How much should I pay for good resource list articles?

[resourcelists]

I would like hear you guys what you think is a fair and good price for me to pay for various original tools and resource list articles.

It is for the website http://www.resourcelists.com. It will be a place to find valuable resourcelists within many categories.

By a resourcelist I mean the ones you normally find on fx. Mashable.com, Smashingmagazine.com etc. Fx.

* 30 Tools To Improve Web Productivity
* 50 Hot Wordpress Themes

I expect an article to have descriptions of 10-50 tools and resource websites, and possibly screenshots or some gfx illustrations if appropiate. Number of words could be anywhere from 200 to maybe 3000.

It takes time, lots of research and deep knowledge to write such an article, so what do you think the price range of these resource lists will be?

Much appreciated, thank you

/ Rob

[Zabrina]

I think it really depends on the article length, etc.

This link might help you out a bit: http://www.constant-content.com/pricesheet.php

I find the table is a little on the high side for average articles, but for something that requires more in-depth research, it should be right on, IMHO.

[Celeste Stewart]

It's refreshing to be asked this - thanks!

Having done similar resource lists, I did find that resource lists are more time consuming than standard articles. In a way, each resource needs a mini-review. If you're recommending 50 tools, you have to visit at least 50 different websites (more because some simply won't be worth recommending) and come away with each resource's pros and cons, features, and other points of interest. So, while a single blurb on the list may only require a few sentences, those sentences take a long time to compose.

I just looked at my notes from when I did a couple of "list of fifty tools" for a client. It took me five hours to write one that came to 2750 words. I charged $150 for that one which was a little low for the time involved. Another "50 Best Tools" article took four hours to write and came in at a word count of 1900. I recieved $250 for that one. In that case, I suppose that you could say each tool equalled out to $5 each. In fact, that's what I would suggest, a dollar amount per blurb. Therefore if 10 tools were described, it would be $50 (if you use the $5 figure); if 50 tools it would be $250.

I hope this information helps.