Are Writers that work for $1 - $3 really writers? It is sad to see the trade come down to this. Article directories are not supporting the cause either. Some of the articles in some of the directories are pure rubbish. Often, a case of bad article spinning (which is also a cause for low rates I guess) What has happened to quality??
well if article spinning is being done by some who knows English .. then spinning as well can produce unbeatable quality articles.
It sickens me that people are willing to push the prices down so low! I mean some of us are trying to make some decent money online and we have people in the middle east who are working for pennies an article and are outputting absolutely crap quality. Not only does it give online writers a bad name, but it pushes down the rates for other writers who actually produce some quality articles! In my opinion there should be a minimum set for writing an article and ALL writers should adhere to it.
Anybody can be called a writer. How good of a one, is a different question. You have to keep in mind that many English-speaking "writers" are from India, Russia, Ukraine, Sudan...and their pay rate is disgustingly low. A couple of bucks an hour is like, what...$10 here? I don't know. You shouldn't let this bother you. Like you said, they put out crappy articles. Only the Johnnies with their rinky dink, shit hole a site buys such articles. And many of them realize thier mistake when they do not get repeat visitors. These low-paid writers (even the ones who will write an article for $10-15, like, for say, Demand Studios), are not a threat at all. Hell, son, not even close.
Good content and quality writing will always command a higher price. In most cases, I still find the best value in writing my own content and spinning articles manually. Otherwise, it's well worth paying a truly qualified writer to produce great articles.
specially guys from Philippines, Pakistan and Kenya are doing this cheap stuff ... you can check them all over on the odesk ... you will find some of them writing at $0.50 per 500 words ... so you can now only imagine about the quality of articles they would have been writing...
definitely not when there is costing includes the net charges, electricity and labor on writing it is something like fooling oneself
Call it what you want, but it's referred to as Globalization and just like in any industry with more competition and more workers the price generally goes down. It's not that they are bad writers per say, a lot of them have college educations and maybe more educated that you or me. Instead of complaining about it, find out how to diferenciate yourself from them, find clients that are willing to pay you for your time. You can't dispute the cost of living in the US and overseas and wage is night and day, so that $3 an article to you maybe $9-15 an article to them in their currency. But the bottom line is, there is certainly a market for $12-15 an article writers, if you are top notch and find clients who are willing to pay you.
I consider myself a decent writer, and normally write for around $1.50/100 words. That is a fairly cheap price, but there's so many competitors who just want money now that I have to charge a low amount or I wouldn't get any business.
It is a pity that so many people are looking for the cheapest writer out there irrespective of quality. That being said, perhaps a writer from one of the "cheaper" countries charging an average rate will be a better writer than a similar priced writer from say the US. Remember that people from countries like India actually do have good English skills, though $1-$3 for an article is still very low. In the end, you have to establish yourself and be able to justify the price that you command. It is hard but that's the way it is and there is no way things are going to get better.
At some point we are all going to have to "suck it up" and accept that we are now in a truly global economy. Complain about it all you want, but ruletheworld is right it's not going to change. The key is to know the value of what you offer and be able to articulate that. There is definitely a market that is willing to pay for premium writing. They are looking for a relationship with a "real" writer. Be confident in what you do, focus on building quality relationships with your clients and you will never be competing on price.
There is competition wherever you go. Writing articles for a few bucks for message board members and for those who go to such places as oDesk (though not all the writers at oDesk are like this), are places where there is competition. Then there is competition in places where you get ten cents, on up to and over one dollar per word. I don't think it is a pity. And I don't feel sorry for them one bit when they have to let their domain expire because they "can't make it work" because the articles wasn't bringing in repeat visitors and/or wasn't selling their affiliate shit. Oops. Er, I mean, products. I never did have much sympathy for stupid people. No offense, but for people like you, yes, there is no way things are going to get better.
I agree! The supply is generated as per demands. If low or moderate quality of articles help someone get links from these article directories, then why not?? Price is always as per the Service offered. If someone is charging $3 per article, it has a different use and a different market altogether as compared to a $10 article and its use.
That is one of the subjects I follow the most here, since I plan to hire a good writer for my website. For most of the professional writers in their niche, it ain't that hard to make a 400-word article within 30 minutes... So it's no wonder the prices are dropping.
Well, quality is often defeated by the eagerness to earn more money. You can at least learn how to write your own articles to make sure that there is credibility in your services