Content Writers at Guru.com, Elance, Odesk(Upwork.com) and Freelancer.com

I enrolled at www.freelancer.com today. I found many projects listed. Somehow, I could succeed at winning projects, even through my blog. My Aussie friend and client gave me projects worth six figures, who actually met me through one of my blog posts on the Landmark Forum. The blog post still finds me an overwhelming number of visitors.

Free Sample Content/Article

Somehow, I could hardly get a project from www.guru.com, www.elance.com or www.freelancer.com (or www.freelancer.in). On Guru, you have easy options to display your portfolio but it became difficult for me to set up a proper one. I am somehow not so good at making one. I am not good at displaying my sample pieces. Instead, I offer to write a free sample. My past works don't speak much more than my present free sample will.

The Language Skill Tests

Secondly, as freelancer.com doesn't seem to have a portfolio listing, they are more inclined towards making you take the tests and exams, which cost you $5 or Rs. 250. As of now, I can't afford it. So, I skipped them. I have scored well on guru and elance in this area and they were offered free.

Limited Bids in Free Membership

In all of Guru, Elance, Odesk (now www.upwork.com) and freelancer.com, you have very limited bids each month. So, I could hardly get to find and place bids that would suit both me and the employer. There is another problem, which I will explain below.

Expectations of Clients or Employers in Writing

The client or employer has every right to expect something specific but sometimes, it's way too specific, which might rather be not required for such a project. It may not also work for the writer to convince the employer by fulfilling these expectations, as the project may be too small and we get paid only a few thousand rupees. Yet, the expectations are too specific.

I wouldn't have a problem with high expectations, as they could be matched but being too specific is painstaking for an author to match the needs, through his portfolio. We can't tweak it every now and then. We hardly have a few samples that match your needs, as we write across various niches. Sometimes, the employer asks for something that should be invented.

Keeping it simple will work. Will you be able to deliver? Will you write on this topic? Can you give me a free sample for about 100-200-300-400 words? I have no problems with that but I have problems going hunting after all the articles we have written, as we do not own them. Most of them are owned by our clients, just as you will own them, after we write for you.

We will not keep track of them because we move to our next works. And also write for you, when you will be back. We do remember your work but do not much care where all you publish them. So, we don't keep track, because writers are workaholics and focus too much into the core activity. This is why we remain writers for too long, while people in other businesses move on and make it big in something else.

Please understand that it is too hard to produce samples and make them look neat, presentable and professional, as as an employer, we know you expect more presentation than the merit of the content. It is not disputed and we do know that you have a good eye for talent. You do but your expectation on presentation is a notch higher than on actual content.

Free Samples are Far Better

We are workmen. So, we are happy producing free samples, as we are very good at it. Getting a free sample is better than looking up our history. Just look ahead into the future. We will do well for you. I do not expect to gain individual projects, through this post, as I have many going already. I want the industry to be of better standards and well organized.

Someday, I might criticize writers too. I surely will. I have many complaints to make against them, as I know most writers are not genuine enough to produce quality, original content. These twerps are responsible for how business owners, employers and clients treat us and look upon with suspicion. You can't cover up just about everything. Real work IS necessary for good quality.

It's a vicious circle too. Employers and clients are also to blame, as they pay peanuts to writers, content writers and copywriters. When writers can't stand the amount of time and work required, and when there is pressure over deadlines, they resort to plagiarism and other fooling around. Of course, they simply MUST NOT. But it's really tough at times, as the time taken is the time they have of their life and bills.

I would surely blame those who want to make a quick buck but also blame the tightfisted employers and clients. It is a vicious circle.

So, I would offer a free sample any day but would also tell them beforehand if it would be tough to do a sample, if it would be a 1000 word article for a 2000 word project. A 1000 word article for a 100 article project would be reasonable. Free samples could range from 100 words (as one employer asked me for) to 200 to a maximum of 500 words. But even 500 could be tough, unless and until the project is huge. 250 would be very ideal.

