I started using DP nearly a year ago, and when I started I charged 1.5 cents per word. Someone told me "never undercharge yourself. You are worth more than that", so I took that advice and went with it. I made a lot of money here, and had continuous work. Now I find that I am struggling to even get work for 1 measly cent. I don't mind working for that price, if the content is easy to do, but for somethings its really pushing my limits. Now, my question is: Do you get more business charging MORE than if you charged LESS? That seems to be the trend I am noticing. Its very overwhelming and disheartening to see everyone hiring the crappy (for lack of a better term) writers for peanuts, when great writers like myself are left in the dust.
If you haven't noticed yet most people who hire copywriters are some of the cheapest SOB's there is. Now with the economy being what it is. They now have a convenient excuse. I hope your hardship is only temporary.
We pretty much covered this in the "Why is it always CHEAP writer" thread (I think that's the name of it). There's a lot of good info in that thread--if I were you I'd take a look.
Not everyone is willing to pay peanuts to get crappy stuff. There are people out there who appreciate good content over cheap pricing. Regarding the thread mentioned by Prinzel, I think this is it: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1305679 - Why is it always "CHEAP ARTICLE WRITER"
If you're a good writer, you should spend less time marketing yourself on DP and more time marketing where you belong. BTW, I had a conversation about 4 years ago with some other members about writers and buyers here. So don't think something is going to change any time soon. If you're "above" the DP market, go find the market you belong in. Another option is to figure out other ways you can use your skills to make money. Remember, if you keep your situation the same, your results will be the same (or worse). If you want better results, you must change whatever you're currently doing and keep doing so until those results are achieved. Good luck.
You get more business charging more if: 1) you have the skills to justify the higher rates you're asking 2) you focus on a market that allows you to charge more. This type of topic should be stickied or something.
Build up your reputation and portfolio, and you can justify charging higher prices. Until you have the reputation and the skills, however, you are going to be stuck competing with the "cheap" writers. Once you break out from that bunch, you can charge more... but there will be fewer buyers willing to pay.
Those who make the mistake of believing they're "stuck competing with the cheap writers," are the ones who generally struggle to "break out from that bunch" the most. It's never smart to build your business on one market when your business involves being able to work within another (and those higher paying clients are an entirely different market you should be targeting from day one). That doesn't mean you'll charge now what you want to earn 5 years from now. But it does mean you don't market towards $5 per article gigs when you want to be earning $1.00 per word. $50 or more per article is entirely reasonable for relatively new writers as long as they have some credentials in their specialty area (education, experience in an industry before becoming a writer, etc.), and as long as they bother learning how to plan their business and market themselves.
The important thing is to use this forum as a form of income, yes, as I plan to, but don't use it as the only form of income. If you can write at a level above what is required here, find where it is required and market yourself hard.
I agree with this. I get some work here and I've had some great clients from here. But I turn down most jobs because it doesn't pay my rate and I have plenty of work. I market myself locally. I do the national and international thing, too. The corporate work is not as plentiful as it used to be but small business is really starting to heat up. And some of those clients are becoming bigger and more successful and they see what I've done as part of that equation so I get more work from them. So try some local clients. There are plenty of networking groups and I started getting really busy after I joined the chamber of commerce.
Agree. When I started out, I used focus only here to get work. But since the rates here are too low to keep myself afloat to pay the bills and all, I began looking for work elsewhere. I get work mainly through my site and I'm also focusing on the local market because somehow my risks are far lesser here. What I went through was probably a natural progression (to look for better paying gigs) especially if you're writing for a living and not doing it as a hobby.
This is just boil down to marketing oneself and the quality of the service being produced by the service buyer. Copywriting has been the main source of income of professional writers and even those wannabes alike just to have a dollar or two per article would suffice especially for third world countries DP members here. $2 in third world countries can already buy decent food compared to $2 in developed countries. If you want business it's either go with the flow or think out of the box to get more business on your doorsteps.
I would only eat dinner if I only had $2 in my pocket right now. But I also have to commute to get to the nearest fast food joint. Hmmm... seems like I can't really survive if I only charged $2 for a 1000-word article, can I? I'm from a third-world country BTW.
Ok, what the heck. I had my bags all packed for Manilla, because I heard from all my Filipino friends (they haven't been back "home" in a bit though) that I could live like a king--maids, etc--with my money. I was all set to arrive, jump on a Jeepney and go have a blast. Oh well, guess I'll have to made do in Vegas.
Never ride jeepneys here. lol Re: Living like a king. I got so rich from all the 0.5c/word articles I've written here that I now go around the metro on a carriage, and I make my maids do everything for me: research, type, edit, etc.
I did an hour of writing that translated to about 11,764.73 PHP. I'd like to get one of those "royalty carts" with the poles on the ends of each side and have 4 people carry me around in it. Maybe hire one woman with a big fan to ride inside with me to keep me cool.
That's above the minimum wage here. lol But working for an hour will already enable you to rent out a decent condo here.
Cool. I'd like to reduce my workday down to 1 hour if possible. After 8 hours of great sleep, that leaves 15 hours for fun. In my free time I could listen to my Tagalog language tutorials and pick up a few key words, like Mahal kita and my favorite word to say: bukaka. With the rate Obama and pals are going, the US might end up becoming a "developing country" soon enough.
You can use mahal kita and bukaka in any order. lol And from a 'developed' to a 'developing country'? That would be an interesting order of events too. But I'm sure that won't be much fun.