Finding Industry Specific Writers

Inhibition

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Dec 20, 2014
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How do you guys do it? Writing agencies and places like upwork have not worked for me. I get regurgitated content. It's like they get the first article that pops up for the topic and rewrite it.

I've had success contacting members of this industries forums/subreddit but they usually disappear after a few articles.
 
Calamari said:
Were you paying them enough to make it worth their time?
Click to expand...
This is true. I've had success using upwork, but it's more of a numbers game there. I remember when I bumped my going rate up by 50c, I was saw an increase of great writers.

With that being said, what do you guys think is an acceptable rate? I'm still stuck with the BHW-type content rates, i.e., $2 / 100 words.
 
To keep a good writer I'd double that. I'd go higher for a good writer that really was a specialist in the industry.
 
Depends how specialized you need the content. If it's very technical and informational it will cost more. If it's more creative writing it will cost less.

I use Upwork mostly. Though I have worked with a couple of writers that came from referrals.

For Upwork, you have to vette them THOROUGHLY. Plan to spend a ton of time on this in the beginning. But when you do it, you'll find very good good writers at very good rates.
 
For industry specific writers I usually pay $3-4.5 per 100 words.

It seems like majority of writers who I have found through Upwork are asking this type of price. Of course, I usually stick with top rated writers who have a lot of feedback and work so they know their worth quite well.

However, I think you can definitely find a really great industry specific writers for $2-3 per 100 word too, but usually they are hard to find because generally they do not have as much feedback or even direct writing experience. So you need to just test them out.

I think the best place to get top quality industry specific writers is http://problogger.com/jobs/. I got like total of 20-30 applications and almost all of them had some type of industry experience. Prices the really experienced industry writers usually ask is in expensive side $5-10 per 100 words. But usually they just throw up a big number at first and you can easily negotiate it down, especially if you are ordering in bulk like 10,000+ words.

Still I usually end up paying them around $4 per 100.

There are also some writers in Problogger who usually lack writing experience, but have tons of industry experience. Their price is usually much cheaper, but their direct writing skills: flow, formatting, grammar etc is not as good.

The problem I have found with ordering direct is that since there is no feedback, rating system like in Upwork, sticking with TAT can be problem and overall attitude of some writers is quite weak, especially if your orders are not that big.
 
I'm working on weeding through writers on '5r'. I post a job and see who replies with a non-canned response, then I look at the grammar. I'll bite at $.01 per word then, if it is good enough to edit, I'll approach with a recurring offer at $.015. We'll see how this works in the long run.
 
I know I might be a little biased on the subject, but let me chime in here.

WordAgents is in a weird spot in the market where we service both news-level clients and SEO enthusiasts. It gives me a little more insight into both sides of the coin.

I literally process about 200-300 writer applications every month. I get them from all walks of life.

Two groups of writers:
  • SEO community writers (cost up to $.10 per word): stay-at-home moms, college kids, recent grads, part-time work. They can write English well and know how to research topics to speak intelligently on them.
  • REAL freelancers ($.10+ per word): professional full-time freelancers, journalism grads, industry specific writers.... people that work on their craft. These guys are passionate about writing and can provide insightful, compelling content.
Most industry specific writers have realized they can easily make $100 per 1000 words, which is why you're not finding them at $.01 to $.05 per word. That, or they are just writing for their own sites and making bank.

If they're sticking around for a while and then disappearing - they're either overworked at your rate, or they realized they can get more elsewhere, easily.

Most people don't take a step back and think about this, because all they're worried about is getting the best content for the cheapest rate.

However, that $30 you're paying your writer to:
  • read your 3-pages of instructions,
  • comprehend them,
  • research the niche,
  • outline the article,
  • research the info for each subsection,
  • find 10+ sources for hyperlinks,
  • speak in a friendly tone (but still more informative than any other person on the planet),
  • source images,
  • write the article,
  • proofread with the most minimal margin of error,
  • and post on Wordpress..
...suddenly doesn't seem so great to them when they realize it's going to take 3-4 hours to complete the job.

I can write a whole other post on these writing requirements that you guys come up with...but I'll leave that be for now.

Guys... look:

The SEO industry standard for content has risen significantly. You have to expect that rates will go up too.

It wasn't any more than 3 years ago that I was still having clients order spintax articles. Today, those same clients are asking for 3 hours of research per 5,000 word article. To expect that you'll be able to have the same writer handle both styles of content at the same rate is just silly.

Content agencies outside of the SEO community start their pricing at $.15 per word, and go up to $1.00+ per word.

I totally get it. That sounds insanely high.

And, we're SEO's.... it's in our nature to get deals, to use arbitrage, and to do things differently in order to get a competitive advantage. How dare someone suggest paying real rates for content...right?

A few paragraphs up, I outlined the most common requests I get in orders. Let's look at this from a per hour stand point:
  • SEO writer gets $30 for 1000 words. Takes 3.5 hours. $8.57 per hour.
  • Freelancer gets $100 per 1000 words. 3.5 hours of work. $28.57 per hour.
Now ask yourself:
  • Which writer do you think is going to be stick around and produce the high-quality content that you're after, consistently?
  • Which writer will provide the insight necessary to keep people around your site and compel them to take action...or become a fan of your site?
  • Which writer can provide you with information that acts as a barrier to entry for competitors?
You see where I'm going with this...

The phrase, "You Get What You Pay For," has never been more correct.

Wrapping this up.... you can totally still go about digging around classified ads looking for writers willing to work for peanuts. They may be ignorant. They may be cash strapped. Eventually... they'll realize. If you find it OK to keep cycling through low-priced writers like this over and over... more power to you!

I'll tell you straight up:

The sweet spot market rate for digital writers who 1) give a shit, 2) do good research, and 3) create compelling, informative content is....

... $.05 to $.07 per word

I don't know if this will be true 6 months from now, but right now.... that's the rate range where you'll get the best bang for your buck, with the least headache.

Now, if you need someone like WordAgents to manage the writers, do the hiring, training, proofreading....and basically translating your needs into a briefing that the writer will understand best, you should expect to pay a $.01-$.02 premium on top of that sweet spot rate range.

I have no dog in this fight. There's more writing work out there than I could even know what to do with.

I just feel like there has to be a fundamental mindset shift in the SEO community regarding the importance of quality writers and what standard rates should be.

Let me end this with a few links for you:

The standard rate range for ghostwriters is $.26c to $.50c per word. This is the benchmark standard for all freelance writers. The EFA is recognized as the authority.

The average per-word rate for a digital writer is $.71c...according to Contently....the big dick site for freelancers.
 
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