I don’t even know why you’d bother…
It happens in every industry. Amateur hacks who swoop in, undercharging clients for a service and promoting it all over social media. They’re the ones who make you (the pro), want to reach through your computer screen and shake some sense into them.
And as for the network leaders who see this and don’t step in to tell people they are fully undercharging and undervaluing themselves – well that’s a whole other blog…
Blogs – they’re super important. And paying $10 for a blog means you’re going to get crap. Probably even mass produced, duplicate content. Who else has your $10 blog? You know Google will slap you yeah?
If you’ve ever received a $10 blog, run it through Copyscape and see how you go. Did your writer even know this tool existed? Do they use it to make sure your blog is 100% original? I’ve paid for credits and it’s one of the best writing tools I use. Every week I put my website URL in to make sure no little copycats have tried to use my wording.
No serious blog writer will charge you $10 for a blog. Here’s why:
Writing a blog is more than simply stringing a few words together. Trust me on this.
- Researching your topic, looking for the top articles already written, seeing what articles have gone viral on this topic and recording all research (2 hours)
- Looking at the relevant keywords to ensure your blog is SEO friendly, seeing what ranks well, looking at search trends (1-2 hours)
- Coming up with a headline and sub-headlines, using your SEO keywords – as we all know this can make or break your blog (2 hours)
- Writing the blog, including items such as ‘click to tweet’ – let’s stick to the average 500 words for the purpose of this blog (2 hours)
- Editing – slash and burn – after the overnight rest test (1 hour)
- Sending it to the client for review (quick email)
- Making any changes suggested by your client (1 hour)
Then you may have add-on services:
- Creating the graphics/infographics or finding images to use in the blog (2 hours)
- Uploading/formatting the blog in WordPress (1 hour pending WordPress plays nicely)
- Writing social media posts to share the blog (1 hour)
Now I’m not really great at maths (blah, I’m a word nerd, not a number nerd), but I take that as being at least 14 hours to write and edit a blog.
If you’re paying $10 for a blog, what that person is really telling you is, ‘I totally don’t value myself as a writer and I’m willing to work for less than $1 an hour to produce content for you. No, I can’t say Google will like your blog. I can’t guarantee it will read like a conversation and be engaging. And no, I don’t think people will want to share the crap I’ve written. But it’s cheap – you can afford it yeah?’.
I recently wrote a blog that took me around 3 weeks to fully produce. I cut out the copywriter costs (naturally), but I paid for my editor’s time as well as the graphics I had produced. If I was to add up costs, I’d say this blog cost me over $1000 to produce. It is an epic blog post (longer than your standard 500 words), but there’s an indication of what an amazing blog can cost you.
And within a week, it’s ranking on Google and will continue to climb the ladder as more people read and share it. I haven’t even started my backlink, outreach or marketing campaign yet…
I strongly recommend you check out my super epic copywriting tips blog post and see for yourself if you think it’s worth paying more than $10 for your next blog!
And please, please, please. Next time you see someone offering $10, even $100 blog posts, think about what you’re actually paying for (and know what your getting!)
Keep smiling!
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