How do you pay your writers?

I recently had a writer claiming that they should be paid on the meta tags, article title, and the short/lead-in description for the article as well, on a per word basis.

I've never had a writer request this before, as we always paid them on the published article and title only. What are your thoughts? What do you pay your writers on?

 

Hmm that does sound like an odd request. I have only every been paid based upon the article/title. Are they SEO copywriting for you? Some (most...) platforms require you to fill out the meta tags, description, etc...but I have never heard of a copywriter asking to be paid based upon those things! Some ask to be paid per word, so that is not as unusual.

 

I generally use that work as a 'sweetener' - something that I throw in to make my service more valuable to customers. My question back to you is, why do you think they shouldn't be paid for all the work they are doing for you? Assuming the description is just not the introductory sentences, it is written content that took the writer time and effort to produce. If it's only words lifted from the article, I would question that writer's integrity and perhaps look for someone else.

This is just another example why paying writers on a per word, rather than per piece, structure is problematic. Regardless of the payment structure, always make sure that the deliverables are completely defined and whether or not copyright conveys when payment is made.

 

YMC is quite right - in fact, the effort required to correctly create these 'extras' is out of all proportion to the number of words. Keyword research is a laborious process.

 

Keyword research is another animal entirely. If I'm expected to do that too, the price goes up accordingly. Keyword research can take hours to do properly.

Also, in my mind, the meta description is the most important part of any article. It's what people often see in the search engine results. In around 160 characters, you have to explain what the article is about and why it's worth reading. It's the one place where content writers also have to have a bit of copywriting skills. Depending on the topic, that can be a challenging endeavor in its own right.

 

So itz easy to pay your copy writing when you complete a projrct so u pay a copy writers

 

I pay for them to write SEO titles and meta descriptions for me. It is part of the work, so they deserve to be paid for it. As a writer, I also expect to be paid for all of my work.

 

I pay only for the title and content. However, if the service is including the submission, i will ask for the price per article including submission to avoid argument

 

it really depends. usually i like to charge based on the total words I write (which includes the meta elements). so basically if the client wants 500 words, it might include 100 words meta and only 400 words articles

 

I have eliminated this problem for myself as a writer and for the 50+ writers who work for me. If you set up a set "per word" pricing list, you should be sure to include the differences in per word pay. I.E. If you charge 5 cents per word for only the article creation, which means the content and its title alone, than charge 8 words per minute for WordPress or Blog administrator requirements. Your 'per word' pricing should always incorporate the difficulty of the content requirements or any requirements outside of general content creation.

 

Very well put, YMC!

 

i think they are all important in seo
you need to pay
but if he do not work very seriously in it
then you need to think about it

 

Every word counts. If they are writing you should be paying. Time is money

 

By the way per hundred word charges minimum one dollar and maximum 5 Dollar, about shot description and title tags etc . Its separate work and word as well , they are asking right money

 

Hmm.. sounds interesting. My friend who started with content writing was paid in the article basis. However, you also can use these demands for your purposes, 'cause if that writer wants to get money for "meta tags, article title, and the short/lead-in description for the article" than he can do that qualitatively. if he doesn't you can pay him/her even less than you pay to other your copywriters)

 

Does anyone pay their writers on a per performance basis? Sometimes writers need to do a good amount of research around an article in order to create something engaging, instead of just run-of-the-mill.

Have you paid them on a pageview or interaction basis before?

 

That's a risky proposition for a writer. Pageviews are greatly dependent upon the work done to promote both the article and the site it resides on. A writer could write the most compelling and authoritative article ever written on a particular topic but if the site owner does not work on getting backlinks it will most likely remain unread.

A savvy writer working under this premise might work on building up the backlinks but then they are essentially doing SEO work for free. The payout would have to be an extremely good one to make that worth their while.

And, unless the writer has written everything that appears on the site, paying based on conversions may be a loser for the writer as well. Their article might be great but the rest of the site could look like it was written by an illiterate child.

All that said, top copywriters are often paid based on performance. It's most often seen in the specialty of offline direct marketing. To me, the risk there is the writer is dependent upon the client to actually be able to close the deal. The writer could achieve a wonderful response rate but if the person customers speak to on the phone is an idiot, the writer may suffer. I think at this level, response rate and sales are tracked and offer different tiers of compensation. Of course, it's not unheard of for a copywriter to earn six figures from a single piece under this payment structure. But, they can also end up being paid absolutely nothing.

As to the volume and quality of research performed by the writer, that should be discussed before a price is agreed upon.

 

I have constant writer, who writes for me unique content with adopted key words, tags, etc. Artcles size 250 - 400 words. I pay him 50% in advance as I know him very well.

 

I pay my writer 25% upfront as I'm not familiar with his abilities, you should do that for people you don't know

 

I've started to ask for meta description included in every article I get written. Just means its one less thing for me to worry about!