Hiring cheap content writers is frowned upon in this day and age. If this was several years ago, it wouldn’t matter all that much. You can rank on Google by stuffing your articles with keywords. You can’t be bothered to arrange it to a smooth flow and structure, proofread for grammar and spelling errors, or perform extensive research. Why would you when there is a shortcut to the first page of the search results?
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However, times have changed. Competing in the content space has become very difficult in recent years.
Google has completely revised its approach, favoring thoughtful writing that not only passes the SEO test but actually provides value to readers.
Google loves it when you put work into what you publish and it knows when you do. So you would prefer yours to be high-quality for you to enjoy amazing returns.
This means that if you want to make your content profitable, you have to be smart about the content writing services you choose.
With this in mind, how are cheap content writers going to fit into your strategy?
Low rates often give the impression of low quality and this is true to a certain extent. However, remember that not all cheap content writers produce low-quality output. In order to find the right people with the best price, however, you need to tailor your search and think hard about your priorities.
Let’s make one thing clear. Good content almost always comes at a premium price. That doesn’t mean you won’t get something for cheap. When you cut corners, expect some trade-offs.
You won’t get a flagship smartphone for a few bucks. You have to pay for the solid build and an excellent camera. You can get a comparative piece of hardware at a smaller price. It probably won’t take as good pictures and the body is plastic, but it does have a crisp display, the latest processor, and the pure software experience.
In the same way, you can’t always expect excellent writing quality for just a few dollars, but if you look hard enough, you can get something great without spending big. It is just a matter of knowing what matters the most to you.
Understand that the process of content writing is a tedious one. If you are working on a budget, so is your content writer. “Time is money,” as you know all too well. Your limited budget can only buy you limited time and attention. So expect no search engine optimization skills at such a low rate as well.
We can agree that a 1,000-word post worth $10 is going to be far from stellar. You can’t expect a dollar’s worth of work for a penny salary. That price won’t even cut it for 500 words in most cases.
However, instead of settling for what will likely be a hot mess, know that the same price can actually get you much further when working with a writer in the Philippines.
Check out our article on outsourcing Filipino workers to learn more. In the article, we discuss:
While you won’t always get bad content, you can’t expect consistently good output either. A challenge in availing cheap content writers is finding consistency. You end up being surprised by the pieces of content you receive so you don’t know what to expect in every article.
If you scrape the bottom of the barrel for content, you could also end up shelling out more money on revisions or redos. Here are the typical places to go to when hiring cheap content writers:
Many content mills exist to offer lower rates and help you fill in your quota. Not all content mills are created equal though. There are some with a poor qualification system and vetting process in place.
Most companies will simply provide you a writer based on your budget and requirements. In fact, you sometimes need to just “order” content and wait for a specific amount of time for the piece to be delivered to you.
However, the actual writer and quality qualifications, that’s on them, which is quite a risk since you basically don’t get a say in the writer selection process. You just get paired with one and hope it turns out decent.
Lower-tier content mills almost always do not follow the turnaround time they advertise. What we mean is that you could end up waiting two weeks for an article you’re supposed to get within a week.
Content mills also make it hard to get revisions, which is unfortunate, because with the kind of work you will get, you will likely need a lot.
One popular content mill is TextBroker. Although it is exclusive to U.S. writers, the result can be hit or miss. The writer-focused platform uses a five-star rating system for their writers bestowed upon by a team of editors who determine the rating based on writing submissions and previous writing projects. You can make a job available to writers in your selected star-rating or directly contact four and five-star writers for a higher price.
If you stay at the lower end of the spectrum, the site notes that the output you will get could contain grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes with “average” writing quality at best. You are looking at $6 for a 500-word article.
The five-star writing costs seven times more, but is it worth it? Well, it can be, but do your due diligence. We’ve seen reviews from clients who ended up getting unusable material from so-called five-star writers. It’s hard to say what their expectations were although TextBroker promises you to get “professional, ready-to-use” material from their top writers, and that’s far from what these clients got.
Imagine just how bad the content you’ll get from two-star writers. Some reviews say it can be just downright unsalvageable and hardly sensible English.
