"Reasonable" is open to interpretation. Personally I'd go with "ridiculous." But claiming $1 per 100 words is "average" is just flat out incorrect, and it's irresponsible to spread that kind of BS among new writers who might be gullible enough to believe it.
I went through the Canadian site indicated. For the web at least it appears outdated or referring to some special categories of writings. Any place where your writing is up for me to look at? I'd like to see such special writing. Best
$3 per word isn't as uncommon as you might think. It's still paid by magazines, some of the websites tied to magazines, and quite common in business writing (such as in white paper writing). That "special" writing is all around you. It's just good writing by people with a real expertise in their subject matter who are compensated well for their time. Peruse some writers' markets if you'd like to find examples, just like those getting paid those rates often started out doing. Also keep in mind that where that site mentions Web writing, they're not only talking about Web content. That includes Web copywriting, which is entirely different (despite the fact that many folks on DP still constantly confuse them). The rates there don't look "outdated" at all. If anything, I've found that more clients are paying those professional level rates on the Web these days than just a year or two ago. As they take their online businesses, blogs, and content sites more seriously (in the sense of small business owners), they're willing to pay for professional writers at professional rates to build a better business or site.
Price is mostly what someone is willing to work for. Guarantee of work quality is more important. In the past, I have purchased $2 articles that were not worth the time of rewriting them. I have also purchased $3 articles that were perfect. To assure me of quality articles, I put together my own team of qualified writers.
It also depends on what some people consider "quality." On a professional level, that generally involves an authoritative, entertaining, or other appropriate voice on top of a well-researched and well-written piece (far from just grammatically correct). On the other end of the spectrum you have people here who see awful content and leave reviews saying the writer is fantastic and providing high quality work (because they don't know what high quality writing really looks like, or they don't speak English as their first language and aren't able to pick up on all of the mistakes).
Those of you who think that $1 is a fair price should ask yourselves how much the site owner who buys that content expects to make from it. Do you really think the person buying 50 such articles doesn't expect to make much more from your work than $50? A made-for-adsense article in a high-paying niche can earn $2-3 from each click. A price of $3 for an article that can continue earning the buyer dividends for years is far from a "good price".
It really matters on the word length being created. And of course the quality of the Articles. If the article worth the price of something $ then there you could decide for the price.
I do see your point, but I think you may actually be making your writing fees more expensive by paying writers by the hour instead of paying them by the word. If you pay by the hour, you're going to get charged for the time it takes the person to research your content, the time spent writing the content, and the time spent proofreading and polishing the content. Let's say you are paying $10 per hour (low, but a nice round number for math purposes) and the writer spends 30 minutes on research, one hour writing the article (500 words), and 30 minutes on proofreading and revisions. That's 2 hours at $10 per hour or $20 total. If you paid even $0.03 per word, you'd only be paying $15 for the article, regardless of the time spent on research, writing, and editing. Plus, you can't be sure that the person is working on your article for an entire hour. They may have a client messaging them on Yahoo or an e-mail that needs to be answered quickly. Paying per word seems to be less expensive and a better way to keep your costs in check.
Most writers I know charge per project or per word. It's preferable on our end in a lot of cases (and fortunately, it's the provider who decides their fees and terms to present to a market). When a client pays hourly, there are going to be contractors who stretch projects out. It basically encourages unprofessionalism. Then again, when I did consulting work I billed this way. The easy way around it is to keep detailed records of everything you do and when, and provide it to the client. Per project fees can actually benefit both sides. Hourly rates mean you may pay more for an amateur just starting out than you would for a professional who is able to work more quickly due to experience. On the writer's side, per project (or per word) fees encourage us to learn more about our clients (become more invested in their projects) and to get better at what we do so we can improve our efficiency. The more efficient we are the more we'll earn. For example, if they write for $50 per hour in the beginning and they can turn around page of marketing copy per hour, they have no incentive to improve their process and turnaround time for the client(s). However, if they're charging $50 per page (which starts out the same for everyone), they may feel more invested in understanding their clients so future work can be turned around faster and with less "supervision." They may eventually get to the point of being able to write two pages of copy per hour. The client still pays the same results-wise, but they get the benefit of quicker turnarounds and a writer who understands their business more. The writer, over time, doubles their hourly income without having to charge their clients more. It's win-win.
It depends on the writer and on the person hiring. Some people are willing to pay writers $10-$20 per article and others can only afford $2.5 per article etc. Different market, different needs.
wat r u talking about?? You must wats the best. I have seen writers giving out articles at the price of 10$ for 100 words. It depends on quality only.
For me, $0.02 for a word is enough. As long as it is unique and 'king' content. Besides, the articles that we wanna buy need to be analyze. Is the article is placed on blogs, site or for sales letter? Those category for me has different rates and specs. For example, blog need 'king' content includes words density, unique, anchor text and interesting. It's for seo right? So, what's the best for writer is deal with the customer needs, Best Men Win or Best Deal Win . It's better. Correct me if I'm wrong. Thanks
Of course a sales letter would be priced differently than a blog post or other Web content - it's copywriting; not content writing. If a writer treated it as basic Web content, that's a sign you should run because they don't really know what they're doing. As for blog posts being for SEO though, that may be true for you, but it's not in a lot of cases. It's far more important to have authority content that naturally brings in high quality links to rank well than to write for search engines themselves.
Much of the content on the net today is poorly written and a waste of time to read. This seems to be because many site owners put seo before quality content. This is why writing is purchased and sold for so cheap (in some cases). But quality writing costs more. 1¢ per word rarely produces quality writing and is definitely not an average or the norm. It might be average for those looking for cheap writing of poor quality. Many 500 word seo articles regularly sell for fifteen or twenty dollars apiece. Others for fifty or more dollars. It really depends on how important quality is to the buyer.