Difficulty in article writing

Why has it become so difficult to sell articles, recently.
I am sure we invest a lot of time and hard efforts in writing articles.
But when there is no buyer for your articles. Its really discouraging.
What do you guys think?

Also I am curious to know how much articles you write per day and word count.

For me it takes 1 hour & above to write a 500 words articles. I can write only 5 articles in a day.

 

well, coming from the webmaster side of it... to save on outgoings it's easier to write own articles... Also, people are hiring some low class writers for next to nothing.

 

I'm sure there are, and there will always be, lucrative markets for good, genuinely good articles!
1 hour would be fair enough to come up with a fairly good article, but I always strive to produce ones
with really correct English (call it native or anything else type of English), guaranteed flawless in grammar,
spelling, punctuation, etc. (i.e. as far as humanly possible), and of course coherent in the drive towards the subject idea. On a case-to-case basis, offer rates could vary from $3 to $5++ per 350- to 450-word piece, and I don't buy having to meet deadlines, that will spoil the element of fun in article writing for the net.

At any rate, Happy Writing everyone!

 

It's not really that they are not selling as much but it's that the buyers are not willing to pay as much. The demand for content has gone up recently but the rates that the webmasters are willing to pay has seemed to drop quite a bit. I guess that's why I got a "cheap webmaster" button on my sig. I don't tolerate it.

You just have to make sure that you don't sell yourself short. You can get what you want for your content as long as it is well written and you have confidence in yourself. The market is doing alright now but too many webmasters expect too much for too little and won't fork out to actually pay for the quality.

As for how much I write a day, it is always different. Some days I just can't focus on the work and other days I am whipping off the articles like nothing. On a bad day, I would probably only get 2-3k words of content done but on a good day (which also includes me at the computer for the whole day), I could get 25-30k words of content done but this is all your general CopyScape passed/unique articles which are just a step up from rewrites really.

 

I think that too much of the information has been rehashed. There is only so many ways to write about credit card debt or how to lose weight. Webmasters need to look for interesting niches, same old is getting too old.

 

Love the RickRoll. Luckily I clicked the close tab button quick enough to escape.

 

The part I love about it is that it counts the amount of people that are victims. Six people (including yourself) have went to it since I put it up about 6 hours ago.

That means that I stopped six cheap webmasters from contacting me for content in my books.

 

This sounds more like difficulty marketing articles than writing them?

Do article writers really do this? Write articles "speculatively" and then try and sell them to the highest bidder, or something? I had always imagined that they're written as a commission, after you have a customer for them, and that it's only your services as a writer that you actually market, not individual items of work? (Or did I misunderstand the o.p?)

 

Even I don't fully understand the OP really but people do both. There are some that will just work when they get hired by someone and the order is prepared and there are some that will just go and start writing on what they are comfortable about and sell pre-written article packs in the Content section.

It can still be the same rates though and you are right, it is all about marketing whether you are selling your service or pre-written content.

Personally, I tend to stick to work where I am already hired to do it because the money is guaranteed there but when I don't have work, I do dip into some writing on the side to sell as pre-written content. It does give you the opportunity to write quick articles on what you know the most about so it's not that bad for the rate difference I suppose but you don't get that much in the Content section.

Then again, same with the Content Creation section. In the Content section, there seem to be a lot of interested parties but no one will pay a fair amount. I found about 20 people that will pay $.005-.007/word for content on weight loss but relatively no one that even gets past the $.01/word barrier. Thankfully I have some regular clients that are way past that though so when I am creating articles for the Content section, it is just done to pass time on my behalf and still pockets me some cash.

 

Its a competitive market. I use a lot of writers and i offer them a good price.

Writers always say that we don't pay enough but I tend to offer a good rate, way above the market price but i always get private messages from loads of writers offering me the same quality standard at a lower price so obviously anyone like myself is going to go with the cheapest. It's not that we are not paying the writer the market value it's that your fellow writers are offering the same work at a lower price to their competitor.

 

I think part of it is that there are so many lower quality writers that are getting the jobs at dirt cheap so the webmasters start expecting better rates and subconsciously, the writer will start decreasing his rates so he can get more work. Normally I was working for around 3 cents per word but I have seen myself take up jobs that were way too cheap and in some cases even below a cent a word!

 

Thanks to all for sharing your knowledge and experience.
I was talking about selling the pre-written content rather than offering services on contract.

 

I have some niches which are so obscure that no one in their right mind would touch them. Can anyone pronounce Edison Phonographs, History of the American Studio Pottery Movement in America, Dinosaur National Monument, Great Sand Dunes Monument, Czech Art Glass... My list far, far exceeds my meager budget.

