What Would Entice You To Buy Articles From Me

I'm a new copywriter and am trying to figure out what is most important to you in selecting an article writer? Would you please rank the following on a 1 to 5 score with 1 being least important and 5 being most important. Also any other thoughts you have will be very much appreciated. Thank you.

1) Samples
2) Price
3) Experience
4) Native English speaker
5) Subject matter expertise
6) Grammar
7) Style
8) SEO knowledge

 

1) Samples 3
2) Price 4
3) Experience 2
4) Native English speaker 4
5) Subject matter expertise 3
6) Grammar 5
7) Style 2
8) SEO knowledge 3

Overall people are going to want to see at least one sample of your work and it is better if you speak or write english well.

 

If you're writing articles, you're a content writer. NOT... a copywriter.

There is a HUGE difference between the two!!!

You need to figure that our first, before you start offering your services.

 

Appreciate your thoughts. Would you tell me from your perspective what the difference is? Thanks.

 

OK. Here goes...

Content and ghostwriters write articles, blog posts, ebooks etc. The content is customarily information based. These types of writers will normally charge by the word or by the article. The pricing for content varies wildly. You could pay anything between 99 cents and $20 for a 400 word article. If you check out a site like ezine articles you will find good examples of content writing.

Copywriting is concerned with selling, and takes many years to learn and master. If you need a sales page, auto responder emails etc... you go to a copywriter. A top quality sales page could cost you anything up $20,000. If you check out the Clickbank market place and read some of the product sales pages, you'll be reading copywriting.

Go check it out... and you'll see how different they are.

Many content writers say that they can write copy, but they can't. If they could they'd only ever write copy, because the money is just sooooo good.

Judging from your post, I think you're a content writer.

I hope this helps.

If you need any help, give me a shout.

Kat Fuschillo

 

None of the above.

You need to be dependable and trustworthy. The more someone cloaks themselves in Yahoo email addresses and anonymous websites, the less they are to make the big bucks.

I get paid more than $1000 for my articles, but my clients know me, they have my phone number and address.

 

Kat, if you really want to go down the pedantry route, why not go all the way. BTW, I'm assuming that by 'content' you mean web site content. If so, does 'content' include graphics? Do you write graphics?

Have you ever looked at the 'content' on AP, Reuters? I would call it journalism, editorial, etc.

Wouldn't you classify ecommerce landing and conversion pages as web content? I have seen some pretty compelling copywriting on some of those sales sites.

As a matter of fact, those sales pages on the web .. aren't those 'content'?

I would guess that the OP is an article writer.

 

Hi Atticus...

For me samples are the most important, and the ability to follow instructions--I've actually had writers try to submit articles to me with gibberish (pretending to be SEO). I pay them what I promised and cut them loose and never work with them again.

Also--I advise all my other editor friends never to work with them, either. We do talk to each other and the good ones spread the word about people who can't write.

That may sound mean, but by the same token I am VERY loyal to writers who are good to me. I like to hook them up with friends who also need work when possible and share the wealth. I am a believer in freelancer karma and I think good workers and editors deserve each other.

 

Here are my rankings:
1) Samples-3
2) Price-3
3) Experience-3.5
4) Native English speaker-2
5) Subject matter expertise-3
6) Grammar-5
7) Style-5
8) SEO knowledge-4

Grammar and style ranks highest because if they are done incorrectly, the whole article won't make any sense.

 

If I want to buy articles, I would look for credibility.

 

Nice piece of information there... was helpful to me and I think for all those even those write who dont knw what are they..
Thanks for sharing cheers!

 

1) Samples-5
2) Price-2
3) Experience-3
4) Native English speaker-5
5) Subject matter expertise-3
6) Grammar-5
7) Style-4
8) SEO knowledge-4

I ranked grammar and "native English speaker" highly because my sites are primarily visited by people from the U.S. I don't consider experience to be as important, as there are a lot of newbies who truly do have writing talent and just need the opportunity to demonstrate what they can do. I also didn't rank subject matter expertise as highly as some of the others. Unless I am writing a report for a very technical audience (ex: a report on chemical reactions for a society of chemists), I can do research to make up for what I lack in knowledge about a topic. I'm sure many other writers can do this well, so I like to give people that don't have specific industry experience a chance to demonstrate their research skills.

 

I agree with EbooksAndArticles here - subject matter expertise isn't an issue if you have good research skills. My first copy job was as a junior copywriter at a media company. We'd do adverts for everyone from coathanger manufacturers (I'm not joking here, I still have the on-hold script for that saved on my PC!) and nurseries to vets and drilling companies.

On my first day, I didn't know a thing about half the industries I wrote for. Luckily I had the research skills to be able to sell the products and services in an authoritative manner.

As for SEO - that's horses for courses. If you're writing an article for my website, I want to make sure it's going to be found. If you're writing it for my sales brochure, I couldn't care less.

The three key things from your list are as follows:
Samples - I'd want proof that you're delivering quality.
Style - Can you fit in with my existing branding? Can you reflect my business' ethos?
Price - We're in a recession. Everyone's looking to save a few pounds here and there.

 

Dude change wat u call urself from copywriter to something appropriate if u want to get some offers.... Now u hav publishd urself as a (copy)writer

 

This might be a sad commentary on my sales ability, but I've given up on writing copy and have just focused on creating solutions. The writing matters but I found that several copywriters I worked with always tried to say too much. I've eventually concluded that in today's day and age, a product has to sell itself. There has to be something remarkable about it. If you do have a remarkable product, writing copy become so much easier. It's a matter of making a page that is easy to scan and quickly shows a person why something is amazing. This work is so difficult for people that have mediocre products.

 

Great post Kat.

 

in the beginning i too have made the mistake of using the terms copywriters and content writers as if they were one and the same.
Thanks Kat for pointing out the differences.

so basically to summarize: copywriters rape people's wallets with words, whereas contentwriters are just friends to keep you company

as far as what i look for, here it is in order of the most important to lease

1) Samples
2) Native English speaker
6) Grammar
7) Style
8) SEO knowledge
3) Experience
2) Price
5) Subject matter expertise

many people have mentioned credibility, which is one of the most important factors, especially, when we're talking about seo copywriting.

For that i look at the their domain.
what do you expect, it's the first thing you see, it's the first impression

if they don't have an easy to remember and relevant domain then I can't remember them, the next day ...and forget about them naturally .... it's that simple

J.

 

in the beginning i too have made the mistake of using the terms copywriters and content writers as if they were the same. Thanks Kat for pointing out the differences.

so basically to summarize: copywriters rape people with words

as far as what i look for here it is in order of the most important to lease

1) Samples
2) Native English speaker
6) Grammar
7) Style
8) SEO knowledge
3) Experience
2) Price
5) Subject matter expertise

many people have mentioned credibility, which is one of the most important factors, especially, when we're talking about seo copywriting.

For that i look at the their domain.
what do you expect, it's the first thing you see, it's the first impression

if they don't have an easy to remember and relevant domain then I can't remember them, the next day ...and forget about them naturally .... it's that simple

J.

 

What??? That's a pretty ludicrous summary.

 

I am not agreed upon this. Sale pages written by highly experienced copywriters get higher conversions.