
Show HN: A Marketplace of Content Writers for Startups - Mat_Sherman
http://www.publoft.com/
======
Mz
Some feedback:

Your site repeatedly crashed my phone browser. I had to check it out on a
tablet to see it at all.

I don't see any means for writers to sign up.

I don't see prices.

As others have noted, your site has grammatical errors and misspelled words.
Given that your product is writing, this is just deal breaking.

I work for a different service that I really like. I am skeptical of your
business model here. In a nutshell, it seems rather canned and inflexible.

It also looks very controlling. I realize you are framing that as a feature,
not a bug. It looks like a bad model to me. It also looks like a black box.

It also comes across as egomaniacal and braggarty. This just makes me feel
like you are full of hot air.

~~~
Mat_Sherman
(crashing your browser) - I'm sorry about that. I'm not VERY technical but
i'll see what I can do here.

(Signing Up) Writers can sign up at - www.publoft.com/marketplace

(Prices) We've been back and forth about making them public or not. Right now
we're testing the "not". It ranges from $300-$600 per month.

(grammar)- I will go back and double check. Im sure they are right. As a one-
man show, I can only catch so much, but this is inexcusable.

(Skeptical)....Curious how does it look controlling to you? It isn't supposed
to come off like that. Actually the opposite, so i'm curious.

Thank you for the feedback. I really do appreciate it and value it. Hopefully,
I cleared some of your questions up.

~~~
Mz
_Curious how does it look controlling to you? It isn 't supposed to come off
like that. Actually the opposite, so i'm curious._

I am on my phone, so from memory here:

You don't do revisions.

You sound like you want to talk for your clients, but not with your clients.
That does not work.

You dictate length and frequency of blogs without any real justification.

I am used to working for a service where the client decides price point,
length of articles and a whole lot more. I cater to their needs. I don't
dictate anything.

I will try to look it over when I am again on a tablet and see if there is
anything I am forgetting.

------
nferracin
After finding this ~2-months old Medium post* strongly advocating for showing
pricing upfront, I'm now curious to know why they changed their "philosophy"
and if and in what way it affected their pricing.

* [https://medium.com/thepub/publoft-has-upfront-pricing-heres-...](https://medium.com/thepub/publoft-has-upfront-pricing-heres-why-fb6bc7670182)

~~~
Mat_Sherman
Hey there. Good find in the blog post. I'll be dead honest here. I had rent to
pay that month and bills to pay. We thought we were being bold by making that
claim, but in reality, it killed our sales process. Leads come in in double
digits, not in the dozens. It was a bad decision, and I own up to it 100%. I
should probably make the blog post unlisted.

Thank you for your question. Let me know if you have any more questions.

------
DrScump
I will never understand ads for and blogs about writing that aren't themselves
proofread first.

~~~
Mat_Sherman
I need to go back to check our website. I'm sure there are errors. I only have
two hands and there is so much to do. BUT, this isn't an excuse. I will go
back and proofread the site. Thank you for your comment.

------
Veen
As someone who already does the service you’re offering as a freelancer, I’m
curious what you’re paying writers.

In my experience, agencies of this sort are almost always low-grade content
mills that pay writers next to nothing.

~~~
newlyretired
What's a reasonable cost per word for specialized content? EG, something about
a specific field (although doesn't require a college degree to write, some
specialized knowledge would be good).

I've seen about 20 cents per word, making a 2k word longform around $400. Is
that somewhat realistic?

~~~
Mz
Here is a service with transparent pricing:

[https://www.textbroker.com/clients-prices-
conditions](https://www.textbroker.com/clients-prices-conditions)

I work for them. My opinion of them is very positive.

Clients who know what they want will put articles in the general author pool
and then invite authors they like to a team. So they pay less as a screening
mechanism, then pay a bit more for quality work. It is generally way less than
20 cents a word.

------
osrec
Looks interesting. Given your service is all about writing, you should fix the
spelling errors in your landing page ("luckilly" was one that jumped out at
me).

~~~
Mat_Sherman
Thank you for this. I am going to go back and edit the site. I didn't realize
how many errors there were if it weren't for HN. So thank you for showing me
that there's more to edit and for the tip.

