Paying for Quality Article Content

Where can you get quality original articles for your website and what's a good rate for a 350-600 article.

 

- You can PM writers directly if you have seen them post around the various sections of the forums and like what they have to say.

- You can set up a thread in the Content Creation section and wait for oodles of responses of greatly varying ability and price.

- You can visit portfolios, blogs and websites through the signature of writers and check out their work and contact those you like through their website.

As far as price goes, you will be hit with an onslaught of opinions. A good rule of thumb is this:

$5-10 per article will generally buy you an article with very rudimentary grammar and phrasing ideal for search engine sites but not necessarily for "real" readers.

$11-40 per article will generally buy you an article that is well written, but often lightly researched or pretty generic. The better writers with greater creativity charge at the higher end of the spectrum, but these writers often are general writers who a decent article about anything they can research easily online.

$50-$1000+ per article will usually buy you an article that is magazine/ezine quality again with the most notable writers at the upper end of the spectrum. You also pay more for specialization, i.e. an acknowledged expert in the field will demand more to compensate them for their expertise and unique perspective.

HTH!

 

^ rebecca's right. there are writers, however, who charge as little as $2.00 (300-350 words). as for the quality...well...

 

It's crucial what you mean by "original". Some buyers just want an article to pass Copyscape, while others require deep research to be made. Personally I think an original article should include original ideas or approaches, however, many people prefer to buy some superficial stuff to fill their sites, provided that it is keyword rich and more or less relevant. As for pricing, I agree with Rebecca. So, before hiring a writer, try to understand what kind of quality you really need.

 

"Quality" is also a relative term. If by quality you mean an article that passes Copyscape and has keywords stuffed haphazardly, you'll find writers at the lower end of the scale more than ready to oblige. A well researched, informative, engaging and perfectly optimized article will obviously cost more. I can't think of any other field for which the adage "You get what you pay for" is more apt than the writing profession.

 

I've had good luck advertising for writers on absolutewrite.com, but I'm already known to the community. Note that the community on absolutewrite makes sport of spotting scams, and has a number of pro writers on the site, so treat them fairly.

As far as rates -- it depends on the subject, and the writer. It's better to be generous whenever possible, however. Good writers are worth it.

 

Agreed. But, could you indicate the ranges that you have managed to get decent articles for?
Thanks

 

It really depends on what the topic is -- it's very hard to say. You're paying not just for the writing skills but also the writer's knowledge.

One other thing to look at, though, is that if you have an article that is "linkbait" and which generates lots of links it's a bargain.

Look at it this way -- How much, per month, would you pay for a link on a high-PR site? Likely, said link will obviously be a "paid" link and may get you in trouble with Google or be discounted. $10? $20? Per month?

A good, useful, informative article may generate many links. And they're legitimate, honest, real links that Google won't take offense to.

-- Leva

 

Quality or quantity, I have seen all sorts of prices, I have used Scriptlance in the past with mixed results. Some international writers simply dont make sense. You could try Article Wizard by Jon Ledger, its very good, and could make someone with little writing skills better.

 

Iv paid 5$ per article in the past and got a great set but then other times iv paid more and got garbage, the best option is to go off word of mouth or reviews on a forum thread, iv found that other customers will usually big them up if they are any good.

 

As it's already been pointed out here, quality is definitely a relative term but I believe that when, as a writer, you're trying to break into a higher level of the writing market, there are some basic qualities expected of you. And these go far beyond grammatical mastery.

People who're willing to pay no more than $0.01 a word are the ones usually looking for SEO material and it doesn't really bother them if your grammar is basic. Why I'm saying this is because at the $0.01 a word level, 9 out of 10 writers will produce total garbage when it comes to articles that'd probably give you an infection if used as toilet paper.

If you're a serious buyer looking for quality material, you shouldn't let your parsimony get the best of you. Quality is expensive but quality pays!

 

If you do find a good writer and you are happy with their work, keep them. Add more to your list if you have more work than one writer can handle, but if you find a writer you can work with that produces good work don't let them go.

 

this might seem like I'm hijacking the thread... But, I'm not... I'd like to PM a couple of my sample articles to the veteran writers, and get feedback, so I could know where my work needs to improve... any experienced writers willing to help me?

 

I'll read some of your samples. PM them to me and I will look at them tonight or tomorrow (depending on what time you send them to me).