How much do/would you pay for content?

[Rebecca Walton]

I run a free course and Facebook group for freelance writers and we've recently been talking about money. Gulp! There seems to be such a variation in 'the going rate' that I thought it would be interesting to put the question to business owners.

Have you ever paid for content for your website or marketing materials? Be that leaflet copy, website copy or blog posts?

If so, what kind of prices did you pay? You don't need to be specific if you don't want to divulge, but a price range would be handy. What did you get for that money, also?

Finally, if you haven't hired a copywriter or content marketer before, how much do you think 'the going rate' should be?

As an example, the writers in my courses have suggested anywhere between £10 and £350 for 500 words of blog content, with minimal research. I've also been approached for a job where the going rate was 70p per 500 words... I said there was a big variation!

It would be really interesting to see whether business owners have a smaller range in mind.

Thanks in advance!

 

[rhys_td]

If you're happy with outsourcing to India or poorer parts of Europe / South America, you're probably looking at around £1 per 100 words, they'll usually have no research and you'll probably end up completely re-writing it yourself.

If you're looking to invest in copy that will actually be tailored to your business, researched and properly written, you're looking at around £5 per 100 words - Generally that's going to cost you around £25-£30 per page (if your writing copy for a website), a higher amount for optimised content (writing for SEO aint' easy!) and more for blog posts, although that does depend on the complexity of the topic. I'd personally charge more for writing about pest control or drainage than I would for marketing, web design etc.

It depends how much you're willing to invest in your copy, do you consider persuasive writing / search engine optimised copy something that's going to bring you in more leads / sales?

 

[fisicx]

If I need some converting homepage copy I want as few words as possible. I paid £500 for 3 paragraphs once but paid for itself in less than two months.

All of the paid blog posts examples I've seen were garbage so 70p per 100 words is about all it's worth.

Getting paid per word just means you end up with a load of filler.

 

[Aqueous]

We use outsourced content writers and stick with a regular crew as they deliver the right stuff, well written, grammatically correct and usually on time. Typically we pay £20-£35 per blog with word count varying from 300-500 per blog.

When we do need something better we ask the same team. I asked one to write a page for a website recently on a very niche subject and they did it for £60. Client changed just two words in it and was amazed that it was accurate first time.

We've built up trust with our team and continue to use them on an ongoing basis. We trust them to produce good quality on time every time. They trust us to pay them and so I do, within 24 hrs of invoice. Without fail. Given that I now don't need to check their output its the least I can do....

 

[Chelios]

On average, £20 per 500 words.

 

[PIers Ede]

Chelios has it. Around £20-25 per 500 (we pay £22.50) is the norm for a writer of moderate calibre who can knock out reasonable blog posts.

Personally, I am horrified by how little writers are paid now, it's one of the saddest things about what the internet has done. PHD's and poets are knocking out SEO focussed blog posts which no one reads in order to keep Google happy: what a sorry state of affairs.

For better quality writing, we pay writers £200 a day. But the call for their services is rare, I'm afraid.

 

[fisicx]

But if you pay for 500 words you get 500 words. Maybe the topic would be better in a consise 200 words without all the padding and waffle. So why not just let the writer write an article of the right length for the particular topic.

 

[BenWells]

We charge £30 for around 300 words. I also think writers are underpaid, and it is because of all these low quality writers offering such a cheap price.

 

[NickGrogan]

So why are you competing with them on price?

 

[Rebecca Walton]

These are all really excellent answers. Thanks a lot. It's quite interesting to see it from the other side

 

[The Byre]

Trade mags pay about 60p a word. National dailies pay between £2 and £4 a word. The News of the World used to pay between £200 and £400 for four c. inches, but up to £50k for a good front-page story.

I can only think of a handful of people that can really and genuinely write witty and engaging text.

I am the only person in our company that I trust to write ad texts. It's one thing to write texts, it is quite another to write text that sells!

 

[NickGrogan]

It's one thing to write texts, it is quite another to write text that sells!

Too true, everyone that has Word thinks they're a writer and everyone who's ever downloaded Photoshop is an artist.

 

[boring-friday]

normally £4 per 100 words, paid up to £25 per 100 words but he was a writer for the guardian. I get wound up if I pay more than £2 per 100 words and much needs editing, may aswell do it myself

 

[garyk]

Sadly not as I feel it is one of those 'if a jobs worth doing...do it yourself'. I know there are time constraints but in my experience I can't get good enough quality. I've bought PLR articles and videos in the past and ended up doing it myself.

