You have answered for your self, you want to pay $1/per content and expect better quality! Ask your self, there are hundreds of good quality writers with a non native speaking background and outranks the native English speakers. You do the math.
There are some very good copywriters out there but you will expect to pay a minimum of $1.50 per 100 words for acceptable quality. Many people forget that there is a lot of research to be done when writing an article which can make it a lengthy process.
The problem is that most people who say non-natives are referring to Indian's. Now whilst there are some fantastic Indian writers out there they are very few and far between. Why? Well you find that most native English speakers who can't write, won't write. They won't spend their time on writing forums looking for work when there are better jobs for them to do to make a living. That's why the majority (but by no means all) of native English speakers on forums such as this are good. A lot of Indians on the other hand choose to write as they see it as a quick way to make for them good money. If they can't write they perservere and will do anything to persuade an employer to choose them. Some people will hire them if the work they want doing is not meant to be read by humans, if they are happy with a huge edit or if they haven't been in the business long. There are some fantastic Indian writers out there but it is the others who are causing people to view them in a bad light when it comes to their writing skills. Europeans on the other hand are totally different and much like the native English speakers - if you can write you do. I have two Romanians that work with me and they are two of the best writers that I have on my team. I pay them the same wages as native English speakers because the quality of their work is the same. If I hired an Indian who was a great writer he would also be paid the same wage. Pricing is the best advantage you can have but don't sell yourself short just to get work. Offer a couple of review copies and start building up your reputation. If your work is as good as a native's, then stand by it. You are always going to find poor writers on these forums but don't waste your time and energy competing with them for low priced jobs. As a writer you are worth more than that and people ARE willing to pay for high quality work. Your country of origin shouldn't matter, but we all know that it does. Show your employers how great your work is and keep them coming back for more. You don't need 20 employers, you need one or two who will send you regular work in bulk. If they're happy they will hire you again
I think it's most important to find someone who can come up with something that fits what you want to do. It doesn't matter where someone's from if they are talented and know the language. I think the real issue occurs when a business tries to take a shortcut and doesn't look for the skilled worker but rather the one that's offered at a lower price.
If you can write and do it yourself, it's better because only you know what you really want and if you have certain standards, you might not be happy with anything else.
It is true that some people have made the business decision that they do not need quality writing. It does not mean they would not benefit from a skilled writer with a near perfect grasp of English grammar. When this person pays the lowest price possible for re-writes of articles taken from other sites, the person is getting what they paid for. It is bad writing and bad English, but it is within the range of tolerance for this person's project. The adage still applies.
Ok, let's get some examples in here, but first let me say that I am not attacking anyone personally. Rather, I am analyzing some of what goes on here. It is for the sake of discussion about the topic "You get what you pay for". One offer read: "I need a native US/Canadian English writer to write few articles for me. No Indians, Phillipines, Pakistanies please. Please only serious writers who are ready to start writing articles immediately. Payout: $1/100 words." Let's see how he is doing. Later he posted again: "1. PM me with the answers of the questions I've included in my thread. 2. Don't PM me if you are NOT a native English writer." Now why would he first ask for native US/Canadian writers only and then have to say again that non-native writers should not contact him? There are actually a couple of reasons. The obvious reason he had to repeat his requirement is that non-native speakers had been contacting him. He had made his mind up at the start that he would not accept a writer if they were not a native speaker. It is always good to establish what you want before you begin asking. Keep the boundaries and continue to repeat your requirements. The second reason was due to the fact that he had not found any native English writers willing to work for that low of a rate. If he does find anyone who will, and they are native English speakers, I promise they will not have an adequate grasp on either grammar or composition to be of much use to him. He might be better off hiring one of the many well-educated Indians on this forum. Although either their grammar or their composition might be deficient, the other will likely be better than the low paid native speaker. You get what you pay for!
recraig - I agree with what you're saying for the most part but I think most people will agree that wherever you place a post looking for writers, even if you say you will only accept native English speakers you will be inundated with replies to sort through from non-natives begging you to give them a chance. I advertised a job the other day for a UK writer. I only wanted a UK writer and I had a number of replies. 95% of these were from Pakistanis/Indians/Bangledeshis who bombarded me with emails. Not only did they apply for a job where they wouldn't have been accepted, some of them sent 4 or 5 emails asking me to reply to their bid. When I did reply to a few politely stating the reasons why I needed a writer from the UK they wouldn't accept it and again sent more emails telling me why they were better for a job related to small towns in the UK that they clearly knew more about than a UK resident because they supported Leeds United. So take this into the real world - you're hiring for a French scuba instructor to teach your French scuba students. You only want someone who speaks French as a native, someone who understands the French culture and someone who is a scuba diving instructor. Along comes a Spanish speaking rescue diver - they don't speak French and they don't even meet with the terms of the job as they haven't completed with the required education. If they applied you'd probably politely tell them you weren't interested. If they refused to leave the interview you would have them removed, if they continued to not leave you alone, not only would you be completely sure of your decision to not hire them but you would probably ask security to come and escort them away from you. Just because this business is online it does not mean that a level of professionalism should not exist. I wonder how many native speakers apply for jobs for Indians only - I bet it's very few if any.
