DP Writing absolute crap?

No problem. Please don't hesitate to PM me or any other writers here if you need additional assistance or have questions. It's tough to learn the ins and outs of freelancing - I'm still learning every day.

 

It is so nice of you "DeniseJ".
Writer's community here at DP is lucky to have experts like you who are ready to help others wholeheartedly.

 

Thank DJ,
That actually could come in handy for Programmer Freelance as well Website I mean...

 

I'm glad this topic finally surfaced. It's something that truly needed to be said. One of the problems with the DP 'creative writing' community is that people are too worried about competing with the prices of those working in third world countries. Eventually they give up, knowing that those low payouts can't support their habits.

People need to stop trying to compete with these guys who are doing a less than a penny per word.

Think about it. Those who outsource their work to these people for such cheap prices are bound to get unsatisfactory service. If these people were really willing to spend their time writing thousands of words for 10 dollars at a time, half of them would develop carpal tunnel in no time. These buyers need to take into consideration that, and I can't stress this enough, if it's too good, then there may be a critical drawback in the service. Take a minute to think about that and branch off into different types of thought....wherever your train of thought leads you.

For the people selling their services...the writers....think about what you believe is sufficient enough to maintain your living conditions, while being reasonable with the person purchasing your work. Don't try to compete with people claiming to work for .0012 or whatever the ridiculous rates are right now amongst you. Sure, this is a competitive market but writers have got to eat also. The next time you decide to use DP for work, use some realistic rates. In time, people will have to increase their prices as well. Why? Buyers will have to realize that anyone charging ridiculously low (at that point) rates do not intend to use true potential in the article. Pricing will have to become somewhat of a factor in determining someone's quality of work (and I say somewhat because it definitely shouldn't be the only factor).

You guys (writers) really have to give options (between cheap crap and quality work) by putting up a price different from what people have grown accustomed to now from DP. Just because the ability to write isn't as appreciated as it should be, that doesn't mean that there can't be any change. Put up your prices whether you feel they will be accepted or not. Your proof will be in prior work and samples among other things. Just be truthful. Your time, energy, and creativity are worth a lot. Be truthful with how much you think it is worth. If your service is true quality and is worth what you say it is, people will come to you. Now get to it...

 

Unfortunately, I don't think the article writing mills are going away any time soon. So we can continue to expect lots of work being offered to those working for ridiculous rates.

For new and talented writers who find themselves overwhelmed with high volumes of low paying work, I'd suggest reading everything Jenn Mattern posts on this forum religiously. Treat it like the Holy Word if necessary. That also goes for InternetAuthor, Denise J and a couple of others whose names I cant remember right now. Also check out www.allfreelancewriting.com. There's tons of useful resources there. Dig into the archives for more gems of advice. Making the switch from article mill rates to better paying ones can be excruciating, but its worth it. (Again, this goes for writers who actually have some talent, not the "I can provide the DP esteemed writers bestest quality at lowest prices" type or as Denise J said "bloggar for $ 1" kind!

 

I've had several good experiences hiring DP writers. What works for me is posting clear and specific instructions in my request. Those writers who follow the instructions are usually worth working with. Those that don't get dropped.

It's said time and time again. YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. This is a lesson most of DP is very slow at learning. People pay next to nothing or offer to do huge amounts of work for next to nothing. I for one offer programming and system administration. I refuse to work for anything less than $50/hr. The quality of my work speaks for itself.

 

There exists no competition actually. Writers who are willing to offer their services at throwaway prices are busy with their businesses. They are normally flooded with cheap orders and do not have time to come here and read the posts perhaps.
This is market afterall !
On the other hand, there are writers who value and respect themselves and their clients equally. They are also not concerned about those who are responsible for this downfall in the standards of the qualitative content. We have esteemed writers here who will never compromise on the reasons superficials.
Webmasters, who care for quality of their own businesses and do not worry about getting rich overnight, will never come down to the standards where everything sells. This platform has umpteen of such webmasters fortunately.And this is a good sign for the health of a qualitative and substantive web-market.
There must be a closeknit relationship between the webmasters and the writers to maintain the quality of writings and the websites both. it is a mutually responsible equation.
Internet is an important tool to reach to the common person. Marketing is just one aspect of the website.Very often the cheap-lookers forget the ultimate objectives of a website. If a website is not serving its target populations it is just "garbage". It is the responsibility of everyone to craete quality content so that the readers and visitors have complete and authoritative information with all ease. An esteemed webmaster knows his responsibilty towards the people at large. This sense of responsibilty lies equally on the shoulders of the writers as well.
This is surprising to note that those who write some paragraphs about something also call them writers. Since internet is open for everyone to run a website, so people who do not understand how to be responsible, are also claiming themselves as webmasters.
We need to understand the difference.At the same time it is pertinent to recognize the right webmasters and writers so that the quality never gets compromized. Once this is understood properly, the problem of eliminating the cheap content producing circumstances will find a solution in itself.

 

I have to say my experiences have not been good, even with the best writer i hired i rewrote most of what he did after getting him to do 3 rewrites.

You do get what you pay for, but im yet to find someone worth hiring at all.

I dont think my standards are that exacting, must it must be good english. I am english, born and bred, and i dont consider my own writing good enough for some situations, so anyone who is not a native speaker is not in with much of a chance. It also depends on how you want to use the content, bad english might be ok for forums, but for newsletters you want the best you can. So if it were possible to hire writers based on the quality level they offer, that would make life a lot easier for everyone - so we know what to expect. Perhaps there is a market opportunity for someone there - to sort the wheat from the chaff, or at least allow us to choose from wheat or chaff based on the particular requirements.

