How much would you pay a content writer?

SkyrocketSEO said:

You have to market yourself, forget about "the market makes the rates". NO, it's you that make rates. Don't be angry at people that pay $1/100 words. It makes no sense. You shouldn't care about that. The more writers decide to work for $1/100 words, the better for you. WHY?

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^I was all about to agree with that guy, until I read...

SkyrocketSEO said:

I like to exploit people, it's my hobby. I like to see people like you living miserable life.

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You sir, are a turd maggot for that.

As to the OP-- everyone else on here already covered it. On a forum for black-hatters, you'll find clients that are looking to take shortcuts in *everything*.

Don't hate! That is like walking into a bar and calling everyone an alcoholic. Most of these people are looking for an aggressively fast profit instead of long term substance.

On the other end, not every writer can get away with charging "premium rates" or picking and choosing who they will and will not work for.

Be honest with yourself about what your services are actually worth... because if you want to make $50/hour instead of $5 then you really have to back that rate up with something different that a $5 writer can't match. Skills ain't cheap, and cheap ain't skilled.

I'd also like to weigh in that a premium writer doesn't have to be a college graduate. Most college grads I know write textbook fluffy crap like "results oriented". Most clients that hire them don't care though... and that's why they aren't the right clients for me.

I specialize in branding. (Making people fucking remember you.) Of course, that's why the only clients I write for are the ones who are really passionate about their product or service, not one get-rich-quick-scheme after another. The writing I do is an art. It has life and personality. You can't copy-paste-and-spin-enough-to-pass-copyscape that shit, and you definitely won't get it for the cost of a pumpkin latte!

Julzwriter said:

How much would you be willing to pay
a content writer for quality articles for your website?
I have been checking this forum and most people just
want to pay writers peanuts but they want high
quality articles. Why are website owners paying writers such low rates?

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A lot of people seem to expect amazing quality writing at ridicolous prices.

You get what you pay for.

If I could buy a highly researched, meat on the bone articles about internet marketing for $5 do you think I would spend 12-16 hours creating them myself?

Really for high quality, well produced front end content that can keep an audience captivated and engaged is going to cost you around $20 per 500 words and even that is on the cheaper end of the scale.

Take Tom from http://www.leavingworkbehind.com/ for example, his rates are $150/hr.

For the most part the $5 for 500 word articles are only worthy for link building purposes. Even then most of them fail copyscape anyway.

I don't understand why writers have getting themselves involved in this race to the bottom - its absolutely ridiculous.

aty1985 said:

$1 per 100 words. The market makes the rates. You have to adapt and evolve.

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/facepalm

QualityContentWriter said:

On the other end, not every writer can get away with charging "premium rates" or picking and choosing who they will and will not work for.

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I couldn't agree with you more on this statement. Some writers think their writing is a lot better than it really is.

People need to understand that the market does affect the going rate. But, at the end of the day, if someone is a really good writer, I think he/she can easily separate themselves from the crowd (from my experience hiring writers over the last 4-5 years).

For example:

Say a new writer starts writing for a forum at $1/100 words and actually provides content that's worth 10x more. At such a cheap rate, he/she will soon find that the demand for his content will far exceed the ability to supply it. At this point, the writer's going to have more orders than he can fulfill because everyone's hungry for his content at such a steal price.

The writer at this stage has no choice but to be selective, and raise the prices due to physical restrictions. The clients that really love the content and still think it's worth the increased price will not hesitate to pay the new price (people like to feel as if they're getting more value than what they're paying). If the articles being written are still higher value than the rate, it won't be long until the writer is once again over-flooded with work and has no choice but to raise the price again (I've had to keep increasing my rate over the years to keep my good writers because if I don't, that TAT just keeps increasing due to overload of orders from other clients).

In other words, if you're a writer and no one is willing to pay you more that $1/100 words, and they're not fighting to keep you for themselves, you need to ask yourself if your content is really that great. I can honestly say that out of every 100 writers I hire, only 1-2 are actually worth paying extra for, just to get top priority and fast TAT.

I'm not a content writer so this is just an example of how the market might dictate the price for writers who always offer more value than they're being paid. The market has a way of sorting things out based on supply/demand.

Also, most of the writing services here on BHW are not written by the service providers themselves (nothing wrong with this, I still use it for tier 1 content and toss away sites), but actually outsourced to people willing to write for much cheaper. This is probably why I don't pay more than a buck per 100 words on a forum service. I would rather find individual writers directly and pay based on the quality/skill of the writer.

To answer the OP's initial question why people pay low rates? Well, to put it simply, unless I feel the content is higher quality and worthy of putting on a money site lander page, I'm going to use it for my tier 1s and pay the rate that's being charged by the sellers.

