Seems like there would be a market among major news outlets for articles that appear in Spanish in the Mexican press, but aren't reported in English yet. There's often a long lag between articles showing up in Spanish and then coming out in English. Of course if you start translating everything in the local papers here into English you WILL scare off the tourists.
I think perhaps like good writers are difficult to find, so maybe is a good employer. I have a fair few online 'friends' who would kill for a good writer and when they find one they protect them like their own babies. Many writers are unreliable, disappear or end up cutting corners such as copying other articles or sub contracting work out to cheaper writers and pocketing the difference. On the flipside there will be plenty of hirers who want blood out of a stone and want to underpay and overwork, and of course when you encounter one of these it's best to move on. I do think that if you can find a good match then $100 per day is not unachievable, providing you put the work in. Certainly it's better pay than writing for someone like associated content or examiner.com who pay on a per page view basis that often ends up measured in the cents per article range. Here's a random recent thread from a forum where the issue of pay for articles is discussed: http://www.webmaster-talk.com/content-and-writing/199690-content-writers-how-much-do-you.html It's also like any job I suppose, at the beginning you have to put in the hard work, perhaps underprice yourself to get the work in the first place and prove that you are a valuable employee in order to progress onwards and upwards - someone that the employer needs to keep sweet for fear of losing them. I'm sure there are plenty of hirers looking for people to spin content they dont have the rights to. Not 100% sure of the copyright laws on that, but I suppose if it's spun / reworded sufficiently then it would fall outside of them. Whether it's morally right is another question, but one that doesnt feature that high up on my own personal morality list. Then again there are also many legitimate reasons for spinning. One example might be where webmasters buy what is called PLR (Private Label Rights) articles, which are cheap articles sold many times over in packages. You own the rights to them but since so do many others then it is better if you can change the content up for either use on your own sites, resale as a further PLR package or maybe as a giveaway to encourage people to sign up to your mailing list. There are also plenty of reasons why a webmaster might want 20 different versions of his own single article such as for distribution around the web 2.0 sites that they can then use to backlink to their money sites.
Hey all, thought I would contribute to this post as i am one of those that regularly hires outsourcers from sites such as Odesk and elance. I am very much looking for quaility of provider over cost. Yes I can source someone for $1 per hour but firstly I see this as slightly exploitative and secondly the quality is likely to be substandard. If you are serious about article writing I would suggest attending a course first and train yourself in the art (there are a lot of free ones you can find online) Lynda.com is also great for cheap training videos. It wouldn't take long to get skilled but by understanding research techniques, basic SEO, basic copywriting and pretty much the reasons behind why you are writing the article you will be able to charge higher rates and your work will natuarally be more relevent and valuable meaning you will get repeat customers. When using sites such as Elance and Odesk, the personal emails and proposals get the best results and ensure you include a portfolio. If you don't have this already find some suppliers and say that you are happy to do some initial work for them and if they choose not to use it they don't have to pay you. No job no pay. Whatever hapens you will have another article to add to your portfolio. Be sure though to focus on what the client is specifically looking for and provide relevent examples. A last little tip is this: the hot service right now is social media marketing. If you can help companies set up a social presence (build fanpages, moderate forums, write blogs etc.) you can charge a premium. Hope this helps Ben
Thanks, Steve, I think that can help me too :sunny:. BTW, haven't you received my email, that I sent you... hmmm... maybe more than a week ago? Life, I understand your point of view, but when I see how incorrect some (many) so-called translations to French are, I feel bad for the company that wants to look professional. And I understand they want their article re-read... and corrected. I myself did re-reading for Maths books (actually also wrote some) and websites, I didn't feel a theft, and the companies were very grateful. I also feel ashamed when I read some ... well ... posts or anything else from so-called native English people, who ignore everything about grammar. I did few translations in Cancun, because, yes, they want to pay 100 pesos/page, which is about one peanut an hour. And live translation is VEEEEERY hard!!! I hope I can earn a few dollars without being kicked out of the country.... shhhhh........
OK, guys, what am I missing here? Who would jump at a chance to compete with Indian/Asian writers for jobs paying as little as a dollar an hour, or $4-5 dollars "per article"? Is the idea simply that anything is better than nothing; or, are there potential, hidden rewards in this? __________________ Jenlieb, I tend to agree with you, serious translation tasks at 100 pesos/page are perhaps better done by those Indians we're talking about, although someone might consider it who was otherwise idle; and, in Mexico, it might be considered a competitive rate. That's what I pay, here, for a translation I don't consider to be very important- the rest cost 300 pesos/page, which seems to be a competitive, local rate for certified, expert translation of scientific research journal articles which, although still not error free, are of much higher quality.
