How low can the DP forums go?

Become a COPYWRITING SALES person... If you can do that right, then there are gigantic returns in that

 

Dp is in the top 1,xxx... its not unknown... its just not well known or even highly regarded.. however, it does have some weight.. ^_^..and its not going away any time soon... The market is just liquidating in practically every sector because of market downtrends on a macro-scale.. even some stocks are severely undervalued.

 

I have to agree here. I usually offer my writing services on here and respond to threads in which someone is in need of forum posts, articles or blog posts. However, I find myself doing this increasingly less nowadays. The prices people offer for a "good" article are outrageously low, some people offer $0.01 a word basically valueing their time at nothing. I can't compete with people offering to do posts or articles at such low prices, so I just have to wait for the right job to pop up.
Anyway, I may use this to my benefit and create a website so I can hire these article writers offering their services at ridiculously low prices!

 

DP actually has pretty much no weight in the overall writing-related industry - forums like this are the bottom of the barrel for gigs. Their benefit to writers is in being one (of many) tools for networking (the only way you get the great gigs here, and those clients are anything but exclusive to here). Alexa rank has nothing to do with the writing industry, and webmasters are far from the biggest spenders when it comes to even online writing work.

 

The web content industry are changing rapidly, very dynamic and some people don't value content as much as the old days. but as always, you get what you pay for.

 

You can actually find a bunch of "good" writers in DP, what you are actually talking about is the regular "scream out" adverts saying "ten articles, $2, absolutely unique!!!" stuff which really doesn't even compare to a real kick ass copywriter..... quality has its price and only the wise can actually see it/get involved with it/or take advantage of it... Perrrrrrrrrrrrriod!

 

I believe that this situation has less to do with the actual writers than it does the DP community as a whole. Let's admit it: people here are generally uninterested in generating quality websites!

Everyone here is interested in get rich quick schemes and wants to make a buck off of adsense, whereas others (like myself) do web design and programming out of a sense of online community development and relaxation--not money. With that said, anyone who wants to make a genuinely resourceful site would avoid DP like the plague. I know I would.

It sounds cynical, but it's the truth. People here aren't about making a better internet. They're here about keyword exploitation and pennies.

 

Can't entirely agree with you there, I've been given some pretty good advice on DP about web design and SEO, and my questions - and the advice I was given - had nothing to do with making money. I have the impression that these people are genuinely interested in helping to create a better internet, ie. better in a useability sense.
Or rather in a technical useability sense.
Good quality writing should be part of a site's useability too, in fact it probably should be the most important part of it. Sadly, as you point out, on DP it isn't regarded in that way, at least not in most of the forums. However, it is here, in this writing forum.
I think with DP you have to be selective, you have to use the technical forums for their technical expertise and, from my point of view as a freelance writer, use this forum for its excellent marketing advice for freelance writers.
Although my freelance writing site is in my sig, I'm not seeking writing commissions here, for the reasons you've mentioned. And looking at Jenn's comments it's pretty clear that some other writers feel the same way.

 

Actually, it's not the truth. You may be surprised, but there's actually a very high caliber of webmasters here - you just don't see them wasting a huge amount of time posting (many don't share their websites publicly, and they tend to hire their writers and other service providers privately through referrals from other webmasters in their network whose opinions they trust). They're here... in droves. They're just the "underground" quieter community that you'll only find through serious networking. DP is just a means of becoming more visible to them. So I wouldn't go passing judgment on DP's whole potential client base just from what you see publicly in the marketplace or from all of the questions from newbies.

 

I've had my luck finding the types of webmasters you're speaking about at SP. Of course, speaking in generalities there are bound to be exceptions--but I digress.

 

The time and the market change!