Like the others said, you have to break per-word jobs down in order to figure how much you're really making per hour.

There is at least one self-proclaimed writing expert in cyberspace who tells people to never work for less than 50-cents a word. Sure, I prefer assignments that are way more than 50-cents a word, but it's not so cut and dried. I've done some intensive pieces for more higher rates that took so much time that my hourly rate broke down to be quite low, while I've written some 25-cents/word pieces so quickly that my hourly rate wound up much higher than the complicated assignment at a higher per-word rate.

I think you may be right on where the idea of time savings became synonymous with cutting corners. The SEO crap jobs will continue to plague perceptions long after (God willing) they're dead and buried.

I think the longer you work, the more you learn to streamline the process. And part of the reason a lot of people hire us is that we are resource-FULL — we don't need to be spoon-fed each step, we know how to go out there, figure it out and get it done.

We can always find a way to work smarter without cutting corners. Again, the cutting corners aspect is how content mills drag down the profession in general — you can't generate that much content that quickly and fully explore each topic.

Worst piece of advice: "Research isn't necessary in fiction, because you're just making it up anyway."

As spmeone who loves to research and can spot many unresearched, careless mistakes in books, I knew enough from the get-go not to listen to that.

Best piece: "As long as what happens fits the consistent logic of your own world, you can create anything you imagine."

Even if we don't technically charge hourly, it still breaks down that way. No matter what method we use for billing — hourly, per word, per project, etc. — we still only have a set number of working hours each day, week, or month. This is another of those "we can't be Walmart" issues. Service-based businesses are inherently time-based, and all rate structures break down into an hourly model in the end.

Finding a good balance that lets us maximize what we earn during each billable hour and still provide high quality work to clients is just a part of the job.