Do not settle for peanuts, gang!

I am posting this because I have repeatedly read posts where writers say they must accept lower rates because it is the only way to compete. I'm sure that many of you are like me and wouldn't accept what Jen (jhmattern) has been trying to tell us all along. My first thought was "yes, but you have a known reputation and specialty skills that I do not have"...don't lie, some of you thought the same thing, right?

I have only recently become a member here and 98% of my posts were here in this section of the forum. Most of the posts were discussing writing with Jen. From those posts alone, I was offered a job via PM that looks to be ongoing for quite some time. While it certainly isn't the rate that Jen commands, it is not the ridiculous penny a word or less that buyers are often offering in the Content Creation board.

I hope this shows a few quality writers not to settle for chump change if you are worth a lot more. There are some buyers who recognize your skills and will pay well for those skills. Thanks, Jen, for all the great advice and for working towards making the industry a better place for all freelance writers.

 

I completely agree with you.

While it is absurd to see users swarm like flies for jobs that pay a penny or less per word, it IS possible to find quality clients on this website, who appreciate that some articles require time and effort to write and are willing to compensate you well for that.

I have to say, with the niche of articles based in energy and technology that I am writing right now, I'm having a lot of fun.

btw: I'm not that familiar with most of this forum; who is jen?

arun

 

Ahhh, I've converted another one.

You know... for all of the folks who still tell me generalization and super low starting rates are the way to go, I've never met a writer who went the other way and regretted it.

And remember, I didn't always have much reputation here. I was new too, and I did exactly what I'm telling you folks to do (and frankly, I wish I would have charged even more at the beginning). It's been a while now, but I believe the regular rate I charged for press releases then was $75. When I wanted to bring in new clients in a new place, I offered them a sale rate of $25 or something. While that's still much higher than a $5 per page article, it was pathetically low for a release. The key is that there was a "regular" rate and a sale rate. So when I upped my rates the next year to $99 each, and stopped offering the really low sales, it wasn't a 75% increase; it was a 25% increase - and quite a few of my clients who came in at the $25 sale stayed with me and gladly paid the new $99 rate.

Of course I was also doing that back when they weren't terribly popular in the webmaster community yet, while I also did everything I could here to show webmasters the benefit of using them. In other words, I created my own market by posting in these discussion-oriented threads to show people the value of what I was offering. There are LOTS of other types of business writing specialties in particular that webmasters don't use often enough, where if you really pushed the benefits and specialized, you could probably create a lucrative niche here for yourself. Become the authority source at it before someone else does. For example, I've yet to see anyone on these forums really make a name for themselves on DP as the authority on:

1. Business Plans
2. Sales Letters (and there's a definite demand here)
3. Marketing Plans
4. White Papers
5. E-books and Reports for promotional purposes
6. Web marketing copy - even this, which has a huge demand here, doesn't really have one or two people at the top - I have ones that I personally trust and recommend all the time here, but they aren't out there enough where the general forum community constantly says "Oh, you have a question about marketing or sales copy on your site? Talk to so and so. He / she is the expert on that around here."

 

Jen: To your point about being the authority in a niche before somebody else..

I get the impression that the general procedure here for writers is to start their own thread as a writer offering services. Is this the way you SHOULD do things? What if you start a thread offering services in your niche, and no one responds only to have your thread buried at the back pages, because you might be charging higher than the average DP rate (which I see as being pathetically low). I take pride in my writing and actually enjoy doing the research.

You obviously have the reputation of a quality writer, so how did you start off with those rates without getting completely ignored?

 

Ya know, I am almost coming around, too.

I started in Dec. writing articles for .01 cent per 100 words. Luckily, it only took about 10 500 word articles for me to realize that those rates were not going to cut it.

I gave up for a few months and started back in July. I increased my rates to .02 cents per word for a week, and realized that would not cut it either. I did get a client who is currently paying me double that this week, which I find acceptable.

I started to get smart last week, searching for jobs off DP by creating a resume (with the help of those here, thanks )and applying for every freelance position I am remotely qualified for. Those efforts have landed me a couple of nice gigs.

Now, I am not as steady as I want to be. My current goal is to bring in $150 a day. (I do have a day job) I am getting closer to that consistency. I am not writing as many articles or web copy, but I am making equal money with the higher rates.

Jen is the best!!! I should have listened to her earlier as well But, I am starting to pay more attention. If only I weren’t so hard headed!