Sorry, sometimes my inbox fills up so fast I put replies off for a while and then end up forgetting about them. Will reply today. I think it's like anything, you get what you pay for. If you want to source someone for a dollar an hour you can probably find them - but chances are quality and reliability will not be good. People who want better quality and reliability are willing to pay a premium for it and that's where $4/5 per 400/500 word article would come in - one cent per word is considered by many hirers to be a suitable rate for a high quality, native English speaking, conscientious and reliable article writer.
No problem, Steve, it happens to me too... it also happens that an email gets lost It is what I call to take advantage of someone's skills. I prefer to "be idle" or do other things I like than to work like a slave for an abuser (we rejoin here the Sunset issue, perhaps). Is it why there is such a huge turn-over in Cancun? Thanks Steve... very efficient... I had not realized . I REALLY made it :clappyinghappy:. My car in front of my new home in Tampa.
Doing business in Cancun I don't think we've heard the full story, yet, on possible benefits of following this path. The pay sounds really bad, but there may be some things it could lead to that would be better. Those who work in the industry may have something more to share with us on that. The best opportunities, so far as I can see, for those with something to offer- and for which there is local demand- is to either go the self-employed route, or to start a company. I've got personal experience with the former, and knowledge gained from reading and consulting with local lawyers about the later. The most successful people I know here, speaking of expats, have businesses of some kind. Just as anywhere, there's lots of red tape but I can't say it's any worse than the U.S. in that regard. For people with significant business experience back home, they'll know what I mean. Here's a thread on which some of the many possibilities are discussed at length, if not fully- http://www.cancuncare.com/forum/liv...01-another-question-about-working-cancun.html [Heads up: there is a serious digression into immigration and other things, mid thread, on the thread I mentioned, but there is useful information both at the beginning and end of the thread for those who are curious about working in Cancun.]
I dont think $100 a day (and I do think that achievable for a committed, skilled writer) is bad pay when you compare that to $100 a week that many jobs here offer. I made this post mainly because of the call centre job offering 1000 pesos a week (min) ($80 USD) to employees sitting in a sweat shop for 8 hrs a day 6 days a week making cold calls to people of whom 99.9% are thoroughouly pissed that you disturbed them. Compare that to sitting in your home working the hours you choose and taking a day off whenever the hell you like for eight times the pay. I just wanted forum members to realise that there are alternatives instead of taking the usual crappy jobs that Cancun has to offer expats. Also, learning this kind of stuff is the first step to learning how to make a more lucrative income online. I know, I do it. I wont mention how much I make per month from my 160 websites but if I did you might be surprised. People can take the suggestion or leave it - it is what it is - a post on a forum. Act on it or ignore it. I have nothing to gain from it except perhaps the personal satisfaction that someone may find a better income than they currently enjoy. I could have used affiliate links, I didnt.
Pay in Cancun Thanks, Steve, for offering the elaboration, and I do know that website operators can make significant income. That being the case, I suspect they could pay more than $4-5/article, but choose not to for the sake of the bottom line- just a normal, business decision. The option of doing things for modest sums of money, or for no money at all, remains open to any who- for any reason- would like to do it. My part-time university teaching, at the university, is in the nature of an avocation, even though I get paid for it (full time teachers, on the staff of the university, are paid much more). That's because, when what I spend on copies and transportation is factored in, my pay becomes net negative. Yet, I will probably continue to do it because I have the satisfaction of helping inspire some young people in the field of International Business (we are now studying how to finance an export of goods from Mexico to China, for example); plus, I derive a lot of personal satisfaction from the professional associations the university offers me. My full-time work, on the other hand, as an independent contractor of educational services, is the one that is done with a serious entrepreneurial intent. Most people in Cancun work for rather small wages, often 10,000 pesos or less. But that isn't true for all. There are many exceptions, mostly among the professional classes, as pointed out on another thread, who earn much more and are able to live a comfortable life, here- http://www.cancuncare.com/forum/living-cancun-riviera-maya/15191-pay-cancun.html -and, it is possible for a foreigner with something to offer, locally, to come here and earn a very respectable living. It helps to know what the locals who hold good jobs are being paid, because that will influence their thinking when discussing rates with you: I mentioned, earlier, that the response to the money side of my current contract was a disturbing, "Oh, that's very reasonable." :icon_confused: ____________________ As Steve has suggested, writing these articles, for modest sums, could be a start to a writing career that would ultimately pay far more. There may be some who, a few months from now, will be grateful that he did.