Also, if I was actually a really good article writer, I would NEVER sell my articles to someone because I know I can make 10x more by using it myself. Unfortuntely, I've never taken an English writing class past high school and I hate writing articles

crazedspyker said:

Unfortuntely, I've never taken an English writing class past high school and I hate writing articles

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Believe it or not, real quality content has nothing to do with English class. It has to do with a real passion for word artistry. My English teacher would hate the way I write. I use comma splices. My grammar isn't 100% Oxford English Dictionary perfect. That's not the stuff that gets results either though. Even grammar nazis will overlook an error (okay, they might comment to gripe about it) but what really matters is if a page is worth reading.

And worth commenting on

^The preceding statement is not grammatically correct.

If you want to waste money on "filler pages" without the intention of a person ever reading it, that's your prerogative and it would be pointless to waste more than you have to. Why bother with the "native English, proper grammar, error free" nonsense? I dunno, and I'd rather not bother trying to understand it. You either want people to read your page or not, but "error free" isn't going to prevent readers from rolling their eyes and bouncing-- or feeling like they just wasted so many valuable minutes of their life.

I guess everyone has their different version of quality. A round of editing can fix a comma splice but you can't fake the life that makes people want to share an article, subscribe to a blog, or relate to a brand enough to become loyal customers.

There are a wide array of content providers. When a person pays $1 for 100 words, they are normally not paying a native English speaker. If they are paying these rates, it is unfathomable that the writer would spend longer than 30 minutes writing the article. When content needs to be written thoroughly, the rates have to match the time spent on the article. Research and editing take time. I fully understand sites that are meant to produce $50 a month spending less on their content. Unfortunately, these sites are normally gone with the next Google update. Engaging, informative content has to be dictated by the price.

Sure, there are people that will do anything for less - are they worth it? Personally, I do not want to spend the time to make revisions on the articles I purchase. In fact, I prefer to hire a competent writer that will not waste their time writing for me and receive a refund request. High quality sites dictate higher quality content. My normal range is $2 - 3 per 100 words or more depending on the research that goes into the topic.

Adam718 said:

If you're an educated, native speaker with a relatively high level of intelligence, you should be getting around $4-$5 per 100 words. This is the price for articles that readers are actually going to like. If you're just writing for the sake of filling a website with content, then $1/100 is the going rate.

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@Adam....exactly and should be higher if you are copy writing or writing academic articles. You get what you pay for.

MMBlack said:

There is such a vast range of quality and pricing. But the fact remains if you're writing for people outsourcing their content for IM purposes, you're competing with writers in India and the Philippines. They're fluent in English, many of them; they can live dirt-cheap so they will work dirt-cheap. If content writing weren't a globally competitive business, the going rate would be much higher.

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You had me up the "fluent in English" statement. I take the content I write and the content on my website seriously. I would hate for someone to read content with poor grammar that is on my website. But again, if you just want poorly spun content then you can get all kinds of it for cheap.

You sir, are a turd maggot for that.

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Thanks for kind words, sir.
What is wrong in the fact that I like to buy low and sell high? Isn't that what all is about?

I mean, I am not pushing anyone to write 10K words for $30....I just ask, and they come themselves. People have to start somewhere. I have my regular writers that I pay more, and they are happy with the rates. But from time to time I like to get some outrageously cheap content

SkyrocketSEO said:

Thanks for kind words, sir.
What is wrong in the fact that I like to buy low and sell high? Isn't that what all is about?

I mean, I am not pushing anyone to write 10K words for $30....I just ask, and they come themselves. People have to start somewhere. I have my regular writers that I pay more, and they are happy with the rates. But from time to time I like to get some outrageously cheap content

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1) Anytime, but it's ma'am.
2) Are you asking me what's wrong with exploiting people or wanting anyone to live a miserable life?
3) If so, I won't dignify it with a response. I don't feed trolls.

As for the rest of what you just said, I'll agree with (most of) it again. There's nothing wrong with buying cheap if you're not the type to invest in something more sustainable. I agree that it's a waste of energy to bitch about cheap clients. I agree that if you look on black hat forums or freelancing sites where you try to outbid competitors to score a job, you can't really complain about the rates.

Those cheap rates do not offend me at all. I've been in the business long enough to know the cheap "content providers" aren't even considered competition. So for the most part, I do agree with your points. I just don't agree with your outlook.

4) "Isn't that what it's all about?"- For you, maybe. I'm the type that puts people before profit... I like to make people happy and successful and solve their problems and make their life better. I'm very blessed to do something I love doing, and seeing it help people. I guess that is something that you and I can agree to disagree on.

