Basically, i've been writing for about 4 years, mainly for people on DP. It's served me pretty well, but it's time to get work that's higher paid and more regular, as I want to do extra hours. I was thinking of approaching web designers with an offer. They can offer essentially everything I offer. I'll reduce my rate slightly for them, and in turn, they add their profit margin on top. So as an: Standard rate $0.02 per word, which is $100 for 10x500 word articles. I'd offer them a rate of say $0.015, which would leave them with no work to do, for around $25 profit. That highlights the basics, although those that have premium clients could price it at much higher than $0.02 and so on. Anyway, do you think this is something that web designers/graphic designers would be keen to offer to their clients and on their websites, or am I fighting a losing battle. Thanks
Being a freelance designer myself I can say that your assumption that the person selling your product has to do no work is not accurate. Dealing with the client and managing the project is usually the most tedious and least profitable portions of any project I do. So further project managing a third party contractor and then handling project materials, expectations and specs with a client for a narrow margin of profit is not something I would do. If I'm not at least generating my hour rate in profit per hour (in my case $65 p/h) of time spent micro-managing an outsourced service then it's instantly less profitable to me than simply not offering it all. So I'd suggest a few possible options to improve your model. Option One - Increase the margin of profit for both yourself and your reseller by simply charging more. Option two, devise some way of micro-managing yourself, handle client interactions yourself as a contractor for your reseller. Option Three: Raise your prices, narrow your target market and focus on selling fewer projects at a higher rate of pay and cut out the middleman all together. Of course, those are just my opinions though and some people might be super thrilled to pick up a $25 profit and like the added value of being able to offer their clients a more full service suite of offerings, but for me - eh I build a handful of higher cost websites and applications a year and charge accordingly. There's no point in competing with the insane prices of the oversea's designers/developers and to be honest if you're working at that price point I don't see how you could be offering a quality product. I know the websites that people build for $500-$1000 bucks are total junk.
Hi Thanks for replying. Well, that was an example of the model, not necessarily the figures. I agree that the "no work to do" is probably not true, but there is no need to micro manage the project. All of my projects involve a few emails, which I deal with myself obviously. Different projects, different prices, different clients. Some of the projects are more complex and I charge accordingly. Some are simple, so there is no reason to rip people off. I agree, for someone like yourself that consistently works at $65 per hour, it probably wouldn't be worth it. For many others, the chance to make $25 for less than an hours work and bolt on another revenue stream might be quite appealing. Also, many clients are repeat customers, which is where it tends to get really easy. They get to know what I need in terms of a brief and it's more a case of them asking when it will be done...pretty simple. What I don't really understand is "I don't see how you could be offering a quality product"? I don't offer cheap web design, I offer reasonably priced writing services. It serves a purpose for my (happy) client's and I get a decent hourly rate for it. I appreciate the input. Thanks, Grant
Hey, I meant no offense by any of it but what I meant was this, I'm not sure how you'd make a living selling a few articles a day 25 bucks a piece so you're either using this to supplement your income or you're cranking out 10 of them day everyday kind of thing A note on overcharging, it's never overcharging if your time is worth it, I pretty much bill every hour I'm working at $65 bucks, more for development - sometimes a little less for customers who buy hours in bulk. I know that my time is worth that, if I weren't working on their project I would be working on another. You should probably do the math to figure out what your time is worth (it's more than just guessing a number!) and make sure you are charging accordingly. But hey once again it's just my opinion. Either way I wish you the best of luck Alex
No worries I understand what you're saying for the most part, but not on the figures. I don't make $25 a day and I wouldn't expect the seller to. This would be a bolt on/upsell to their current customers basically, so it's just $25 extra per day for them. I am in the process of sorting out my site, increasing my prices and moving away from forums for work, and this was just an idea. The figures I've used are just to make explaining examples easy.
Woah - what in the world is a content writer? Honest question here, because I really don't know. I thought site owners usually had their own content. If they don't, I sort of wonder how worthwhile the site is at all. I mean, what is the point of creating a website when you don't have content to fill it?
In a way, I agree. You are probably thinking that a site built someone with experience and passion on a subject is going to be a good one, which might be true. That being said, a good writer can research most topics and create content that is passionate and informative. And in response to, "I mean, what is the point of creating a website when you don't have content to fill it? " I guess the answer is going to be "money" 9 times out of 10.