Finding a decent writer can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack on TextBroker. While there are actual five-star writers who live up to their rating, they are usually elusive and work on orders so they can drive up the price.
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Global platforms like Upwork, Freelancer.com, and Fiverr are all good places to hire cheap content writers. Here, you get more control over the writer selection process. You can gauge the skills of the writer and communicate with them.
With a rating system that gives the power to you by allowing you, the client, to provide feedback that goes front and center of a freelancer’s profile, you can expect a better delivery time here and a more responsive revision process. After all, your writer would want to get that positive rating and maintain credibility to attract more clients.
The downside here is having to pay extra fees. Transaction fees are charged to you for every invoice and they can go from 2.75-5%. Upwork has 2.75% and takes an additional 5-20% commission from the salary of your writer. Fiverr has client fees of 5%, which is the highest among the freelancer markets.
Sometimes, you will find a good writer who is worth keeping, but since these platforms are geared towards freelance projects, it can be difficult to keep one close.
If the budget is tight but content quality is not negotiable, consider hiring content writers in the Philippines. There are highly affordable writing professionals in the country who can produce compelling and engaging content for you at a fraction of the cost.
Read our article on how to outsource blog writing where you can learn:
Many Filipino remote professionals are degree holders with an excellent command of English. As a nation with a westernized culture, the Philippines is second in Asia in proficiency in the language. English is also integrated into everyday life–at work, in school, and even in entertainment. You will be amazed at the quality of articles you can get for $10.
The best source of outsourced content writing talent is OnlineJobs.ph, the largest job site for Filipino remote professionals. You can post a job ad for free here, but to fully enjoy the features, consider upgrading to the $69 monthly subscription.
Yes, we know. You are trying to save money. So why will you spend some of it on a subscription fee just to get a hold of a contractor? This fee gives you access to everything you need to get your writing projects completed.
There are no transaction fees to worry about. You only pay for the service of your content writer. OnlineJobs.ph does not cut commissions from the salary of your contractor too so they get it in full.
OnlineJobs.ph simply connects you to competent writers who will actually produce good articles for you for a cheap price. So you actually get cheap content writers with a quality of output that is three times their pay grade.
You can communicate with a writer of your choice within the website or outside. It also uses a highly customized search system to assist you in finding your desired level of talent and expertise within your budget.
It is important to understand why cheap content writing services exist in the first place.
When you outsource to cheap content writers, the lower rate should only be acceptable when it is dictated by where the writer lives. Writers in the Philippines, as we mentioned above, charge less due to the lower cost of living.
The cheaper rates here can get you decent to high-quality content. In fact, you can get a serviceable 500-word article for $15-$30 as opposed to $50-$100 for a local writer.
Essentially, the money you will spend on a local beginner writer is two to three times more than what you will pay a writer in the Philippines with several years of experience.
Think about it this way. Cheap content writers who can write in native English might not be at a good writing level yet or won’t give as much time and attention to produce a solid, well-structured article.
On the other hand, you can hire Filipino writers who can research the heck out of your topic and create excellent content for the same price without them feeling lowballed. The best part is that as the writer learns more about your niche, they will get better at it.
With good English communication skills and high education, remote writers in the Philippines will not have a hard time following your instructions and producing a serviceable write-up.
Filipinos also have strong family values. They cherish the money they make because it means they can send their kids or siblings to school and put food on the table. This fuels their hard work and loyalty especially to an employer who takes care of them. As such, they give their best whether it is a one-time writing project, a full-time job, or a part-time side gig.
So you can rest assured that your outsourced cheap content writers will do their best to produce excellent work.
Read our article on the benefits of working with Philippines-based contractors to learn how outsourcing to the country can boost your business. In this article, we discuss:
The only other thing that makes cheap content writers reasonable for a business is when writers are newcomers. Imagine just how much more you can save when you hire a Filipino writing beginner.
When starting out, writers will usually offer you content for cheap. Bringing someone with little to no experience can be a good thing. These are people who are looking to build a career so while they won’t produce the best content out there, they will give everything they can to come close.
