How much should I spend on content writing spread out over 40 blog posts?
We are currently developing a new website and planning our social media strategy. As part of the agenda, we also want to have an active blog. As we are looking to work with a freelancer and we received several proposals, but we have no idea of how much we are supposed to invest in terms of costs.
If we have about 30-40 blog posts (about 800 words each) and possibly some more content editing for the website as well, how much in our budget should we set aside?
Any advice will be appreciated, many thanks!
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Oct 27, 2015
Cost is always an interesting question. Many of the answers here cover the main question. If you're interested in understanding additional cost breakdowns for other content marketing activities, I broke down the costs of inbound marketing here.
http://www.marketingstream.io/blog/how-much-does-inbound-marketing-cost
Hope this is helpful.
Mar 22, 2015
It's depends upon your promotion or marketing policy but average writer took 30$for 800words article. ..
Mar 21, 2015
Hi Yael,
You've already received great input from others. Let me just add my two cents to the discussion. Before I address the main issue, I just want to say that in my experience, brands and/or professionals looking for help with blogging understand that this strategy can help with their content marketing efforts, but usually they lack the direction to make blogging (or any content strategy, really) work. I'm not sure what your situation is, but I would strongly recommend considering the following first:
(1) a solid content strategy where blogging will play a crucial role and is, overall, integrated into your digital marketing efforts, and
(2) effective methods of not only implementing a company / professional blog but a proven process to measure results as well as the tools and know-how to do so
If you already have these two fundamentals covered; great. Otherwise, I would think you don't need just a blogger, you need a strategist who can either implement blogging as one of the content channels, or at least oversee it. I've seen inefficient blogging bring zero or mediocre results time and again, and the brands/professionals often attribute the lack of performance to either the writer they hired or the effort of blogging itself, instead of realizing that there's a huge gap that needed to be filled.
So, that said, if you've got the top-level specifics worked out -- topics to be covered, marketing alignment, general specs per piece -- a good writer can develop the rest, like editorial calendars and calls-to-action depending on the blog post, etc.
I would generally avoid the cheaper options, because it's safer to pay premium and receive good work instead of commit to cheap prices, received bad work, and do it over again. Anything below $20 per piece is suspect, and I encourage you to either ask for previous work or commission a specific sample representative of the quality they'll guarantee for every piece they deliver (for everyone; not just the cheaper options). You'll probably get an average bid of around $35 to $50 per piece, as many of the players in the industry understand they're up against global competition and people just as skilled from a third world country can easily charge less and deliver the same quality, so even professionals who would want to charge more would think twice. Editing should indeed be a separate concern, so it might be best to specify that the work will include 40 blog posts of around 800 words each and editing work on an estimated number of words or pages.
I'd recommend going for a project rate, if only because they're usually more affordable instead of a per-piece or per-word rate. The same logic applies to preferring a per-piece over a per-word rate. Just settle for a minimum and maximum threshold, like 700 - 800 words, and the writer needs to cover at least 700 words while anything above 800 words isn't covered. This limitation can be tricky though -- it helps keep spending in check but your writer will have to work around the restriction, which could lead to some topics being split in two because of the breadth or depth of coverage. This is usually why writers would prefer per-word rates.
Finally, if you're really concerned about quality, keep in mind that regardless of the purpose of the content you require -- even if it's for marketing or authority-building or even just link-building -- a good piece needs to be aligned with your metrics, display good editorial polish, and achieve what it set out to do. This means that if you're considering paying less for specific types of content (i.e. it's "just" a blog post or "just" a marketing piece), you might want to rethink your understanding of this strategy or reconsider why you want to spend money on it in the first place.
Mar 21, 2015
I agree that quality is a concern. If you want to go the Fiverr route, you can get quantity but quality may be questionable. You could also take a look at Textbroker or some other "content mill" but quality may not be the greatest there either. You can suggest the research sources and improve the quality of writing. As already stated, it comes down to "you get what you pay for."
Mar 20, 2015
It depends somewhat on how much research the writer would be expected to do and how much raw content you would provide. However, as someone who's been writing blog posts for technology companies for some years, I'd be billing $300-$400 per post. for 800-word pieces.
Mar 20, 2015
First off I am curious as to what grade of freelancer you are working with...A well known established content writer may charge upscale rates due to their location, academic and work background, their present following, and growth within content marketing. I have worked with very proficient freelance content writers who are just starting out perse` with only a year under their belt - giving away their talents for $5 to $15 dollars per article. I have also worked with those whom have years of writing for a company but who actually pretty bad at freelance writing, yet charged $75 to $300 per article.
