Somewhere between $3 and $500...

Happy Monday. I stumbled across and article written by UpmarketContent.com in which the author "take[s] on people who claim they can get reprint-quality writing for $3 (or whatever small change) an article."

I am going to leave that $3 figure alone, because the author doesn't really dwell on that particular number. He/she claims to charge $500 per article and goes so far as to argue any content buyer will get nothing but junk for under $50 per piece:

"So what do you get for under $50/article:

1. Stolen content that was scraped off another site, or out of a book or magazine.
2. Content the author wrote but is “licensing” over and over, exactly as you’re complaining about here.
3. Content written by someone whose English simply will not build credibility in anything, if it even can get someone to read it, which is not likely, either. There is a huge gap between speaking English fluently and writing it well. Just because you can speak it, doesn’t mean you can write it. All the little things that get overlooked in speech will glare out at you on the page.
4. 500 words written in 5 minutes, words merely filling a page with hardly any rhyme or reason, which will get rejected from (and get you red-flagged by) numerous article directories."

It's hard to know where to start with this... Let me begin by saying that I occasionally read some of the UpMarket pieces and like them a lot, so this really isn't some sort of massive attack on UM. This article, however, is not accurate.

I don't scrape, borrow, copy, plagiarize or otherwise steal. Everything I sell comes with all rights and is backed by a 300% money back originality guarantee. My English writing skills are well-honed. I have never had a a problem with clients recieivng article directory rejections.

I know I am not alone of any of those fronts.

I can understand the temptation as a freelance SEO content writer/copywriter to come up with an article claiming that anyone who isn't close to one's inflated prices must be a rip-off artist. It's a good marketing ploy.

However, in this case the numbers and blanket statements are so out of touch with reality that it cannot possibly be persuasive.

The author claims:

"I know what I’m talking about: I have gotten a number of articles by a number of authors on the “low-paid” writing bulletin boards, just to test the waters and also at one point hoping to get something I could start from and work with when I had writer’s block. It was so unbelievably horrible I nearly cried, and felt cheated despite the price."

I'd say he or she needed to exercise better consumer skills when selecting the outsourced writer. I may not make people jump for joy every time I write for them, but I am sure they don't end up on the verge of tears. If they do, they have a big masochistic streak because they keep on coming back for more!

You don't need to spend $500 per article (or even $50) to avoid feeling miserable or weeping. I can help you for somewhere between $3 and $500. You'll enjoy the results.