Current Market Rates For Writers

First of all these are all content writers and they do not understand the mind set,psychology nor the market,they just write as per the keywords supplied and the topic.Many might disagree but its not the writers who is to give the credits but the search engines because they show result as per the demography, and the clients think that coz they have hired natives its their credit ,it can be other way too but not the place where you get native quality at $1,my second point you must have heard about outsourcing and some biggies too outsource,so its all in the business.
For articles that i see in ezine or article base or even at yahoo.com you donot need to apply fair and lovely to write for them,some content writers apply as a travel writer for the destination they have never been to so do you think real and quality can ever come out from them even if they have 4G with google map and an android jelly bean, i don't think so,but this also does not mean that a writer has to travel each and every place,or the client will hold a notice board at each tourist place for a travel writer job.This is where reading habits come in,research counts and Wisdom has its role to play.James Cameron was not traveling on Titanic to be able to bring out the FEEL and emotion, if you can do,you can even do it from the space station, as simple as that. As far as knowing the markets and economics is concerned,practically no one can ever know or depict only can sense the SENSEX,rest is all in the crowd that makes it and even crashes it.

 

@Moumita RC
You made some good points, namely writers can go on Google and like the director of the Titanic who wasn't actually there but.......Listen if I am a food producer wanting to market produce in Canada, do you suppose that a writer in India would really get that demographic?
Would this Indian writer truly get how maple syrup is to Canadians just by researching on Google? How about French pastries, will Google give him the memories of a French child smelling this in the kitchen in Paris growing up as a French child?
If I wanted to move cricket equipment and sell them in Asian magazines, would it not be better to go to an Indian or Pakistani writer who knows the game from childhood? Or should I hire an American or Canadian writer who can look it up on Google?

 

I always find it interesting when rates are discussed around here. Inevitably someone proclaims being a native English speaker doesn't matter. And inevitably that person shows exactly why it does. lol

 

It seems to me hat lame content like fiverr seems to kill off any aspiring writers

 

Ha*ha!...touche...I couldn't agree more!

 

Gotta say those prices are not very competitive. But if you can crank out 3+ pgs of quality copywriting an hour you'll make $$ regardless of the rate.

 

Despite the hilarious language, YMC, he's highlighted a good point - if you have a good solid base in a language, you can probably 'fake it' even if you have little knowledge of the subject matter. I, for example, could cobble together an article about frontal lobe surgery. It would fool a laymen, but probably wouldn't get past a Doc.

 

Heck, it probably wouldn't take much to fool most Docs too.

 

I always find it strange when writers claim they can “write about anything” this is what really creates trash content IMO.
Like someone from India is going to write a decent article on elk hunting? Or someone from Briton is going to write a decent article on what is the best machete for clearing jungle in Indonesia?

When a writer does not know a subject and has to “research” it they are basically taking info already on the web and manually rewriting/spinning it. It really doesn’t matter how correct the grammar is it is just rehashed/manually spun content. I see it all the time, you look at a subject you have wiki, webMD or a similar “top authority” then a dozen other pages of content just spun from the “authority”. I guess it might fool the uneducated or poorly read crowd but google is getting smart these days..?

 

And your alternative to this approach is? Be a master in the field you write for? Niche writing is hard these days compared to general writing from my experience.

 

That's the crux of the problem. Just mashing up easily-found snippets from existing pages and attempting to hide the fact is no way to pass Google. In fact, it's a pretty sure-fire way to get a ban...

It seems to work well enough to fool the people who like to pay $1 / million words though!

 

I am not saying people should get alternative professions, I am just pointing out from a webmasters view point manually spun content is not worth that much. Along with the fact that anyone with average writing skills(your average person) can write that kind of content further brings down the prices.

 

There are people making a living at writing papers for master's degree and phd students. They know how to research at a level that puts their papers on par with the work of students who are actually in the program. They certainly aren't creating trash based on cobbled together information. I don't approve of what they do but many of them are able to truly write about anything at any level.

Every scholarly work has room for more information, a different spin on the statistics or a different approach that a talented writer can make it real without being an expert in the field. I have little doubt that Senobia or myself or many of the other talented writers around here for that matter could write an article about elk hunting that would put you "right there" and have you thinking that we've been hunting elk for years. It's all about the quality of the research and the writer's ability to draw a picture.

