Allen 🎓🎩 Has anyone tried out the SEMrush Content Marketplace? Any impressions? We're looking for a LOT of content to fill up a handful of partners' blogs, with more coming in every week. We're trying to write decent content, and not "writing just to write" and "adding words just to add words". Their pricing is surprisingly cheap so I would love some input. With indexing getting harder and harder the need for quality content is our biggest need at the moment. We are hiring copywriters as fast as we can but they can't pump out the volume we need. EDIT: Thought I mentioned this, but please don't send freelance sales pitches, especially in DMs. 6 👍🏽6 37 💬🗨📰👈
Alex I gave them a shot when they were first starting out and found a lot of issues. 1. The content to me seemed like it was a foreign writer using an Artificial Intelligence (AI) assistant and not really at the expected quality for that price – which isn't extremely high – but isn't low either. I used it for legal writing and their research was just flat wrong – similar to using Jarvis or something else where it just completes sentences with no regard for accuracy. Their understanding of basic topics was also just off like they really didn't understand the language and culture and were just trying to complete it as quick as possible. I run everything I get through surfer and grammarly – and while they technically passed the grammarly check it was just awkward phrasing – and they didn't pass or use surfer or an equivalent at all. 2. They did give me unlimited revisions – but they didn't listen to me regarding those revisions so it took a lot of time. 3. They had a completely broken revision process. I had 3 days to respond or they would mark it complete – sometimes clients don't review things that quickly so I had to submit pretend revisions just so the article would stay open. This was especially difficult because once an article has been sent back for a revision you can't even access it anymore. So I was stuck in a loop of sending it to the client for review – them not getting to it in time, me asking for a revision so it wasn't marked as closed, then the client ending up reviewing a completely dead link. 4. Once you ask for a revision the previous version is erased – which can make tracking progress very difficult. Especially when they don't listen and rewrite what they weren't supposed to and you have to start over. 5. They have this whole promotional thing about being able to chose your writers if you are a member – but you have no way of knowing who your writers are – they aren't given names, there wasn't a process for requesting anyone – so that really didn't make sense at all. 6. Their customer support was extremely rude. It wasn't a we realize this is an error and we will try to improve it – all responses were basically read our TOS even though my issues weren't at all related to their TOS. The only thing the client did like was that their writing was a bit more casual and stayed on topic better than some other technical writers that seem like they are filling the space with irrelevant nonsense to hit the wordcount and keyword scores. I tried it when it was still very new – but all in all considering it is around the same price as Search Engine Optimization (SEO) content hero I would recommend staying away unless there was a complete overhaul. For me SEO content hero has been great. My only issue with them has been things haven't been as business specific as I would have liked – but their surfer scores and grammar are much better than I get anywhere else. I have found out that they will do calls to try to prevent the personal issue – but I haven't had an opportunity to try that yet.
Allen ✍️ 🎓 » Alex Thanks so much for the detailed write-up, and sorry for the late reply. Got inundated with sales PMs and replies despite me specifically asking not to send them. Reading through this now. Cameron » Allen My experience with SEMrush Content was pretty much the same as the long, detailed post from Alex. SEO Content Hero works well for me. It's more expensive but it's done right (mostly) the first time, great customer service and they're legit. I've tried hiring some from Upwork and it's all over the board, takes too much time. Alex » Cameron Is it more expensive? I found them to be priced around the same for the high end and possibly cheaper when needed. Cameron » Alex More expensive then SEMRush and similar content writing services. Alex » Cameron 1000 words for website copy on SEMrush is $200, or $180 with a subscription. 1000 words from SEO content hero without any bulk discount or coupons at the highest level with the surfer add on is 162.50. The cheapest level without any discounts and without the Surfer add on is $67.50. SEO content hero is cheaper? By a lot. Allen ✍️ 🎓 » Cameron Thank you. We were looking at working with Crowd Content but their prices are higher than both of the above services, and they wanted to charge us double to include managed services. SEO Content Hero is quite cheap in comparison. Cameron » Alex I've gone back and actually viewed my past invoices. One example from SeoContentHero, Professional level, 1,000 word blog post with SurferSEO was $135 which is more than I paid with the other services. Maybe prices for both have changed since I ordered content from either service.
