What is the standard of content writer? How can we rate them?

Hi,

I started this topic from my own experienced before jump into this conclusion. I had worked with many type of content writer. Both english native speaker and non-english native speaker. I always order them for 500 words article. They charged me between $5 - $30 per article.

I always heard about "you get what you paid" and that's why I take a try on some writer who charged me for $20-$30 per 500 words each article. They all claimed their best but what I got is not worth my money. Some writer charged me $25 for $5 article quality That is unfair. Even a bad services and some negative tone when I ask them to rewrite some topic in article. I paid $30 and I should get $30 quality article not $5 quality. I don't know how could I believe in "you get what you paid" logic for article writer. I always checked their iTrader and example before I ordered but some of them is excellent, some of them is ok but some of them failed me.

Just my own conclusion. What do you think guys?

 

Just as it is difficult for writers to find high-paying buyers, it is difficult for buyers to find high-quality writers.

There is no other way than testing out writers with one article even if they are costly, i.e. if you are really looking for high-quality content.

If he is really a good writer, then the money spent on that article is worth it because you can get many more high-quality articles from him.

 

Sxperm, I doubt if you are the only one facing this problem.

Writers come in a variety of shapes and sizes as do their costs. My personal feeling is that if a writer meets your needs he/she is a good one.

If you cast an eye over the Content Creation thread, you'll find many writers making tall claims, but writing for (as we have heard many times) peanuts. I doubt if charges alone can determine the quality of a writer. Let's face it. A good writer is a must for any website these days.

Choosing someone based on their iTrader is also a risky proposition as is obvious. Sometimes a writer may not have any iTrader to speak of, but will be of great value to the buyer.

Then again you asked a really tough question...but something that needs to be resolved because my feeling is its going to be hard to find writers as more businesses move online!

 

Hello,

My suggestion as writer is to check out the writer's portfolio and ask for samples to be sent. Many writers do not like to write free samples if they have a lot of prior copy you can view.

Also, it depends on the buyer's preference to style, voice and tone. One buyer may really like my style of writing while another buyer may not. Before taking on a writer, get a feel for their writing style through viewing an online portfolio.

Lisa

 

Agree with Lisa related to a few guidelines to follow when hiring writers.

On the other hand, ruling your criteria based on the old saying "you get what you paid" is impractical and you are experiencing that price does not not determine quality of services.

In a hosting context, I'm getting better service and no downtime from a provider that charges $1 dollar per month, than the service that unfortunately I paid one year in advance at $19.99/m for similar specs but lots of trouble and outages.

 

I wouldn't hire a writer based solely on iTrader because it's very possible that a certain writer is good, but has a low iTrader because he/she hasn't worked with very many people in this forum. And it's also possible that a writer isn't all that good, but has a high iTrader because he/she charged low rates and completed the articles quickly.

When you're looking to hire a writer, ask if they have a portfolio and samples that you can view. Viewing more than one sample is a will give you a much better indication of the writer's style and ability.

If you're hiring someone that posts here on DP, look at their post history. Granted you shouldn't use this as the sole determining factor of a person's writing, but it will give you very good idea of that person's command of the English language.

 

I agree with latoya. I have been in the copywriting business for many years and just found DP. A lot of my clients I have found from marketing and advertising my business. Not having an iTrader rating doesn't always mean that the writer is inexperienced.

Always viewing samples or an online portfolio before committing to one writer is my suggestion.

 

Yes -- don't base something on iTrader. I had never heard of iTrader till just now, and I'm somewhat established. So either I'm completely out of touch, or something else is going on.

When I'm swamped, I put my interns on the project, but if they don't "get it" right away, I hire other writers. I find them by word of mouth or by browsing web sites (I hope to use the new Copywriter Directory I just built for this purpose -- it's in another thread, so I won't talk about it here).

If a writer specializes in the type of project I need done and I like their tone, I hire them. If I'm under deadline, I may hire 2-3 writers to write the same assignment, I'll pay all of them (usually I can still make a little money off the project, and if not, it's worth losing a little bit on one project in order to keep a valuable client happy and coming back), and I'll use the best. Then, when I'm in a jam again, I'll go back to my list of proven writers.

If I had hired 3 writers, two of them may have produced something usable. I only used the work of one of them, but even so I now have 2 writers I can fall back on if need be.

By the way -- if you want a truly quality 500-word article of unique content, you should be looking to pay considerably more than $30.

I hope this information is helpful.

 

Thanks but as I told you. Quality with reasonable price that I concern. I am afraid to pay $30 for $5 quality article. Can you recommend me some good writer?

 

Why not try one of the content writers who has been helping you on this thread? I just checked out two of their sites -- Pearly's and LaToya's -- and from what I saw, I'd hire either one of them.

