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

Takers of this GAF project probably don't even read this bid, their only intention to take "some jobs from GAF"

 

That's just ridiculous on so many levels. The extra stuff the buyer is looking for makes it even worse...good keyword research, a 100-word summary, and a research box! For $2!!! No way he could expect good quality, but the sad thing is he probably does.

 

Checkout my advice in the other thread

forums.digitalpoint.com/showpost.php?p=2537939&postcount=12

If you don't give someone clear guidelines on what you want, I wouldn't expect them to produce it correctly regardless of what they are paid.

-SS

 

Well, I'm not exactly a hobbyist, but I'm not interested in making writing a career, either. A little extra money is nice, if I can get it doing something I enjoy.

Those of us who are instant gratification junkies will always take a penny now instead of $10 later. That's pretty much defines the condition. Is it a good way to work? Rarely. But is it a motivating factor for a lot of people? Oh, yes.

It's easy to ignore the demanding requests. Research can be avoided by only taking jobs in your own niche. This also effectively ups your hourly rate, since a few off the top of your head blog posts take a whole lot less time than ones on subjects you know nothing about. Of course that makes it harder to find work, but if it isn't a career, that isn't so important.

I don't believe that most of the people who do this work are, or want to be, professional writers. It may not be a hobby, but it probably isn't being thought of as a career by more than a few people. Most do if for extra money. They don't approach writing as a business because it isn't, not to them.

What I have learned from all these discussions is that if you want to have a career or a well-established sideline as a writer, the sooner you get out of the 'posting for pennies' mode, the better. I've also learned that the buyers sometimes get a good deal for their pennies, and sometimes they get "What your job?" The less you pay for services, the more variable the quality.

 

I should have said that if you want a career as a writer, you should skip the "posting for pennies" mode altogether.

 

A similar thing applies in the translation industry. I am increasingly refusing low-paying work, or work that isn't really my "niche" (field of expertise), much to the surprise of customers.

It is not even that I can now, although I think I am increasingly able to command higher fees, but it is also a risk. You need to sacrifice those low-paying "pocket money" jobs, and work on quality, not quantity, or you will never get out of that hole.

 

Unfortunately, there are many people who take this kind of work and want to be a writer full-time. Jenn has a whole forum devoted to exactly those kinds of writers - the people who want to earn more from their work, but need a little help getting there.

Granted, there are people who choose to take on a few side gigs writing for crap money, because they enjoy the "instant gratification." That's fine for them. But unfortunately, not everyone who chooses to work for those rates are hobbyists.

 

You'd be surprised how many writers in that group really do want to make it a living, like Denise said. I practically have them coming to me privately for help every day, and that's not including the ones who just follow our blog(s) and forum to learn and get some help. Instant gratification doesn't have to equal low pay either. Whether I'm being paid $50 or $5000 for a project (both in my writing and consulting work), it's pretty rare for a client to prefer sending a check these days (other than large publications). Copywriting projects for example generally bring in a good bit, and pretty much instantly in many cases. It's just about knowing your market.

 

proven results is the only marker that I know of.
the proof is in the pudding.