Why you should never negotiate with a content writer?
Every time you negotiate with a content writer- you make an agreement with yourself to value mediocrity over quality. While someone who is not a writer- may assume web content is parallel to sixth standard essay writing- professional writers spend hours, days, and even weeks to develop a level of understanding that nears, if not matches that of a subject matter expert.
And when they don’t get paid enough, it makes sense for them to cut corners; YES, at the expense of quality.
- content
- July 7, 2025
- branding
- resolution(s)
THE CHALLENGE-
Creating a better piece than whatever is available on the 1st page- making sure it is more relevant, accessible & to the point for the user.
Over that- breaking the monotony of all the content looking, reading, and sounding the same. Underpaid writers have a good way of expressing their dissatisfaction- the content they are creating for you.
OUR OBJECTIVE-
Solving this problem- while being mindful about the word that goes out on your most crucial business asset- your website.
Your content should be an optimum represatation of your voice, what you intend for your user to feel & the solution they desire.
TBH- content isn’t tough, negotiation is making it seem so. Over that, you have been told enough for it to become a road-block.
WHAT HAVE I LEARNT?
As I started my marketing career with writing, I have always told my journal what a potential client was missing out on by not subscribing to the right price of content- in this blog, I’m sharing a filtered version of the same- still strong enough to make you rethink the decision of negotiating on your writing budget.
- Good content requires thorough research– By negotiating with your writers, you tell them to cut down the number of hours they’d spend learning about your business or researching on your topic.
- Negotiating with a writer = settling down for substandard content– If your content lacks the attention to detail, it will never stand out and your rankings will cease to improve.
- Agency writers delivering 2500-3000 words a day face burnout more frequently. Writing heavy volumes each day leads them to creating template based content that has repetitive layouts, outdated outlines, monotone tonality, and no-uniqueness.
- Time is money and money is time. If you can’t pay your writers for the time they spend creating content for you, they may not actually spend time creating content for you. And believe us- more websites lose rankings because of AI content/thin content than one can imagine.
- Bulk is a thing of the past; almost. Agencies encouraging their writers to create content in bulk often fail to maintain quality due to lack of resources, edgy deadlines, and tight budgets.
Since most agencies operate on a profit first approach, they keep a big cut and hardly pay their writers 20-30% of the budget. This makes their writers lose the motivation to devote enough time on research- which is why, it’s advisable to either work with fair trade agencies, who transparently pay their writers 60-80%, or work with the writers directly.
- $X now or $X + 5 later- If you don’t invest in content now, you will reinvest in content later. Spending X – 1 may save you “1” on content right now, but will cost you X + 5 in the long run. You can’t afford to have thin content on your business website and expect it to work, can you?
Save your time and money. Do it once, do it right.
CARDINAL RULE- WE WORK DIRECTLY WITH WRITERS.
My mentor gave me a word of caution or advice as I was starting out in form of humor- WE ALL MUST TRAIN OUR OWN PUPPIES. It was deeper than I understood at that time, later down the line when I worked with freelancers- I realised, there is nothing better than a trusted in-house team where everyone is working on the same vision & shares the ethic & cuclture. Our secret to building websites that dominate google searches for ever and ever- reading every single word that our writers write. Ranking is not an automation game and we do not aim to make it one. We work directly with our writers, answer their questions at every step, and communicate with them regularly to fine tune our content till the very last syllable.
Since the advent of chatGPT, I have hired more than 15 writers & everytime after a great piece of content- I would start getting plagarised chatGPT BS, the team at FAWKES helped me get a real insigt at hiring writers for my project, now I negotiate less but care about the quality more. With them, I have created 3 in-house assets & our blog posts, IG reels are performing better than ever.
