Yes but what your not understanding is it doesn't mean your writing skills are bad. Please NOTE: I'm not a writer, I only buy content using DP. There is plenty of times where I use a writer and pay 1 cent per word. And their content is worth that 1 cent a word and nothing more. I'm not saying their writing sucks, I'm saying that I expect a certain quality for 1 cent a word and nothing more, so for the price it was worth it. There is plenty of times I use a writer and pay 5 cents a word. And I'll say the same thing, it was worth it for the price. I can't expect someone to write the same quality for 1 cent a word as they would for 5 cents a word. Nor do I expect them too. If they do then thats great, but I don't expect it. So I don't think he meant it as a negative thing, I think he was saying for the price you can't beat it. You've never bought something and said, "Hey for the price you can't beat it!" I'm sure you have!
I already am a writer, and in my opinion, a far better writer than you. Paragraphing is certainly one of YOUR problems. One of your wife's biggest problems is the fact that she obviously never revises the work (there are tonnes of grammatical mistakes) and the fact that there is NO actual content, it is all fluff. Do not take this the wrong way, it is just an opinion (that's what forums are all about) and also a couple of suggestions. I was meaning grammatically, you cannot fire a boss. You can resign from a boss, commonly said to be "discontinuing work". I feel that before anything gets too out of hand, I had best leave this thread and stick with any writers I feel have the ability to write to my standards. Jyoti Vats is a great example, I am certain that there are others, but there are two problems a) they do not market well enough OR b) they have never been sane enough to send me a PM!
Clients are not the same as bosses. That's precisely why you should fire them if they start to act like one... in most cases it's illegal (at least here in the US). We're not the only ones who say it's alright to "fire" clients. Top consultants say, and do, the same things. It's not a new concept, even if some people don't quite understand it. Good luck with whoever you end up working with.
I am amazed ! Falling short of words for appreciating all you esteemed webmasters and writers.It would be even more difficult to consolidate all the views now. But I will try to drag out some time very soon. It is a different kind of learning experience for me.
Interesting topic, I'd love to earn $0.05 pw for an article I do (and have done in the past), but there is nothing wrong with writing for less. I currently write about football, and often have clients that give me 0.02 pw, meaning $10 for a 500 word article. As I can do four of those an hour, giving me an hourly wage of $40... is there anything wrong with that?
There's nothing wrong with that as long as you understand that $40 per hour in freelancing can work out to less than half of that in reality compared to a $40 per hour employee job. Why? The average independent professional's time isn't all billable. If you're responsible in business, you'll be spending close to half of your time on marketing, administrative, financial, and other tasks to ensure long-term growth and maintenance. If you're doing those things like you're supposed to be, you can figure about 22-24 hours per week in billable hours if you work a 40 hour work week. At 23 hours per week in billable hours, you're only making $920 per week, whereas the same hourly rate for an employee full-time would be equivalent to $1600 per week... big difference. Now, $920 per week doesn't sound so bad, you might think. But there are other things to take into consideration: 1. To earn that much, you'd be required to fill every one of those 23 billable hours every week with a full article load at $10 per article / $.02 per word. Most writers won't be able to do that, or won't want to do that. 2. That $920 is completely pre-tax and pre-expenses. Expenses might not be high for freelance Web writers, but when looking at it in an hourly rate sense compared to the way we'd traditionally look at hourly rates, it makes a huge difference. Here's why: As an employee, you pay half of your taxes (social security and medicare) and they're usually withheld from each paycheck, and your employer has to pay the other half. As a freelance writer, you have to pay both halves, meaning twice those taxes. A fulltime employee salary of $40 per hour will generally include medical insurance and other benefits paid for at least in part by the company, meaning their "real" hourly rate is higher than that with all things factored in. Not only do you, as a freelancer, not get that boost in earnings through benefits, but your insurance and other things along those lines become expenses that you have to deduct from your $40 per hour rate if you want to be able to think of the earnings in the way we commonly think of hourly rates... you have to look at it in an all-inclusive / comparable way to a typical full-time job at the same rate. That still doesn't account for the rest of your business expenses, which really add up over time (domain name, hosting, any advertising costs, any contractors you have to hire for design work, marketing, or anything else, basic office supplies, Internet connection, any memberships you have professionally, any books or educational materials you buy to forward your career, etc.). If you're fine with $40 per hour when you understand all of that, there's absolutely nothing wrong with you earning that much and being happy with it. The problem is that most people see $40 per hour thinking it's a nice salary, when you could end up with more cash on hand working in a very basic admin job when you factor everything in realistically. It's just important not to be naive when deciding what rates are acceptable in the long term.
I don't really see how people can make much of a living writing articles for the prices being offered here. I'm picking up some small amounts of work here on topics that interest me, but it's more by way of being a hobby and something to do between real-life projects.
