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I Think I Need A Break From Writing

Discussion in 'Copywriting' started by coreygeer, Jul 22, 2013.

  1. SCookAAM

    SCookAAM Active Member

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    #41
    That sounds like a good idea, and I'm sorry I've been spelling your name cori instead of corey

    if you really want to make money as a writer, fiction is the way to go. I only wish it were that easy, or I'd already have my novels published.

    Anyway, charging what you're really worth is the way to go. It's like I said before, the middle is the worst place to be. And although you can get a lot of work in the bargain basement, you have to spend half your time killing roaches :)

    you can get a lot of clients for a penny a word, but you have to sacrifice a few little things... like your dignity, your self esteem, your sanity, food, dating, rent, electricity, quality of life, beer, clean clothes.... well, you get the idea
     
    SCookAAM, Aug 11, 2013 IP
  2. matt_62

    matt_62 Prominent Member

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    #42
    If you are American, you can easily charge $5 per 100 words and still be considered cheap... (I used to pay alot more then this in the past, and if I ever need more content in that specific niche, I will stick with people I trust and pay whatever rate they want because they are worth it.)

    What my point was, (regardless of whether you got it or not) is that you could possibly earn more money, with less effort, with less BS, working for yourself. Ages ago I read the book "rich dad, poor dad" and I don't remember the quote exactly, so this is inaccurate, but there is a part where the kids were complaining over wages per hour, so the guy offers them like $1 per hour, then $5 per hour, then $1000 per hour... he was trying to emphasize a point and the need to break out of a specific mentality. So even if someone is offering you $100 per article... is that really a good investment of your time? I believe you have the potential to achieve MORE then that (you can prove me wrong if you wish). You know, some sites with great content pull in more per month then I will ever earn in a year! And the people that run those sites, can even take a month off, and STILL get paid.

    You know, once you put your price up on your writing, it will be about a week before your regulars come back crying about the crap they got served for $1 per 100 words, I know what $1 gets you, and in most times it looks like it was written by an article spinner.
     
    matt_62, Aug 11, 2013 IP
  3. coreygeer

    coreygeer Notable Member

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    #43
    It's funny that you mention that, because there's a guy from Dubai who hired me for $3.00 per 100 words as a regular.. well low and behold, he logs on one day complaining about his budget and wants me to write at a discount. I saw this coming as most cheap people do this, so I asked what his new proposed rate was and he wanted me to write .75c per 100 words for bulk. After an hour of him basically spamming my Skype, I finally got him to go away and he found another writer at the new found price to write some 30,000 words or something.

    Two weeks later, he comes back complaining that the quality he got from his new found .75c friend wasn't exactly up to par, some of it was copied from the internet, it wasn't in readable English, etc.

    I also know what $1 gets you because I royally screwed up when I tried hiring people. I had bulk work coming in at cheap rates, so I thought I would try outsourcing it. I headed over to Odesk and started outsourcing for $1 an hour and hired 100 people. No, I'm not making that number up...

    I didn't have time to sit and edit all the work or to proof-read them but the interview process I put people through was long enough to make sure they were Native English and actually wrote decent quality work (or so I thought). I got so much crap back from clients claiming it was from Copyrighted material, copied from Wikipedia, poorly spun garbage, etc. Some people would log on for an hour then log out not to return for a week or so. My eyes were opened to the world of cheap writers and their work ethic. If you don't pay $1.00 writers upfront, you're more than likely not going to get your content done and even if it is, there's over a 50% chance that it will be spun or copied from a website.

    That was an easy $1,000 down the drain and I vowed to never hire cheap writers again. I tried the $2.00 and $3.00 per 100 word writers but the majority of them were all the same. Every time I tried to outsource a client's work, there was always trouble with the quality so I went back to writing everything myself, no matter how cheap or crap the assignment was. Fast forward today, it's hard to even find consistent cheap work, because there are so many clients out there that think they're going to strike gold off one of these cheap writers.
     
    coreygeer, Aug 11, 2013 IP
  4. SCookAAM

    SCookAAM Active Member

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    #44
    I have also read Rich Dad, Poor Dad, and it's one of my favorites.

    Matt has a good point, actually. I've been thinking about that myself lately. Imagine how much revenue is generated by these big article directories? Imagine how much AdSense income comes into ezinearticles? It would not hurt my feelings to build a directory.

    The difficulty is that you still have to eat in the time before your business is successful. That's the trick. And that's why people like us are on ODesk or Elance and are killing ourselves with SEO and etc to drive traffic to our websites. We need rent money :)

    I do believe, though, that If you position yourself as a quality writer, the good pay will come.
     
    SCookAAM, Aug 12, 2013 IP
    matt_62 likes this.
  5. ChR0n1k

    ChR0n1k Well-Known Member

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    #45
    Start writing sexy ebooks about werewolves and self publish them on amazon... profit???

    But seriously tho, I find it disgusting that people from established countries get pushed aside because someone out there is willing to work for $1/hour as their monthly rent in their 3rd world home is less than I pay for my water bill. Also, a lot of these places have no income tax, and in Canada we get rammed by the govt. But damn do we sure have some nice clean highways and people that are homeless with no jobs on welfare can see a doctor for free.. yay!

    When it comes to writing, you truly do get what you pay for. Just like you said with the guy complaining at the .75 cent /100 words crap, they ALWAYS come crawling back and are pissed cuz they wasted their money on junk that you would have to spend more time editing just to make sense of it than you could writing it yourself. I think you just haven't met the right person that can pay you properly. My advice would be to reach out to startups or smaller marketing companies with a bunch of clients that need copy done, and dont ever write for less than you feel comfortable with. I have seen guys charging $500++ for pages but again they are serious medical articles that have to meet certain government standards or a lawsuit is at your door.

    Sorry to rant, but dont quit. Internet stuff is hard work but is the best thing that's ever happened to me. Drop me a PM with some examples of your best published stuff if you are still looking and I will reach out to my rolodex and see if anyone needs to hire you. Also tell me your favorite topics to write about, I find when the writer has personal interest in something the articles always turn out better!!

    With all the new search algo updates legit, proper English, informative content is becoming more and more the one king to rule them all
     
    ChR0n1k, Aug 14, 2013 IP
  6. Angelpie

    Angelpie Active Member

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    #46
    I've been doing this for 5 years, and I still can't break into the big leagues. I just bought the AWAI copywriting course, because writing content is getting worse every day. Once a client sucks you in, it seems they just want to lower the price. I think part of the problem is that the content market is hot right now, so there are more writers than people needing writing, and it's a buyers' market.
     
    Angelpie, Aug 18, 2013 IP