I started on DP at the beginning of the year as a content writer. So far I have made a bit of money and I am happy. But I am seeing now that more and more people are offering content writing services, most for less than $1/100 words. It is very hard to compete with these prices, plus the sheer number of content writers makes it hard to get work. I average around $500/month content writing here, but this month I have only made $150. I just want to know, are there other places where I can sell my services and how can I get more jobs here on DP.
I guess it better to find long term job that offer high.. You can also create a lot of blogs then update this always. paid blogging or pay per post is a good source of income if you are good writer.
Dp is not the best place for content writers. You could try more focused places like elance and scriptlance. But competition is an inescapable fact of life. Learn to cope with it.
I am also earning a fair amount from my clients here in DP. Writers who offer their service at a very low price normally are of low quality. So do not be afraid of their offer.
I'm always in the need of solid writers. I love to work with 2-3 writers, someone that can deliver a fluit text but also someone that can write SEO'd texts. Alot of people in here can write fluid articles but they lack expertise in SEO. If you can do both, i'm pretty sure you'll be fine. I'm adding you and raketter_mom to my buddy list.
Do you also charge around $1 / 100 words? If not, don't worry about those here who do. They're not your competition, and you're not (or you shouldn't be) targeting the same markets. It sounds like you simply need to spend some time learning to market your services more effectively. DP certainly shouldn't be the only place where you find work. For starters, I'd say get a professional site / portfolio and get it in your sig here and any other forums you regularly frequent. A lot of the best gigs come when clients find you, and you don't have anywhere terribly visible for them to do that. Besides, if you're writing for the Web, there's really no excuse not to show off your writing on your own site to prospective clients.
There is no point in cursing the low wage earners.Financial needs, concept, vision,capability assessment,and market potential varies from person to person.One should focus on its own agenda and should not worry about others.Michael Phelps did not win eight golds by thinking of others who were just participating.He focussed on his own performance and never cursed his competitors.
jhmattern is right on target. Some people will focus on price, not quality. You don't want to work with them; let the $0.01 per word writers work with them. That will leave you free to market yourself to clients who are willing to pay more for quality. I would advise against joining some bidding sites. Guru and eLance seem to be okay. GetAFreelancer doesn't seem to have any well-paying projects. Plus, I joined a while back and did one project (before realizing most projects were $1 for 500 words) and their fees are pretty high. They also hold your first payment for several weeks. The good thing about DP is that it opens you up to a global market and you can find small projects here and there to fill in gaps in your work schedule.
The thing to remember is that there are different audiences for different types of content. Some people just want to put up a quick content site, but with original writing, to attract Adsense revenue. Those people are looking for making a one-off payment which will produce continual revenue, but are probably looking to spend the minimum. Perfect writing isn't a necessity for those types of sites. Other people might be looking to produce a content site which grows into a community, and may be willing to pay more for well written and researched articles. Quite apart from that, there are all kinds of writing projects which require more specialised skills. The best thing is to specialise in certain areas, to present your expertise in those areas, and to charge higher prices. As an example, I'm currently looking for e-book writers. Other people look for press releases, marketing copy etc. That's the main way to break yourself out from the mould and to be able to charge higher prices.
I think this is a good place for beginner writers. I managed to get some of my first clients here by offering to write free samples for them. I've also managed to find jobs here to help webmasters with their marketing and link building.
DP is a great place for noobs to find work, if your work is good, you get clients who pay you well. If you work is up to the mark most clients repeat you despite the fact that you may be charging higher rates compared to the others. I wouldn't say that having a niche always works, but if you have good work to showcase, you should be able to get gigs that are well paying. Yeah sometimes the competition does bother you but after I read one of the posts of Jenn talking about sticking to your rates if you are good enough, I did, and had to let go of many a gigs which asked for cheaper rates. Though it was frustrating, I didn't give up, kept applying, and did manage to find work that paid me the rates I was seeking. I am glad I read the post and paid heed to it.
We are a team of writers and have been in this field for a long time. we have been working for 2 years now. We charge 1$/100 words. I think its fair enough for both the client and us.
I think the choice you have to make here on DP is whether you settle for a few high paying jobs, or settle for the $0.01 per word and try and get enough orders as possible. Neither will neccessarily be easy, as you'll have to work hard to build up a good rep, and then find people who are willing to pay for the higher paying jobs, but if you choose the other option you'll have a lot of demand and work.
However, with that "lot of demand and work" comes a lot of stress and lack of time to improve (if you have to fill your schedule with low-paying gigs just to make ends meet, you won't have time available to start targeting better markets in the future, time to pursue your own projects to diversify your revenue streams, or time to network with new colleagues to try to break into a new referral base). That's why many of those who start off charging very low rates find it extremely difficult to ever raise those rates significantly. You decide from the beginning how you're setting the tone for your entire writing career in most cases - so choose wisely.
True. Everything you do has an opportunity cost [Good topic to write an article on ]. The time you spend doing low paying work can be used to look for better paying jobs, improve your skills, enhance your website with great content and promoting your website so you rake in better jobs, submitting content to authority sites to broaden your big fish [Better paying customers] net and so on. Don't ever think that your time is useless just because you earn nothing. The value of an hour can't merely by measured by what you earn in that hour.
This is good advice I have to find content for clients a lot and a lot of it is for specialized fields like micro biology, consumer food production, tips for investing in the aviation industry ect. And I look on authority sites for good writers that know the subject. We never advertise.. You will just get a lot of people full of BS that say they know this and that and they have no clue and they are just lying to get a job. A lot of the articles I get come from retired people who spent a life time in that line of work now they do a little consulting and article writing. Their articles are worth a lot they are the best knowledge out there on very complex and valuable subjects. They will get a couple hundred dollars for a article and the article is good a few articles like that makes a site a authoritative site and will bring a lot of views and build a good reputation. I keep seeing threads with writers complaining they are sick of low paying jobs but they are writing worthless junk. The majority of people don’t pay top wages for hair care, holiday decorating or dog walking. Really what information are you putting out and how much is it worth? Is the info unique the only info out there in this subject?