Don't take this the wrong way but why do people pay / accept such low fees for writing? $3 for a 250 word article! I occasionally write for a specialist film magazine and i got paid between $40 -$60 per article 250 to 500 words and that was a low rate. How do people do article writing and make money for the time spent? Im not knocking anyone here, just curious.....
It's a writing level thing. Most of those writers write at a lower level and they feel comfortable with those rates and those types of projects. Some probably could charge a little more, but they are either scared of losing business or don't know how to step up a level. It's all relative. For instance, I've got a degree in journalism with a PR focus and years of experience. You won't find me offering to write articles at your rates. Although, I'd probably do a little for the magazine you mentioned if I was in that field and wanted to establish myself as an authority source or build/solidify my current personal brand in that arena. Keep in mind, this is just one little forum in a large writing world. There are many writers who charge fees well above anything you'll commonly see here--like me. I don't advertise/offer my services here.
I feel that although my writing is high quality (or so my customers say ) I have to keep my fees ridiculously cheap to just get customers, as there are so many people charging minscule amounts that I have to be a cut cheaper to get noticed in the crowd. It's a shame, as a lot of the time I'm now writing for less than $0.01 per word, but I need the business.... I would much rather charge $0.03-0.05 per word, but due to all the other writers, buyers wil just say I'm too expensive and move onto the next writer...
Anyone who opposes free market on DP tends to get red rep. I've gotten a lot of red rep over low quality low wage posts on here. In a real free market low prices encourages higher quality because there's nothing else to offer after the lowest price possible. That hasn't really happened here. People like me or kite guy have to write for extremely low prices. I've stopped the blogging/article writing because of this. I only answer customers who are offering me at least $10+ for articles. Not to mention since a wave of people came in who can't compete with quality ,because they use online translators or plagiarize, they dropped the market for DP. I go elsewhere for better money now. DP is chump change now. Contests seem to be worth my while and the occasional website sale. If anyone needs cheap work outsourced they go to DP.
I'm tempted to start charging more, actually, but for the moment I just really need the money. I am trying my hardest to make a demand for myself, but even at these prices I am struggling. As people want to make more and more money, they are spending less on content, and, although a lot of the time this will affect quality, the website owners seem to just care about getting the deal for as cheap as possible... It's sad, very sad, but for the moment I just don't have the neccessary skills to make websites or graphics...
Well sadly a lot of people are hired by the actual site owners. So these people are third party companies that hire us to do their work. They get the profits while we get suckered. Most of the time the 3rd party companies can't even understand half the stuff we write and so there's no demand on quality from them, just quantity at cheap price.
I offered my writing services on DP not to long ago at 4 cents per word and I did get some business. I think there are people here who are willing to pay more but you just have to take a leap of faith and ask for more and risk losing business in order to get the higher paying clients.
Yeah my mother still is able to get some decent work but I'm not as dedicated or skilled as her. She does work here on DP too, or at least used to I haven't talked about business with her lately. I just personally stopped doing that like stated before.
Some people are really hurting for money. So earning even a small bit of money is better than starving or not paying rent, I guess. Take enough of those low-paying jobs and you may earn a good enough income -- and possibly even get some repeat customers. But the other part of the problem is that a lot of people who want to be writers don't write as well as they think they do. So people don't want to hire them a decent rate, not when it's obvious their work will need lots of editing. So these writers may be forced to offer their services at very low prices, just to get assignments and build a portfolio, I suppose. Overall, I agree it's a terrible situation. It's tough to survive on so little money. This greatly devalues the creativity and skill required to write well. But like I said, not all of the writers out here are that great, either. It is wonderful, though, that the Internet has created this plethora of opportunities for all those with a dream.
DP is on the cutting edge of the next wave of technology enabled economic globalization. As such, vendors in NYC and Tokyo are suddenly finding themselves in competition with people in Amman and Bangladesh. It will take a few years to sort out how the principle of comparative advantage is really going to affect us all. $0.02c/w seems to be the average rate here on DP. Will demand drive it up or will supply drive it down? At what point does the low pricing demanded by marginal utility crash into the rates demanded by the labor theory of value? We certainly live in interesting times!