 

Being a generous guy I would not pay more then $5 for it.

In reality as an elk hunter I would pay nothing for it. There are a few different types of elk hunters, from clueless city folks who pay guides to self sufficient hunters who go out to the mountains and spend weeks, tracking, calling, waiting, praying, listening, they see many things no one will ever experience unless they do the same. You can tell by talking to people what kind of hunter they are.

 

First light. The dew hangs heavy and cold on every branch. My joints are stiff from the long damp night, but I don't care. Today, HE is mine. From the first time I glimpsed HIM from my spot in the ferns, I knew that there was no alternative. No matter what the cost in time and discomfort, this incredible creature would be my prey. The forest is still quiet - at this time of the year, the local fauna is quiescent at dawn, which actually makes my job harder. Even though I lost HIM last night, he could still be close. After all, hasn't HE been playing me for a fool these 3 long days and nights? I ease the flaps open, and, quiet as a mouse, take a peek. Holy Mother of God. HE is there, looking right at me, or perhaps over me. No more than a hundred yards. I can barely keep from gasping in shock, amazement and hope, and slowly as a glacier, my right hand moves toward my rifle, carefully stowed, as always, on my right. IT'S NOT THERE! I look around in bewilderment before I realise that it's on my left, because of the leaks on the right side. I look up, and HE is gone again. Who is hunting who? Why can't I get a grip on this situation? What is it about HIM that is making me into a rank beginner, committing newbie errors like a boy scout? With a silent inward curse I...

go to McDonalds

 

Thank you for making my point and giving me a good laugh.

 

You lost me in the first sentence.

In elk country ferns are long gone by hunting season and dew is frost.

 

While you are correct, do you really think PGS did anything more than toss that off in a few minutes? With a bit of research he would have not made that mistake.

Let's try a couple different examples...

Does the murder mystery writer have to have actually have committed a murder to be able to write about what their killer was thinking as they hack up people? Do they really have to be arrested to describe the feeling of having the cuffs finally snapped on their wrists?

Is a modern-day biographer unable to write a compelling biography of say Washington or Lincoln simply because they did not live during the Revolutionary or Civil Wars?

 

Three important factors to consider - The ability of the writer to research a given topic, the ability to read information about the topic, and the ability to comprehend what was read. If a person is a good researcher, a skilled reader, and is skilled at comprehending what was read, that person is well on their way to being able to take what was learned and write something decent about the subject. The person does not have to be an expert on the subject matter or have experience related to the subject matter.

Being able to take what was read and researched and put it into your own words is a learned skill. Some people are just better suited at the task than others. I can remember many, many, many years ago, as early as elementary school, having to read a story or some event in history and then having to write a short essay on it. I certainly wasn't an expert on the subject and had no personal experience to draw upon, but I was still able to write an essay that scored good marks. It was learning. The beginnings of developing reading and writing skills. Every single piece of copy a writer produces is a learning tool, something that allows them to improve upon an existing skill.

Sure, there are some things where it definitely benefits the buyer to hire someone local, to hire someone with personal experience, to hire someone with work experience or is educated on the subject matter, to hire someone from a certain country, or hire someone based on their mother tongue - things that would give one writer a hand up amongst the competition, but that doesn't always equate to the buyer receiving a good piece of copy. Other factors come into play as well. Some people simply aren't strong in being able to take what they read and what they know and producing good copy. A buyer can't choose a writer based solely on demographic, native language, knowledge, or experience of a given topic.




As for having experience, previous knowledge of a given topic, such as trying to describe the thoughts of a murderer as they are doing the deed, isn't required to be able to write compelling copy. Many writers are just simply good researchers, have good comprehension skills, and a wicked imagination. They work hard at their craft to make the scene they are trying to set believable enough to make a reader think they really are inside the mind of a murderer. It's natural talent combined with skill. Skills are developed over time with plenty of practice.

 

2 minutes of typing 'stream of consciousness'. And hopefully it made YMC's point - the vast majority of readers would have been fooled by it. In fact, most would probably have been 'drawn in' by it far more so than the typical "Let's talk about hollow point ammo, which you'll need to bring down a 700 pound Moose" article.

The closest I've ever been to shooting Elk, BTW is when I sat through the first 30 minutes of 'The Deer Hunter'.