You Get What You Pay For

Many try to find good native English speaking copywriters, but they fail because they want to pay them as if they were from some third world country. My grandpa always told me, "You get what you pay for." Boy, was he ever right!

I can scratch out a paragraph or two in Polish, but it would be quite hideous. If someone wanted to pay me and a native Pole the same price to write the same articles that would be an astronomical insult to the native Polish speaker. So where do people think they can get off paying a native English speaker 1 cent per word to craft an article? Add to this the fact that many want a native English speaker who is also a professional writer and you have insult upon insult. You get what you pay for.

 

Well said, that is definitely true.

 

That's why you do it yourself.

 

yep i agree well said on anything in that respect nicely put!!

 

I agree, but sometimes you don't need good prose, like or secondary sites that feed to your main site. Then it might make sense to go for the cheap and bad copy-writing.

 

It was bound to happen, so here it is:

[rant]

I call BS on this one. As long as there will be native English willing to work for these prices, there will always be a market for it. Taking it as an insult is just not very helpful.

My main beef however is with your assumption that being a non-native roughly translates into a steaming pile of dung. I know that it's easy to take pride in being born in a particular place, but in the long run it's what you do that matters, not what's written on your birth certificate.

You got it all backwards. You're in marketplace that's not willing to pay you the amount you ask. The answer does not lie in moaning about it, all you have to do is find the right marketplace.

I'm a Romanian by the way and the level of my fees puts me in the same league with the US pros. Most of the time I whoop their behinds without even trying and, no, it doesn't have anything to do with my pricing strategy.

As someone used to say: "pricing" is the easiest competitive advantage you can get, but also the most damaging in the long run. Find your competitive edge and, for crying out loud, stop bitching.

Best regards,
George

 

I have nothing against writers who charge extremely low prices, or buyers who ask for cheap yet high-quality articles. It's a free market, and people can offer/ ask for anything they want. If cheap writers produce content that can't bring in money, then demand will naturally shift towards the higher-paid writers.

However, I do think it's wrong when some writers misrepresent themselves in order to meet (unrealistic) demands. Some 'writers' on this forum have lied about the standard of work they were capable of, and wasted others' time and money.

 

Whoop???? Dear God, that image is going to be hard to shift tonight without a couple of cold Perrys.

 

It's definitely true that you get what you pay for. Hiring Indians or people whose English is not their first language just doesn't make the cut.

 

You don't ALWAYS get what you pay for. See some of the threads on this forum complaining about getting ripped off after handing over the cash.

 

This is a free and open market, and since some web masters pay hundred of dollars the article, it's probably you that didn't figure out the right portion of it. Or at least, the portion that fits best your skills.

If DP seems no way, don't try to change it. Go look somewhere else.

 

I've been on both sides of the fence.

As a writer who also has to hire other writers to take care of work I just don't have time for (blog posts usually) I know that you do usually get what you pay for. Sadly, not all bad content I've received has come from people who are not native speakers. Yes I've gotten my share of horrid content from people who were from other countries, but I've also gotten some horrible content from writers in the U.S. who are charging way more than $0.01 per word.

I've also dealt with my share of clients who refuse to agree to the payment rates I set for myself because they feel I should charge less. I completely respect there opinion and move on to other clients. You can't force someone to pay more than they are willing to for a service, and chances are you will not want to do business with a person who fought you tooth and nail over your pricing.

 

Yes, of course people do all kinds of crazy things and expect all sorts of unreasonable things. There are always people willing to work for less and others willing to pay more. So what would we say in order to cover all possibilities? ...

"Some people pay too much for too bad of writing, while others pay too little for too good of writing. Meanwhile still others pay a lot for good writing and their counterparts pay little for bad writing. In between, there are those who pay average money for average writing, and even some who pay average money for good writing. You will even find a few who pay average money for bad writing."

And so what! That is not worth talking about at all. It is boring. I'd rather be choking on an old leather shoe than read that. It's a bit more exciting at least.

Some of these replies are off topic, while others are boring as dirt! I thought we were writers here. Where's the creativity?

 

Some writers are non-native, but have really learned enough english that they can write better english than some native english speakers.

 

it's better yo do your own copying - nobody knows your niche like you.

 

absolutely agree with the OP. I have just launched my own copywriting site (sig) and I've positioned myself slightly more expensive than the run of the mill 500 words for $5 crowd simply because I feel I deliver better content than many others.

As somebody who also outsources from time to time, it's not unusual for me to spend $15-$25 on a single article because I understand the value of writing.

 

untrue - many know your niche better than you do. if what you said we true, the internet would be full of great content. it isn't...

 

of course you get what you pay for, but this is an old saying.. sometimes you pay and get nothing.. careful with that

 

couldn't agree more.. You see so many people complain that the article or the writing work they get back when they pay $3/article is low, but really what did you expect?

I alway laugh at the job posting that say "High quality is a must", "perfect English", "perfect grammar" and things like that then say the rate is $1/article, how can you expect quality when you're paying peanuts.. $20/article on the other hand will start getting you quality content, and if your serious about your site you'd pay it...

-Josiah

 

George. I like you a lot.

Others who are beating this same dead horse five years later - the horse is dead. Move on. Charge more if you want, stop "writing" if you want, but stop whining about it in the meantime.