Freelance Writing

With more and more webmasters wanting to make money online, the need for keyword articles is higher than ever before. The main issue with writing these articles is that many clients expect to pay a dollar or so for 500 words. As you can imagine, this is not going to advance your freelance writing career in any way, shape, or form.

One of the most common questions I receive from potential clients is whether or not I offer lower prices for bulk work. Obviously, this is not a question that comes from large companies or magazines that only require a feature article or two each month. But instead, these sorts of inquiries come from webmasters who are in need of hundreds of articles each month.

Whether or not you offer lower than normal prices for bulk work is up to you. Take this example for instance. If you usually charge $20 for a 500 word article, you would make $2,000 for a 100 article project; which is not a bad earner if you have the time. But as mentioned above, most clients will want a discounted rate since they feel like they are giving you an above average amount of work. If you decide that offering a bulk rate is a good idea, you could drop your price to $15/article. This would result in a total per project fee of $1,500. As you can see, by lowering your price you would lose $500 on the job.

Personally, if I am taking on a large order, I will consider offering a lower price. Of course, there are certain criteria for doing so. They include:

1. The size of the project. Make sure that you know the answer to this question up front. I have had clients tell me they would order 200 or so articles so that they could get a bulk price. Soon after sending them the first 25, they decide that the project is not worth their time. Make sure you are 100 percent sure that you are lowering your price for a large order.

2. If you are going to drop your price, you must still make sure that it will be profitable for you to get started. The best way to do this is to determine how long the project will take to complete, and then calculate the hourly rate that you will earn. If it fits into your normal rate, you should be fine to proceed.

3. In order to protect against the scenario in number one, ask for at least 50 percent of payment up front. This way the client will never think twice about canceling the project. Not to mention the fact that receiving up front funds will protect you from nonpayment after a lot of work.

There is noting wrong with lowering your price for bulk work. But before you do this, remember to make sure that you calculate your overall hourly wage. You do not want to lower your price just to find out that you are working for minimum wage or less.