As the beatles sang:

It's a thousand pages, give or take a few
I'll be writing more in a week or two
I can make it longer if you like the style
I can change it 'round and I want to be a paperback writer
Paperback writer!

 

[Aileen B]

I feel guilty, after seeing what others are paying, saying I have paid only £2.50-£5 per 500 words for articles that were grammatically correct ,no spelling mistakes, but needed a polish and my own personality injected Into them to make them blogworthy.
if I needed content I could post as-is I'd pay more but this arrangement with two different writers works well for me.

 

[InFront Digital]

It is often down to the old "you pay for what you get" principle. If you don't spend much you cant expect much and that goes for quality too.

 

[fisicx]

...I have paid only £2.50-£5 per 500 words for articles that were grammatically correct ,no spelling mistakes, but needed a polish and my own personality injected Into them to make them blogworthy.

And how much engagement has there been? How many new leads have those articles generated? Unless those articles added value then even £5 was too much. But suppose you had paid £500 for something that made people go wow, was shared and commented on, and other websites took snippets for referrals then you could have got a bucket load of targeted visitors who would have brought your stuff.

That's why people pay more for content.

 

[StevePoster]

Great discussion here from our trusted members, but I'm wondering and set aside the amount per words or amount per paragraph to pay for the content. The question here is does the content is effective for the targeted audience (new, unique, interesting, helpful)? Is it engaging? or being shared to their network?

 

[The Byre]

If you want to learn how to write texts that sell, read Ogilvy on Advertising.

When you've finished reading it, read it again.

 

[Elliottc26]

Despite popular belief, anyone can write (we learn as kids), but being able to write well to a publishable standard is something quite different.

Copywriters charge differently. So some charge by the word (not the best practice), and some charge based on a value proposition.

So, if I write some SEO copy for you and charge, say, £60; but, that copy over a year gives you £6000 of sales opportunities = great value. You get back your investment and profit.

If someone else writes your copy for £20 and over a year it gives you £2000 of sales opportunities and profit = great value. You get your money back and profit.

So, it's like anything in business. If someone is charging more for copy it just may mean that the said copywriter is confident in their results, and, so, charge accordingly. Not in every case, but this is a good way to see the difference in pricing.

If you're good at something, don't do it for free or tuppence. If you're going to make money from your copy that's positive (ROI), would it matter if you paid £100 per page? Only if it failed, so trust is a key component.

Writing to be published is extremely difficult. If it was easy, the world would be full of bestselling authors and millionaire freelancers. I've been published in the past, but not everything I write is due to many, many factors (one article I wrote wasn't published but I was taken on as a Copy Editor by the magazine for 4 months to fill in for maternity leave (Aviation News mag)).

So, it's a minefield and experience is a commodity in itself and therefore would attract a higher price. If your business is solely concerned with pricing rather than results, you can end up ignoring the investment side and stunt growth. But, that's why Copify do so well, may not get you great results, but they're cheap and pay their "copywriters" tuppence.

 

[webgeek]

Have you considered that your goal is to make a pumpkin pie, but instead you're shopping for aubergines?

How often do you read 300 words and think it's remarkable? How about 500 words?
[People remember OMG the depth of content is amazing, regularly]

On average, how many words per page do most of the top 10 results have, across a wide selection of keywords?
[2000 to 2500]

If you want the page to convert better, should you use long form or short form (more or less content on the page)?
[Long form outperforms short form, generally]

If social media is going to be used to promote the content, then you'll be hoping for likes, shares, thumbs up...
[Yes, again, more in-depth, lengthy content gets social love as compared to their brief content brethren]

*Quicksprout and KissMetrics usually share goodies like the above*

----------------------------------------------------------

Keep in mind that 300 words of mediocre content isn't necessary perform better when it's fluffed up to 2000 words of barely mediocre content.

Everyone probably knows one or more people who have ecommerce online shopping carts where they're trying to make as much money as possible by listing as many items as possible, even if the product descriptions are one liners. In many cases, they don't rank anywhere that can be found by potential buyers, and sell an equally dismal '0' units of them each month.

Yet, there are millions being earned by owners of single-product online stores. Personally, I'd rather have one big seller than 10,000 products that stay on the store shelves forever.

So, rather than looking to buy as many wee pages of barely acceptable content as the budget will handle, why not spend the time and money to develop substantially less, significantly higher quality, pages that will impress? Your rankings, sales and public opinion will thank you.

