How much should you pay for web content? It depends on what you
can expect to get back on your investment. A web content writer
can increase your site's revenue 20% or more.

Web Content Cost Considerations

When web content gets discussed on webmaster bulletin boards,
the most common question is, "how much should I pay?" That
question is both perfectly logical, and perfectly misguided:

* Logical, because the biggest expense of any website, with the
possible exceptions of advertising and promotion, is the
content. You only have to get web development and design once,
but content needs to be added regularly for your site to be
successful.

* Misguided, because the real question isn't how much you are
going to pay, but how much you are going to invest. Your
content, if it's done right, will make you money. In fact, it
can easily make back its cost within a month. So the real
question you should ask a web content provider is: how much
will it make me?

Calculating Your Web Content's Value

Ultimately, your web content is the one part of your site that
makes you money. The code, design, and even traffic, while
important, are not what ultimately get a visitor to take
action. You have to tell or ask visitors to take action.
Telling and asking take words.

Small changes in your web content can make big differences in
the bottom line. Take a look:

Advertising/affiliate revenue:

Let's say you have a web page that averages $25/day in revenue
from advertising and/or affiliate links. You have a
professional writer optimize the content on the page to get
more clicks. Watch what happens:

1. If just 20% more visitors click on affiliate or advertising
links, your revenue will increase $5/day, $150/month, and
$1825/year. If your page maintains its current level of traffic
for three more years, that's a $5475 increase, just for that one
page.

2. But it gets better: the improvements to the page will easily
increase traffic by 20%, as more visitors return, more visitors
refer your site to friends, and more webmasters, bloggers and
others link to your site. That brings a total of $6570 more
revenue from that page over three years.

3. If you get the same results with 50 pages with similar
traffic levels, that's an increase of $328500. Now multiply
that by however many sites you or your company owns. Can you
say, "early retirement"?

Keep in mind, that's only the additional revenue you get from
the improved content compared with what you were getting
already from your work. No extra work needed.

Sales/leads model:

If your website is a promotional vehicle for a business, the
results can be even more spectacular. If a page nets you
$500/day in sales or leads, website content improvements that
increase your sales or leads by 20% will pay for themselves
within a month, if not a week.

In reality, if your current content is really weak, the
improvement is likely to be even more spectacular.
Traditionally, overhauling bad sales writing doubles or even
triples the response rate.

The best part of all this is the advantage you'll gain over the
competition, with so many website owners in the dark about their
content. If you are earning 20% more than the competition on the
same advertising or promotion expense, you will ultimately carry
the day.

Making a Content Investment

Now, back to price. What would you expect to invest to see a
$6570 return?

Writer's Market, the blue book of professional writer fees,
says web content averages $300/page, which would mean a 2000+%
return on investment.

But you can actually get away with paying only half that if you
don't need research or meetings?the biggest time-sucks when it
comes to creative projects. If you order content in bulk,
you'll likely get an even steeper discount.

In short, with all the obsession webmasters tend to have with
increasing traffic, it's important to remember that making
simple website content improvements is a much more
cost-efficient and reliable way of increasing revenue. Not
convinced? Just try getting professional help for a few of your
page's content. You'll be pleasantly surprised when you see your
site making more money.


About The Author:

Joel Walsh is the head content writer for UpMarket Content. Get more
information on improving your site's website content:
http://upmarketcontent.com