Are your Freelance Writing Rates too high?
How much are you charging your clients? If you don’t have any clients there is a good chance that your freelance writing rates are too high. In this case, you need to make an immediate change. There is nothing wrong with charging what you are worth, but there is definitely something wrong if you cannot get any work because of your rates. You can escape this trap in two easy steps.
1. Come to the conclusion that your rates are too high. Many freelance writers want to insist that they can receive a lot of work despite their high rates. If this is the case you need to go out and land some clients. If you have no work and buyers are telling you that your rates are too high you need to take this to heart. Owning up to the fact that your freelance writing rates are too high is the first step to overcoming this problem.
2. Lower your rates. Is this easy? No, it never is. But if you are not finding work at a higher rate you need to adjust your way of thinking. This does not mean that you have to cut your rates by a huge percentage. For instance, if you are not finding any work at $.25/word you could reduce your rate to $.20/word and see where this gets you.
The market will determine if your freelance writing rates are too high. If you are consistently landing new clients your rates are probably perfect for the time being. On the other hand, if buyers want to hire you but are constantly saying you charge too much you may want to rethink your positioning. A minor tweak to your rates can go a long way in making you a more successful freelance writer.
October 21st, 2008 at 8:12 am
I am seaching for some idea to write in my blog… somehow come to your blog. best of luck. Eugene
October 21st, 2008 at 9:13 am
hey chris, i did a search on your site for the topic you wrote on and find it comes a few times. As a blogger how do you determine when it is ok to repeat content vs new content, i have noticed over the last month you have started to reuse/rewrite old posts so was just curious.
I am running into a similiar issue where i am running out of new ideas for my blog and was wondering if rewriting old posts was pretty common with blogging when new material is not to be found. Also, how often a month would this be acceptable? i noticed you have done it about 2 or 3 times a week lately so hoping this is norm so i can start doing that as well!
http://www.chrisblogging.com/your-freelance-writing-rates-are-too-high/
October 21st, 2008 at 9:25 am
duplicate content – The posts that you mention are similar in some ways, but different in others. They are not simply rewrites.
To answer your question: I post on topics based around questions that are commonly asked. I receive tons of email asking a variety of questions, and this is where a lot of my ideas come from. If the same question is repeatedly asked it must mean that readers want more content on the subject, so I give it to them.
In the future leave your site’s URL so we can check it out and let you know what we think of your content. Don’t be shy!
October 21st, 2008 at 4:04 pm
Hi Chris,
Great blog. When someone asks about if it’s easy to make a living as a freelance writer I tell them it depends. There’s more opportunity than ever to find work and enough of it to make a full time living, but I point out that the perceived “freedoms” come with a price. Yeah, you can move your schedule around, but if you spend a day at the beach you better be willing to work late into the wee hours of the morning that night to get the work done.
Good post, and that’s the right strategy: if you see the same questions keep coming up, keep writing posts until the search engines find you.
Cheers!
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:35 pm
I always suggest they do one thing before “immediately” lowering their rates – change your marketing strategy!
Unless the writer is seriously over-estimating their potential worth, chances are that their overall marketing strategy needs an overhaul if they’re not getting gigs (and pricing is one small part of that). It’s also fortunately a part that doesn’t often have to change (in the negative sense). You’ll usually be better off by realizing your rates aren’t too high – they’re just too high for the market you’re targeting. By altering your target market, you can charge as much (if not more), and get past the job drought.
October 22nd, 2008 at 1:24 pm
Jenn – Excellent comment! Thanks for offering an alternate point of view.
October 23rd, 2008 at 3:34 pm
guess I got used too much with wah moms and students…20c/word???!!! if one needs articles and not sales letter, recruiting from forums around the subject is the way to go. Since it comes from someone who loves the subject, it is a very cheap (sometimes even free) and 100x more quality than a ‘professional writer’. Max results with min investments
I wonder how much you charge? 1$/word?
October 23rd, 2008 at 11:45 pm
Mircea, I have to hope you’re kidding when you say cheap and free work coming from forums offers “100x more quality than a ‘professional writer.’” That either tells me that you hang out at some pretty amazing forums (and I’m yet to find one offering outstanding cheap writers as the norm – and I spend a lot of time in forums where cheap writers do hang out), or you’ve never worked with true professionals and therefore don’t know the difference (which is actually quite common from those buyers looking for cheap work in forums). In the professional writing world, $.20 per word is actually quite cheap.
October 25th, 2008 at 12:04 am
This is somewhat controversial. I think the problem is that clients aren’t educated when it comes to quality work vs. cheap work. You can hire an international writer, sure – but you may also have to hire a second writer later to correct the first writer’s work. Is it that our rates are too high or that people expect they can get away with only paying sweat-shop prices?
October 25th, 2008 at 10:32 am
Thanks for all the great comments!
Jenn – You are so right. $.20/word is not even that high, but for some reason many people think that it is astronomical.
Deborah – There is definitely a fine line between high rates and clients who aren’t willing to pay because they are looking for cheap work. I try to set my rates and then find clients who agree on them without much negotiating, if any at all.