How many articles would you normally complete in your working day? Also state if you do this full time or part time. Personally I aim for around 3+ but I am only doing this in the evenings at the moment but plan on spending more time on writing this year. (One of my goals )
Depends. If I just need down and dirty content with no editing and questionable research, i can bang em out at a rate of about 20-30 a day. A really good piece might take me days.
This is true, I'm trying to steer away from these quick $$ articles and focus on building my long term client base at my current rate. Thanks to the people on here I've learnt to say no to the people who try to barter with my rates This is giving me more time to focus on other things such as a website which will be on the way soon and learning how to start writing PR to add another aspect in writing.
Now, that's one tricky question. Like Rob says, it's all contextual (pretty much like everything else in life). I've never done 20 articles in a day but then again, it depends on how many words we're talking about here. The most I've ever written in a day (excluding transcription work) is like 8000, which if you'll count on a 500-word-article basis would amount to 16. This was back when I first started writing years ago... charging $3/article but with time, my quality has improved by leaps you know ; so have my rates and time frames. Nowadays, I just crank out 1500-2000 words a day, which takes me many hours due to the sheer amount of research I do but in the end, I get paid what I deserve, doing less menial work than most other writers. Me: 1, Cheap writers: 0.
Lol I had to laugh at that one. My situation is similar to yours if I'm honest, I used to push out loads of articles when I was doing them in the beginning. Now I'm beginning to see the true potential of people respecting the effort and work I'm doing I tend to spend much more time researching, writing and editing the article before I send it out. All in all I'm much happier because it means that I don't have to frantically work until the early hourse of the morning to "get by". Now I can concentrate on the articles one by one and put 100% effort in which in turn gives better financial results. So I guess that means: Us: 2, Cheap Writers: 0
Well for me it depends. Like if i have knowledge of the topic on which i am writing then i can write around 5-10 articles in a day and if i have to do research then it think i can just do 2-3 articles in a day.
I am not at article writing business, but for my personal use/blog, I can write maybe around 5 x 200 word articles maximum.
Just clicked lol, I need to find what I prefer writing about... It should be an easy question I should of thought, but for some reason nothing jumps out to me.
You don't have to specialize in a single topic, especially not right away. I personally specialize in all manners of home related and education topics and do a bit of business/finance writing as well as I have a rather extensive background in all of these areas. At this point I usually avoid cumbersome topics rather than stick exclusively to my handful of specialties. For example, I can easily write an expert article on parenting in less than twenty minutes. I can write on an SEO topic in less than a hour. But if you asked me to write on a topic of coding, a specific program or a design tutorial, I'm afraid you're out of luck - I'd be losing money and more than a few hairs as I pulled them out. LOL Rebecca
Yeah, I understand where you are coming from. At the moment I am trying to build a good reputation for being a writer then I can then begin to narrow down the topics I want to focus on hopefully.
It depends for me as well. I'm learning to avoid jobs that I don't write efficiently at. If it's related to internet marketing, seo, sales letters, I can just let it flow and crank out work pretty quick. When I'm doing something like health or real estate articles, it takes me sometimes 2-3 hours to write 500 words, due to the sheer amount of research involved. I'm learning to find/stick to the niches I write well in. I can command higher rates and provide excellent content that I enjoy writing, so it works out well.
I write almost 9-10 articles per day for a company at a very cheap rate of 12$ per article. So if you want me,you can appoinst me..
Usually I can write about 2000 words a day but when I'm really in the mood then I can double that. I don't force myself to write. If I don't feel like it then I don't write.
My goal is to complete 3 each day. Sometimes though I am lucky to get one done if my son isn't co-operating with me sitting at the computer. There are some days when I am unable to even start working till almost midnight so I am up until 3am sometimes later working. Depending on the project I often go to the library for research material so when I can't be at my computer I write the old fashioned way, with a pen and paper.
I agree with Rebecca, if it's something that I specialize in such as women's issues or real estate for instance, then I can easily do 500 words in about half an hour or less. If it takes alot of research then it may take me a couple of hours. I normally try to steer clear of anything that would require use of parts of my brain that tend not to work. If an article is on a topic that I'm not terribly familiar with then I let the client know that my turnaround time will reflect any research involved. I can normally do about 3 or 4 like these each day, but if I know the topic and don't require much research then I can do around 10-12 each day without feeling like I've worked overtime
There are days when I can write all day and, days when no matter how hard I try I cant get one word right... some writers block
In normal situations I write about 4000 words a day. If the topic needs to be heavily researched it can drop to as low as 1500 words. My record is 1300 words for a day but that was when I was just starting out and had a lot of work to do in a short amount of time.
Rebecca is right. And here's an example. Recently I was charged with writing an email article for a large medical-oriented company. Before writing, I had to read a 14-page detailed medical article, a couple interview transcripts from our doctors, some side data and understand it all. So, it took me about two times longer than usual. Fortunately, it paid very well for the time I put in. If I had more knowledge and experience, I could have finished in half the time and doubled my pay. And that's just part of the power of specialization. But it's not about articles per day, it's about money and quality. There's an absolutely huge difference between the article I just mentioned and SEO or "content filling" writing. If I were just writing "whatever" articles, I could have cranked out about 1,500 - 2,500 words an hour when going close to full steam. But, I don't write those. Don't force yourself to write. Some days you won't want to and that's fine. On the days that you're juice up, go full throttle. Goals are a must. When you're first starting out, take it nice and easy. One article a day is a good goal. After you've done that for 7-10 days, set a goal of three articles daily. Keep that goal for a bit and then progress when you can comfortably do more articles. Of course, the quality/pay matters. If you're writing professional articles, you might do 1-2 per day or one per week. SEO writers typically need to turn out lots of articles (especially SEO writers who don't get paid much). But since the work isn't deep, it's fairly easy to get up to 6-8 daily. Keep it up and you'll be to 10+ comfortably before you know it.
Great Topic! But this ever-ending discussion of Cheap Writers vs. (The rest of them?) loll is an old one and I only wish all the “true†writers in the world could make a decent living by being able to use their skills with tranquillity and freedom rather than being "slaved" but, the truth is, everyone needs to start off somewhere and working as a cheap writer is the obvious solution for the majority of us and, it isn’t that bad after all! It gives you stamina and experience and, most important of all, the realization that your efforts are worth much more. But not wanting to be off topic too much: I don’t write much in English myself. I am a professional writer but I do 90% of my writing in Portuguese. I do manage a team of native –English writers and we are trying to put some efforts into specialization has it has proven to increase the productivity and the well being of everyone involved. Once again, great topic! Wishing you all great success