And, when negotiating the price, there are other things to negotiate, too. Like the deadline, how fast requested edits should be made, and how many complete rewrites the writer will guarantee (one or two is normal).

 

Latoya made an excellent point about checking the posting history of the person concerned. It shouldn't be the only factor on which you should base your decision, but if you happen to look at the posts of some of the better writers in DP- you will see that they have impeccable English in their posts.

BTW, how was the sample of the $30 writer in comparison to the article he/she delivered? Another thing, if you wanted travel articles, was the sample which was shown to you travel related too ??

Again, standard is a relative word. What is good to one may be downright rubbish to another.But when you mention that you were happy with some and not so happy with the others ( assuming that all the articles were on one topic), it does look like the writer didn't put in that much effort into the other articles.

Generally, good writers do go that extra yard to please their customers if they aren't satisfied with the quality of the articles that they have received.

 

First of all, for $5, as far as I'm concerned, you don't deserve better than a few words or total crap ripped content. $20 would still constitute a lousy article from a professional just looking to fill some time or a somewhat decent piece from someone starting out. So the problem might not be that the $20 piece was only worth $5, but rather that the $5 articles were really worth $20, and you should just count your blessings that you got someone even a little bit decent to write for you if you did. When writers say "you get what you pay for," that doesn't make a huge difference ($5 to $20). The difference comes in from people paying low rates (like both of those are, although $20 is respectably better in the webmaster market for content) and people paying for high quality material from professional writers (which can cost several hundred to several thousand dollars per article). You can't expect the same quality as those publications if you're only willing to pay a very small fraction of the price.

The fact of the matter is that most "content" isn't written well... the clients just honestly don't know the difference between high quality and mediocre content, and frankly, mediocre content serves their purpose fine, so it works for them and isn't worth spending a small fortune on. Also keep in mind that most writers hanging out on webmaster forums are of the same "breed" (not in a negative way, but I think it's fair to say most writers on DP are "content writers"). There are many types of writers. "Content writers" generally won't/can't put out an article on par with a true journalist or expert in a field who doesn't need to regurgitate someone else's research or writing. Many also offer "copy" services like sales letters, but could never come close to writing one as well as a professional copywriter with a proven track record of conversions. There's a reason why the pros are paid drastically more in the majority of cases, and it's because they provide value, they know that value, and they can demonstrate that value to a client. If the writers you worked with can't demonstrate the value in a $30 piece, then don't pay that rate.... but at the same time, don't expect a heck of a lot for $5.

 

Have you ever thought about constant-content.com? They have articles ready for purchase or you can request their thousands of writers to write on a particular subject and choose the ones that you like the best.

Just a suggestion

 

Sxperm, post the article that you paid $30 for and you say that it's only worth $5. Tell us what you thought the problems were with the article and we can take a look at it and grade it too. If you read the feedback from a writer whose points you agree with, then you may have found a good candidate for your next paid assignment.

 

These things happen..and always will. Asking for some samples (or visiting their blog/website) is a good way to find out what their abilities are.

Also, if you are in search of a writer, you should go to a section where people are buying content, and ask the buyers for recomendations. Of course, you may annoy them, but some are bound to answer.

 

OK, then what would you say is a fair price for a 500 word article, financial or health related. Reasonably focussed - some detail but not a study, core data (that has to be 100% correct therefore has to be cross-checked) can of course be googled. Written in US or UK English - not just the spelling...?

The articles would be for traffic, but must promote confidence in the authority of the (small) site.

 

There's a huge difference between writing "for traffic" and writing to build a reputation as an authority source. The latter would be the most expensive, and in that case you absolutely better have a professional writing those pieces (given the nature of financial and medical topics). You can't have authority in a professional service field (especially something like health) without having a writer who has credentials in the field. If you want both of those benefits, the focus has to be on the more difficult one - authority. If you build it up as an authority site, traffic can naturally come without having typically SEO'd-to-death content on-site.

As for price, medical writers don't come cheap (could easily run you $.75 - $1.00 / word, and sometimes more, again if you have someone with the credentials - hiring an MD would likely cost a lot more than hiring an RN or someone else in the field - I'd say the minimum for a professional, meaning industry pro and not just a professional writer, would be $.25 / word, and that's probably pushing it - so around $125 minimum, but likely a good bit more). Several health and pharmaceutical writers I know probably wouldn't touch a short piece like that at less than $500 or so. But that's what credibility costs.

