I don't attack them in the slightest. I'd be afraid to think how incredibly pathetic my writing would be if I tried to write for a publication in India, China, or even the UK for that matter due to language differences. It would be awful. And frankly most non-English writers do in fact write in terrible English. There are always exceptions (Highflyer here on DP is a wonderful example! Actually, I know Ajeet here is/was also a writer, and a darn good one! So there are always exceptions.). But exceptions don't change the fact that the majority don't grasp basic English, or tend to write far too formally. It's not saying they're bad writers. It's saying they need to work significantly harder on their English if they want to compete in an English-speaking market. Just because they can afford to work for less doesn't mean their work is magically of equal quality at a cheaper rate. It very rarely is, and as I believe I've already mentioned in this thread, the best writers in those countries as far as English goes tend to be specialists who write for larger English publications and they get paid just as much a
English is de facto the standard language used on the web. This is why I learned the damn language to begin with and this is why so many non native English writers use it. I do write better in Romanian, but I would be in serious trouble if I would try to write sales letters for a Romanian audience. There's a huge cultural difference that makes this format ineffective. As for the "specialize first, write later" argument I do partially agree with it. On some topics though (including the ones that I write mostly about) like Internet marketing, SEO, mobile solutions and the like, such specialization is simply not available. I learned all this stuff as I went along, although I do admit that I have a telecommunications background, which definitely helped. The reason for my rather heated response against the "5 buck writers are usually crap" argument is the simple fact that I once belonged to it. Indeed, I have moved on to a different niche, but I can sympathize with those affected by this cliche. As a matter of fact some of the best articles I ever wrote were in this period. With this, my objectivity has probably a lot to suffer too. Regards, George P.S. Will, you should post a warning before submitting stuff like that. Those are some truly terrifying samples. Some kids might read them
Forgive my last response. My browser froze while posting, and a good bit seems to have gotten completely cutoff, and I can't remember for the life of me what I said. Geegel... if you didn't flat out say where you're located, I'd never know by your writing. And I have enormous respect for non-native English speakers who DO go the extra mile to perfect their English to be able to compete in the markets they choose to target. However, speaking to the majority of content sold for pennies or less per word, it simply doesn't come close to the quality writing that you're able to demonstrate in your posts. There's no way around that. I do take a little bit of offense to your past comments however, implying that I have no respect for non-native English writers, although I'll hope that was just a heat of the moment thing. I have colleagues that are non-native English writers, and I'm completely envious of their writing ability, and have nothing but respect for them. As far as writers go, all I care about is helping the ones who want to better their quality of life by earning more and who are willing to put the work in to do that, no matter where they're from, and the rest of them have no place on my radar. If anything, I'm more inclined to respect a non-native English speaker writing in the markets, like you, Zainie, Ajeet, etc. than I am to respect a native English speaker who simply has so little business sense that they devalue their work, b/c they don't know how to differentiate between different markets for writers... or worse yet, the English-speaking writers who can barely write in English themselves. My comments regarding the quality issue in generic content writing isn't targeted towards non-English writers... it's targeted towards the habitually poor quality that exists in the webmaster market, and if anything, I place more blame on the clients in that regard, because many don't know any better in the sense of recognizing quality writing versus ripped and re-written crap that still violates copyrights (and with as much of my own work that's stolen often enough, that's another reason I have a general distaste for the particular market that encourages that), and because they simply allow for it too often even when they do notice it (heck, how many gigs are listed for things specifically like this... too many). Even without formal education and credentials, it's possible to specialize. The difference comes in provable results. If you work primarily as an IM for example, then your writing on the subject carries more weight. If you not only work in the field (self-taught or not), but have provable results that your methods have led to great conversions or financial gains for your clients, then that makes your writing on the subject worth more than someone who simply reads articles on IM and then writers their own.... if that makes sense as an example. As I and others have said repeatedly on DP, we do know that there are a few different groups. I very strongly stand by my belief that most writing at that level is crap. "Most" doesn't equal "all" though, and I recognize that. I know that some good writers get sucked into the market because it looks like easy money, because they're simply not aware that other options exist, or for whatever reason. I also know that most writers will never break out of that group, b/c it's a vicious cycle where they have to spend so much time writing cheap content to get by that there's never enough time left to search for better opportunities or to improve their skills in general. Some are lucky enough to get out though, and if I didn't know that and respect the ones who actually try, I sure as heck wouldn't put in the kind of time and energy I do to help them find markets, work with them privately when they often come with me, running a forum specifically for professional writers and those wanting guidance in moving up, running private networking groups, running a challenge for the sake of trying to let newer and underpaid writers learn from our successes and even failures (which even higher paid writers will have quite often)..... if I believe in something as strongly as how I feel about the content writing market and its effect of quality writers, then I'm going to do what I'm doing, which is putting my money where my mouth is. I give up a lot of billable hours every week, and give up time I'd otherwise put into my own content sites which are my bigger earners (although not great), to run these kinds of groups and initiatives and spend one-on-one time with people who ask for help when I could simply say no. So please just don't accuse me of disrespecting everyone as a group or being self-rightous... if that were the case, I'd keep my mouth shut, spend that time querying publications for my own writing more often instead, and I'd just quietly laugh about how much more I'm making. That's not me. I'd much rather be blunt publicly and piss a few people off in the process, b/c every time a writer moves into a new market and comes to me to thank me for letting them see there are these other options out there, that makes it worth all the heat you, or anyone, could dish out.
I'm a bit focused here. You might as well have bolded the word telecommunications. I do have open requirements in the fields of Telephony and Mobile Telephony, if you're interested in writing about stuff that boring. One of my most frequent difficulties with writers is that they send me marketing copy when I'm trying to buy encyclopedia content. I ask them to write about CDMA and they send me articles about how great CDMA is. :lol: My readers don't want to know about how great CDMA is, they want to know how it works and how they can interface with it.
hi, can you please share what your writers' rate especially the Portuguese? Just want to have a rough idea the general rate for good writers. Thanks.