How long does a freelance writer take to write a 500 word article?
@positiveminded1977 (7072)
India
November 21, 2007 11:57pm CST
This is a question that has been confusing me for ages. People who wish to buy my service want around ten articles per day. It seems too much, even if you are writing on a topic you are an expert in. And in most of the cases, you have to write articles about topics you have hardly heard of. Writing an article consists of the following phases:
1. Research
2. Planning
3. Creating a rough draft
4. Rewriting
5. Editing
6. A final spell check
Around six steps! I would take around two hours to write a 500 word article. Am I dumb? Is it possible to do more? Please give me your valuable suggestions.
3 people like this
5 responses
@meiyi_iceworld (112)
• Singapore
30 Nov 07
I wouls take an hour or less to write an article because i always plan and do research on the article that i am going to write. I helps me save time and write more in a day. Another way is to go out and look for inspiration. Inspiration also helps in writing an article.
@positiveminded1977 (7072)
• India
1 Dec 07
That must be great! Taking just an hour to write 500 words of quality stuff, I mean. So far, I haven't managed it. Getting back to maths, even if you do take one hour to write an article, you will have to work for ten hours a day to finish ten articles!! At least that's much better than working 20 hours a day!! LOL :) Thanks for sharing!
1 person likes this
@pastorkayte (2255)
• United States
23 Nov 07
It takes me roughly two hours, I have learned that with a speech program it takes a little over an hour though because I only have to type when I am editing, but I would say it takes two hours.
1 person likes this
@positiveminded1977 (7072)
• India
24 Nov 07
Thanks for your response, my friend. It takes me roughly two hours to write such an article. If the subject is totally new to me, it takes more than that. So, if a person wants me to write 10 articles of 500 words per day, it means that I should work for 20 hours per day. That give me only four hours per day to eat, drink, sleep, and socialise with my family and pets. Would you call that a dog day? :)
@sassinqueen (710)
• United States
24 Nov 07
That's one hell of a day. It seems to me that their expectations are a little unrealistic.
Hope you find a solution.
@drannhh (15219)
• United States
21 Mar 08
The answer to this would depend completely on how you define "quality" and what sort of article was needed. Many of the articles people pay us to write online are really fillers for the "keywords" you know and their is a whole back-room political thing going on with the relationship between text and keywords and page rank and the search engines.
So when some people think of a free-lance article they are thinking of standard journalism, some are thinking of a research paper (or a scholarly article), and some are just thinking of getting paid.
If I had starving babies I could probably dash something out in 20 minutes in an area of my expertise, but with a full tummy and no worries it might take a whole day! Hey, I'm flexible.
It is the same thing with fine arts paintings. I've seen people get $25,000 at one gallery and a better quality painting go out the door of another one for $600. Again, it is all a matter of politics.
@explorations (1712)
• United States
7 Dec 07
For me, it all depends on the topic and level of research required. I think it's obsurd for some of these people to request such a high level of articles (typically for a pathetically low price) in one day. Not only are these articles going to lack quality, but it's going to burn out the writer. Most often, the writers taking jobs like these are ery new to the field and don't believe they can find better paying work or better conditions. The people requesting this kind of content is expecting too much for too little and it puts a bad taste in the freelance writing community's mouth.
1 person likes this
@positiveminded1977 (7072)
• India
8 Dec 07
Hi, explorations! You are absolutely right..I recently came across a company that pays Rs25 for a 500 word article! Can you believe it? That's less than a dollar. And if the subject is very new to the writer, it requires a lot of research and thats time consuming. Even if you manage to write four articles per day, you make only Rs100 and that's around three dollars. It is a pittance, and this particular company claims to have several writers on board. I feel sorry for the poor things on board and wonder why they waste their talent on such a pittance. Even unskilled manual laborers earn more than such writers!
@positiveminded1977 (7072)
• India
23 Nov 07
Hi ayou, thanks for your response!! Well, I guess a job that really keeps you busy all the while is taking care of kids at home. Most of the service buyers I have come across ask me how many articles I can write per day, and most of them want 7 - 10 articles per day, that too for three dollars per article. Even if a peron is an article producing machine, I don't think he or she can produce ten articles per day.
1 person likes this
