“Global market” for writers not what it may sound like
Blogger Jennifer Mattern, who covers freelance writing and writers, dissects the nature of the web-based “global writers’ market.” She says (and I agree with her) that culture, language and task-specific skills define the differences between lower-end content that is written to drive web traffic and content truly intended to inform the reader (which also drives traffic).
My comment: this helps explain the disparities in pay rates so clearly evident in job boards, where marketers expect to pay $5/blog fees for high quality work. No writer based in America can sustain him or herself at this level; a client whose business model is based on this level of pay needs to adjust their expectations on quality as well (it’s probably why mass-produced plagiarism is commonplace, and why search engine algorithms have become so sophisticated at identifying it).