How Much 4 Unique Content

www.elance.com

Or I have an affilate link to them:

http://www.elance.com/home?rid=ZF1C

Choose as you wish.

Ned

 

A guy that frequents Sitepoint has a pretty good article/content site.

Check it out http://www.constant-content.com

 

That works out to $10 per article. Considering the time spent for research, I estimate earnings for the writer of about $5 per hour. Less than minimum wage flipping burgers at McDonalds. How many people here work for $5 an hour???

 

i get £9 (about $20) an hour, not writing content tho

 

I do not know why so many content writers settle for such pathetic pay. Expecting $15 -$20 an hour is not unreasonable for providing quality work that is unique and researched. Those who provide quality SEO work charge more than that as they should.

 

I agree, the guy who I have writing my articles is very highly qualified, and his past feedback is amazing. However, although yes hes most likely worth more than $10 an article, if you can get away with paying as little as possible its all good.

 

Writers get screwed. Editors get screwed worse.

I've done freelance writing before, and it usually sucks. Nice enough to do in your spare time for a little cash. It's terrible for a job.

Editing on the other hand is even worse. It never ceases to amaze me that people would hire an editor and then argue every damn suggestion he makes.

People seem to think that anyone can write, so it's not a valuable skill.

Meh. Glad to be out of that now (I still write, but it's for my own sites).

 

This is the whole point. People try to "get away with" paying as little as possible for copywriting. I think we copywriters should band together and start a Union. We would NOT sell ourselves short and demand reasonable pay for our skilled work. Then where would all you people be who need content but are incapable of writing it yourself? waaahahaha!

 

LOL amen ...

 

Yeah I see your point, however I simply posted my project and people bid $10 /article for it. Obviously I am not going to employ the person who bid $40 /article when the cheaper writers appears to be just as good (if not better) than the more expensive ones.

Its all about supply and demand.

 

I'd say pay him as much as these articles are worth to you and enough to keep him motivated to write more. Look at it as a long-term biz relationship.

 

Not going to happen. I wish it would. It's just too easy for people to scab though. Plus, most people think that "anyone can write".

If you're a good writer, work for yourself (or at worst on a profit share). It's that simple.

 

One of the projects I'm considering is writing for magazines. I do not worry about the " $2 for 1,000 words " competitors reading this because in order to be a published writer, high quality is required. They will not hire people who string a bunch of words together to fill space. Some magazines pay $1 a WORD. Everything is competitive nowadays but I feel better competing or even losing out to high quality writers than to scabs.

What is irritating is that the people who hire scabs would be mortally offended if they were seriously undercut in THEIR work! Imagine the whining and screaming then.

I recall a post in WPW about a year ago. A web designer had the "gall" to write a post asking why other designers charge so much money - and stated his fees which were l o w! His post was attacked by so many people that I found it amusing. Members on that forum are usually pretty civilized but this time, the insults were flying.........

 

Oh yeah, magazines can be lucrative (I've never had the discipline to break into the business though). From what little I have gathered from friends who do a bit, it takes a while getting a pub record in the low-paying low-circ magazines before big editors will take query letters seriously (even articles written on spec get put in File 13 unless your letter is stunning or you have another in. Most magazines apparantly also pay even slower than your worst web-client nightmare.

Not to try and discourage you or anything

Still magazne writing was a definite appeal to it (which is why there are so many people trying to do it).

Most people have that double-standard about getting paid what they are worth, but wanting to get everything as cheaply as possible. Back at university when I did private tutoring, I would lose clients the first months of every semester as people decided to get into the business offering tutoring for $10 or less. By half way through as the wannabe tutors discovered how tough it was, I'd get clients crawling back to me.

Surprisingly, the first time clients came back after abandoning me, my rates had gone up. There wasn't usually a second time.

I said earlier that if you're writing for a living you should be doing it for yourself, I'll now amend that to "for yourself or for decent rates of pay like a buck a word"

 

You make a number of good points. However, I have no intention of relying on writing for magazines - just adding it to what I do now. I always have believed in having Plan B and like my mother used to tell me "Never put all your eggs in one basket."

For instance, say someone has a great content writing business and is able to charge significant money. Suddenly, content is no longer necessary and overnight, there is no more business. I feel that diversifying is important so one avenue of income is never the ONE source.

 

When's content ever going to be unneccesary? That statement is on a par with "this ship is unsinkable", right?

I figured you'd have a portfolio career, I do too - it's not so much the eggs and basket thing as it's just fun. Although if I stopped swapping eggs for magic beans I wouldn't need so many baskets and I'd have more spare time

 

Hopefully content will always be necessary. I'm a cynical person who has seen a lot of changes in life.........I don't understand how some writers in the US can charge as little as they do - and why. Unless it is to get a big following and then up the fees. Perhaps that is the game plan and is probably working. hmmmm

But researching a new and interesting topic and then writing about it - say 500 words - is going to take around two hours. We're talking minimum wage in the US. EEEKKKK! Having been a Psychotherapist in a former life, I just can't do that. Babysitters who watch the children of guests here in Las Vegas hotels make MUCH more than that.

 

Maybe if you didn't live in a Las Vegas hotel you wouldn't have to charge so much!


Just kidding LOL

Content will always be needed. The delivery vehicle may change, but that doesn't matter to a writer. You guys are in a good field. Take advantage of it.

 

Yeah, content will always be needed (although computers are getting better at keyword stuffing). It's just that there's a depressing number of people who provide bad content ridiculously cheaply and make it harder to get initial business (although there are those who provide good content cheaper and then jack prices once they are trusted).

Different media do take different skills (even in terms of writing, not tech skills), although many of the basics remain the same.

Personally I'm hoping to be in business for myself (at least part time) for the rest of my life. I love it. Even when I hate it, it's in a good way.

 

I write keyword articles, too... and have had many clients who went with cheaper rates only to get bad content and then come back to me and ask me to fix it... These people are getting burned, and learning that in the long run it is cheaper and faster to go with a professional... A lot of newbies start out with cheap content writers... before long people will catch on!