Mea Culpa, I probably should have made it clearer, I write my own content for sites as thats what sells and I take complete responsibility for that aspect of my business. On the other hand I am not adverse to buying articles to drive traffic to those pages.
I am a buyer rather than a copy writer etc and I usually purchase based on the tone of the PM and the sample. I have had PM's from copywriters offering cheap rates but the message includes spelling mistakes . Like mosts B2B, its all in the sale pitch
I guess to start up you need to build reputation and not worry about pricing quite yet, establish your name and then go from there, we all started from the bottom didnt we?
I wouldn't pay per word no matter how good the article. A good article writer should charge you per article.
Charging per word is one of the industry standards, and one a lot of the more professional writers use. There's nothing wrong with charging per article, of course, but you should expect then that they'll charge differently for different article lengths anyway - when you see someone listing a per-article price, it generally stipulates a corresponding length (such as "$5 per 500 word article"). In that case, you're still essentially just paying $.01 / word, and you know if you need something longer, you're going to pay more.
What Tehfincheh said is crucial: 1. Bid on Elance 2. Show great work samples 3. Keep your prices VERY low to start Bid on LOTS of jobs every week and you'll start getting assignments. But remember that giving a QUALITY job is essential. Every client has the opportunity to write feedback about how good your are -- or not. The more glowing your feedback, the more you'll attract even more clients.