Note: I am not quite much of an employer, just more of a writer. I'm saying this so you don't think I’m writing in favor of the clients. I’m just laying the cards bare here.

Okay that said, I'd go straight to the point. The writing industry is an open market just like any other market, free and with everyone at liberty to set his market rates and prices.

I present to you, a few reasons why clients set their prices way below the word count per article as is obtainable in Nigeria:

1. They are not the original owners of the job: This is a major reason why people set their pay level below the article word count. By the time they receive the work from the main writer, and give it to you, water don pass garri if you know what I mean.

2: The pay is too small: I wanted adding this to the first point but I decided to address it separately for clarity sake. Let's take for example; some jobs I get on Upwork, the client sets his price level at $1 per 500 words or 300 words as the case may be. Where it's too much for me to handle, I would outsource them. Still yet, I won't want to lose all from outsourcing, so I might take out 100 or 200 naira from the price per article if I outsource. That would now bring the price down a bit below the word count per article. So you see, it's not always the fault of the outsourcing party in question.

3. Standard of writers: I have worked with a few writers who do not know how to write at all, or make a lot of mistakes in their writing. I won't pay so much for so little, when I know I would finally have to edit the article to make it presentable. So if you can show me articles you have previously worked on, or do a "free" or "paid" test as the case may be, I might reconsider my stand.

4. Some clients want to save: A new entrepreneur just starting a website or blog as the case may be, would want to save as much as they can. This is done in order to reduce the financial inputs made in the business, so as not to overspend even before he or she begins to rake in profits from the business or Google Adsense.

5. Greedy clients: Some clients are quite greedy. A 3rd party client once wanted to share the price for a large project 50-50 with me, just because she was outsourcing it to me, even though I was going to do the bulk of the project. That's quite unfair. 60-40, or 70-30 ratio, where the main writer takes the bulk of the fee is not bad. I outrightly rejected the work sha.

6. Bulk projects: The greater the quantity, the lower the price. I think this is self-explanatory, so I won’t go into much details here. All I want you to do is to know imagine where you are the third party being outsourced to. The price go don reduce wella na.

7. Add yours sha.

In conclusion, it’s not always the fault of the client that the price is low, but if you know your worth as a writer, request for at least 1 naira per word before you accept a project.


Like I said earlier, I'm not in support neither am I opposing the client.

Gracias,
Curt.

CC: Biafrabushboy
Lalasticlala

I believe all your points are valid. The fact remains that our fellow Nigerian clients undervalue us so badly and they keep looking for every means to exploit us.

I remember a guy asking me to write 600 words for 200 naira ..

"Like Seriously?"

And also they believe we writers all have the same writing ability... thereby creating a fixed price among all writers.

I don't care because I know my worth. If you don't meet up with it.. I look for others.

Nice Article BTW