What's a fair rate to pay writers?

lschmidt

lschmidt

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Jun 11, 2007
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For native, english speaking, college educated, regular ass people who don't say "hello sir" and can write well, meet deadlines, etc.

What's a fair rate per 100 words? And since that's pretty subjective, let me put it this way:

What's the least and most (dollars per word) you've ever paid a writer for doing blog posts on a consistent basis?
 


Holy shit, $75 for a 500 word post?

I was planning on offering a flat rate of $60 for a 800+ word post and $120 for a 1,500+ word post for a niche within health and wellness.
 
I have a finance specialization. Tough industry to be in if you're fresh out of university, so I used to write articles.

At the time: I was a Native English speaker, bachelor's degree, had half my analyst's designation done, and about 2 years industry experience. I wrote 800+ articles, 400-800 words each. I would charge a fixed rate per article (so if it was 800 words I got paid the same as 400). I kept stats on my writing so that I could bid against all the low-ballers out there.

I wrote articles at an average rate of 12minutes, with a 3 minute standard deviation. If I made $10 (USD) per article I was a happy guy. $35 gigs were my "premium" clients. Occasionally, I would get 2,000+ word works, and I would price them at a $35/400word rate. People wouldump frequently bonus me, or pay me in something better than USD, so maybe bump those numbers up a bit.

The biggest issue was always research. It took about 30-40 minutes to research a single topic. My sources were all journal of finance-level and CFA/Accounting textbook stuff, none of this news-spinning garbage. That being said, once I had the research done I could pump out about 5-12 articles (finance is a good topic for applying research broadly, not sure so much for other niches). I would therefore push to get bulk deals.

Along the way I picked up a few tricks. Discounts to depositphotos and an animoto account (big shout-out to appsumo for that shit). I would throw in 30s videos and images for bulk purchases and regulars, along with some microsoft smart-art diagrams. Didn't change my cost-base and created huge perceived value. People loved that shit, so it kept the Indian and Filipino low-ballers out of my honey-pot.

I averaged $26/hr (USD)s and was pretty damn happy with it. $60-70 per article is pant-shittingly good, so I hope they are writing thesis papers in blood for you. Health might have different pricing though. Tonnes of hungry idiots with BCom's that will work for cheap, not so sure about people with health/science backgrounds.

Hope that helps.
 
Smidge said:
$60-70 per article is pant-shittingly good, so I hope they are writing thesis papers in blood for you.
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mikeshinobi said:
I like that you mention that they upload an image, as if that somehow justifies paying 15 cents per word.

Also inb4 this devolves into a giant wankfest of people competing to see who pays the most for their content.
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Well okay I won't tell you guys what we pay for promo copy then, except to say it's a fuckload moar than $60.
 
lschmidt said:
For native, english speaking, college educated, regular ass people who don't say "hello sir" and can write well, meet deadlines, etc.

What's a fair rate per 100 words? And since that's pretty subjective, let me put it this way:

What's the least and most (dollars per word) you've ever paid a writer for doing blog posts on a consistent basis?
Click to expand...

Obviously you are cheap as fuck and don't want to pay for quality. You should already be rehashing shit like you talked about in your last post a few weeks ago.

I mean fuck you could have already rehashed over 600 shithole articles that your visitors will wipe thier asses with by now. Get of WF and get to it you penny-pinching SOB.
 
After helping helping my friend promote her writing on here

I can say that wickedfire is home to a lot of people that won't pay anything for writing

For a "baller" forum it is filled with absolute cheapskates at least when it comes to writing
 
Smidge said:
I have a finance specialization. Tough industry to be in if you're fresh out of university, so I used to write articles.

At the time: I was a Native English speaker, bachelor's degree, had half my analyst's designation done, and about 2 years industry experience. I wrote 800+ articles, 400-800 words each. I would charge a fixed rate per article (so if it was 800 words I got paid the same as 400). I kept stats on my writing so that I could bid against all the low-ballers out there.

I wrote articles at an average rate of 12minutes, with a 3 minute standard deviation. If I made $10 (USD) per article I was a happy guy. $35 gigs were my "premium" clients. Occasionally, I would get 2,000+ word works, and I would price them at a $35/400word rate. People wouldump frequently bonus me, or pay me in something better than USD, so maybe bump those numbers up a bit.

The biggest issue was always research. It took about 30-40 minutes to research a single topic. My sources were all journal of finance-level and CFA/Accounting textbook stuff, none of this news-spinning garbage. That being said, once I had the research done I could pump out about 5-12 articles (finance is a good topic for applying research broadly, not sure so much for other niches). I would therefore push to get bulk deals.

Along the way I picked up a few tricks. Discounts to depositphotos and an animoto account (big shout-out to appsumo for that shit). I would throw in 30s videos and images for bulk purchases and regulars, along with some microsoft smart-art diagrams. Didn't change my cost-base and created huge perceived value. People loved that shit, so it kept the Indian and Filipino low-ballers out of my honey-pot.

I averaged $26/hr (USD)s and was pretty damn happy with it. $60-70 per article is pant-shittingly good, so I hope they are writing thesis papers in blood for you. Health might have different pricing though. Tonnes of hungry idiots with BCom's that will work for cheap, not so sure about people with health/science backgrounds.

Hope that helps.
Click to expand...

Isn't finance one of the higher-paying industries for writers? Where were you getting your writing gigs from? Sounds like you weren't make enough. Of course, maybe your articles weren't that great if you were writing them in 12 minutes. I guess it depends on how much research went into them...
 
Depends on the quality you're looking at . I'm paying $20/500 words for a few native writers i work with .The quality isn't stunning but totally good to be used on money sites.
 
Well, i think you should talk to the writer, and it really depends on the work he delivers.

If it is just okay, you shouldn't go to much, but if really is great, i think you should give a little extra, so he would continue like that. I would pay by the leinght and the quality of the text, maybe shorter is better sometimes!
 
No Mods...No Ban-hammer.

Sigh.

Perhaps the gods will listen:

Dear gods... I pray most humbly to thee, that thou shouldst face-fuck into respiratory arrest those goat fucking pole-smokers who come to pollute this, thy purest forum, including, but not limited to:

http://www.wickedfire.com/members/hoatruc.html
http://www.wickedfire.com/members/vladsirius.html
http://www.wickedfire.com/members/a-cop.htm

And when the interim cleansing is complete, we humbly beg that thou would'st touch the mind and soul of the mis-guided Hebrew that has hithertofore had charge of this realm but has lost his way, and bring him back to the light, so that we may go forth and prosper as before, in the name of the almighty commission, amen.

If not? Well... wait for it...
 
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