Or, as the post began... Why buy a bushel of aubergine when you're needing just one pumpkin pie?

 

[Tattymac]

If I find a great writer I will pay what ever they charge as you want content that converts.

 

[ganah-allan]

Some people may think that copy-writing is just as simple as buying a book that says writing web copy that sells and then believe that they already know how to write after reading it for 1 hour.

Effective content-writing or copy-writing is developed through experience. It requires you to write and write some more. Write, measure, then write again and measure. It will take time for you to get the write formula. The key is the conceptualization of a BRIGHT IDEA. Yeah, that is where it matters. If you have what it takes, then you will be successful. But, if you don't have it, you will need years of experience to even have a glimpse of it.

As for the charging of value to a content, I would consider the value based on how much it will return. You cannot value it until you see it. The best arrangement will be a sort of down payment and then once the copy is complete its value is determined. How will you measure it? Well, you need to use it for some time. And that is where the problem is. No writer will agree on such arrangement. Hence, a sort of a compromise is made. Test the waters by accepting a charge on a per 100 words basis. Give it a test value amenable to both. Once a copy is made, test its effectiveness. From there you can judge the quality of work and then come up with a valuing system that is fair for both and make it as a basis on succeeding project.

I wish you well.

 

[Deleted member 252819]

I charge between £20 and £50 per 500 words. I specialise in business and technical content; some assignments take longer than others.

Fortunately, Google has clamped down on thin content, and there are fewer businesses wasting money on dodgy $1 articles.

 

[ADNattan]

I price my content in-line with the PCN guidelines: http://www.procopywriters.co.uk/suggested-rates-for-hiring-copywriters/

I don't price by the word, because that gets you flabby content, and I don't charge by the hour because I hate sending clients timesheets.

I have a set fee for research to cover the time I spend finding out about a client's business (if it's a repeat client, this fee gets dropped), and then charge for the work based on the value I think I'll put into your business. After all, it's unlikely that a blog post will deliver as much value as a sales letter.

I've had very few complaints about my prices.

 

[TODonnell]

You tend to get what you pay for. If all you want is site 'filler', then £10 to a guy in India will do. You'll get copy you'll probably have to rewrite, so that's your time wasted.

Buy, hey, it's cheap, right?

Thing is, your more discerning readers won't be fooled. Intelligent people who are looking at 5 websites before making a purchase are looking for signs of quality and signs of cr*p.

Cheap copy also tends to be booooorrrrrrrrrringgg, me-too flannel. You've spent your money on copy that's going to get filtered one way or another, down the line.

If you want to make sales, you might want to pay more.

Personally, I think the days of writing 347 pages of keyword-targeted bilge to attract Google hits are gone. Unless you're a happy little black hat with a trick no one else knows.

You have to compete on quality, now.

 

[Deleted member 252819]

Adamchy, I agree with every word.

Another thing to bear in mind is the length of a blog post. People used to buy 300-word posts, when they could get away with it. Now, 500-words seems to be a popular choice, and is less likely to get you stung for thin content.

However, there's evidence that you need to aim for 2,000, 3,000 or even 10,000 word posts to have a half-decent chance of getting shares. (There's a really good analysis on BuzzSumo, but I can't post the link yet, as I'm a new member.)

 

[TODonnell]

Dear Claire,

Yes, it occurred to me just now that a blog in which all posts were 300 - 550 words long, with 1 - 2 outbound links in each, would be a good indicator of bilge to a compooter like wot Google's got.

 

[Deleted member 252819]

I agree with you, although I admit I hadn't thought of it like that. But lots of content to a cookie-cutter format does suggest bulk ordering of junk content. You're right. If the blogs are published over a period of time, it's probably a bit less suspicious in Google's eyes, compared to blogs where all the content is thrown up at once.

 

[fisicx]

Here's a novel idea. Would it not be better to write about things that people want to read that contains sufficiuent rich content to engage but not bore the reader.

As google says ' create content for people not the the search engines'. If that's only 100 words then that's all you need to write. I've got two pagraph posts that rank on page one. Not sure I could make them any longer as that's all that was needed to answer the particular search query.

 

[ganah-allan]

Dear Claire,

Yes, it occurred to me just now that a blog in which all posts were 300 - 550 words long, with 1 - 2 outbound links in each, would be a good indicator of bilge to a compooter like wot Google's got.

