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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!
Many webmasters here swear that India offers the best source of cheap writers, and that the CPM of $10 is about right. As you say though, it screams 'iffy quality'. The other favoured source seems to be college students, specifically those studying English. Sites like eLance and Rentacoder always get mentioned as useful places to find content writers.
What about via your own site? Have you considered advertising to your own visitors?
Syzygy
I'm going to start looking around. I believe in paying people for their work just as I would like to be paid a decent wage for my time. I found a couple of places that where mentioned here, with prices in the $20 range for 500 words, and it was pretty dry reading to say the least. My writing skills are pretty bad, but still better then what I have found on the cheap.
I just can't lay out much budget for a site that may not return. Similar to the scenario I face developing application quality sites for the price of a template. Maybe it has to start with me by laying out some cash?
If I solicit visitors, what would make them want to write for me when they could potentially make much more with their own competing site?
If I solicit visitors, what would make them want to write for me when they could potentially make much more with their own competing site?
Vanity - nearly everyone wants to be a writer: seeing their own name published alongside an article is a powerful draw for people, and backlinks, of course. :-)
If visitors have knowledge or experience of whatever your site may be about then they are the perfect people to write about it. They can offer unique user or sector perspectives that professional writers can find hard to grasp. That depends on the nature of your site, of course.
Syzygy
Good, professional writers can take most topics, find an angle and make it interesting with their own spin. But good, professional writers are very hard to find. I know plenty of folks who write elegant, intricate posts for their blogs, but won't consider writing for someone else. These right-brained creatures frustrate the bejezus out of us logical, results-driven types, who hire it out to India where we know it will at least get done.
And Syzygy, if pro writers up to my expectations are really that expensive, maybe I have it backwards. Maybe I need to hire coders instead and learn better writing skills, or hire either writers/coders depending on what area I can concentrate on the most at the moment.
It's a problem when I like to design page layouts and graphics, and code sometimes complex solutions, and write content. The problem being nothing gets done.
Professional writers who do write-for-hire work for others do not generally care about exposure. They care about money. Those hired writers on the Web who care about exposure, making a "name" for themselves, and sharing their ideas are either starry-eyed amateurs with somewhat mystical ideas about writing or just saying it to preserve their dignity. Pro writers tend to have little dignity. ;)
Freelancers' rates are currently in flux as there is a huge shift going on in the market. The old rule that you get what you pay for no longer applies. Sometimes you pay peanuts and get quality. Sometimes you pay gold and get rather moldy peanuts.
This is because of vast changes to the market. Print writers are falling out of demand, while the demand for Web writers is increasing. But it's not a seamless process. New writers, bemused by the breadth of opportunity, are flooding the online market while old writers, scratching their heads at the lack of print pickings, are trickling in, then doing horrified turnabouts as they realize they need to take pay cuts if they want work. The resultant hodgepodge of personnel, some new, some old, combined with all the webfolk wanting to hire writers but having no idea how to value Web writing, means that rates vary wildly.
So you've got professional freelancers accustomed to pricing themselves for the print market taking work at lowered rates, partly because of necessity but also because they realize the work is so readily available that they needn't spend hours, weeks or months researching markets, pitching, waiting for payment, networking, etc. Part of the reason a decently written article could cost thousands of dollars was that writers put in thousands of dollars worth of work doing all these things.
New write-for-hire writers - those who weren't freelancers before coming online - vary wildly in quality. About half can't write even passably well and most of the rest are not very good. Some are, though. The problem is, many good writers eventually realize that there's more opportunity in writing for themselves, but may mix WFH work with their own projects for cash.
Your best bet for getting the best value are professional writers who have just come online and feel they need to build an online portfolio.
And just an aside, in case it comes up: You may want to avoid the odd practice that's cropped up lately of offering writers commissions for large numbers of articles paid at lower rates. Good writers won't go for it, since work is so easy to get, and writing a hundred articles for one client takes no less time than a hundred articles for a hundred clients.
Textbroker (specify the 5 star writers, who cost 5 cents per word, for the best quality)
oDesk & eLance (pay more attention to writing samples than feedback scores, as new writers are coming on all the time)
You can also look at content sites like Constant Content or even HubPages, and if you see content you like, often the writer is more than willing to be contacted for freelance work.
Freelancers' rates are currently in flux as there is a huge shift going on in the market. The old rule that "you get what you pay for" no longer applies. Sometimes you pay peanuts and get quality. Sometimes you pay gold and get rather moldy peanuts.
[edited by: tedster at 12:43 am (utc) on Jul 13, 2010]
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