Constant Content

I think $15 for 500-700 words on any topic is pretty cheap, although I understand some people are on a budget and if someone says they are on a budget; I work with them.

Am I the only one?


:)LJ

No, you're not the only one. Like you, I understand when someone has a limited budget, but I am only willing to go so low. The lowest I would price a 500-700 word article is $20, but it would have to be something I could write quickly and easily. Otherwise, I don't see going under $30.

When I get requests, I usually look at the $ they will pay before I even look at the topic these days. Unless they are willing to go $25 or above for a 500+ word articles, I honestly won't even submit anything. It just isn't worth my time and I have plenty of other writing jobs that will pay that or more.

I know some people have thought I have high rates, but I have plenty of clients who will pay them. Also, I live in So. Cal. where cost of living is quite expensive. Even babysitters around here get $10+ an hour!

Ann, I'm coming to babysit for you. LOL

I too think that we should be asking a fair price for our writing. I charge approx. 10 cents a word. That is the going rate on the Web. However, if a requester, such as the person who requests anniversary articles, is on a budget, I will work with them. I do know that one person who used to pay quite well has really dropped their price. Where they used to pay $50 or more, they are not paying $20 to $30. I usually charge according to word count. Say an 800 word article - when I started here I was getting $80 to $100 for full rights, $50 to $60 for unique rights and $30 for useage. I think that is a fair price. The problem is, there is always someone who will charge only $5. That certainly defeats the purpose of the writers who write for a living, such as myself.

Being completely new to this, I have almost arbitrarily assigned prices to articles, but at the same time I didn't want to be one of those people who lower the value of the articles for everyone.

The amount of authors/articles on this site requires *some* competitive pricing, but I agree that it does seem at times that what we can expect to get from articles does not equal the work or time put into them. Occasionally, this is okay--I'd rather make a couple of dollars than none at all. But if everyone has to lower his or her prices to get articles sold, then maybe we can do something about this? (Haha--what do you suggest, Dorothy? . . . haven't a clue. )

I don't know what kind of marketing/ad campaign this site has, but for the customer service offered and the diverse author membership and article content, this site should be the number one source for web content. I love to check the recently sold article list to see how many articles have been sold. I think one favor we can do for ourselves is just telling everyone about it. Put a link on our websites, mention it in emails, etc. Maybe this seems grassroots, but it's a way to help ourselves out, if we aren't doing it enough already!

Another thing I have wondered . . . is it more beneficial to refer authors (and receive 5% of their profits) than it is just to get new customers? How can customers who are willing to pay more for articles be attracted to this site? (Right now, I'm just banging out articles that are basically for a layman audience . . . but I'd certainly put my research nose to the grindstone if I thought there would be a customer base waiting for those kinds of articles).

Maybe we should try our best to stick to at least the suggested prices for articles? For example, it seems to me that the customer Mary cited has lowered their cost because they know they can get articles for that price. If we put our foot down, maybe others will follow our example?

Just throwing out ideas!

DE

I'd like to babysit too!!

I've been seeing a lot of ads by freelancers who will charge $1-$10 to write a up to 1000 words and to me that's just nuts. Granted, some things are easy to write and if they are then I price them a little lower but for things that are researched--that takes time.

I do a few things on the side, my latest was to come up with 300 Meta's for a website with a newsletter and a short press release. I quoted the project at $260 and the guy refused, he paid me $350 instead. I guess some people see that it really is work while others don't. I really hated to take the $350 but I so appreciated it!

Thanks for sharing your views on that becuase I was really starting to feel that maybe I was falling in love with my writing a little too much and charging a little steep, it's good to see that I'm on track with pricing.

Thanks,
LJ

Hey Everyone,

I tend to agree with all. Most customers are willing to pay according to the value they're getting. If we write something really good and it took our time and effort to write it, we should charge accordingly.