Mar 20, 2015
I do a lot of this type of work and it comes down to the old adage. You get what you pay for., It is possible to get blog posts written for about 10 dollars or less and equally you can pay up to 60-80 dollars or more for a blog post. It depends on the quality of content you are seeking, the complexity of the information (is it technical or just a marketing piece?), the size of the piece and the search engine friendly structure of the content.
In your shoes I would tend to define exactly what you want in terms of quality, size, interest and usefulness value to the reader and get some samples of the work of the best your budget can afford.
This is an investment in presenting your best face to the world. I would not skimp on the costs.
Here is an unsolicited plug. Personally for this type of work, I charge anywhere between 30 and 40 dollars an hour. More expensive than the cheaper rates but I aim to deliver effective quality content that gets results.
Mar 20, 2015
At the low end of your project, you're looking for 27,000 words; at the high end, 32,000. That's a lot, and a lot of work for high quality writing. A couple of fellow experts have mentioned $50—$75 per blog as an average rate. Personally, I think that's rather low (again, for quality writing that will actually fulfill the purpose of your blogs and be effective, a lot of time will be spent on research, interviews, etc). If I were to take on the assignment, I'd probably charge $200 to $250 for each entry, as that is what good blog writing goes for.
Also, if I were to bid on your project I'd break out the content editing as a separate project.
If you can locate a writer who is knowledgable about your subject matter, is quick, can "nail it" with one or two rounds of small revisions, and has low overhead, you might find someone in the lower price range. Just be aware that you get what you pay for. (And I second the opinion that Fiverr is not a route that I would take. Why choose from a group of writers who are all battling to be the cheapest?)
Mar 20, 2015
Thanks for the advise on separating projects! gonna do some rethinking..
Mar 20, 2015
One page is 400 words, so you will have 2 standard pages x article. If you want original and well-researched article (and not just scrapped and rewritten) allow 1 hrs. Thus it will take a week for 40 articles. It is true that good articles are around $50 but you can negotiate a discount if you purchase a bulk number.
Mar 20, 2015
Yael. Please consider these difficult questions before you spend any money at all.
1. WHY is this a good strategy for your business? Why is it, out of all the competing sale techniques, the optimal use of your time and money? Why 30-40 blog posts? Why 800 words? Why do you feel such mechanical content generation is going to work?
2. HOW are you going to measure not just your time and money investment but your returns on that investment in terms of $$$? How will a free lancer be able to generate content for you which says anything deep, meaningful or engaging with your customer base? Only YOU have the knowledge, passion and emotional investment in your business. Anyone from the outside can only write cold. They cannot tell your story because they have not been on your journey. They don't care about your business. You do. It is only through that context this could be effective.
3. WHEN will you decide if it's not working you will stop? When will you write the business case for this strategy? Before or after implementing it?
4. WHAT is it exactly you are wanting to achieve? What are the aims and objectives and what are your measurable outcomes going to be?
Mar 20, 2015
I would suggest a realistic budget is between $50 to $60 an article for quality work by a professional writer. For an agency's perspective read: http://www.contentfac.com/how-much-does-professional-web-content-writing-cost/
or check out this infographic:
http://www.expand2web.com/blog/copywriting-infographic/
Both are valid viewpoints. The infographic provides the best explanation of what "quality" means and why the traditional fiverr.com solution is not a good idea. If you are not familiar with fiverr.com; it has writers who will write an article of up to 500 words for $5.50 with the "new" service fee. Thus, a budget for 800 words each would be between $330 and $440 or $11 an article. It typically takes a lot of trial-and-error and rewrites to get a quality article, however.
- The Pragmatic Web Designer.
Mar 20, 2015
it also is going to depend on the research involved to write the posts. Are you providing that to your blogger? If not you should look at about $35 to $75 and up per blog. Quality is key and the better and more unique the blogs the better your chances are of having a successful one. Consider that each blog will take about 3 to 4 hours to write depending on research and length required. A professional gets paid anywhere from $15 to $25 an hour.
Mar 20, 2015
If the blog posts need to be unique (so 40 different posts) I would say about 24 work hours because although writing 800 words does not take too long writing something meaningful in those 800 words will take some time in the creative process.
If it's more or less a copy paste job I estimate 8 to 16 hours should do.
The actual money spent will depend on the hourly fee of the freelancer you choose.
Thank you for your answer. I am currently talking to few ones, all from different levels and backgrounds. Good point though - not necessarily look at their price, but on what they offer for it :)