4 ms·

Interesting idea. Seems CRAZY expensive.

stewfortier 4y ago
Thanks! And we're not the cheapest option, but we have tried to make the pricing competitive for the level of quality we strive for. A top editor on Upwork costs around $150/hour and typically can edit about 1,000 words per hour. Another thing that might be worth clarifying is that most drafts get 2-3 contributors, each of whom has a specific skillset or expertise that is relevant for the draft. So, the cost per-editor on a draft tends to skew downwards quite a bit.
- wrycoder 4y ago
  Of that $55, how much do the editors get? Are they all paid the same?
  - stewfortier 4y ago
    We've experimented a lot here. In our latest iteration, a fixed "bounty" gets assigned to a draft. Contributors have access to a feed of drafts that fit their skillsets & interests. The writer can then indicate how helpful each contributor was and the bounty is split pro-rata amongst those contributors. We had originally assumed that editors would not like this sort of variability, but two things have ended up happening: 1) their per-hour rate ends up being the same on Foster given that the work comes directly to them (no selling themselves, doing onboarding calls, etc.) and 2) they strongly value the freedom to select drafts that intrinsically interest them. It also leads to a much better experience for the writer since there tends to be more of a missionary spirit, rather than a purely mercenary one.
    - ayewo 4y ago
      I like your framing of missionary versus a mercenary spirit. What percentage do you get to keep out of the $55? Or, perhaps a better question is, since you are running a two-sided marketplace, do you make money off of buyers (writers) or suppliers (editors) or both parties?
- MatthiasPortzel 4y ago
  While the cost per-editor per-word is probably comparable to other professional editor solutions, it’s weird to me that you’re then marketing to people who don’t normally pay for an editor. The use-case of “I want to get my blog posts on the top of HN” is certainly interesting, but doesn’t justify the cost.
  - stewfortier 4y ago
    We think this can get really big if we find a way to reach people who don’t currently work with an editor but would benefit immensely if they did. We believe most online writers fit into this category. Can you elaborate more on why you don’t think having writing that performs better justifies the cost? Example: you pay for our $99/month plan and over six months you write a 1,000-word post each month and submitted it on HN. If one of them ended up on the home page, you don’t think it would generate at least ~$600 in value for the author?

Thanks! And we're not the cheapest option, but we have tried to make the pricing competitive for the level of quality we strive for. A top editor on Upwork costs around $150/hour and typically can edit about 1,000 words per hour. Another thing that might be worth clarifying is that most drafts get 2-3 contributors, each of whom has a specific skillset or expertise that is relevant for the draft. So, the cost per-editor on a draft tends to skew downwards quite a bit.

wrycoder 4y ago
Of that $55, how much do the editors get? Are they all paid the same?
- stewfortier 4y ago
  We've experimented a lot here. In our latest iteration, a fixed "bounty" gets assigned to a draft. Contributors have access to a feed of drafts that fit their skillsets & interests. The writer can then indicate how helpful each contributor was and the bounty is split pro-rata amongst those contributors. We had originally assumed that editors would not like this sort of variability, but two things have ended up happening: 1) their per-hour rate ends up being the same on Foster given that the work comes directly to them (no selling themselves, doing onboarding calls, etc.) and 2) they strongly value the freedom to select drafts that intrinsically interest them. It also leads to a much better experience for the writer since there tends to be more of a missionary spirit, rather than a purely mercenary one.
  - ayewo 4y ago
    I like your framing of missionary versus a mercenary spirit. What percentage do you get to keep out of the $55? Or, perhaps a better question is, since you are running a two-sided marketplace, do you make money off of buyers (writers) or suppliers (editors) or both parties?
MatthiasPortzel 4y ago
While the cost per-editor per-word is probably comparable to other professional editor solutions, it’s weird to me that you’re then marketing to people who don’t normally pay for an editor. The use-case of “I want to get my blog posts on the top of HN” is certainly interesting, but doesn’t justify the cost.
- stewfortier 4y ago
  We think this can get really big if we find a way to reach people who don’t currently work with an editor but would benefit immensely if they did. We believe most online writers fit into this category. Can you elaborate more on why you don’t think having writing that performs better justifies the cost? Example: you pay for our $99/month plan and over six months you write a 1,000-word post each month and submitted it on HN. If one of them ended up on the home page, you don’t think it would generate at least ~$600 in value for the author?