This has been on my mind for a while...It seems at DP most writers range from one cent to five cents a word, but other jobs, such as writing for magazines pay $1 a word and up! Why do you think this is, and how much would you be willing to pay per word?
Well i still pay 0.01$/word and get Quality articles from writers here in dp @ 2$ for 200 word articles
i find the charges for anything in USD is much cheaper than our local currency cause if i go for paying local writers they charge more
i think a lot of effort and thinking goes into article writing, especially if its for a niche topic. I think writers should be paid on an hourly basis. Considering the fact that a 200 words article takes an hour or so, $2 for an hour looks a little less to me
I charge $10 for articles in the word count range of 400 to 500 words per article. According to the topic and research time you can actual write quite a few niche articles in an hour once you learn a bit about the subject. The diversity keeps the article fun to write. I receive the same price for articles that are published for print or for the web. So, I really do not see any difference.
From my experience, the highest paying client I've found on DP is $0.03 I think this is due to the fact that there is a lot of competition here because there are quite a few skilled writers
If I trust the writer, 10-15 cents/word isn't too bad. Much more and I'd have to really trust the writer . Content below 5 cents doesn't seem up to par to stuff that is just a tad more expensive. (this is not a solicitation).
On average, I charge between .10 and .25 cents depending on the length of the article and research involved. Occasionally for a newer client, I charge 0.05 cents a word, but never lower than that. Writing is an acquired skill, and as such should be rewarded with a decent, liveable wage. The saying "You get what you pay for" normally fits here. I haven't found very many decently paying clients here on DP, either (0.01 cent a word?!?) but hopefully that will change.
Wow 10 to 25 cents? No wonder you thought that other offer was a ripoff. For a while I was doing work for less than one cent a word with discounts. While my work isn't perfect, I still consider it to be pretty good. I always thought 1.5-2 cents a word was the average here, but it has been going up lately. I think the "you get what you pay for" statement is overrated. A lot of times you can get good stuff for cheaper prices (eBay comes to mind.) When I first started doing this here, I did some research on what other writers were charging and came to the conclusion that 1.5 cents a word was a good price. If I was to buy articles, therefore, it is unlikely that I would pay more then that. Someone said a 200 word article takes one HOUR? I doubt that is true for most writers, I myself can get about 7-8 of them done in a hour on topics I do not know well.
Cochise, if you care to look at what the average professional freelancer makes in a year, you would realize my figures are not that uncommon. If you can make enough money to pay the bills and live on one cent a word, more power to you. But my clients are guaranteed original, high quality content at reasonable prices and have never been disappointed. As far as your reference to Ebay -- purchasing goods on Ebay is a lot different than purchasing articles. There's a lot of skill, time and effort put into writing a quality article. There's really no correlation between what you referenced and professional writing, as far as I can see. Furthermore, how long it takes you to write an article doesn't mean another person can get the same amount of words written in an hour. Different strokes, different folks. There's no doubt that the freelance writing world is a highly competitive profession, but for those who take their craft seriously and work to make a living at it, one cent a word just doesn't cut it.
Sorry, I think you misread me. I didn't mean to knock you or your prices, heck if I could get that I would jump on it for sure! As for the eBay thing, it wasn't meant to be taken literally. The only point of that was you said "you get what you pay for" implying that those who charge only one cent or so a word produce lower quality articles. I don't think that is always true. Just because you pay more for something doesn't ensure that you will always get higher quality (again not knocking you as from reading your samples I can tell you write better than me.) I myself offer to rewrite any articles a customer is unhappy with and work with them as much as possible to get them what they need. I also take into account that my customers are people who need to make an income too, probably helps that I only need the money for food and entertainment up at college, and do my best to help them out price wise. Now whether that makes my work any good or not is up to my customers, but again I usually feel my customers are happy with what they get (I've gotten constructive criticism but never anyone 100% unhappy with the work.) And you are of course right that some people can take longer to do articles. But I think one hour for 200 words is a little ridiculous for any writer, no matter how much they research. Anyways sorry again for the misunderstanding, I really didn't mean to offend you. BTW what does the average prof. freelancer make a year?
Sorry Lolz............ For those who PMed me. I am not intrested right now But will bookmark this thread and will Pm u when i need u
LOL, I've spent far more time than 1 hour on 200 words before. Granted, legal writing for representation before a court is far more nerveracking than cranking out a 600 word article on pillow sheets But I hear what you're saying. I've got several writers on my team that have done quite well for themselves working as professional freelancers. Reputation and an overabundance of clientele that keeps coming back for more will always win out over the 1/cent jobbies shipped overseas.
No offense taken, Cochise. Thank you for clarifying. Granted, I am sure there are some people who can produce great work at only one cent per word. I am not one of them. It's not because I CAN'T do the work; rather, a figure that low does not motivate me to do the work when I know there are higher paying jobs out there. With hard work and time, you can make quite a good living as a professional freelancer. Depending on the type of writing you do, (copywriting, tech writing, etc.) a writer can easily make 45,000 dollars a year or more. On the lower end of the pay scale, you could gross between 20 and 30,000 dollars a year. But there are many freelancers who gross well over 100k, and I can guarantee you they don't make that much by writing for pennies.
why? because the magazines that pay that amount are big successful businesses and you would need very good credentials and skills to write for them. in dp, most (note i didn't say all) of the customers are small timers and the writers writing for them aren't in the same league...