Financial might be a bit different in range. For starters, it's not necessarily a field where you'd need licensed professionals in order to gain authority. However, it's also very obvious to anyone who writes in that area that financial articles can bring a greater return in ad revenue than many other topics, and they'll set their rates knowing the value quality, authority content in that niche can have for the buyer. Again, if you want any credibility whatsoever in financial topics, you need to stay away from generic writers who can't write beyond research. Authority comes from not only giving good factual information, but by giving something new that every other site isn't offering, and by giving a unique take on the subject that only a professional can give. In this case, if you hired a professional in the area of finance that you want covered, who also happens to be a professional writer, you'll very easily pay near, or more than, $1000 per article (business writing, including finance tends to pay rather well). However, you may be able to get someone for about a tenth of that, by finding financial pros who aren't already published writers. The writing may not be perfect in that case, but the information they can share that a content writer can't is valuable enough that it's worth the bit of extra time you might spend editing.

There are ways to cut the costs, but if authority is really a big goal, with topics like yours, you'll need to look for industry pros w/o writing experience to get the best deals. Who cares if you can get an article for $5, if the writer carries no credibility in health for example? It does absolutely nothing then to help you reach that goal, meaning you just threw $5 away without getting closer to your end goals. This is why you need to choose niches carefully if you want to build quality authority sites, and not just MFA-style sites. It comes down to two things: you either need to have the credentials and writing ability to create the content yourself, or you have to understand that credibility doesn't come cheap, so you have to have a solid budget to work with to hire industry pros. Now not all topics are like that - many can be handled by generic content writers w/o much problem. But health and finance are two bigger-money areas, and ones where the audience needs to feel like they can trust you.

 

This really pisses me off,

how can you say someone/all people who write for $5 are total crap writers,

article writers who charge that little can still write as good as you,

How the hell would most people on this forum justify paying $125+ for an article ? i think your in the wrong place trying to push those prices, it's a losing battle.

every post i see about pay for article writers your here complaining that we should recieve crap articles.

i dont doubt for 1 munute that your a real good writer as i've seen your pieces/samples but for what me and most other people need i've had just as good for the $5

I wont post samples as you know alot more about me and you can pick up items that 99% of people cant.

I couldn't write an article to save my life so dont go on about me knowing nothing about writing as your wright.

You've actually pissed me off with all the complaining you do.

 

That's not what I said. I said for that price, in my opinion, the client doesn't deserve to expect anything better than that. The fact of the matter is that no, most $5 per article writers can't write as well as professionals, but as I've said here or elsewhere on DP recently, many clients here honestly don't know the difference, nor do they care, because all they want is something unique for search engines. And that's fine if that's their goal. There are also people here who pay significantly more than that, and several writers here work for them - they just aren't the ones advertising outright.

I'm also not pushing those prices. I really don't care what they're paying financial and medical writers, because I'm not one, and because I don't take on article / content writing gigs with 90% of webmasters to begin with, precisely because of those rates. So I'm stating them, because that particular question was asked, and based not on the idea of some crap MFA site, but rather someone who stated that they wanted to build trust in an authority site with two very distinct niches where credibility truly is key.

There are many online markets that pay exceptionally well, including as much as large consumer print magazines. Other than here, because of the way the OP decided to post about quality in relation to price and unrealistic expectations of professionalism for amateur rates, I don't believe I've ever said you "deserve" crap articles. And frankly, I don't care if my comments piss you off. I teach writers who are stuck in low-paying markets how to break out of them and earn a livable income to the best of my ability. And if you find people who will work for low rates, then that's wonderful for you... all I'm saying is that you'll never get the best quality, and have no right to expect it for something far, far less than a minimum wage. You can justify low rates by saying things like you'll hire writers from India or other countries (not you personally... just a common concept), yet those people are the same whining afterwards that they don't have perfect English. Guess what... if you want to cut costs, there's a price to pay.

As I've already said, if you choose to go into any business, in this case someone wanting to build an authority site in the financial and health areas, you'd better either have the credentials to back it up yourself, or you'd better do the proper business planning of preparing an adequate budget to be able to afford someone else who does. As I've also said, that's not necessarily always going to be hiring a professional "writer," but is often about hiring an "industry" professional whose first-hand knowledge in the subject matter is worth infinitely more than simple writing ability. If you can hire cheap writers and be happy with their work, b/c it fits your particular purposes, then that's great for you, and a fine business move for you to make. But if you're finding quality isn't up to your standards and you're paying a whopping $5, or even $30 / article, then you really don't have a lot of room to complain about that quality... either you need to raise your rates to be able to afford someone worthwhile, or you'd better lower your standards to match your low budget. You can't always get the best of both worlds, and assuming that's how it's going to work does nothing but display a lack of basic business sense.

 

Hello, Sxperm,

I'm sharing the same thoughts. There is a plethora of *excellent* writers out there (and in here ), but the quality of their content itself doesn't make them automatically *the right* for your specific needs and preferences.

Again, what Lisa suggested - taking a closer look at the writing portfolio or asking for sample work, could significantly raise your chances of finding the perfect writer for you.