~~~
osrec
No problem. All the best :)

------
jv22222
YMMV but personally, I never use (or even consider) a service that doesn't
show it's price up front.

~~~
dazc
'I never use (or even consider) a service that doesn't show it's price up
front.'

Seems to be the default behaviour for people offering content services. Why I
don't know, because all it does is make me not bother asking?

~~~
Veen
It's difficult for content agencies to be upfront about pricing for the same
reason it's difficult for development agencies.

(I'm a freelancer in the same space as this service):

Much like development, cost depends on the scope and complexity of the
project. It can't be measured as a multiple of a single metric that can easily
be displayed on a price grid.

Another reason to be coy about pricing is so that they can charge different
rates to clients. Most content creators wouldn't charge Google the same as
they'd charge bootstrapped new tech startup.

It's also possible they simply aren't interested in dealing with excessively
price-conscious clients. The "if there are no prices, it's too expensive"
approach isn't accidental. It's done on purpose to avoid having to deal with
the lower end of the market. It sends a strong signal to the wrong sort of
client.

I do something similar in freelancing work: I'm not interested in working for
people who want me to write blog posts for $40 a pop, so I price myself way
too high for this sector of the market. I also don't display prices because I
don't have to — referrals and reputation are sufficient.

~~~
jv22222
> Much like development, cost depends on the scope and complexity

Then IMHO they should say that on the site and give some examples with ranges.

Better yet, add a price estimation tool. Something like this, for example:

[http://howmuchtomakeanapp.com](http://howmuchtomakeanapp.com)

> if there are no prices, it's too expensive

Could be my personal bias, but since it was a show HN it didn't seem to come
over as that type of high end play.

------
ganeshkrishnan
How much does it cost? Usually if a website does not reveal the price or even
offer a range I just close it and move on.

"If I have to ask, I can't afford it"

~~~
Mat_Sherman
Starts at $300/mo for two posts, a content calendar, and a keyword analysis.
Goes up to $600/mo for four posts a month + the content cal and the keyword
analysis. We actually aren't close to agency prices. We've internally grappled
if we should make them public or not though.

------
philfrasty
„We manage blogs ... so the owners don't have to.“

On a first look someone who has not run content-marketing before will say:
„WOW...great...no work for me“.

My experience in having run content-marketing campaigns for various products
is that you really have to define what you want to achieve with the content.
Otherwise it is a waste of time (huge factor) and obviously money which you
would have better spend running ads.

Do you want to purely do SEO content to drive traffic to your site? Possible
with an outsourced service.

„You don't need a rocket scientist to plan out your content.“ Wrong. Wrong.
Wrong.

Do you want to build an audience around your company/brand? First: this is a
gigantic time/resource commitment which MIGHT pay off longterm in a big way.
From my experience this is very hard to do right using someone external who is
not in someway affiliated with the company itself.

~~~
Mat_Sherman
These are all good questions and thoughts to think about as we're moving
forward with our value proposition. We do have content marketing experience
but not tons. But from our startup experience, we've found that startups don't
need TONS of experience. They need content and they need to put that content
in the right places. It's not as intense when you're at that stage.

------
jwr
I’m one of your prospective customers. But I have no idea how much the service
costs!

~~~
Mat_Sherman
It starts at $300/mo for two blog posts a month, a keyword analysis, and a
monthly content calendar. Goes up to $600/mo for 4 posts a month, a keyword
analysis, and a monthly content calendar. I think we're going to add pricing
to the website. Thanks for the comment.

------
hawksy
How much are you planning to charge.

Also in my past experiences, there needs to be retrospective of what worked
and what did not. Provision to include analysis to arrive at data driven
decisions will add a lot of value to your service.

~~~
Mat_Sherman
We charge between $300 and $600 a month. Breaks down to about $150 a blog
post. Keyword analysis + content calendar are included in the price.

------
siscia
I am here asking the price too

~~~
Mat_Sherman
It starts at $300/mo for two blog posts a month, a keyword analysis, and a
monthly content calendar. Goes up to $600/mo for 4 posts a month, a keyword
analysis, and a monthly content calendar. Averages out to about $150 a blog
post.

