I agree! There were a couple low bidders whose portfolios weren't too impressive. That is what I like about iFreelance... the portfolios help you get a sense of the person's writing style. Granted, they could be posting writing that isn't even their own work, but I guess that's the chance we have to take....
I always use elance, ask for samples and usually provide the research data in form of PLR articles. + all articles have to pass copyscope or whatever you like to use - test. results: Great unique articles for ~15$ each and around 400 words. ( oh make sure writers mother tounge is english)
You might get some GOOD content from writers who are looking to gain experience and clip samples. Probably, you can get them for cheap or free. If you insist on having crap quality content, you will attract a crappy clientelle, if any at all. No one is going to bother with your site if there's nothing valuable there. Give them a reason to be on your site, and to come back to it.
I agree, I've placed bids on GetAFreelancer before for articles for my own website and I received double the number of articles I requested, which was awesome, right? Then I ran them through copyscape and every single one of them was copied straight from article submission websites. To the person who said you were scammed by an article writing/submission company, I'm sorry Yes some of those exist and they give legitimate companies a bad name. Michele
iFreelance was the first service I ever used, so I am not sure how they compare to Elance. I do know that freelancers have to pay a small membership fee and I "think" this might help weed out some of the folks who just recycle articles. So far, I've had tremendous success with the content writer I hired... I will definitely use the individual for future projects and she WAS the lowest bidder for my project... and she lives in the US. I thought the India or the Phillipines folks were going to be the lowest, but one individual in India was about 10x higher than some of the folks in the US. Go figure. Average quote from individual in USA per blog post was $7-10...
You don't weed out the scammers by charging legitimate writers for the "privilege" of finding work. You weed out the copy/pasters by paying what a writer's time is actually worth.
This is one of the perennial discussions among writers and webmasters.It always brings out something new to the front.Writing is a typical skill and no two persons can write the same way unless they just copy each other.People who simply copy and paste should never be treated as writers and when engaging such people(writers!) it must be clear in the mind of an assigner that it is not the quality he/she is looking for.Rates are simply directly proportional to the level of skills, proficiency,and quality. Not every website demands high quality content. Objectives of each website /blog are different. Junk creators(writers! again) are also useful for some specific websites and that is why we find "super-cheap-writers" surviving everywhere. This is not so with websites/blogs having high objectivities and quality consciousness. Webmasters of such class know the worth of a writer with proficiency.So, there is and there will be market for everyone of them although quality always prevails.
I just had some content written and they guarantee it is unique. It was great quality and I was very happy. They charged me $80.00 per page. I shopped around and that was a great price for the quality.
It is good to see that high quality writers need not worry about takers. There are people like "Jzlaws" who are willing to respect such quality. That is what I was mentioning.