Hey there Will! I agree with you on the supply and demand aspect. The more supply there is, the lower the cost. The demand seems to be about the same. But, what about quality? I write for .02 per word as you know, since I wrote about 15 articles for you last week, but I have hired several .02 per word writers here for my PI blog and I have only used one article. It seems people would demand better quality from writers. I hope my .02 cents per word articles are as good as .04 cents per word. But then again, I care about the work I put out. Now that I think about it, I might be part of the problem. As a better quality writer, I should be charging more, even if I lose clients. Maybe the good writers in the content creation section should form an alliance and set some standard quidelines for practice; including raising our rates and not accepting the same rates as rewriters from India. Just my .02 cents
To be honest, from what I've seen from browsing the Content Creation forum, the buyers are looking for writers who charge just $0.01 per word. I mean, there is a group on these forums charging just $0.004 per word, which to be honest is ridiculous! Not only are they not doing themselves justice if they honestly do provide good articles, but they are driving down the business for everyone else. I'm sure if all the really good writers bumped their prices up to $0.04 p/word, for instance, they would get less business, but the money that they make from the people that actually want to recieve high quality articles will cover the mass they used to get. But there needs to be a movement, rather than just one or two people charging what seems to be a lot...
This isn't really an issue of globalization so much as it's an issue of people not understanding basic marketing. If you charge $.05 per word, you shouldn't care what the $.01 per word writers are doing, because they're NOT YOUR COMPETITION. It's not about them charging too little - most doing it are setting themselves up for failure in the long run - let 'em. It's about those who want to charge more not knowing how to target the correct markets for their services. The demand is there (even on DP) for much higher quality work even at much higher rates. Throwing yourself into the mix with the lower-end providers simply isn't how you find it. Quite frankly, the more crap writers that show up here, the easier time I've had in finding higher-paying work. People get tired of poor quality quickly. Spend time building your reputation, and don't do anything that associates yourself with that other group of writers if you don't want to find yourself viewed in the same way by potential clients.
Interesting way of looking at things, jhmattern, and to some extent I agree with you, but remember we all have to start somewhere, I mean, when I first started I didn't really have a clue what I was doing, but I have picked the whole procedure up quickly. Anyway, when I started I didn't know what to charge, so looked around, and charged $0.01 per word, and I guess its stuck. The only reason I would go cheaper than that is due to the niche. Personally, I write football articles, and charge less than $0.01 per word because I find it incredibly easy due to knowing about my topic, and therefore I don't have to research too much. Also, seeing as mine is quite a specific niche, there isn't a huge market... ..I think I will raise my prices next time I start a thread, and offer pretty much the same rates to my existing long term customers...
Not having a clue when you get started is precisely the problem. Freelancing is similar to running a business. You need to know how it works before you get started. That includes understanding pricing and other areas of marketing. I don't mean this targeted at you, but after being here a few years and trying to help countless new writers "learn the ropes" I really have no sympathy for those coming in without a clue anymore - especially those who then complain about low rates. They don't have to start out that way. I didn't. Most other true "professional" writers that I'm acquainted with didn't. That's not to say my rates weren't lower then. But they were never anything like these garbage rates you see posted publicly on DP - even my sale rates weren't that low. You're also making another mistake. You're assuming that you should charge less for your specialty, because it takes less research time. You're misunderstanding basic marketing in a service-oriented business. Stop billing based on things like time (which you have a finite amount of) and start billing based on value. If you know more about a niche topic and you can specialize in it, then you can offer more value than someone who knows nothing about it and has to rely solely on quick research to churn out content. You should be charging more for that; not less.
Once again, some brilliant points from you, +rep. I would say that yeah, when I started I perhaps should have done a bit more research, but we all make mistakes, and this was mine. For my first ever job, I charged $0.02 per word, but then got cheaper and cheaper as I blended in, to be honest, I'm not sure why, it just sort of happened. As to speciality, I see what you mean there. I'll take it into account, thanks.
I think you should charge more.. there are people on DP who require high quality work and are willing to pay a decent rate to make it happen. I just paid a copywriter $100 a page.. totaling 4 pages (found them off DP). And due to the quality of their work I thought that was a steal. If you have samples.. build a portfolio for people to read. I needed benefit driven copy written for my product to increase conversions. If you can offer those types of services, web site owners will pay a fair price. Dont go after the budget crowd.. the quicky article for 5 bucks. Come right out and say you not cheap but I do high quality work. And then back it up with a portfolio. Mike
Yeah, don't assume that rates = quality. I've found people charging 2x - 3x what I do (not here of course) and I can write 10x better than them on a bad, rainy day when I'm drunk. If you find a writer that you're happy with who is perhaps not charging enough, do a happy dance and order a lot of work. If you're a writer, only concern yourself with your target audience. For instance, my target for writing isn't the lower-level webmaster (business owner) who's likely newer in business or still trying to make things work. This audience most likely needs writing that's very cheap, which is something I don't provide. So, there could be 100,000 writers here tomorrow that charge 1-5 cents per word and serve this target market and it would make no difference at all (to me).
Yeah, I think next time I make a thread I'm going to raise my prices, probably to $0.04 a word. I know this probably still doesn't sound much, but if I can get customers at that price then I'll slowly raise the prices.