I want articles and PR writing, but after several dismal experiences here ive stopped doing it. Someone please revive my faith.

 

wow i really gotta speed up that portfolio lol i should revive your faith, easyforexsignals!

 

You had distasting experiences and probably you did not meet a most suitable writer for your work. I consider this as not happening a right match. But please do not form a view that DP has no quality writers.
I would recommend writers like "Jenn mattern", "Internetauthor","Denisej". There are many more quality writers and I am sure you will not be disappointed.

 

With that price it's difficult to find a professional writer to do the job. There are plenty of young kids out there trying to earn some pocket money by writing articles, blog posts and forum posts.
If you want a really great article, one that will actually offer something to your visitors you need to pay more.
I got paid 100$ for a 3,000 words article. But it was an authority, unique article on a subject I can totally support.
If you just want your site to get full you can easily do this even with 1$ - 5$ per article. But you are not going to benefit from these.
Ask for proof of work before you hire someone to do the job.
A professional writer is always better than a teenager making his/her hobby.

 

Not always...

I used to do articles for pretty cheap (spent the whole summer doing them at just $2 for 500 words! ) but after coming on here and reading a bit... I've raised my prices for topics that I live and breathe (ie football). This was mainly due to advice from some of the top notch writers on here, and I'm glad to say I've picked up two projects that will hand me $500 by the end of this month

 

Despite my experiences, I totally agree with you and am not disparaging all the writers here. There just needs to be a better way to match writers with clients to avoid disappointment. To be able to find writers with knowledge/interest in a given area and with a level of ability relevant to the task at hand.

I see this is an opportunity for someone to take this matchmaking to a new level.

 

I run a PR firm, so PR writing is actually a specialty. But there's a big difference between paying the $99 I charge (which is extremely low for a release coming from a true PR professional... it's tough to find them for less than $250 or so), and one of the $10-50 releases you'll see people offer around here. Most of them are just content writers, and they have no training whatsoever in what a press release is or how to write them. They can make something look like a press release by following a template (several of them actually follow my own template), but they won't get results. Most also know nothing about how to work with journalists effectively, so they can't tell you if your angle has any real chance or not, or what your best distribution options are. In my case, those writers aren't my competition. If anything, they bring me quite a bit of business, because I'm often paid more to edit the crap releases they write than they were paid to actually write them.

The same thing is true with articles. Some of us simply charge more, and if we don't get people willing to pay our rates here, we'll certainly find them elsewhere. The key is in changing where or how you look for the gigs; not lowering rates to compete in one small market (and DP is just one very small market for writers in the grand scheme of things). You can very easily get cheap writers here, but there's a huge difference between the Web-researched work they'll give you (where the information can be found everywhere already) versus hiring a niche expert who can provide something truly unique. Some people don't want truly unique work, so they won't pay more, and then they get frustrated with the generic garbage they get. Others honestly wouldn't know the difference. If you're a buyer, you have to fully understand the effect content can have on your site (and I'm talking far beyond search engine rankings - as in how much bad content can damage your reputation in the long run) before deciding what you want, and who you want to buy it from.

 

Thank you Swift. You made several excellent points but this sentence stuck out overall.

People charging .00012/word are NOT my competition. I realize that the vast majority of content churned out by these "writers" are junk content. Rather than compete with them I choose to focus on producing the best content I can while charging LIVABLE rates in the process.

I urge everyone to take Swift's advice and stop trying to compete with writers charging ridiculously low rates. They are not your competition!

 

I'd love to. - LOL

Denise, you're exactly right - the penny writers aren't competition.

There are plenty of customers out there willing to pay for quality. That being said, I've been known to cut rates to suit my purposes from time to time, much like the special I'm running now. Usually that is to fill a specific need or "meet" new people.

I feel we should mention that there are different price ranges that can actually reflect different writing abilities. I'm not a PR professional like Jenn, so I would never try to charge $250+ for a release. I can write a solid one, better than most (with the exception of Jenn), but my PR background is not nearly as developed as my other writing skills so I keep my price in accordance with my ability in that area.

We knock the penny writers, but for those that can get words on a page without a lot of style or substance, that rate may be perfectly suitable for the quality and the effort. Just a thought...

 

I can vouch for Internetauthor. She has written some quality articles for me in the past.

 

And for the record, Rebecca is actually the only non-PR professional that I refer anyone to at this point for press releases when my schedule is full, because I do know that she won't simply slap an article into a template and call it a release. She's one of very few writers I refer to anyone for anything actually, with other examples on DP being DeniseJ and Latoya.

 

to be honest, nobody here on DP is really a "great writer" because all the great internet writers out there don't even use digital point to advertise, these people are writing 1 page sales copy letters for people for 1,000-3,000$ a piece. If you can do that then you are really a "great writer".

I bet the max anyone here who has posted has earned has only been 50$ for an article or something. If you think thats good then enjoy yourself among the low ranks, because when you get paid 1,000-3,000 for 500 words then you are really good.

 

A Press Release writer needs to have a different vision. Afterall, it will be some journalist, some editor who will pick the Press Release and make a news of it. Content Writing on the other hand is altogether different.
Press Release Writing is definitely a speciality in itself.One may be an expert on a particular niche but that does not make someone an expert PR Writer equally.
"Will it make a news?" I ask myself whenever writing a Press Release. It happens many a times that the content is a complete mess and I have to carve it out in such a manner that it becomes a news ultimately. That is the success for a PR writer.
This definitely takes brains and hard work. This level of competency is not a day's or month's matter. It takes years to develop such skills. I think why all this should be done for peanuts? Jenn mentions the realities in better and more elaborative way.