This type of cheap content writers will use a writing gig as a stepping stone to bulk up their portfolio, learn the trade, and get themselves out there. They recognize that the content they produce will reflect their credibility so they write not just to meet your needs but also to improve themselves.
It still won’t be as cheap as the writing rates of Filipino writers with the same level of experience though. You’re looking at $50 versus $9.
Writers who are desperate for work.
Not all cheap content writers are desperate for work, but many of them are. They could be in a slump, have no steady income, or need to pay the bills fast. These people usually juggle a high volume of work to compensate for the lower rates.
Research takes a hit at the end of the day because they practically have to churn out content left and right. As you would expect, there is no way for them to dive deeper into a topic enough to get a good grasp of it, let alone convey it effectively to readers. In turn, you get articles that barely scratch the surface and fail to hook and educate your target audience.
»Tip: To determine if you are dealing with one, ask your content writer if he is working for someone else or if they can work a specific number of hours for you including revisions. They’re probably not going to say you’re just one of many so do a test article or one-week trial for good measure.«
Writers who don’t know their worth.
Determining a rate can be a predicament for a writer. Someone who has no idea of what their worth but wants to get hired could end up pricing themselves too low. This is a sign of uncertainty or lack of confidence in their writing, if not little exposure or knowledge of the content writing space. This probably means you will be getting fluctuating quality especially with a generalist writer, who might easily whip up a 1,000-word blog post about turmeric supplements but ends up lost in an article about ranking the best total stations.
It also sheds some light on something else–how years of experience don’t tell the whole story. In setting an hourly rate or per-project rate, a writer will take their previous work and career growth into account. The rate will give you a glimpse of how much a writer has grown and how productive he can be. It exposes how those years were spent.
Cheap content writers might have done nothing but mindlessly churn low-quality articles for years, which tells you that after all this time, they only got better at writing horrible articles. This is why even though they have years of writing gigs under their belt, they don’t go beyond $3.
»Tip: If you want to examine the growth of a writer in his craft, compare their oldest and latest samples, ask questions about the accomplishments or writings they are most proud of, and learn about their writing process for a topic that is outside their wheelhouse. Do a test article or one-week trial for this as well.«
You don’t have a lot of legroom when you’re saving money, but you might as well ensure you are putting every cent to best use. Here are some important things to remember when you look for cheap content writers:
⇒ Provide a description of the type of content you are looking for, where it will be published, the tone and writing style, and any other background content and information.
⇒ When setting a deadline, anticipate longer turnaround time for long-format content and subjective write-ups especially for generalist writers working on technical topics. Set aside time for revisions and always anticipate several rounds of it. Lower cost writing service almost always skimps on the revision aspect of it so if you don’t want to end up doing more work, make sure that revision is always on the table.
⇒ Hiring cheap content writers is opening yourself up to the risk of getting plagiarized content. To ensure you are getting original copies, arm yourself with tools like Copyscape to ensure originality.
⇒ When hiring cheap content writers, it is recommended that you at least request a writing test to see if the person is the right fit. This is especially crucial if you will need long-term services. Not all platforms will give you the chance to do so, however, due to the quick and less expensive nature of the job in addition to the matchmaking approach of platforms like content farms.
⇒ Consider niche-specific writing agencies if you want to hire someone who has a good understanding of your industry. Make it a habit to check Q&A forums like Quora for specialists of non-technical niches who typically charge cheaper than experts, but at least have the knowledge to produce a write-up that will make informed readers feel the writer knows what he’s talking about.
⇒ Specialist writers generally come with a bigger price tag, but don’t let higher rates deter you from hiring experienced writers or subject matter experts. These trained professionals walk the talk by delivering ready-for-use content that will save you time.
You can save on your content writing needs without quality taking a hit.
It also pays to know when hiring cheap content writers can be in your best interest.
Here are some of the things you can do to lower the costs of your content writing services.
1. If you are a small or medium-scale business outsourcing for the first time, cheap content writers are the best way to go if you have the time to revise submissions however long it takes.
If content will be integral to your business to build your brand and earn profits, you would want to check their work anyway to make sure it is up to your standards and will not hurt your credibility.
