, and writes articles first before asking for payment.


PM me for writing services.

 

They might not get ripped off for money, but the writer gets ripped off for time. If the writer is extremly new and doesn't have a portfolio yet that they consider worth showing off, they might agree to that. But no professional writer does a "test" article. You're essentially saying they should make the writers write a first article on spec... which is frowned upon in the writing profession. Then you run into the issue of most people online not paying decent rates as it is. Personally I feel that if someone is asking for an article for $5 or $10 (heck, some want them for even less), they don't have any right to be picky with writers, and they'll get what they pay for. Asking people who are working for pennies per word to have to lay something out for free up front is just wrong. Clients should be able to guage the quality of a writer's work by their portfolio, which of course they should ask to see before making a hiring decision. Is it possible they'll get scammed, and someone will show pieces that aren't theirs? Sure. It's called doing business. There are risks in everything you do.

 

My advice is you should never give advance money, ask for the regular update. I do also write articles without asking anything in advance however token money of smaller amount is ok to confirm the genuineness of the clients.

 

My experience says that the decent rate for 20 articles for 200 words each should be roughly $6 and the people should be able to return the articles in 4 days. In your case where you are not satisfied with the person you can ask him for a complete refund. There is nothing wrong abt that . The person will learn to quote cautiously as per his capacity and capability. This way you are helping him rather than harming him . You are completely justified in asking for the refund

 

3$ for a 200 word article...too less an amount .. pay more get a betetr writer..
However, this does not mean I am supporting the writer that didn't deliver.

 

Do you mean some writer name Rxxx?? If yes, I had problem with his deliver too. He never fullfilled the promises and even ask me to edit my posted in his thread to save his face. he mark the low price to attract customer and give me a excellent article in trial test. but when I ordered him a bulk (10+) so he has late because took too many order and give me almost 6 rubbish articles and good 4 articles. I repspect that he is not a theft that stolen my money but his deliver and quality of his works when he has no time, responsibility = -100

 

$3 or $10 whatever it is, the buyer at least deserves a new article, not which is so close that they might have to credit the original source...
In a months time, you would have done a better article than that. Then what's the point in hiring someone?
Sorry it didn't work out well for you...