How to find a writer - and what to pay

[edacsac]

I need to boost a site up with some content and would like to hire a writer. If I could offload some writing for a bit, I could work on other things to help move a project along.

I like to write, but it takes me a long time and I have to be in the mood. Anything I publish is usually 800-1000 words, some are more, but nothing gets published under 800 words. I like my writing to have an enthusiastic tone about the subject, and would hope the writer might be as well.

One article I have in mind would need to relate a couple of ideas together (like two history fun facts), with light research, then I would later fit that in with my subject.

I could value an article like that up towards $100 if it was engaging, but I'm not sure what my return would be on the content at the moment, so cost savings plays a role.

I've read mention of $5 for 500 words. I think that screams iffy quality, but somewhere between that and $50 sounds better, depending on how the writer grooves with my ideas over a few articles. Good communication with the writer is important, even if I only buy a couple of articles.

I'm I off mark? How would I solicit someone cool like that?

Thanks!

[Lance912]

You can get decent, US-done work for $15-$25 an article provided you give the writer relative flexibility with writing the article.

Indian work is generally garbage and is frequently copied or near-copied content.

[ganderla]

I have bought writing from India at $1 or less per 100 words and bought it from the US at $5-$10 per 100 words.

The articles that get the best rankings and funny enough the best earnings from ads are the high dollar ones. Good writers know how to sell what they are writing about which in turn makes the person click on an ad offering this item or service and they buy it. Since it is a conversion, you get paid more for the click. It is a win situation all around.

[Lorel]

I have a BA in English/Creative Writing and I wouldn't even think of writing per word or 500 words, etc. It would be at my regular fee per hour because there is usually a lot of research involved to write a quality article with SEO in mind. I'm not offering my services because I'm too busy - just saying if you want a quality article you should not focus on the money but on the quality of the content. Ask for samples before commiting yourself.

[old_expat]

I posted in the supporters forum on how I get 5000 pages of professionally written content for $400:
[webmasterworld.com...]

And ergophobe posted in that thread another similiar idea on how to get tons of well written content, dirt cheap. Not the 'researched and written by someone who doesn't know the language or the subject, for $5 a page' stuff either.

@wheel .. appreciate the thought, but what good do those phantom techniques do those of us who do not subscribe to the supporter's forum?

What's wrong with posting the methods here as well?

[wheel]

@wheel .. appreciate the thought, but what good do those phantom techniques do those of us who do not subscribe to the supporter's forum?

Doesn't do you any good. that was kinda the point.

What's wrong with posting the methods here as well?

Nothing wrong with it,I just decided that since it was a relatively unique technique that I used, that I'd rather put it in the supporters forum instead of wide open here. I felt that what I disclosed was important enough to me that if it wasn't worth the price of the supporters forum, then I'm just as happy to not disclose it.

Whether it's worth the price to you, I dunno. The thread didn't get a lot of traction. that's probably because the technique also involved 'work'. That never seems to go over well - but I'll say this publicly - that extra ingredient of 'work' is probably the biggest secret technique there is.

And, ergophobe's suggestion in my thread? That paid for MY supporter's cost for the year easily, I'll either do what he's suggested at some point, or it'll spawn another idea I can use.

[wheel]

And in terms of article writing, they're almost exclusively crap. Offshore, local, journalists, there's nobody that as expert about the topic as the site owner, or shouldn't be anyway.

I outsource my writing in my niche to nobody (other than the example I gave in the other forum). It takes time to write material, but nobody can do it better than I. Even good writers that I've used, I've only ever used on throwaway/secondary sites. I wouldn't use anyone other than an industry expert on a main site.

[brokenbynubs]

$1 per 100 words is the standard going rate for freelance writing. Don't let any of these people tell you different. They're complete nutters if they think 500 words is worth more than 5 bucks.

[foxtunes]

I've found excellent writers on textbroker, the writers are graded from 1 to 5 stars. You can find excellent 250-400 word articles for 5-10 dollars from experts in their field at the 4 star + level.

[tim222]

I try to get articles at 5 cents a word but the best writers don't last very long at that rate. Sometimes I pay 10 cents a word if that's the best I can find but I don't really feel like the quality is any higher.

Top writers can get 50 cents to a dollar per word. That makes sense for a subscription publication, but it's not really practical for a website where visitors expect to get free info.

Most articles take 6 months to a year to pay for themselves. On rare occasions, an article pays for itself within a month. I had one article written a few years ago that would pay for all the others I bought, even if I never made a dime on any of the others. However, had I written the article myself, I'm positive it would have made as much money. I can write copy that's "good enough" to publish - I'm just lazy ;-)

[coachm]

I'm a writer, mostly these days. Here's some things to consider. You guys are talking about hiring a "writer" who, presumably you can give a topic, and receive back a reasonable quality article of appropriate length. What you will end up with is an article on the topic that will look like and be a rehash of what the writer can quickly find for background material, which has also been produced that way.

If that's ok, pay as little as you can and your criteria should be low.

However, if you want content that will make people go "Wow, I never thought of that", and be good enough to compete against the type of material I write about which I know a great deal, you need to hire subject matter experts who are also good writers. These folks do NOT grow on trees.

And, they have better things to do than write for blogs nobody has heard about, not the least of which is writing for their own platforms. Price? If someone wanted me to write something completely original, crafted, etc, I wouldn't even consider it for under a hundred and probably $150.00 would be barely ok, IF the topic fell within my areas of expertise. I dunno. Probably wouldn`t do it regardless.

Ultimately it depends on what you want: SEO text. A basic article just like most every article on the topic (you can get those free at the article sites), or something that will tell people they NEED to return to you because your site has something important to say.

[SevenByThree]

"$1 per 100 words is the standard going rate for freelance writing."

It's the standard going *discount* or *cheap* rate. That's like saying the price of ramen noodles is the standard going rate for dinner.

I no longer pay less than 5 cents a word for articles anymore. I avoid Freelancer, Elance, and all those sites. They are overrun with non-native speakers and other bottom barrel workers. I don't want to put that much work into ordering articles. My time is money. What good is it to save on an article price when I lose more than its worth in time not to mention the *additional* time it takes to clean up and deal with crap results.

I had one positive experience with a Canadian guy at GAF. He was fantastic and I paid him about 4 cents a word. I've paid as much as 10 cents a word at freelancing sites and my experiences except for the one were just awful. The guy that was good for me directed me to a company (TPI Freelance) that gave him work occasionally. They've been pretty good to me over the past year and the prices are very reasonable for the results.

[old_expat]

@wheel .. appreciate the thought, but what good do those phantom techniques do those of us who do not subscribe to the supporter's forum?

Doesn't do you any good. that was kinda the point.

Seems to be a kind of an "in your face" gesture.

[theentry]

I've a writer at $1/100 words rate also. He is a native speaker.

[george25]

you can find professional writers on [contentdevelopmentpros.com ] it is an affordable service and ranking on 12 on google.. you can try.