When you set off on your freelancing career, you must have asked around, browsed the Internet and thought for yourself what the correct rates for writing assignments should be. Of course, in some cases, as in Chillibreeze, we have fair and fixed rates, with payments made expeditiously, but in many other cases, you would find yourself negotiating. You research, and often give up in despair, because most sources of information you referred to seemed to just lead you up the garden path, to no definite conclusions. But just think about it, is it possible to draw any definite conclusions, given the number of variables that are involved in freelance writing? No.
So, what am I writing about today? I’m giving you some pointers to the factors– important ones–on which the rates can be based. And then, I’ll leave you to tell us about the other factors, and how you propose to apply those factors to yourself and decide on the rates. There are a few methods in which you can determine rates: (1) per hour basis (2) per word basis (3) project basis (4) retainership basis (fixed payment per month). Why don’t you give us your opinions on which other factors you can think of and most important, whether each of these would be applicable to all writers or not?
And that’s not all. When you fix rates, you need to keep certain factors in mind such as your costs of freelancing, your general expenses, competitors’ rates, years of experience, skill area and demand for it. You also have to take into account the time taken and adherence to deadlines, your market demand and reputation, whether you are offering turnkey facilities, whether the client is providing all the research material, and many other factors. So, do write in on this area which is perhaps the most crucial to a freelancer today—who knows, this brainstorming could trigger a change in the hazy scenario to a more concrete, professional one.
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- Should You Lower Your Rates in this Recession?
- The Diversity of Business Writing
Comments:
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Jayshree,
I’m new to freelancing, so do pardon my ignorance and the question arising from it. I constantly wonder about how freelancers pick a pay-per-word rate. Given my (limited) experience, an article is a result of many hours of research and several edits and drafts. While the final output may just be, say, a 100-or so words, it may have taken the writer 2-3 hours to write and present it in a form worthy of being published. How can the per-word method of payment be justified?
I understand and agree that there has to be some standardisation for terms of payment. While I may take more time to research and write, another writer may produce the same quality of writing in a shorter period of time. As an employer, you need to even out such variations, and a per-word payment structure works best. However, the rates offered per word are rather modest (!!!) and do not do justice to the amount of hard work that’s put in by the writer. (Of course, these are strictly my views!) Which is when i begin to wonder if the per-word payment basis actually works, and if it does, how does a freelancer go about picking a rate?
Any opinions/thoughts on this are welcome. And yes, you can also advice me to rethink my career option if I’m living in the illusion of funding my south of France holiday with my writing payments!
Thanks,
Shefali
CORRIGENDUM
The word ‘advice’ in the last paragraph should have been spelt as ‘advise.’
The letter ‘i’ in the last sentence of the second paragraph should have been capitalised.
(This is probably why I’m not getting enough assignments, huh?!)
Shafali,
These are extremely minute mistakes which are usually corrected by the spell checks……….nothing to do with your writing skills, originating in your grey cells.
Be confident and what you might need could be a launching platform.
I, too do write and end up making such mistakes , but be sure at the time of publication a proof reader can set them straight. All the best keep going !
Jay
I agree with what Shefali said – that sometimes, deciding the rate of an article may depend on the number of words but if there was an enormous amount of time spent on research, that needs to be factored in too. In that instance, the pay per hour model comes into the picture.
Given the fact that freelance writing in India is still quite nascent and that the most lucrative assignments are truly found overseas, it pays to have a website/blog of your own. CB has a great way to have a link to your own profile where your published works on CB are showcased. Apart from this, if a writer already has published works online, that helps a lot because then it shows that you are a writer with experience. A writer may have had experience in that niche for many years but unless they have work or proof to show for it, in the freelancing world, unfortunately, it doesn’t really count in getting paid in accordance with the experience.
I don’t think most freelancers in India have the option of choosing the kind of projects they want to work on nor can they decide “How to get paid”…..they must be ready to accept anything that comes their way – even if it’s peanuts!
I have realised that lately here everywhere else the prices are going up, in freelancing they are going down. I have lost many projects because I asked for more than they were willing to pay. Now when one lady has accepted my price, she sends me curt emails – saying that since she is paying me a “premium”I need to do much more and send the articles faster etc. etc. !
Fixing a rate is no longer our prerogative – it has not become the buyer’s prerogative – and no matter how hard you try – how capable you may be – you tend to lose to newcomers who are willing to write for “peanuts ” or maybe less than that.
Dear Shefali,
You are quite correct in pointing out the under valued market of content writing in India. We must understand that content writing is a matter of high intellect, which unlike data entry cannot be done in a mechanical manner. That is exactly the reason why even the best of supercomputers can not be expected to write contents. Can a tech savvy writer friend try forming a good forum for exchanging views and establishing the right value of content writing.
Moreover, content rejection is often very subjective, which means a premuim to compensate a rejection risk should be paid additionally.