Being Content Writer

I have long wanted to do this--a blog for content writing. I have had good and not-so-great moments as a content writer. There definitely were no bad moments. One guy did not pay me for a resume I wrote for him. He and I assumed a different price and the miscommunication cost me it. This was in 2011. Otherwise, content writing has always been generous, though life as one, as a content writer, has neither been difficult nor easy.

Ghostwriting - The Beginning

I began by ghostwriting a novel. Even I couldn't imagine that my very first project was a ghostwriting project for a novel. It all happened on a Sunday morning when my cousin tapped me awake with a newspaper and I, going through the classifieds, spotted a strange "co-author needed" ad. I phoned or emailed and he "introduced" the concept of ghostwriting.

He visited me at my home and we had many a meetings over Cafe Coffee Day, after which I worked on about 8 of his 11 chapters. He was satisfied with one and dissatisfied with another but I learned a lot and I did my best. I was just about 22 years old then. Now, I am 28, on this date.

Articles and Pricing

The second project was a 400 article project with 40 articles in each domain from an IT solutions provider. Due to my lack of experience, I priced it at Rs. 25 per article, which would mean Rs. 10000 for the 400 articles. Finding the going tough, I told the CEO of the company that I needed Rs. 37.5 per article, which would make it Rs. 15000. The CEO agreed to pay me the amount. Still, I found it difficult, as it was Rs. 37.5 for 400 articles.

Avoiding Plagiarism

I quickly roped in other writers to offload some part of my work but they thought that I was paying them a pittance, while I got huge money for each. I was helpless. I was just getting Rs. 37.5 for a 400 word article and paid the other writers Rs. 25, retaining Rs. 12.5 for me, as I had to take time to check plagiarism and grammar. It became a daunting task to check for plagiarism and grammar.

Other writers tried to find many ways to outsmart me but I was, obviously, smarter than them. Not because I was intelligent or something but because I somehow instinctively knew the writing field. It probably was in my blood or genes. I could easily spot too many instances of plagiarism but I still paid them and corrected all of them myself.

I told them to rephrase at least but they couldn't comprehend the concept. I did double rephrasing after they rephrased the lines. Still, it wasn't workable and writing on my own seemed a better thing to do. So, I quit with all of them and started writing it all by myself with only one friend beside myself.

Better Pricing

Now, I priced the articles at Rs. 80 per article and the CEO mysteriously agreed for the price again. This made it a project worth Rs. 32000 (about $500). After the completion of the first 400, which was within just a couple of months, he gave me a project worth Rs. 80000 ($1200?). I was happy with this new project and started working all night. I wrote about 24 articles a day to get paid about Rs. 2000 ($30) within a single night.

So, my payments were around Rs. 16000 ($250) a week completing five projects a week, which meant 200 articles. Still, this didn't suffice and my friend left me, after I gave him a reprimand for not completing the articles in time. He was pressured by his bank to pay off his education loan and so took to work. He felt wounded that I was harsh with him. So, now, all on my own, I struggled to complete the articles. I paid my friend Rs. 65 ($1) per 400 word article, while retaining $0.25 for myself for the editing.

Even with him, I had a tough time. We made the mistake of procuring some PLR (Private Label Rights) articles and rewrote them. Yes, we did rewrite them still. However, he used only thesaurus and other shortcuts. I disapproved of this and told him to write but he argued that it wouldn't matter, as they were already PLR articles. I replied to him that Google wouldn't be kind and so their business would be affected.

Original Content

He persisted and I was happy to let go of him too, as I always believed in originality. Originality isn't anything difficult, as people think it is. You don't have to think anything out of the blue, out of nowhere. As you talk, so can you write! It is that simple. Like I am doing now, I am typing away my experiences for the past ten minutes or so. It doesn't take much to be so and to bring it to a form. It may take time to be unoriginal and to cover it up; covering up is a difficult thing. Originality is spontaneity. It is your own thing. It is unique. I NEVER USED PLR ARTICLES SINCE. Sadly, it was just once and we were learning. We couldn't pull it all off even at that price, which was way too low.