 

There's no harm in starting a thread. I would make sure you have one detailing your regular rates at a bare minimum that can stay open for quite a while (the first link in my sig goes to a thread like that). I wish I'd have done that sooner, because I actually get more gigs for release writing through that now at my regular rates than I would get from sale threads - no clue as to why, but I'm not complaining. You can't keep it from getting buried, but if you link to it from your signature, all of your posts will bring attention to it. I've found that far more effective than worrying about where it's located in the thread lists.

Congrats on the gigs, and good luck getting closer and closer to your daily goal.

 

Congrats on your achievement.

I think all writers should offer me their services at no cost though.

 

You will always be paid what you deserve.

I have found that having a bunch of my articles on reputed sites online has helped me earn upto 10 cents a word on DP.

I usually work for clients outside DP as well, but have found that if I have quality in a niche, (mine is fashion/beauty/health) I can get good money for my writing.

I do branch out to other topics as well, like domaining, or online jobs etc.,(where I need to do helluva lot of research) but I find that it pays to stay within a niche and grow your expertise rather than peddle yourself at 1 cent a word.

I agree that we should not sell for peanuts, because if we are doing quality work, it means we are doing a lot of research, sticking with good English, and paying attention to client requirements and deadlines. Surely that is worth something?

 

Hm, yeah while I agree that you are paid what you are deserved. I think that you should be paid what you BELIEVE to be what you deserve. I personally am a writer by nature. I am in a few different arenas. I want to take my writing skills to a whole new level. You just gotta take the bull by the horns and do it!

Don't settle for less as you will later become resentful. Mark my words on that.

 

It's more of a combination.

1. You won't be paid more until you decide / realize you're worth more.
and
2. You also won't be paid more than you're worth regularly. For example, a writer may think their English is flawless, when in fact it's obvious they're not a native speaker. They may think they should be paid an extra $.05 per word. If they can get regular clients at the increased rates, then their belief is justified. If they can't pull in any way, then they have to either improve or re-evaluate their worth in their particular market. There are checks and balances in place like that.

 

Settling for a particular price is purely an individual's decision.DP is a market after all and you get every type of deal here.I do not have even my 50% clients from DP but when I started a few months back here the first press release got me $60.00 and therefore when people say that there are no quality seekers out here at DP I simply disagree with them.
Speciality always pays you more and "Jenn" is right when she refers to the referals and recommendations that generally run underground here.Although not many but I get such assignments sometimes as well.
One of the major reasons for not offering high prices by the webmasters could be the mediocrity prevailing among the writers.Every one is an article writer here because it is one of the simplest form of writing.If you simply re-write you will make up an article even.But it is not that simple in case of sales copy,and white paper writings."Jenn" specializes in press releases not just because she can write good but she has invested efforts instead.You will find any article seeking thread full with responses but it is really tough to see the same rate for sales page writing threads. I haven't seen any "white paper" thread untill now. It would be great if the importance of white papers is understood here at DP as well. I have been working with a couple of MSMEs and keep on preparing white papers for them.It is a great business booster tool indeed. Esteemed visitors having good business sense really invest time reading white papers.
I think DP is also evolving though slowly and newer concepts will also make their presence felt very soon.

 

Ditto on that one.

 

Cough Cough .001 per word anyone from a "professional team" Cough Cough.
To bad im not even sure how they survive on that rate. Surly peoples time is worth more then that

 

That was good advice about the signature. Have to remember that.

 

I don't understand:
- How people can survive on such low rates.
- How they believe people take them seriously as "professionals" with these rates.

 

Some good advice here on these boards..take note people dont accept such low rates and pitch in with what your worth,....quality over quantity!

 

Wow, you guys are real inspirations, pretty candid in your thinking, specially when most of the DP is about low rates. For a newbie like me who found DP about a month back, initially the 1 cent rate seemed fine because I didn't know if I'd be accepted here with higher rates. I've increased my prices by a bit since then, but haven't lost a single client. I may not be making too much right now, but I'm happy with the fact that most people like my work. Steadily as I make my reputation here, I hope to get better rates as well. Do you think I'm selling myself too short or slowly and steadily is the way to go ?

 

After my fiasco with Associated Content, I'll probably be selling some articles here too. I'd rather get .01 than .003! Yeah, I know, I'll get paid for page views, but still, it's awfully low.

 

I think you also need to be a writer with a passion and love for writing, to be worth paying more. If you don't have a passion and love for writing, you won't get far regardless of your rates.

 

I think the problem here began when the 'internet' started to define quality as copyscape passable and grammatically passable.

Anybody capable of producing truly good content is killing themselves if they try to compete against the lowest common denominator.

The internet may soon drown in this inferior .001/word 'content'. Maybe people will start going back to bookstores. (content someone was confident enough of to invest in).