Maybe it's just me, but... doesn't it seem like there are a lot more blog writers around these days?
Since the content marketing boom hit a few years ago, freelance content writing went from a specialty field to being a much more generalized market.
It's Economics 101: As inbound marketing became increasingly popular (because people realized it works!), the demand for writers increased and the field expanded to try to meet that demand. In the process, prices on web content writing rates dropped accordingly. It used to be that a freelance article for publication would cost $150+. Now, well let's explore some options.
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So, how do you know you're getting a fair price on your website content? Well, a lot of it simply depends on what you want out of the bargain. Creating content that attracts visitors isn't a easy job, if it was everyone would be creating content and there would be no need for content marketplaces.
Content Writer Marketplaces
You've got freelancers working for companies like Zerys and Writers Access. With Zerys, you have access to a network of over 30,000+ writers, bloggers, and journalists to get your content written. Zerys is a pure marketplace. The quality of writer you get will be completely dictated by how much you offer.
The average per-word writers generally charge in a range more like 4c-8c a word, depending on the difficulty of the piece or what level of expertise it requires. At those rates, where you're paying between $40-$65 or so per article, you generally get perfectly functional content. In this price range you will be fine if you're looking to plant your flag in the SEO world.
Other services offer web content writing rates such as paying per-piece. You need to make sure you lay down ground rules ahead of time: How many revisions may be involved, and are they part of the price? What sort of word length do you want?
You can often negotiate deals with quality writers, even if at this point prices may approach magazine rates, in the $80 - $100+ range for 600 - 800 word articles.
Hiring An In-House Writer
Then there's always the option of hiring a staff writer. This, of course, gives you a lot more personal contact and control, but it's obviously a quite pricey proposition. At that point, you may be better off looking at hiring an Internet marketing company that can help you with your content writing. In a lot of cases, you can get a full SEO service for about as much as you'd pay for a single new employee, and get a lot more use out of your money as well.
So, at the risk of repeating myself, it really boils down to: You get what you pay for, really. What price point you look at for your web content writing rates will mostly depend on what you can afford, and what you're wanting to do with the content.
Think and plan carefully about where you want your website to go, and you should be able to figure out what content rates match your needs at the moment.
Here's a free ebook to make sure you get fair web content writing rates
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