How Much Should Freelance Writers Charge?
Setting rates is always a challenge. wordpreneur.com has an interesting approach. Blogger Eldon Sarte calls it a Profit Goal approach. To make his forumula work, you’ve got to know some things:
- Your net goal for the year
- The numbers of hours you’ll work for the year
- Your weekly overhead
It’s simple to go from this information to an hourly rate, as you’ll see.
How do you determine your hourly rate? Tell us about it.
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POSTED IN: Business of Freelance Writing
14 opinions for How Much Should Freelance Writers Charge?
Brian Clark
Oct 3, 2007 at 5:05 pm
>>How Much Should Freelance Writers Charge?
More.
How Much Should Freelance Writers Charge?
Oct 3, 2007 at 10:13 pm
[…] Sarte calls it a Profit Goal approach. To make his forumula work, you’ve got to know some things.read more | digg story October 3rd, […]
Matt Ambrose
Oct 4, 2007 at 3:56 am
I charge what I think is a perfectly reasonable rate based on the amount of time it will take me to get the work done. I apply for a few jobs on Craigslist and it’s when it comes to discussing rates that the emails grind to a halt. I’m not about to start writing articles for $5 as Id like to live above the poverty line.
There’s still a great disparity between what hard working writers deserve and what some clients are prepared to pay, so I’m just going to continue looking for the sensible clients and leave the junk market alone.
Anne Wayman
Oct 4, 2007 at 8:17 am
Yeah, Matt - lots of potential clients haven’t a clue… and it only makes sense to move on.
Shari Schmidt
Oct 4, 2007 at 8:26 am
The sad thing is many writers will work for $5 an article. It’s the reason many people have an unrealistic understanding of how much a good writer costs.
Anne Wayman
Oct 4, 2007 at 9:17 am
Shari, I simply refuse to worry about what other people charge… it’s interesting, but it isn’t relevant to the way I bill.
Gloria Hildebrandt
Oct 4, 2007 at 1:01 pm
Fascinating issue. My professional development group will be having a panel discussion on pricing in November. It’s critical to know what a competitive rate is, and I mean competitive with other successful writers who are earning a good living. One thing I’m finding is that as I gain experience (more than 23 years so far), my hourly rate has to go up in order to keep pace with flat rates. For instance, if a corporate news release costs at least $500, but I can complete it in one hour, you can see what my hourly rate should be. But sometimes you land a contract in which it’s easiest to turn the meter on and do all the writing you’re asked to. If it’s a good client with lots of steady work, I am happy to give the benefit of my skill without squeezing out every last hundred dollars. In the Greater Toronto Area, hourly rates go from as low as $13 to $150. You have to decide which end of the scale you want to work in. I once had a corporate client tell me that at $75, my rate was way too low for them. Instead of paying me more, they didn’t even take me on. They thought I didn’t have the credibility to do the work, if I wasn’t charging enough. Writers everywhere: raise your rates!
Anne Wayman
Oct 5, 2007 at 8:28 am
Gloria, I really don’t believe in competition… not in the sense that if you get the job I’ve lost… there is plenty of work out there for all of us… rates accepted seem to me to be more a function of how the writer views herself than any average… the organization that said you weren’t charging enough is exactly the sort of thing I mean.
Lori
Oct 5, 2007 at 9:42 am
Gloria, I want you to tell the rest of the freelancing world about your experience of charging too little!
Honestly, I charge what I think the market will bear, and more importantly what I can afford to do it for. I’m $100/hr. and I’ve long-ago stopped apologizing for it. I don’t see any competition at all, as we are all in it together in some respects.
Matt Tuley
Oct 5, 2007 at 10:51 am
Freelance Switch has what looks like a pretty good toll for figuring rates at http://freelanceswitch.com/rates/. Anybody tried it to see how it matches up with your actual rates?
Lazy Sunday Link Love
Oct 8, 2007 at 8:05 pm
[…] What to Charge: The “Profit Goal” Formula (Thanks Anne!) […]
Jim Norton
Nov 7, 2007 at 8:57 am
Hourly rates are funny. What one person can do in 2 hours may take another 10. If you pay the first person $100/hr and the second $35/hr, well you see what I mean.
Anne Wayman
Nov 8, 2007 at 9:04 am
Jim, one reason I tend to like flat fees is I don’t get penalized (paid less) for the easy parts… of course, I can lose on the difficult parts, but flat fees seem to work best for me.
» Pricing and Positioning Your Rates Amongst Other Freelancers and Businesses - Blog for Freelancers and the Self-Employed
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