QualityContentWriter said:

1) Anytime, but it's ma'am.
2) Are you asking me what's wrong with exploiting people or wanting anyone to live a miserable life?
3) If so, I won't dignify it with a response. I don't feed trolls.

As for the rest of what you just said, I'll agree with (most of) it again. There's nothing wrong with buying cheap if you're not the type to invest in something more sustainable. I agree that it's a waste of energy to bitch about cheap clients. I agree that if you look on black hat forums or freelancing sites where you try to outbid competitors to score a job, you can't really complain about the rates.

Those cheap rates do not offend me at all. I've been in the business long enough to know the cheap "content providers" aren't even considered competition. So for the most part, I do agree with your points. I just don't agree with your outlook.

4) "Isn't that what it's all about?"- For you, maybe. I'm the type that puts people before profit... I like to make people happy and successful and solve their problems and make their life better. I'm very blessed to do something I love doing, and seeing it help people. I guess that is something that you and I can agree to disagree on.

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Well, writing 10k per 3USD is not that bad actually, for me, it takes me less than 1 day to accomplish, but i will not guarantee the quality though.

MOreover, if the seller agree on, i see nothing exploiting, and guess what, with 30 bucks, you can live up to 10 days in my country.

peterngo91 said:

if the seller agree on, i see nothing exploiting, and guess what, with 30 bucks, you can live up to 10 days in my country.

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Agreed. There is nothing wrong with that if it's a fair income for you. Please look at the quote on Page 1 of this thread to see where the "I like to exploit people" comment occurs. I don't see paying low rates to writers who accept low rates as a problem... I only saw the comment he made as a problem.

You get what you pay for

4) "Isn't that what it's all about?"- For you, maybe. I'm the type that puts people before profit... I like to make people happy and successful and solve their problems and make their life better. I'm very blessed to do something I love doing, and seeing it help people. I guess that is something that you and I can agree to disagree on.

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+1 .... Putting up your client before profit gain you 1 step ahead . I am just like this as well so yes we do are "very blessed to do something I love doing, and seeing it help people"

Julzwriter said:

Why are website owners paying writers such low rates?

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Because there are a lot of writers, hence a lot of supply, since article writing for web content is a relatively easy skill and there are plenty of people qualified to do it.

The rest is just basic economics, high supply compared to the demand = low prices.

Julzwriter said:

How much would you be willing to pay
a content writer for quality articles for your website?
I have been checking this forum and most people just
want to pay writers peanuts but they want high
quality articles. Why are website owners paying writers such low rates?

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Same problem here buddy. This question still makes me blank. I mean why writer get a such a low payout while his/her role is important to write content with keywords.

I've had perfectly good articles through fiver

Nick Flame said:

Because there are a lot of writers, hence a lot of supply, since article writing for web content is a relatively easy skill and there are plenty of people qualified to do it. The rest is just basic economics, high supply compared to the demand = low prices.

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"Relatively easy skill"- Can you please Explain a bit Nick?

ezine.writer said:

"Relative easy skill"- Can you please Explain a bit Nick?

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Ha, that made me laugh.

When it comes to content writers, you definitely get what you pay for.

ezine.writer said:

"Relatively easy skill"- Can you please Explain a bit Nick?

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I'm not Nick, but I'll explain for him.

Those looking for cheap writers are looking for somebody capable of putting words together. Doesn't matter how crappy the words are. The "skill" in question would be putting words together.

On the other hand, the actual "skills" (that cost more) are something that neither a "cheap seo content provider" nor a shortcut-oriented buyer have any interest in comprehending.

TBH the OP raised a very broad question. There are many different types of content. Having read the crap that comes out of a $5 writer, it's easy to understand why the going rate is so cheap. The (cheap content) market is completely different from real quality content.

It's pointless to argue worth because there are varying levels that determine value.

At the bottom level, cheap content writing is an easy skill to pick up. My 5 year old already has this "skill": throw words together, or take somebody else's words and twist them up so they don't make any sense. Matter of fact, I should encourage him to do that! It would probably be more legible that some of the stuff I've seen published...

Julzwriter said:

How much would you be willing to pay
a content writer for quality articles for your website?
I have been checking this forum and most people just
want to pay writers peanuts but they want high
quality articles. Why are website owners paying writers such low rates?

Click to expand...

You get what you pay for. If you want to pay low, then you will often get low quality articles. Not all the time though. I know that when I first started out, I had lower rates with my writing because I wanted to get out there and get my name known. So you can find good writers and pay them peanuts for it, however it is often nice for a writer to be paid more so they want to work harder for you.