What do content writers charge

Website awyeahsarah. It does make me nervous to inform my clients of this change! I was thinking of minimizing the word count of a basic blog post. I usually offer word blog posts, but it might be better to offer words? SEO changes constantly, and shorter blog posts are coming back into,style, I suppose I could takr advantage of that. My biggest issue is what to charge.

I started by looking at the Editorial Freelance Association rates and went by that. I thought it was fair. How do you get potential clients to see that it is a fair rate for what you do? Charging per hour has never worked for me. I switched to a per word rate which makes it much easier to get a decent hourly rate. I moved to a country where the costs of living is low.

Being a writer I can write from anywhere in the world. So Currently I have no fixed home address and live as a nomadic blogger and writer. That makes it easier to get by on a lower rate. But for me it depends on subject and time. Some jobs are easy done and I do not want to over charge, so I set my rate accordingly.

Do you do that when you go to a restaurant or into a car showroom? Great, that means you understand the relationship between the cost of time and materials and how that relates to the final quality of the job. Doing a great job costs more than a shoddy one. The customers you want always get it. Let the ones who want to lay the least go with the lowest bidders, then everyone is happy! I have heard the same advice many different times and while I agree to an extent, I do not follow it and it has made me all the difference a Robert Frost reference…as in you are actually suggesting people take the populated road.

I have come to the realization, after more than a decade as a freelancer, that pricing is complicated. I say this because I want simplicity and a set hourly rate gives that to me.

For example, auto mechanics charge an hour for a brake job that they may finish in 20 minutes. I charge based on past experience, but I may actually finish a project earlier. I make this possibility known to my clients and tell them I will stick to the original estimate. For example, I will tell a client that it takes me X hours to finish a word article based on experience. If I finish early I am very rarely over my client understands and pays based on my estimate.

I make sure and estimate as close to the actual time as possible being ethical is very important if you want to retain clients and am actually given bonuses for finishing early many times. So, I basically charge a flat rate per hour and then provide a consistent timeline for the completion of the piece based on experience. I look to fill at least 25 hours per week per month and I am very satisfied with the money I make.

I guess what I am saying is that your solution works in some cases, but I find that mine works better for me. I think freelancers find what works for them based on a number of factors niche, type of projects they do, where they live — I charge less because I live in an area of the country that has a very very low cost of living, etc.

Pricing, I should say best pricing, is not as simple as per project or per hour. It is all about maximizing your standard of living…at least it is for me. And I find that per hour pricing works best. Alicia, Thank you so much for this article! It was very insightful for a newbie freelance writer such as myself. Although I am still learning what to charge per words, this article gives me a great starting point.

Hi Alicia! Great article. Thanks so much for all of the helpful info. The link you share is a dead one.

Reply to Bernadette. As a writer, I normally charge from 2 cents per word all the way up to 10 cents per word. The reason for the huge swing in cost per word has to do with the type of people that I write for. When it comes to what you charge for your writing services and such, the prices are all over the board. I guess it all depends upon you and what your other expenses are, and what you feel you are worth.

It may also include what you may want to make per year and so on. You will probably find that there is a sweet spot that you can work in that will help you to determine what you should charge per word for your writing.

You could also do a pole to see what people are willing to pay. For example, you could do the following below. POLE What would you be willing to pay per word for a word article? Choose from the options below. Then when you have collected all of the data from their input, that would give you a good round about idea of what you should charge to get people to purchase your services. You would then know what the majority of people would be willing to pay and you could set your fees accordingly.

Reply to Donald Hallo Donald I am a new writer. Would you mind coaching me and probably hook me up with genuine clients or companies? I have applied on top freelance sites though not getting response. Reply to Anthony. Very helpful Alicia, thank you! Reply to Tara. Thanks, that breakdown is very useful! Reply to Lauran. Actually, your numbers make sense, because a sponsored post remain forever on a blog and in search engine.

A brand will get leads forever from that blog post as long as the website will be live compared with social media campaigns that get attention only for certain periods or with certain campaigns.

Reply to Maria. Thanks for all the suggestions about the price. The other day a guy send me a propose for work and I said him I normally charge 0. Really great article. Thanks so much for sharing this. Although, it did raise a point I struggle with as an active freelance writer already in business, which is the time it takes me to write. Just curious, how long did it take for you to write this 1, word article, already being an SME Subject Matter Expert?

And they gain successful examples of that specific type of work, which makes them a more attractive choice for clients needing that type of writing. All of that translates to higher rates. The same thing goes for industry experience. That matters.

Writers that can prove their work contributes to results will charge accordingly. Someone getting paid a small amount per piece has an incentive to get it done fast. Trying to rush skilled work leads to sloppy results.

It just does. People trying to build a business off of low rates end up cutting corners. This is part of what makes it so hard to generalize about rates. Project types that require a lot of time to complete, like websites and ebooks, cost more; as do projects that require specialized skill sets, like writing landing pages designed to convert.

If your business is in a technical or complicated industry, then finding a writer that either already knows it well or will be able to do the research required to learn it is harder.