1. Usually, the metric for article writing is in terms of cents per word. According to him three cents per word is the ABSOLUTE LOWEST rate that you should ever accept, and you should only accept that when you're just starting out. To give you some idea, this translates to 15 dollars for a 500 word article.
2. Once you start to become established as a writer, you can expect rates that are much higher than that. I've seen a few of his articles get paid upwards of 28 cents per word and some magazines pay up to a dollar per word. For a 500 word article, this would mean that you should expect 140$ (at the $.28 per word rate).
3. If you're going to do this as a business, keep track of how much time you spend per article.Translate your writing into a dollars per hour rate to see if you're making a reasonable wage. Factor in that you have to pay taxes, insurance, etc.
4. Having said that, if you have other options for professions, you should consider your options. Freelance writing of articles is hard, and you don't get paid vacation, sick days, or many of the perks associated with a full time job.
