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Attn: Writers and Clients - Writing is an investment - How to make money on either side of the coin

Discussion in 'Copywriting' started by SCookAAM, May 8, 2014.

  1. #1
    Hello gang,

    I've been thinking lately about all of the great posts here. I see a lot of viewpoints from writers and those that hire writers alike. I see clients asking about how to find the best writers at the best prices, I see writers getting frustrated because they can't find good clients who pay a decent wage and so on. So I thought I'd lay down a few thoughts, and hopefully all of you will get in on the act too.

    I think that there are many people, both writers and clients alike who don't see copywriting / content writing, etc as an actual investment in their success. It's been my experience that "cheap" clients are seeking only filler to help boost serch rankings. In turn, "cheap' writers are only trying to bang out enough words to make a decent living.

    of course, there are those that do understand how powerful their words can be. It's important, no matter what side of the writing street you find yourself on - the writer or client side - that you view your finished copy as an investment. An investment that's no different than buying a well-performing stock or a profitable rental house.

    let me put it into example terms: let's say that you hire a writer to create the copy for your website. You hope that this content will convert more customers and do so over a long period of time, perhaps years. What is this actually worth?

    if, over the next 24 months, your new copy helps to convert 100 customers with an average sale of $50. This means that your investment in the copy brought in $5,000. So what did you pay?

    Did you try to find a guy to do it for $50? Did you pay $500? And you must ask yourself, "if I'm going to make 5K on my investment, what is my investment worth? is it worth spending 10%? I think so.

    on the other hand, if you spend $50 on a writer who... may not be that good at sales and conversions, how much will you make? Let's say you can only turn 10 customers at $50. That's $500. Ok, it's the same ratio, but look what an extra $450 investment would've done for you?

    of course, this is just an example. But what about the other side of the coin? if you're truly a gifted writer and can craft compelling copy, aren't you worth more than $5 per hour?

    if you can reasonably suppose that your work will make the customer 10 times what they pay you, isn't it ok to charge what you think you deserve?

    I think this is a crucial point for writers who are struggling to make ends meet and for clients who want the copy they buy to make them money. if something has worth, then it's valuable and should be treated as such.

    Clients, pay a good writer a good wage and your returns will make what you spent seem laughable by comparison. Writers, demand a fair wage for your quality. When you see yourself as a valuable commodity, others will to.

    I know this was long, but I hope it contains some value. I look forward to seeing what everyone thinks and has to add. thanks.
     
    SCookAAM, May 8, 2014 IP
    Senobia and Rado_ch like this.
  2. Senobia

    Senobia Notable Member

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    #2
    ^^^^This.

    I would like it a million times, if I could. Wise words!
     
    Senobia, May 9, 2014 IP
  3. tuppence

    tuppence Member

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    #3
    A very interest point, however having been on both sides of the argument it's not always clear cut, especially given the changes in the search engines of late. If you are having a sales page written, which "May" over the following two years generate substantial revenue - then paying for the best writer makes sense. Of course may make money and actually making money from it are two different things.

    On the other hand we have people setting up content sites aiming at Adsense revenue or CPM and here (without fiddling the click through ratios or visitor statistics) it is becoming difficult. First you need a lot of content to get volume and the returns per article may only be a few cents a year. In this scenario paying even one cent a word, never mind the three cents a word which is probably the lowest a good writer would work for doesn't make sense. Especially as high volume traffic needs significant investment in hosting and CDN etc.

    Until the likes of Google, genuinely start rewarding quality content over easily manipulated ranking algorithms, writing and content will always be undervalued and classified as a secondary consideration to link building and SEO.
     
    tuppence, May 10, 2014 IP
  4. SCookAAM

    SCookAAM Active Member

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    #4
    The truth is that I'm not referring to writing AdSense filler content. I personally don't believe that there is areally a lot of money in that. yes, you can earn good ad revenues, but it's because you've got truly valuable content that serves.
    If you're just throwing up stuff to hopefully get traffic, your revenues will be a few cents. What I'm referring to is, as you said, sales letters, content for business websites who are driving traffic through PPC, affiliate marketing, advertising, marketing, etc and want to convert once the person gets there. Conversions make you money.
    In my book, I warn writers who want to make a living to stay away from writing articles for Ad pages, just because it doesn't pay well. It's not a bad idea in the beginning, because you can get some experience and build a portfolio, but it's dangerous to remain in that space long.
    For my part, I don't do this kind of writing. I've found sales-oriented copywriting is far more profitable. That's where you can make the $100 per hour rates.
    Just my thoughts, of course.
     
    SCookAAM, May 10, 2014 IP