Comments on: What Does Cheap Copy Cost?

By: becky

becky — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 01:40:04 +0000

@Tracy – but now that you’ve worked for him at such low wages, how will you now justify what you really should be paid?

By: sooboth

sooboth — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 23:11:41 +0000

http://sooboth.blogspot.com

By: Jim Furr

Jim Furr — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 06:08:48 +0000

It sounds like $50
to
$100 per hour
is about right.

What do you think?

4 hrs per page
@$50 per hr
= 200 per page
x 18 pages
= $3,600 total

$7,200 @ $100 per hour

Like to hear some feedback,

Jim

By: Martin Russell

Martin Russell — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 03:01:58 +0000

Dom,

Sure you can use Glyphius, but if you can’t touch the reader in the first place it’s a waste of time!

Type “fdsa” into Glyphius it says it will help your copy sell better. Yeah, right. It’s a great tool, but you still have to know how to sell.

By: Tracey Minella, Copywriter

Tracey Minella, Copywriter — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 15:54:25 +0000

What type of copy he’ll get will depend on the motives and talent and professionalism of the writer.
Granted, in most cases, he’ll get half-assed copy at that price.
However, I recently accepted an assignment at a similarly low rate per page/hour. Why? Because it was an opportunity to work for one of the most famous copywriting gurus in the business and help him launch a new health website.
Sure, I spent tons of time researching and writing (and happily re-writing if needed), but I was determined to deliver the best articles he’d ever seen.
There’s value in that experience that can’t be measured in monetary terms. I quoted him a low price so I would land the assignment. Truth is, I probably would have done it for free just for the chance to work for him–and to be able to say that I worked for him.
It was a great experience. For a guru, he turned out to be an approachable, regular guy. Of course, now that he knows what I can do, I look forward to working with him again in the future and that the experience will be even more valuable!
So, the low price quote is kind of like the door on the old Mystery Date game. You never know what’s behind it–will it be a dream or a dud?

By: Dom King

Dom King — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 14:39:07 +0000

I’ve tried buying cheap copy before, however it really does take much longer to get it to a useable state. More often thannot I just ended up throwing it away and starting from scratch.

Now I use Glyphius to improve the quality of my written articles.

By: LS

LS — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 19:09:57 +0000

This was a discussion about web copy- not web design. And yes, $14 an hour is extremely cheap for that type of work. Of course people in the military should be paid more. I think everyone can agree about that.

But, you do have to keep in mind that your pay is not the only thing you receive in return- you get inexpensive housing, free health care, reduced-price goods, a pension and a host of other benefits that freelancers don’t get. Out of our pay we have to pay for our own health insurance, all of our living expenses and then somehow save for retirement. If you look at what $14 an hour has to buy, does it really seem like a lot?

By: Me

Me — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 17:00:13 +0000

I don’t know what everyone is talking about. Maybe I’m completely off in my figuring, but almost $14 an hour to type and put together some lines of coding and graphics is at LEAST good pay, if not great. The last time I made that amount of money, I was using large, pnuematic tools on a dangerous construction site that sometimes put me in the water with electric tools. So if you all think $14 an hour is cheap for putting together a site, maybe you should re-evaluate. I’m sure for mself, it would be a pain in the butt, but I’m willing to bet you all have alotta experience and could throw it together alot quicker and better than myself. I don’t want to get into politics on this, but how about myself and my friends who where military? We are supposed to be on duty/call 24/7. By those numbers, we make like less and 50 cents an hour. But yes, people should be receiving like $20-30 an hour for clip art, writing and programming….

By: LS

LS — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 07:15:21 +0000

I get that a lot. Web writing clients in particular want to pay the least possible amount, and often they really aren’t that concerned about the quality they get. As long as there are some keywords slapped in there, they don’t care if it reads well or if it even makes sense. The site owners who outsource to India are particularly ridiculous. They get content for a penny a word, but they often have to send it from there to a Western writer to clean up. And when they don’t, they have junk content that no one is interested in reading. That does not equate to a lasting business or a site that is of any value to anyone. That cheap content becomes money wasted.

By: James Palmer

James Palmer — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 23:30:34 +0000

Writing has always been considered a commodity. It’s one of those things that everyone thinks they could do if only they had the time. I actually had a Web writing client who told me he could write the copy for his Website, but he just didnt’ have the time. For all I know he could have, but he paid me what I asked, and was happy with the result.

Another problem is the new writers who see low-paying assignments on job sites and think they have to take them in order to build their portfolios.