Good Outsourced Articles

[3stacks]

Hi guys

What do you guys think is the best way to get decent outsourced articles. I've tried getting freelancers on freelancer.com to write some but most of them always turn out to be pretty bad.
I paid out about 3 to 5 bucks for a 500 word article but it seems that people usually outsource for a higher price. I heard a decent, well written article costs about $10-$15.

Are there any decent article sites you guys recommend?
Or any particular freelancers that can write a good, well researched article that's not spun off some ezine article?

[hooperman]

What do you guys think is the best way to get decent outsourced articles. I've tried getting freelancers on freelancer.com to write some but most of them always turn out to be pretty bad.

I think your experiences are common (just from reading other peoples' reports). I've not used freelancer sites myself because of this. I usually write my material myself as I know what I'm getting then, even though it uses up my time. I once hired someone I knew to write maybe 20 articles for me for £20 each. They were 500 - 1000 words and required him to do some research. I think that's probably at the high end of what most people want to pay though.

If you could get someone knowledgeable to write for you in return for a link (or something else), that would be ideal. I've written for other sites in return for a link and got other knowledgeable people to write for me in return for a link too. That way there's less (direct) expense and you get good material.

[Clinton]

There are people on these forums who write for pay including Ajeet, Andy and others. DigitalPoint has an extensive section for buying and selling of content and hiring authors.

[Ajeet]

There are people on these forums who write for pay including Ajeet...

Thanks Clinton. Let me tell you how this goes. The starting point is: the purpose of the content. For simplicity, let me call it (i) moderate quality (ii) high quality. There is also the category of low-quality, but I am not going to talk about that.

A Moderate Quality article:
1) Is completely original
2) Adds some value to the reader
3) Is created by deriving inspiration from online sources. That does not mean it is a "rewrite" as the composition is original.
4) Is suitable for places where a high volume of content is required.
5) Is priced from 1 to 3 cents per word.
I do not write such content, but project-manage bulk assignments. This means that I get the writers, instruct them, follow up, check quality and originality, make sure specs are followed. In effect, I am the guarantor of the fact that your specs will be met. Upon client request, this could also end up being posted on their blog / site / elsewhere.

A High Quality Article:
1) Is original in composition as well as creativity
2) Is highly readable and adds lot of value to the reader.
3) Is priced VERY HIGH. I am not even going to attempt to give you a range.
4) Is typically used in print publications or very high traffic sites (to be able to justify the price).
5) Tends to have voice, angle, purpose, and personality
6) Often follow a style-sheet. For e.g. when I would write for an online publication of the New York Times, we would use a modified AP Style sheet. It is said that most readers cannot discern the fact that a style sheet has been used. But they do get a sense of "quality" when they read a site that seems to follow a style sheet.

I do some of this, but am not a high-speed machine. Some examples: In March of this year, I completed authoring the entire course (including designing curriculum) for the National Financial Literacy Program targeting 5 million kids between the ages of 12 and 17. I charged approximately $50 per page. But this is not a fair measure as curriculum design, benchmarking, course structure, advice on pedagogy,... are also included in this fee and they do not result in pages. Another example would be an article I wrote on "Data Mining" for 25 cents per word. Clinton has seen that article. Yet another example would be a w3 translation into an Indian language (non-English) with advance payment subject to publication on the w3 site (if you do not already know what this is all about, I am not going to tell you )

Moderate quality articles are usually ghostwritten. But high-quality articles give credit to the author. This is usually not upon insistence from the writer, but because the credentials of the author add value.

[meathead1234]

Really depends what you want the content for. I generally wouldn't pay less than $10 per 500 words for my own sites. I do also write a lot of content myself, which saves a fair bit of hassle. As Hooperman suggested above, the best way I've found to get good content (or get published on other sites myself) is to exchange an article for a link. I do a lot of guest blogging and it should be pretty easily to find people willing to write for you as a guest.

[tke71709]

As a person who derives most of his income from writing I can happily say that I do not do article writing.

I don't know how people get by doing that sort of work (well I get it but I wouldn't want to do it).

I write help guides, user manuals and training guides for software predominantly and if you broke my income per year down by the amount of words that I write it would work out to $2-3 per word probably.

I don't get how people in the western world can get by on 2-3 cents a word (and for 3 cents a word you can get some damned good writers).

[Ajeet]

I don't get how people in the western world can get by on 2-3 cents a word (and for 3 cents a word you can get some damned good writers).

I am with you on this one. What I have found is that there are people who can produce upwards of 5000 words per day, and they have been doing that for years! At 3 cents a word, they would be earning $50K for a Work-at-Home opportunity. Maybe not in major urban centres, but in many places in the US that would be decent living

[3stacks]

So the general concensus in order of quality seems to be to 1) Write it yourself 2) Find someone knowledgable to write for you in return for something and 3) Outsource a moderate quality article for at least $10.
Now if I wanted to go the outsourcing route, where would I find decent writers? If I can get a good article written for $10 that's not like the rubbish I've been receiving, I'd definitely pay.
Do you guys know of article sites you've used before that do good work or the best way to go about looking for such writers?

[mgallone]

I know from my own experience that University/College students are a good place to look. I've started doing article writing for pretty much peanuts in terms of pay per word, ($0.01-$0.02) but making easily enough to keep me going through Uni and build a nice side pot for investment into my web building projects as well. I myself, and I'm sure this applies to others as well, am used to writing essay after essay, so writing at a high standard comes easy. Ajeet, if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to know more about opportunities for higher quality article writing, as summer break is approaching... and it's going to be a long one

[Ajeet]

Surprisingly I never tested speech to text software for my writing! Surprising because I rate speaking as MY primary medium of communication and not writing. I have scheduled a demo of Dragon NaturallySpeaking tomorrow. If that works, I could really speed up my writing. Let's see.