I think the age old ‘You get what you pay for’ comes into play a little here. If ‘article centres’ are bangin out articles at between $2 and $5 a pop, how much research can be gng into them, and how likely are they to be completely grammatically correct?

You have to remember that no matter who you use, the articles that then get put out are in YOUR name, and it’s YOUR reputation at stake. What’s tht worth?

We charge varying amounts for content, depending on the level of commitment a client has - 1 500 word article, including research, keyphrase inclusion, anshored links and submission to 20 article sites, plus Social Bookmarking where necessary £100 - sign up for 3 months and have 5 articles a month and the cost drops considerably.

If it’s specialised writing, technical or needs insier knowledge of the market, then I wouldn’t be surprised to see it cost a lot more.

You can usually tell the ‘10 for $20′ articles that are purly written for content and backlinks - and I don’t think they say anything good about the author or the company they’re representing.

As always, just an opinion

I always get really depressed when writers undervalue themselves. That’s not to say I don’t think writers should write cheap content in some situations (they should), but they should pay themselves a fair wage too.

Offline, I have been paid well over $1 per word and so I won’t work for peanuts because I know I don’t have to. I can always get magazine work and some magazines pay damn well.

But I prefer writing link bait type articles. I get a thrill out of people seeing my stuff - a lot more people than a limited magazine distribution would allow. That means I will work for slightly cheaper online because it’s about fun for me. I still won’t work for peanuts, because frankly, I know the commercial value of my link bait and it isn’t negligible.