I cannot believe I hired someone for 3 bucks an hour to edit and rewrite a small book I had trouble putting into a format that was worthy of putting out their to the public.

I was about to hire someone from America for about $20 an hour but when I read the blogging that this collage grad from another country was writing , I could not believe the handle she has on the American english language.

She has mastered our language far better than many people I have encountered here. Her humility and eagerness to quickly get involved with my project far exceeds what some typical Americans display. I’m proud to be an American but we can learn so much from the work habbits and eagerness of other countries.

It’s hard to believe that someone is eager to work for 1.11 an hour.
I’ve even seen people from the Phillipeans offer themselves for 50 cents an hour.

I think what some of them do is get into the work and raise their fee as time goes on. The site I have been using just recently is http://www.odesk.com .

I’m starting to get projects underway that I have had on a shelf for a while.

A guy from Poland is going to write the background music for for a song I wrote 30 years ago. I’m not trying to become a super star I just wanted a Christmas sond I wrote to come to life, more than just what I can play on myh guitar. $40 dollars and he creates a version . Wow.

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I agree with Susan 100%, there is no need to pay an unskillful copywriterm no matter what the he/she charges for below average results. I presently am in quest of a good copywriter. my interest is the end result of the sales letter. I am being enlightened by Loren, because I did not know abouot Texbroker, will check that site out.
The goal of a good salesletter is threefold, to get read, generate leads and make sales.
I also agree with the premise of reviewing previous work first before hire.

Poorly written copy is off-putting to customers and reduces the trust that they have in your brand.

Great copywriters aren’t cheap for one reason – they make money for you. They’ll engage your clients, help build your business and may turn out to be the best investment you’ve ever made.

My response was not intended to be an attack on your article though the rant was amazingly cathartic. (that’ll be $5usd please)

The future of content creation is fuzzy but not in a nice comfy blanket sort of way. It’s scary to look to a future when research and hard work take second place to cost reduction and efficiency. Actually, that future is today’s reality. I know many great content writers who have been forced out of the business because operating from North America simply does not make business sense.

(hmmm… what the hell am I doing here anyway? Fiji or some Samoan Island look pretty good these days!) Perhaps the content writers clique should pick up and move to the South Pacific. We could start a commune and work as a co-0p. There will be unicorns and bunnies (the survivors which didn’t get eaten) and puppy dogs and kittens and unlimited WiFi for all! That’s a reality I could get used to. :)

I think my post is getting a little misunderstood. I’m discussing tips on FINDING and UNEARTHING the next Rockstar Copywriter, and not replacing established and incredible writers with oDesk.

And yeah, most freelancers I know in print media have to write an article first, pitch it, and then find out later if it is approved or not.

If I’m dealing with a freelancer, I want to see what the work is and what can be done for the publication before committing. Maybe the “Never Pay for Your First Article” is a bit too negative, but when unearthing local talent who don’t know how great they are, sometimes forcing them to step up to the plate and prove themselves, is going to result in either a homerun … or a strike out.

As content creators, writers are making the meat of any given web page or document they work on but find themselves in a constant race to the bottom when it comes to remuneration.

Content is the undervalued king. Publishers need it. People read and learn from it. Search engines eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Nobody cares where it came from or under what conditions it was created until the quality drops off the desk, (and then only a few well educated readers appear to notice).

Content gets used, abused and reused again. It gets stolen, scraped and blatantly copied. There’s virtually nothing a writer can do to protect the integrity of their work much less project the value of it. Publishers are always seeking ways to skim somewhere and outsourcing content creation is one of the first places they look. That’s business and that’s understandable but the reality is, great writers starve (relative to the work they put in…) while sloppy webmasters steal.

If Lisa, Patricia, myself, Todd or Loren had a nickle for every incident of content theft or abuse, we’d be as wealthy as some of the scumbag AdSense scrapers are. We’re not. We’re just humble (or not so humble) scribes who often feel treated like forgettable functionaries. What makes us different is that we are very good at what we do and we do it squarely in the public eye. That, however, doesn’t matter much. We’re just writers and like the wonderful words an editor cuts, we are ultimately expendable.

Some of us have been luckier or better business people than others. Those are the exception to the rule. Unless one is extremely fortunate, writing truly is a road to financial ruin in a constant race towards the bottom of the fee scale. It, unfortunately, is also a compulsion. Good writers NEED to write and all writers need to eat.

First reality came for the quality newsrooms and the Internet industry laughed as if to say, “We told you so”. Next reality comes to the content writers SEO/SEM readers love to read. Who is going to be around to tell us that they told us so? It’s not likely many of us will survive this phase of business devolution and remain public writers. We simply won’t have the time, energy or impulse anymore. Many, like myself will be forced into managing teams of writers and thus become managing editors. (A fate only slightly better than having one’s fingers chopped off in my world)

For readers, that’s OK as there are always other good writers growing into their talent who want to be published. For established writers themselves however, the future looks about as daunting and frustrating as a contract to write copy for a never-ending kitsch catalog site.

And as content is possibly (in my opinion definitely) the most important part of SEO then, seo companies should employ a writer – or two or ten – they are incredibly important and valuable.