Where to find article writers?

[Ram8349]

I need to find good article writers for my pet web site/forum.

 

Any good ideas on how to find them? Would be cool if I can get quality writers of pet niche for free. But I am also willing to pay if it is indeed worth it.

 

I have never had such demand before. So I'd like to hear some ideas.

[SpikeTheLobster]

There are TONS of places to find good writers but you won't get high-quality content for free unless you're extremely lucky. You can start with writing forums (like mine, of course), the bidding sites and job postings on decent, popular writing blogs (no, not crappy free ones). High-quality content is likely to cost you $15-$25 per article. That's actually a fairly low average if you're employing quality writers.

 

If you're looking for average quality (i.e. you don't care if you have to edit the stuff or if it's a bit sh1t, like the vast majority of web pages out there), you can go for somewhere like iWriter. You'll pay $5-$10 per article and get appropriately lower-quality work.

 

If you want cheap crap, aim for the bidding sites or low-rated iWriter users. They'll produce articles for $1 a pop (or even less) but you'll get complete rubbish.

 

A possible workaround is to employ very cheap writers and a more expensive editor/rewriter. That way you get a ton of content that's brought up to average quality and you don't pay as much.

 

And before you ask, yes... the $25 writers (or more) are definitely worth the price if you're looking to create an authority site. If you just want passing ad traffic and aren't making a business out of your site, you won't need them.

 

For forum posters, use Postloop.

[BlackHatClass]

If you're looking for average quality (i.e. you don't care if you have to edit the stuff or if it's a bit sh1t, like the vast majority of web pages out there), you can go for somewhere like iWriter. You'll pay $5-$10 per article and get appropriately lower-quality work.

 

I have used iWriter, and have got good quality content from writers at decent price. It's not in any way lower quality in my experience.

[Ram8349]

How many words can you expect from those price range?

By the way, in your opinion what is a good length of an article? I always think 500 words minimal, but even at 500 words it is too short to be informative.

[Nathan]

For cheap writers I pay $1/100 words, for my more expensive one I pay $4/100 words.

[Ram8349]

For cheap writers I pay $1/100 words, for my more expensive one I pay $4/100 words.

 

Where did you find your article writers?

 

Any tips on how to do business with them in order to ensure quality etc. at a good price?

[Nathan]

I've found them over the years on the net and just kept in touch via email with them. If you would like to speak with any of them let me know and I will PM you their emails.

[Ram8349]

I've found them over the years on the net and just kept in touch via email with them. If you would like to speak with any of them let me know and I will PM you their emails.

 

Are they able to write professional articles on pet niche?

 

I always thought the best articles come from those who have first hand experience.

[Nathan]

Ah well not sure if they have personal experience on that topic or not, but it's a network of several writers so could always ask. I've always gotten quality work from: http://www.madcontent.com/

[Ram8349]

Yeah, please ask for me if they have someone who is experienced in writing Pet articles.

 

I have categories for dog, cat, fish, bird, reptile... mostly.

I want to cover from the common beginner's guide, to the latest research topics eventually.

[Nathan]

Just go here: http://www.madcontent.com/contact.php and send a message to Rob, he normally gets back with me in a few hours.

[SpikeTheLobster]

I have used iWriter, and have got good quality content from writers at decent price. It's not in any way lower quality in my experience.

 

Your understanding of quality and mine are very different. I've bought top-level content from iWriter and it was average quality by my standards - I had to edit and rewrite everything. Nowhere near good enough for authority sites. But, as I say, fine for average sites (which is all most people are interested in, whether publishers or readers).

 

Ah well not sure if they have personal experience on that topic or not, but it's a network of several writers so could always ask. I've always gotten quality work from: http://www.madcontent.com/

 

As noted on another thread, at least 10 grammar mistakes on their home page - though, of course, most readers won't even notice them. You get what you pay for and their work (to me) isn't worth more than the $4 you pay.

 

Bear in mind that my understanding of quality is far more complex than your average site publisher. I expect people to submit work that does NOT need editing and I expect to pay for it. Everything I see on the sites already mentioned is low to average quality and wouldn't make the cut on a professional site. But then my definition of a professional site is probably different to yours, too!

[Ram8349]

Spike, how much would you pay for articles for what you consider as high quality?

 

Where do you find these high quality writers?

[Godric]

Spike, how much would you pay for articles for what you consider as high quality?

