Writers: Here’s The Best Time to Talk About Your Rate
Don’t know when to mention your rates to a potential client. Here’s the best time.
Ah, the dreaded potential client call or email. I'm not sure that any writer likes to negotiate with clients. When's the best time to talk about your rate without scaring customers off? “First of all, if the first time price comes up is at the end of conversation, it’s far too late,” says Weldon Long MBA, CEO of a multimillion-dollar business that landed on the Inc 5000 list of America’s Fastest Growing Companies.
“What’s worse, addressing price only after your prospect brings it up themselves will diminish trust and kill your chances at a successful sales interaction,” adds Weldon. Weldon Long is a top sales expert consulting for some of the world’s biggest companies – but he has a very unique personal history.
A high school dropout, Weldon spent 13 years in prison for robbery, money laundering, and mail fraud. While in jail, Weldon started studying; earning his GED, BS in Law, and MBA in Management. Then, at 39 years old, Weldon was released. While living in a homeless shelter, Weldon landed a commission-only sales position and quickly became the company's top sales leader. In 2004 he opened his own heating and cooling business and grew it into a multimillion-dollar enterprise.
When to Talk About Your Rates
Address price first: “If you talk about your product or service’s price at the very beginning of your conversation, when your prospect is naturally feeling less trepidation than they’ll feel at the closing, you benefit from having time to build rapport by empathizing with them about cost, as well as have more time to combat inevitable objections while building trust."
“So if you want to be more successful in sales, discuss price at the beginning of your meeting, not the end. Here’s how to do it with without feeling awkward.”
So Does This Work for Writers?
Yes! After 20+ years as a writer, I have found this technique to be very useful. Typically when someone contacts me for potential work, I mention my rates up-front. This weeds out people who don’t have the budget for my services, saving me time, but it also puts me in the position of power. I control the conversation as a professional and the client takes me more seriously.
How Much Should I Get Paid for Freelance Writing?
"How much should I get paid for freelance writing?" I hear this question all the time. For my No-Fluff readers out there I'll break it down.
"How much should I get paid for freelance writing?" I hear this question all the time. I could just answer with a vague, "It depends," (because it really does!) but for my No-Fluff readers out there I'll break it down. Here are the basics to determining how much to charge as a freelance writer, no matter if you’re new, or have been a professional writer for years.
How Much Money Do You Need?
Before anything else, you need to decide how much money you need. You see, you can make anything from a few dollars to a few thousand dollars per week. As a freelancer, you get to decide what you get paid and what hours you work. So sit down and do the math.
Start by deciding how much money you need to survive each month. That includes paying bills and buying essentials like clothing, food, medicine, etc.
Take your first figure and decide how much more than that you would need to live comfortably, meaning you could afford a few extras or keep your savings account well fed.
Now, break that monthly total down into how much money you need to make per week by dividing the amount by four.
Find the daily amount by dividing your weekly amount by seven or however many days you want to work per week.
Finally, decide how many hours you want to work per day.
How much you charge per hour, multiplied the number of hours you want to work per day, should equal how much money you need to earn per day.
So: What you want to make / Number of hours you want to work = Hourly fee
Say I decided that I needed to earn $2,000 per week to live comfortably. Then assume I only want to work five days a week so that I have weekends off and I only want to work five hours per day, tops. That means I need to make $400 per day. To achieve this, I charge a minimum of $80 per hour.
Charging by the project
Usually, freelance writers don’t charge by the hour, they charge by the project. For example, I wouldn’t tell clients I charge $80 per hour. I charge a set price for a project by deciding how many hours it will take me. So a blog post that will take me around two hours would cost a client around $160, bare minimum.
My prices are higher than my bare minimum, though. The bare minimum is just a guideline so I know how low I can haggle with a client without shooting myself in the foot. Also, I usually round up to the nearest $100. So, the cost would come out to $200. Why? Because I can! I also round up the hours. If it will take me 30 minutes, I charge for an hour.
Consider all the factors
There are some other factors that can add to your bare minimum pricing. Add more to the price if the piece needs interviews, research, images… or the client seems like they are going to be a pain in the butt (more on how to deal with them here).
Articles per day matter, too
We’re still not done. Now you need to decide how many articles per day you want to do. With the example above, if I charged $100 per article, I would need to write 20 articles a week or four articles per day to make my $2,000 per week goal. But that’s a lot of articles. I myself can’t write four a day. My limit is two.
If your brain blitzes out after one article, then you’ll only be able to do one article per day. No need to be ashamed or try to press yourself past your limit. That will lead to poor product quality and burnout.
Ultimately, you’ll need to up your rate to meet your income needs and your mental needs.
Experience
But Alina, you may be saying, if I only write one article per day and my goal is $2,000 per month, I would need to charge $400 per article and I’m not experienced enough to charge that much! To that I would say, maybe. If you’re approaching clients and proposing charging that much, I would agree. But there’s a loophole.
There are plenty of online magazines that will pay that and more. All you need to do is come up with a great idea, pitch it, and then nail the article. Now, I know it’s harder than that, but most editors don’t care if you’re new if you have a great idea and you can prove you can write well with a couple of clips. So, you have the potential to make way more than your minimum per article, meaning you can write less to meet your goals.
Make sense?
In the end, my answer to the question, "How much should I get paid for freelance writing," is simply:
"How much do you want to get paid?"
Want more great tips like these? Read my book:
How Much Can You Make as a Freelance Writer?
Indeed has released information they have collected on this very topic. Here’s a look at what they shared and some other insights.
I’m asked a lot about how much income someone can expect as a freelance writer. I always say it depends on how much time you put in, your skill and niche. I know that answer doesn't satisfy most people. Interestingly enough, Indeed has gathered some information on this very topic. Here’s a look at what they shared and some other insights.
How much does a Writer make in United States?
Here’s what Indeed had to say about writer pay in the US:
The average salary for a Writer is $23.38 per hour in United States. Salary estimates are based on 1,159 salaries submitted anonymously to Indeed by Writer employees, users, and collected from past and present job advertisements on Indeed in the past 36 months. The typical tenure for a Writer is less than 1 year.
I think this is pretty accurate for beginners. Many writers (including myself) make much more. I tend to make $100 to $200 an hour. Also, what type of writing you do plays a role. For example, Indeed found that content writers (people who write articles or blogs) tend to make $16.97 per hour. Copywriters make around $57,152 per year on average and technical writers tend to make $33.24 per hour.
How to raise your rates
Overall, Indeed says that writers in the United States generally earn between $10.50 – $56.05 per hour based on 5,014 salaries shared by writers and employers in the United States. How much I earn is 311.84% above the United States's average. So how did I get here? Glad you asked. Here’s some tips:
Read articles, blogs, whitepapers, or whatever in your niche and take notes.
Write, write, write! You can’t improve without consistently working on your craft.
Apply for high-paying gigs and be confident!
My No-Fluff Freelance Writing Pack lays out all of the steps for you. Get it for just $29.97.