2. Hiring cheap content writers is also great if you are an entrepreneur looking for someone you can train specifically for your brand content. When you search in the right place, you will find up-and-coming writers who are willing to learn and make it in the industry.
3. Cheap content writers can be tapped for rush projects where quality isn’t a priority. We can’t imagine something where this will make sense for you other than for a study or experiment. This can be for articles where you explore price and quality ratio, compare different services, or try to prove a point.
4. If you are prepared to do a lot of rewriting, you can outsource to cheap content writers who can efficiently handle the research for you. Make sure they are at the least capable of turning in a piece that can be transformed into something serviceable for your taste after a few revisions.
Depending on the writer’s skill level, you can definitely save time making the revisions than writing from scratch. Just make sure they have good research skills.
5. Hiring cheap content writers can also be a good solution if you have the time to put together a template or an outline for articles that are more research-heavy or technical. This is so the writer can work under a structured and straightforward writing process. This justifies the lower price and not to mention allows you to reuse those article templates for new hires.
There is a caveat here though. Sometimes, there are writers that dive into it without checking instructions. We’ve seen a lot of businesses deal with this. If your writer is anything like this, you won’t get decent results no matter how much effort you put into making the job much easier for them. Do a trial article to test how well they can follow your template.
If you need an article fast, you have to hire someone who can get it done efficiently in a short span of time. This means that you will have to find a content writer with the knowledge of your niche or industry or at the very least quick research skills.
Keep in mind that rush jobs will also likely usually require you to pay extra as well. Why? Because you want something done faster more than what the writer is used to for a certain writing project. You are essentially asking them to give up something to service your request.
If they are not asking an extra fee, expect to get a rushed article in return. They might cut time proofreading or doing research so they produce a piece of content that is either fraught with errors or incomplete.
The ability to weave engaging content doesn’t come cheap. You already know that the level of experience and expertise primarily make up most of a content writer’s rate, but there are other factors that jack up the price.
The time it will take a writer to complete a writing project is just as important. This is especially true if you are in a technical or obscure niche. A small budget won’t give you the luxury of a subject matter expert, only someone you can develop into one.
While you may be able to find someone who is passionate enough to write about, say, pets or arts and crafts even at a small budget, you are otherwise left with limited options.
Enter the generalists, writers who may not have the specific knowledge of your niche, but will work to educate themselves enough to put together an article to achieve the purpose of the content.
It becomes a question of how long your writer will spend researching a single topic. This is an aspect of writing projects where you can bring the costs down. The research sets cheap content writers apart from those that charge more.
Writers can take hours collecting information on a topic. After all, it is the foundation of the output. An hour is hardly enough for a writer to go in-depth into topics like nutrition or something that may be unfamiliar to them like “how to get rid of ants” or “best T-square brands.”
Most cheap content writers won’t be willing to get knee-deep into your subject anyway, so you get a half-baked article with not much to offer. The cheaper you go, the horrid the results are going to be. Think of a poorly summarized version of the first three Google search results.
Some cheap content writers won’t even try hard. They just mush together paraphrased paragraphs from popular articles that you are likely competing with.
You’re essentially hiring an article spinner, not a content writer. With rehashed content from the top-ranking articles in the keyword you are competing, there’s no way you can rank without being an established website to begin with.
Saving financial resources will usually force you to give up something else. If you are working within a small budget, you should be prepared to skimp on certain aspects of your projects, do parts of the work, or simplify the research process.
Your content goals will define the best writing services for you. Depending on the specifics of your content needs, cheap content writers can help you move your business forward and make an impact. Know the limitations of your budget and set realistic expectations.
Content writing is rarely a one-time need for a business. If you want to rank on Google, generate leads, or build a blog, cheap content writers won’t cut it.
However, platforms like OnlineJobs.ph will give you the chance to find a writer who charges cheaper than they deserve for consistently on-point content. When you do, consider hiring them full-time or increasing their pay over time to keep them invested in your business and constantly shooting for quality.
Are you currently working with cheap content writers? Share your experience in the comments below!
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