 

Where do you find these high quality writers?

 

You should google search some more. You are asking the same question again and again. It will take some time to get a good quality writer, it needs lots of trials and errors with the writers.

 

As for getting them, go to Odesk, they have some good writers. You will need to get one native speaker. Use low quality ones for buffer sites and the high ones for the main site.

 

And yes it costs 20$+ for good writers. For getting professional bloggers, its over 100$+. Just go to problogger and read the job boards.

 

Another option will be fiverr.

[Ram8349]

Are you encouraging me to stop posting?

 

Nope, not the same question. Spike seems to have different opinion on what "good quality" is with what he said in his last post. So I asked him a question for his price of "good quality", which was different from any question I've asked on this forum.

 

$20+ for how many words? I am looking at 1~2k long articles.

 

Another question, would you rather to find

1. people who are experienced in the niche, but not professional writers

2. professional writers but not expert for your niche

[Godric]

Are you encouraging me to stop posting?

 

Nope, not the same question. Spike seems to have different opinion on what "good quality" is with what he said in his last post. So I asked him a question for his price of "good quality", which was different from any question I've asked on this forum.

 

$20+ for how many words? I am looking at 1~2k long articles.

 

Another question, would you rather to find

1. people who are experienced in the niche, but not professional writers

2. professional writers but not expert for your niche

 

Lol no. I was just getting a heated discussion lol. No need to get so mad.

 

The rates are around 5$ for 100 words normally. LSI content will be even higher.

And a correct mix would be the Experts in niche who make the outline and then have it rewritten by professional writers.

 

For what purpose are you trying to use this?

Blogs or normal websites?

[Ram8349]

I have a web site with a forum. With my own domain.

My original goal was to populate the forum. I can't seem to get enough visitors due to the lack of content, even harder to convert them. There isn't going to be tons of content on the forum without a lot of people participating.

 

So I am thinking if I have more high quality articles, I might be able to get more visitors from the search engines. I have a library section on my main site for articles.

[SpikeTheLobster]

Before I answer stuff, just wanted to add a note that you don't need high-quality content if you're just looking to boost traffic and provide something useful. You only need average stuff - the $5-$10 range per article will work fine. You could probably get away with even cheaper stuff, to be honest (via oDesk, Fiverr and so on).

 

Spike, how much would you pay for articles for what you consider as high quality? Where do you find these high quality writers?

 

High-quality content gets anything from 5c to 20c per WORD. The last one I bought cost me $45 for just under 1k words and wasn't as good as it should have been (I had to edit and rewrite bits) but the content was hard to come by, so that was a fair trade-off.

 

As for finding them - that's the advantage of being a freelance writer, having been one for a few years and running a network of sites for freelance writers! I can usually find someone in my little network of friends - or they know someone. If not, I'll post on my own forum or the bidding sites and be very, very careful (or pay less and rewrite it myself).

 

As for getting them, go to Odesk, they have some good writers. You will need to get one native speaker. Use low quality ones for buffer sites and the high ones for the main site.

 

Those are good guidelines. Your purpose defines your quality level: are you content-stuffing for content? Follow the Daily Mail process of reusing content everywhere. Are you providing authority articles that are unique and complete? Get them written at the best quality possible. Are you producing content to keep your site updated but you're not too worried about grammar/spelling? Go through the bidding sites, Fiverr, iWriter or other content mills.

 

And yes it costs 20$+ for good writers. For getting professional bloggers, its over 100$+. Just go to problogger and read the job boards.

 

On a personal note, I would never, EVER use the ProBlogger job board. Paid boards are always chock full of scammy, spammy crap. Stupid, really, since you'd think it'd be the other way around but I've very rarely seen anything worthwhile on ProBlogger's board since its inception. VERY rarely.

 

Nope, not the same question. Spike seems to have different opinion on what "good quality" is with what he said in his last post. So I asked him a question for his price of "good quality", which was different from any question I've asked on this forum. $20+ for how many words? I am looking at 1~2k long articles.

 

I'll say it again: my standards are much higher than most - sort of commercial compared to open source, if you like. Unfortunately that's what you get for being an editor.

 

Another question, would you rather to find

1. people who are experienced in the niche, but not professional writers

2. professional writers but not expert for your niche

 

Ooooh, that's a good question. It depends on the content, as I mentioned above (by pure coincidence). If you want top-end content for an authority site, I'd go for option 1: the knowledge itself is the key component. You can always get it edited/rewritten. If it's general content to garner interest and visitors, I'd go for option 2 (though just decent writers would suffice).