Crimebuster, you are so right. The good side about offering a better rate, as opposed to a bottom of the barrel rate, is that at least there will be native speakers replying to your ad for native speakers, in addition to these thousands of guys who don't understand western business protocol. If an ad states a pre-requisite and you absolutely do not have it, you do not apply for the work. That is a Western Business Basics 101 foundational lesson, for those non-natives reading this post, don't you agree? Begging, pressuring, harassing, and sucking up precious time will degrade your reputation, not enhance it. One of my favorite guys to do business with here is an Indian who got his MBA in Texas. He has a great attitude and he himself is an accomplished writer in English. So, while I know that it is not true to paint a certain racial profile, the inundation generates numbers that are hard to get over after it happens to you. I am sure, in spite of being delicate about these matters, someone will take advantage of it to lash out.
It is true that we get what we pay for. However, yes, sometimes, there will still be those who would fit the job (even though they're not native English speakers). As Filipinos, it's true that we have quite lower rates here for freelancers (considering the labor cost from more developed countries); however, having been under the rule of Americans for several years, and with the quality of education we get, we still manage to make it to the bill. I hope we're not talking of just one race here. I think it's a matter of how you'd like to risk and meeting some really great writers from different countries who would take it at a lower rate.
I get paid between $150 - $300 per page of copywriting. I'm a native English speaker and I've been trained in sales conversion using copywriting. That's why I make the money that I do. I also get paid by real businesses instead of fly by night Wordpress site owners that think they'll make a million dollars by joining some affiliate deal program. If you're serious about making a living from copywriting, don't waste your time with the cheapo wannabe businessmen.
Here, in online world, the content that can drive more traffic and visitors worths more. Doesn't matter if it is written by a native or non-native the thing that matters is the SEO formatting and if you don't know how to write articles that are SEO friendly then I can bet most of the clients will not take interest in your writing services. Finally we all should understand that we are not talking about literature here - it's all about increasing the online visibility and if someone finds the same services at quite cheaper prices then what's wrong here.
Digitalpoint is nowadays synonym for a crap-writing marketplace; everyone expects to pay peanuts for "high quality" articles, everyone expects to hire writers (or pseudo-writers) with non plus ultra qualifications. but undoubtedly, they will will always get what they are paying for, like recraig2 said, and then it's hilarious read their moaning about poor quality content they receive, as hilarious is reading those posts where "high profile, native English" speakers try to defeat peanut-writers.
You're right. In every language there are many natives who do not know correct grammar. But what is your point? This statement has been made repeatedly, though here on DP there are very few who qualify for it. The general principle, in fact, does hold true that native speakers of any language write better than non-native speakers. There are the extremely rare few who attain a level of proficiency in a language not their own. However, most natives are in fact proficient in their language, even if they make mistakes from time to time. We are, after all, everyone of us human.
Very interesting reply. I cannot say this is good English, but it is an interesting reply because of that to post here in this thread.
Thanks, Mystique. This is quite true, isn't it? Listening to those who are fighting some sort of battle here at DP is beyond hilarious. If one is a non-native and one's English is so good, then why are one's posts such bad English? Then again, the same deficiencies do crop up in posts of native writers as well, but quite rarely. I challenge any non-native writer to write a post here of 100 words without any errors, but contributing to the topic. This is not particularly a criticism of Mystique's post, but a reply to it. Mystique's post caused me to think of this. Thanks Mystique. I like what you've said here.
If you can write and do it yourself, it's better because only you know what you really want and if you have certain standards.
I can say that in my own experience, I outsourced to non native English speakers and always had to fix it. Not one time, in 300 articles, did I not have to fix it, with more than 250 writers. I then turned to more expensive native English writers. At $5-$9 per article, I received well written articles, but not every one of them reflected what I wanted to say. So in the end, I personally write my own at the moment, and I use spin syntax, and I just toss them into senukex. So that is my stand point, it may take 20 minutes to quickly freewrite (writing without thinking really) 600 words rapidly, and then an hour to polish the article up to have only about 500 or so words, but it is what I want to say, and meets my standards.