Maybe , thats what " I " personally didn't explain, My wife writes as a hobby and for some extra cash, Its not a career move, nor is she looking to become a "professional" editor etc etc . She writes half way decent and for a good rate , simple as that. My REAL income is from my websites, and my brick & mortar business ----- @Jenn, Another SUPER AWESOME post above
Cheers for the insight Jenn, some great points there. However, I'd like to point out that I'm a student living with my parents, and thus writing is a way of earning some spare pocket money. If I make about 50-100 for day that is great work for me. For all you full time writers though, by all means go for the $1 pw gigs
Here's something else to consider in your case then, and another common problem: A lot of younger writers have the same mentality of charging low rates because their expenses are currently low. What they completely neglect is the fact that they won't be able to hike up their rates enough later to cover sudden expenses of being on their own. If your skills, quality, and demand don't change, it just won't happen. So they end up totally screwed over in the long run (just one of many reasons why most businesses and freelance careers fail). It's similar to the "you have to start somewhere" complex, where people think they'll be able to start low and suddenly start increasing their rates drastically later. It very rarely works like that, and no one should bank on being the exception to the rule. Instead, the better business move is to estimate what you'll need on a regular basis in the long-term (if you plan to earn any kind of significant portion of your income from writing later on), and charge that from the start. You'll make more money for the same amount of work, and you'll have money to set aside to cover living expenses for a little while when you do finally move off on your own. Always think about the long term. At the same time, if you're just a hobby writer, and you don't plan on becoming a career writer or relying on that income later on, it's a different story, and do whatever works for you. The way I see it personally is, even if you're a hobby writer, why wouldn't you want to earn even more from your work if you could? (and many can)
Your points are valid if you are really professional in your services, iam referring to the PM i sent you for a quote for your services and never heard back, if i cant expect a quote after 3 days , i can expect the services. Even if you are not interested in offering services you can always say that via PM or send back some message rather than a long term client keep waiting. ^^ This message as posted here just because you were comparing yourself with other cheap writers here but one thing i can say for sure, 99% cheap writers have excellent services in terms of timely delivery, replying the clients and reporting.
Perhaps. My ambition is to become a sports journalist eventually, but as I'm currently involved in a four-year Business degree that will not be for a while now. Of course I'd love to be paid $0.2 pw or more per article; I guess the problem is that I don't know where to look. Once I've built a solid writing portfolio (which I am currently doing) and get some kind of Sports Journalism degree, I assume I'll be able to command a much higher rate for my services Up till now, however the most I've ever gotten has been 0.04 pw for an article, and that was a one-time gig.
The problem was contacting me via PM. I don't check them often. I don't always respond to them. My business site and contact information is readily available to anyone serious enough to take a look and use it. Unlike many of those cheap writers you mention, my business isn't run through a webmaster forum. If it were, I'd have no problem responding to every comment, request, and other PM that came through. Priority goes to current clients, repeat clients, and personal referrals (in that order). If my time is overloaded like it has been recently due to a major family event and being away for several days, it's not uncommon for something to take a few days to get a response unless it's clear that it's extremely urgent or regarding an ongoing project. I don't respond to every inquiry that comes in, especially in forums (which is something I've stated often enough in various places on DP). I generally only respond to PMs "regularly" if I'm offering a special sale only to members and I don't specifically tell them to email me. In your case after looking back for it, it was probably ignored because your primary interest was in SEO articles, which I've stated over and over on the forums that I don't write, because my articles are generally reserved for larger publications and internal corporate communications aside from my own sites or blogging clients. Those are ignored as soon as I see them the majority of the time, because I don't have the time to keep refusing them with the number of requests I get. Even via email those requests are ignored at this point. So while I'm sorry you seem upset by it, I don't apologize for being busy with current clients and marketing and not more actively using a PM system. You'd be very hard pressed to find any professionals in my field using something like that even half as often as I do - it's something I do as a courtesy when I'm able; I'm not always able. My professional contact info is always available for those who choose to use it. But just to show there's no hard feelings for posting your gripe publicly instead of simply emailing me, I've PM'd you a few referrals of quality writers for the projects you mentioned if you're still looking. While the press release mention was vague, if you have specific questions, you can feel free to email me - I try to respond to those much more quickly at least during business hours.
I don't understand from where clients and prospective clients get the impression that you are at their beck and call, but they are wrong. Buyers need to get a better understanding of who needs whom. Just because you have time to sit on your bum and solicit writers doesn't mean I have time to sit on my bum and respond to you. No, I have client work to do. I've contacted lawyers and didn't get a response back. Did I write them off and consider them unprofessional? No, I thought, "Hmmm...he must be pretty darn busy working with other clients. Let me try harder." If, every time I called the attorney's office, the attorney himself answered the phone or returned calls within seconds, I'd wonder what the heck he was doing because he certainly couldn't be working. The same thing applies to any other professional...doctors, plumbers, name it.
Hunter S. Thompson made a living out of not being nice to everyone. It just goes to show you that there is a market out there for angry writers too.
I posted about the subject on my freelance writing blog, because I'm curious to see what other freelancers think of responding to absolutely everything, and detailing more about my own approach and why I run my business the way that I do. Feel free to comment, especially if you're a writer. It's a good discussion topic.
I own a services company and I, like Jen, don't always respond to RFPs from certain people. Potential customers always think you owe them something before any contract has been signed or any money has changed hands. Businesses have the right to choose who they work with just as much as customers have the right to choose who they do business with. I think Jen is doing a great job for freelance writers, and her own reputation, by ensuring she isn't seen as an alternative to so-called "professional writers" that write 500 word articles for $5. There are some morons who write articles, who can't even speak fluent english, or structure sentences, and it's unfair that she should be associated with them.