 

In either case, I'd pay them less than a pro writer with experience.

 

Cheap content has its place: you just have to bear in mind what your goal is. If you want to content-whore and bring in lots of hits, do NOT go for expensive, high-quality content (I can talk more about that strategy, by the way). If you want to set yourself up as an authority, you need to aim higher and look classier. New York Times or Daily Mail?

 

Hope it helps.

[Ram8349]

I am not on a super high budget to build another New York Times lol.

 

My goal is to have a large active forum with a good collection of information in the article library.

What kind of price range do you think I should be looking at?

 

I was originally writing articles myself, but my knowledge is limited, because I do not own all pets. So I write what I have in first experience. For other pets I don't own, I think it is the best to let someone more experienced to write. I couldn't find experienced owners who like to contribute for free. So now I am looking at paying.

 

It is about a pet site, about pets. Pet forum to be exactly, with an article section on the main site's wordpress pages.

[SpikeTheLobster]

I am not on a super high budget to build another New York Times lol.

 

I wasn't suggesting you were.

 

It's more a question of strategy: high-quality authority, low-quality traffic-whore or somewhere in between.

 

My goal is to have a large active forum with a good collection of information in the article library. What kind of price range do you think I should be looking at?

 

I'll take that as not wanting to be an authority site, since you're targetting active forum traffic rather than long-term expert info searchers. In that case, you're fine at the lower end - $5/500 should give you plenty of quality. Even less if you want. Bear in mind that the lower the quality, the less search traffic you'll get. This may not be important to your strategy - especially if you're primarily trying to pull traffic from social sites - but you should be aware of it.

 

One trick you might want to consider is trawling other pet sites. Become an active member, keep an eye out for people who know what they're talking about and pop them a PM asking if they'd be interested in writing some stuff for you or if you can use the content of their posts as articles. Enthusiasts won't always look for financial reward immediately so you can often work a deal where they get a byline and a pointer to their site (or a free ad placement or something) in exchange and you don't have to lay out cash.

[Godric]

I am not on a super high budget to build another New York Times lol.

 

My goal is to have a large active forum with a good collection of information in the article library.

What kind of price range do you think I should be looking at?

 

I was originally writing articles myself, but my knowledge is limited, because I do not own all pets. So I write what I have in first experience. For other pets I don't own, I think it is the best to let someone more experienced to write. I couldn't find experienced owners who like to contribute for free. So now I am looking at paying.

 

It is about a pet site, about pets. Pet forum to be exactly, with an article section on the main site's wordpress pages.

 

Rather than paying money, why don't you take the guest and sponsored blogger way. Its almost free. Just give them a backlink A permanant contextual from the blog post and another footer link for a specified period.

[SpikeTheLobster]

Rather than paying money, why don't you take the guest and sponsored blogger way. Its almost free. Just give them a backlink A permanant contextual from the blog post and another footer link for a specified period.

 

That's a lot easier to do once the site's established and has a nice high PR.

 

People are surprisingly persnickety about where they guest post these days. Everyone's out for cash. Very annoying!

[Godric]

Manipulating PR is quite easy. It shouldn't take long get a high PR. All you need is back links from HIGH PR links and you will be golden in no time. If you wait for them to naturally grow, then well....prepare to wait for some long time. Take a look at flippa for eg. There are domains that are PR 2-5 selling for 60-100$.

[CityGirlLuv]

Manipulating PR is quite easy. It shouldn't take long get a high PR. All you need is back links from HIGH PR links and you will be golden in no time. If you wait for them to naturally grow, then well....prepare to wait for some long time. Take a look at flippa for eg. There are domains that are PR 2-5 selling for 60-100$.

 

But isn't Google looking to kill PageRank because of people manipulating it as it is. I remember reading some article where they were like just forget about pagerank because they're gonna eliminate it soon and it won't even be a factor.

[SpikeTheLobster]

If they eliminate PR, they'll replace it with something else - people want some way to measure their "importance" in the search rankings, even if it's pretty arbitrary. Although I can see Google reducing the impact of PR on SERP, I can't really see them totally eliminating it - at least not without replacing it with something else, which amounts to the same thing.