Expectations on Article Pricing

I would root for content writers and article writers here. Some content writers charge exorbitant prices and produce least quality content. We are not talking about them. I would talk about those who take less than a couple of dollars or Rs. 100 to complete a 500 word article. This is a sad state of affairs.

You are milking them, exploiting them. They are leading a tough life just because you do not want to spend on quality. If you want some "ta da, ta da" typing, that could be a price, as writers like me can complete such articles in 15 minutes to half an hour. Still, I think twice before taking such articles.

Zero Plagiarism Guarantee

If you are the type that prices too low, to about $2-3 per article of 400-500 words (which still is not the price I work for), I promise no plagiarism, which could be about 0%. I promise quality as well. The only thing absent would be the time-consuming research. I could write like a stream and get you a good quality but no rewriting, no research. This is agreeable at this price.

Research Writers - Research Writing

If your product or service demands research and prior learning, I would charge about $8-10-15 per 500 words. If you still want a higher quality, I would charge about $20 per 500 words. Come on, we are learning a subject in ten minutes that you took years to learn about. Sometimes, I come to realize what I am missing, what I am not and what I must be learning still. This takes the whole duration that I am into the content.

Recently, I have been writing about vaporizers. It took me just a few minutes to learn about them all. Then, it took me about three months to fully learn about the subject and grasp the concept, while I had written about 50 articles/descriptions of various types of vaporizers. This was for a vaporizer retailer, based in the US. I charged about $8 from my client in India and he got me about $7 from his client in the US for each 500 word article. Still, I feel the pinch, as learning about vaporizers takes me a lot of video watching, browsing and researching other articles. I write just one article a day to keep the content high quality.

The client in the US appreciated my work as, "the writer is good but there are still some ESL (English as Second Language) issues." This was for the first set of eleven articles. From then on, I ensured that that comment never came again. I checked their website to see that my content was placed without any editing. Not even a single word was edited.

The Content Writing Challenge

There really are many issues I deal with as a content writer. It's like running a great distance on a treadmill or is like a marathon. You never seem to reach your destination but at last, you breathe a sigh of relief. Like the 1000 article project, every article is a marathon. It never had been a sprint. It's always a marathon. Like it or not, some people are made for marathons. I am one of them. With difficulties and disappointments and wounds over pricing and getting paid, I still write because God made me that way. There really is nothing else I can do. I am just good enough to be a writer and that's sometimes, a great thing. A really great thing!

This article got one of my employers interested very much in much the same way. We still continue our association to this day since 2009. Here is that article:

http://ezinearticles.com/?Relative-Or-Absolute---Where-Am-I?-Oh-My!-I-Have-Been-Poor!&id=4057065

And this one below -  a compilation of one liners I wrote in my teenage:

http://ezinearticles.com/?Philosophies?-One-Liners?-Quotes?-Humor?-Wits?&id=4038031

I took to some vituperative writing, since I was 19 or 21(?) and this blog was where it all began. The Landmark Forum article on this blog still receives about 350 pageviews from countries I never knew existed with US, UK, Russia, Germany, India and many countries being on the top of the list. The below is the blog:

http://rationalfilms.blogspot.in/

Yes, I have authored a book (eBook) titled "How To See God" and subsequently wrote a few forbidden subjects, which you might find on the blog above. The link to my book is here below:

http://amzn.to/1QyXVa8 (aff)

I also edited a shorter version of the book, which did well in the US and UK:

http://amzn.to/1O82qqC

Becoming an Author

I always dreamed of becoming an author, ever since I read the book Da Vinci Code, back in 2005, when I was just 18. That was the first book I ever read, though I was 18 by that time. It was late but I was happy to read Da Vince Code as my first. Now, ten years later, the dream came true. I am now a self-published author and know how to improvise from here, though it could be a tough game. I know I can crack it someday. Whatever I conceived of took about ten years to come to fruition. Teaching was one, which I accomplished four years ago and now authoring a book. There is still a long way to go. I am aware of the distance for I run marathons each and every day.

I don't want all things said in one article. I have more to say and discuss with the whole wide world. I will be back with some other article regarding content writing tomorrow. See you all. Cheers!!!