How Much to Charge as a Freelance Writer (Per word, per hour, per article, per email)
Knowing what to charge as a freelance writer can be a stressful situation.
You want to land the job but you don’t want your pricing to scare away potential clients. You also don’t want to charge too little and find that you are being paid unfairly for your skills and service.
You might feel like you’re between a rock and a hard place trying to find the right balance between what’s good and what’s fair.
Hopefully, this guide will help you sort out how much you should get paid and how much clients should be paying you.
Should I charge per hour or per word?
It really can be a matter of preference and a matter of client preference. I personally wouldn’t put too much stake on it. If you are able to write 1,000 clean, optimized words an hour and your client wants to pay per word you can think, “what do I want to make an hour?”
The client wants to pay .10 cents per word then you’ll make about $100 an hour. If they want to pay five cents per word that drops your pay in half for your time. Think about it this way and you can work with clients that want to charge per word and per hour.
The important part is knowing how long it takes you to write around 1,000 words as a meter. In freelance writing, it is a basic you will want to know off-hand how long it takes you to write 100, 200, 500, 1,000, 1,500, and 2,000-word articles so that you have at least a vague idea of how much you’ll be making per hour whether it is paid per word or per hour.
How much to charge per hour:
If just starting out, charge no lower than $20 an hour. This is low for writing online. When you are more advanced charge $60 an hour. When you have a specialized skill set like email or copywriting experience you can charge $150+ per hour.
There are of course many variables and many prices you could charge in between, but these types of prices could be pretty standard for freelance writing compared to other freelance skills.
How much to charge per word:
When you charge per word you don’t have to take your hour into account. If you write really fast then it doesn’t matter how long it takes you to jam out 1,000 words.
If you are starting out you might find yourself writing for .02 per word. When you are more skilled .10 per word can be expected. The highest paying per word is usually capped out at $1 per word.
Want to get paid to write? Check out Writing Paychecks
- There is a simple method over 30,000 people use to get paid for freelance writing online.
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Check out Writing Paychecks to see if you can start getting paid to write today.
How much to charge per article:
With articles, skills really determine pay.
If you are unskilled, don’t understand SEO, and leave lots of edits you could charge $10-20 per 1,000-word article.
If you know your way around SEO and can turn in a finished product then you can charge $500 for a 1,000-word article. If you specialize in a subject and have the skills to back up ROI you can charge $1000+ for a 1,000-word article.
How much to charge per email:
Email writing is a huge industry for writers right now.
For emails, you can charge as little as $20 per hour. If you’re advanced you can charge $60 per hour. If you’re an expert and specialized you can charge $150+ per hour.
Clients will pay for help with email because it is such a huge ROI potential for them to get their emails working correctly.
For cold emails, which is a specialization you can charge $100 for one email easily if you know what you’re doing.
How much to charge for sponsored posts:
Sponsored posts happen when you have followers on a blog or a social media presence and a company pays you to feature their product or service in some way.
The least an influencer should charge for a sponsored post would be $250.
When you get more sponsors and more followers you can charge $1000+ for a sponsored post.
Blogs with traffic of 300,000 or more a month could charge thousands for a single sponsored post.
Enjoying How Much to Charge as a Freelance Writer? Take a moment and consider sharing this social-friendly image to say thanks and feel free to comment with your thoughts below! 🙂
Want to get paid to write? Check out Writing Paychecks
- There is a simple method over 30,000 people use to get paid for freelance writing online.
- Opportunities can get started in just minutes a day, all from your home couch.
- It’s easy to get started! No previous experience or degree required to start.
- Exclusive job listings for writers, updated daily.
Check out Writing Paychecks to see if you can start getting paid to write today.
That’s all for the moment.
Hope this helps!
Happy writing!
Other Resources You Might Enjoy:
How to Start a Blog in 11 Simple Easy Steps in 2020
How to Write a Book: 32 Tips | Your MASSIVE Guide How to Write a Book
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