I don't understand or get the meaning of this statement. Please explain further. Thank you.

 

[Tier1Logistics]

Claire,

Drop me an email with some details as I may need a few things doing [email protected].

 

[exom_expert]

I usually write the content myself, but sometimes hire a copywriter to make my text shine.
Copywriter charge are somewhat $200 - $250 per page

 

[ADNattan]

Here's a novel idea. Would it not be better to write about things that people want to read that contains sufficiuent rich content to engage but not bore the reader.

As google says ' create content for people not the the search engines'. If that's only 100 words then that's all you need to write. I've got two pagraph posts that rank on page one. Not sure I could make them any longer as that's all that was needed to answer the particular search query.

Pre-bloody-cisely. I've had great success with 200 word posts for myself and clients, and I've had equally great success with big sprawling posts.

At no point during the writing process did I think "what word count does Google want?"

Google won't share a post. Google won't use the information provided and think better of my client. And Google won't ever, EVER make a purchase.

If there's any point you put the needs of Google ahead of the needs of the reader, you're basically wasting the client's money and your own time.

 

[TODonnell]

I don't understand or get the meaning of this statement. Please explain further. Thank you.

The Google algorithm looks for signs of quality and signs of junk. A blog with every post of similar length and link-style is abnormal and could offer a 'footprint' for Google to make negative assumptions about. A normal blog looks more eccentric.

- A clever chap finds a loophole in the Google algorithm. He exploits it and makes bank;
- His last act is to mention this on his own blog to get publicity for himself, become famous and make more money;
- Small minds jump on this tip and spam it everywhere;
- Google notices a deterioration in SERPs and adjusts it's algorithm to filter the spammy pages;
- Cue weeping and gnashing of teeth from the small minds.

 

[RealEcon]

About 6 months ago I did a test and bought an article from all the top writers on a marketing forum. It was like 8-10 native writers. I wasnt concerned about the price. I was just interested if content writing had gotten any better since the Penguin algo came into being back in 2012. Only 2 writers wrote anything engaging, the rest were still writing ezine style articles. The 2 good writers were charging around $20-$30 per 500 words.

I was amazed.

Its been 3 years since Penguin. Everyone knows crap ezine, general topic articles wont rank and will probably get your site penalized as spam, but yet the majority of writers are still writing ezine style articles.

The industry needs a washout in my opinion.

 

[TODonnell]

I think such writers are in a rut. They're depressed, because they're paid beans. They're writing by the yard.

Want an inspiring, funny, original article? Hmmm, I doubt it'll cost £20. I bet those articles which people share in your industry aren't written by a freelancer.com habitue.

Jimmy Joyce Patel thinks you want a standard SEO-enhanced (TM) 300-word article about Californian insurance and that's what you'll get.

Writers should just tell cheapskates to take a long walk off a short pier, get some easy p/t job which isn't too tiring and write for themselves whenever they can. Life's too short.

 

[searchangel]

For clients, if they want a blog for the right reasons and not just self-promotion, I always recommend using a freelance journalist. It's around £180 for up to 1000 words but the good thing about it is that you get to piggyback on their authority.

For basic web content, I would look to pay £20 per 400-500 words. I believe content is so important that it's something that you should never try to cut costs on.

 

[ADNattan]

I would look to pay £20 per 400-500 words. I believe content is so important that it's something that you should never try to cut costs on.

Yet you'll look to pay £20 for the content for a "basic" page on your website? Designers and developers won't get out of bed if you offer them £80 for a four page brochure website, but that's a fair price for the content - which needs to convince your customers to make a purchase?

Like @adamchy says, the low-end writers are depressed because they're stuck doing this part time for peanuts - but the prevalence of thinking like this raises eyebrows amongst the middleweight professionals too.

The focus on word counts here is worrying too. As if quantity is the main signifier of how much you should pay.

 

[TODonnell]

Heaven help 97% of commercial websites if Google or A. N. Other develops a 'flannel-filter'.

Scenario: a semi-intelligent alogrithm finds yet another payday loans 'article'.

> echo "Oh, look, I believe I detect the writing style of Raj Patel, Bangalore and, yes, he's telling readers to 'always do their research'. Bless."

> Initiate protocol: Nuke_blath3r.

You can bash out a half-decent article in an hour. Writing something which is truly interesting, helpful, terse, encompassing and well-formatted, getting some nice pics inserted .... maybe five. Or more.