P.S.
70 some countries in Asia

P.P.S.
I have tried to fill several rat holes with water by advertising for writers and picking based on feedback and samples. At my semi-advanced age it takes a good bit fer them ole brain cells to kick in but it finally got through that the people what give all that feedback are either a 'good buddy', one who doesn't recognize good writing (modern education issue) or don't care as long as them damn keywords are there in the proper numbers. In short that is why I am hanging out where some writers hang out and I will do the picking. My finances should get much better in a few months and I hope to have my ducks(feathers for the quills) picked out.

You wouldn't believe the crap I just ditched ($0.03/word) after the second request to clean it up. Both bad writing and filled with factual errors.

 

I have tried this myself when I write articles trying to keep the basic idea alive but using a completely or partially off topic subject to bring the light i not a topic.

 

I think it would be a better idea if you look for people looking for writers instead of you looking for buyers for what you've already written. You get sure money that way and you're compensated for the work you've done.

 

As a website owner, there are several things that stops me from buying articles. One of my concerns is duplicate content. Is that article the same one that has been resold several dozen times?

Also, the "quality" of a lot of the articles is just not there.

The articles I post on my site, I have either images, videos or a combination of both. I have seen very few article writers that will include a video or even images.

If I did decide to buy an article, I would want a signed copyright release, certificate that the article is original, video and images to go along with the article. Until I can get those items, I will continue to write my own articles, film my own videos and take my own pictures.

Maybe this will give writers some ideas for markets that have not been tapped into. Instead of just writing articles, how about video blogging for website owners? Article writing will never be replaced with videos. But videos are the future. A lot of writers are ignoring these future trends.

 

It's true that you could make a case for videos being the future. It's important to understand though that most writers aren't going to act like a jack of all trades - they specialize in writing for a reason. Either they can't put together quality videos (and it would be wrong to try to pass off sub-par work to clients just to offer a full package), or they know they can earn more focusing on what they specialize in. Your best bet if you're looking for more than just writing is to stop looking at writers altogether - instead look to marketing companies or design companies or something along those lines, because many of them keep a team of subcontractors available (meaning they may have a decent writer, a videographer, a photographer, etc. all available to make sure you're getting the best all around for your project).

 

If nobody is buying your article, you have 1 of 3 problems.

1. You are not advertising it correctly.
2. Your price is too high for the level of quality. This naturally leads to #3...
3. Your quality is too low for the price.

Solutions
1. Advertise. Give specifics: topic, word count, keyword density, etc.
2. If you are not a native-English speaker and are unable to distinguish between the usage of "much" and "many" or "fewer" and "less", your price needs to drop considerably.
3. Raise your standards. Read and study English grammar books.

If you want to make it in the writing industry, you gotta know your stuff (as many professionals would say).

 

Personally, I would like to see authors offer more options. Like I said, I write my own articles, take my own pictures and film my own videos. If I can do it, anyone can.

Customers want options. Such as going out to eat. If you have the option of going to a restaurant that only serves one dish, would you "really" want to go back? One the other hand, if you had a restaurant that has a full menu, would you be more likely to go back?

I am pretty sure most people would pick the full menu over the one dish option.

Same thing with writing. If an author writes an article about widgets, offer some pictures to go with the article. Provide the customer with a copyright release for the pictures. These pictures do not have to be professional quality. Regardless of "how" you take a picture of a rose, its still a picture of a rose.

Offer to record the raw video footage of you reading the article, burn the video files to a DVD or CD and then mail them to the customer. Then let the customer do the work of the editing.

With these suggestions authors can offer 6 packages:
1 - the article
2 - article + pictures
3 - article + video
4 - video + pictures (no article)
5 - just the video
6 - the article + video + pictures

Each package would have its own unique price.

I agree and disagree.

There has to be "something" that makes your articles stand out. There has to be something unique and outstanding about your work. Pricing is not enough and advertising it not enough. There has to be something about your work that reaches out to the customer, grabs them be the neck and does not let go. The only way to do that is to offer something your competition does not.

So I would like to add #4 to that list:

4. Your work is not unique.

======= EDIT ==========

On a side note about offering pictures. Once you have the pictures you can resell them over and over. I take my point and shoot camera just about everywhere. Over the past 2 years I have taken over 100 gigs of pictures and videos. If I were a writer, I could sell these same pictures to customers over and over - its like an investment. I own the pictures, I would just provide the customer with a copyright release for them to use the pictures but not resell them.

 

What a terrible comparison. Restaurants usually serve only one TYPE of food - whether it be Mexican, Asian, Lebanese, or whatever it is. Just like writers are only offering one type of service - writing content.

The only way anything similar to that can compare would be a writer and a hot dog stand but there is no reason to compare such stuff. Writers are writers for a reason.

Do you think that published authors should be photographers too? Should they be creative and talented enough to design the book covers and market the book too? Not everyone is the full package.

If I (or most writers for that matter) could do everything, I would just say "@$#% YOU!" and have my own (successful) websites because I am talented enough to do all of it.

Just like a production line, there are many stops.