You wouldn't contact a writer independently and offer $5 - $15 for a 500 word article, would you? Instead, you would probably be asked to pay a minimum of $50 no matter what they write, and then they might offer a small discount (10%) if you plan to buy a quantity of articles.

The funny thing about writing in quantities is that we can't manufacture writing on an assembly line from our brains like other tangible products!!!! That is, of course, unless my brain is working differently than everyone else's and I just don't know it yet - HA!

Just my 2 cents worth!
Candicep

Hey Candice,

That reminds me of the ads, "I need 50 articles about brake pads" and "I need them in one week from today". It amazes me that people think it's so easy and my dad always said, "you can want in one hand and ___ in the other." (use your imagination dad was kinda bold)

I don't know why it shocks me!

LJ


Dorothy, when I was scrolling down somehow I missed ya! About referring writers and customers. I've referred 2 or 3 writers but customers...I'm constantly recruiting.

Each time I see an ad for a writer that's reasonable but I can't take it on personally, I cut right in and send an e-mail from one site owner to another!

I just say, "hey I saw your request, I'm a site owner too and I know where you should post your request (link) because they have hundreds if not thousands of writers who can do a good job."

I've had a couple to e-mail me back and say "thanks I didn't know about that site." I didn't get any commission but I might get some sales!

And Dorothy, you're doing a great job too!

Thanks LJ

Yeah, Lisa--I think we posted a reply at the exact same time!

I think the problem is that non-writers don't understand the time and energy that goes into writing. And writing--good writing especially--has been unfairly undervalued. It's unfortunate that freelancers are sort of given the short end of the stick--just because there is no one Freelance Writing Executive to assign values to our time, effort, and experience, doesn't mean that those things don't have worth.

I notice quite a few articles being "sold" for 0 dollars. What's up with that? The pay for writers will continue to slip as long as people are willing to write for free or for practically nothing. My time is worth something, and I avoid requested content for which the pay isn't commensurate with the amount of work that I have to put into writing the article. I gave up on several other content sites for that very reason. We should not devalue ourselves to that degree.

I agree. I haven't been around very long, but so long as everyone is selling articles for very cheap, then no one will be making much if any money.

Anyway, I try to stick to the suggestions that the site gives for prices. Granted if the topic is very difficult, or lots of research is going into the article, the prices can vary.

Has anyone who's been around a long time notice anything like the prices rising or falling in general? Or that more or less articles are actually selling? Just curious.

Nessiee,

I've been here for 5 months and have seen prices vary. Sometimes they seem cheap and at others they seem to be more than sufficient. It all depends on requests. The old adage - supply and demand.

Right now there are a lot of articles selling. Well, maybe not this weekend, but the sales over the last couple of weeks have been good. A lot of them were the trivia, which is easy to write and the going rate is about a dollar a fact. That is pretty good pay. You can write it up in about 10 minutes and get a gross of ten, twelve or fifteen dollars. That is between 66 cents and a dollar a minute. I will take that any day of the week.

A lot of articles are taken in free download. Those articles are for self promotion if I understand the Writer's Guidelines correctly. So, instead of pay these people are promoting their websites or their services. Still, it does affect the writers who are working for a living. Since Chris changed the sold content to show the articles that are downloaded free, we are more aware of the fact, but it's always been happening.

All in all, CC is the best place I've ever found to promote and sell my writing. Chris is providing a much needed service for both writers and requesters and he's doing a terrific job.

Re: free content

I don't know about anyone else, but I've got some book reviews that I've got available here for free. I wouldn't normally offer free content, but all of them are reprints which have already been published 3-4 times in magazines or on websites, so I don't see a problem with offering them here for nothing. With book reviews especially, it means the authors get even more publicity, which they're always happy with!

Rachel

I admit I have two for free, as long as the free content doesn't multiply in numbers over what we have for sale...hopefully we'll be okay!

I'm worried about one thing; will things slow down closer to the holidays?


LJ