Content: What’s it Worth? A Freelancer’s Manifesto

If you’re keeping up to date at all with online marketing trends, you’ve no doubt heard the phrase “content is king” more than once. But what does it really mean, in general and for your business?

First of all, in the battle to win business online, original quality content, updated frequently, generally translates into more favorable search engine rankings, meaning your site is more likely to be seen in searches - the first step in a winning online game. You need content for successful web marketing, and if you don’t have the skill or time to produce it yourself, you’re going to need to hire someone to do it for you. So let’s focus on the rest of the equation - quality.

No Content is Better than Low Quality Content

I focus on this because there are no end of content mills and freelancer bidding sites where many web developers and businesses turn for content. I certainly understand the allure of getting something for next to nothing, but before you take the plunge and go that route, there are a few things to consider.

The first is that old truism, “you get what you pay for.” The freelance bidding sites are rife with employers offering $5 an article – or less – for original 500 word articles or blog posts. Sound like a good deal? Perhaps – if quality isn’t your thing.

Think about how long it takes you to draft a full page of text (a full page of 12-point text, single-spaced, equals about 450 words in Microsoft Word), with correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation, with well-organized ideas and a good, readable flow. Now consider that you’re writing about a topic that’s new or not completely familiar to you; some research, at least 10 – 15 minutes of googling and reading is required to gain familiarity, plus there’s the brief for the piece – topic, slant, objectives, keywords – that takes a few minutes to read and digest. Let’s say it only takes 5 minutes. You also want images to go with the piece, so you spend another 5 – 10 minutes doing image searches to find something appropriate. Proofing and editing the piece is going to take at least 5 minutes. That’s 30 minutes of searching and reading, proofing and editing, outside of doing the actual writing.

The writing itself? Well, speed varies among individuals, but I tend to be suspicious of anyone who claims they can produce a really good, well-thought-out page of writing on anything in under 30 minutes - that’s really flying, considering that an error-free typing speed of 50 wpm is above average; for our 500-word article, it would take 10 minutes for a faster-than-average typist to simply type that many words. That leaves 20 minutes for working thought and clear expression into the piece. Most writers don’t work at such blinding speed, particularly when they’re writing about a topic that’s not already familiar. 45 minutes is more realistic; that’s about how long it has taken me to draft the first 500 words of this post, where I already knew what I wanted to say and how to relate it. A full hour is even more realistic. So for our 500 word article, the writer is going to have an hour minimum invested in the piece and probably, more like an hour and a half. For the $5 paid for the article, the writer is making an hourly wage of $3.33 - $5.00 – and that’s before he subtracts for taxes.

What intelligent, competent person do you know who works for that amount and does a good job?

Enough said about the freelance bidding sites, I hope. Beyond those are the content mills; these vary widely in the rates they charge and the quality of content they produce. On the lower end, I’ve seen some claim that “a good SEO writer should be able to crank out 2,000 words per hour.” Sure, if they’re just typing random words and stuffing in keywords here and there. That’s not quality content, and it won’t help your business – in fact, it will more likely result in search engines penalizing your site by knocking it down in rank.

On the higher end are the content mills that offer a 500-word piece of original content for $50 - $100. There is better quality in this price range, but for the same price, you can do much better. That’s because for that $50 - $100 fee, the content mill is paying the actual writer – a contractor - between $10 and $25 for the same piece, and keeping the rest. This means the writer’s making between $6.66 and $16.66 per hour before taxes; after self-employment taxes, even the higher end of that range translates into a very low-wage job. A really good writer isn’t going to work for that rate, or not for long.

When I first started out as a freelance writer, I picked up a client from one of the bidding sites, a web developer who needed someone to write content for plumbing & HVAC contractor websites. First he complained about $30 per page, then $25 per page was too high, and so on until he was pressuring me to get the price below $15 per 500-word page. Finally, I spelled it out for him – “you hired me because I know the topic and write well, but you want me to work for the equivalent of a fast-food wage. If that’s all you think the work is worth, go down to the burger joint and get the guy behind the counter to write your content.” Point made. That was the last time he pressured me on my rate. Fortunately I quickly moved on to better clients who understood the value of good writing.

Another issue with content mills is that there is typically a layer between you and the writer. The content mill gets the assignment from the client and passes it on to the writer, the writer turns in the article to the content mill, someone else proofs and edits it (again, with varying levels of success), and then it’s sent on to the client. If it’s not right or needs revision, it goes back to the content mill, then to the writer, and back again, until the client is satisfied or gives up. This whole back-and-forth between the parties not only gets in the way of clear communication between the client and the person actually tasked with writing for them; it can also add a lot of time to the process. And, keep in mind – at the end of the day, the rates charged by the content mills providing the best quality are the same or only slightly lower than you’d pay for a really good freelance writer who works independently.

So, How Much Should You Pay for Content?

There’s no hard and fast answer to this, but it might be helpful to think of it in the following way: consider what it would cost to run a small, one-time ad in a local newspaper or magazine. If you can get it for $100, it’s a bargain. And that’s for an ad that will run one time in a disposable publication – if you’re lucky, your targeted customers will see the ad when they read or skim the paper or magazine, and then they’ll throw it away.

Content for your website, on the other hand, can be forever; certainly it will be around longer than the one-time print ad. This makes it all the more important that it’s good, because it’s going to be influencing potential customers for a lot longer – for good or ill – than a print ad. A low-quality piece of content isn’t a bargain at $5 if it hurts your search ranking or creates a bad impression with visitors to your website. At best, it’s money wasted; at worst, if you post it to your site, it may well end up costing you more in lost business opportunity than you would have paid for good quality work.

If you would pay $100 for a print ad that potential customers will see once - if you’re lucky - why wouldn’t you pay at least as much for a much longer and more detailed piece of good quality content that will reside on and drive traffic to your website for much longer?

Beyond that, how much do you value your business’ image? Would you entrust it to someone working for no more, or even less, than an unskilled worker? If you’ve very sensibly answered that with a resounding “NO,” then it’s time to stop wasting time looking for the lowest cost and wasting money on low-quality content, and find a good writer you can rely on for consistently high-quality content that can actually help you generate leads and customers through your website. Fortunately, I know one – give me a call and I’ll see what I can do to help solve your need for good, original web content.