One of my biggest mistakes in my early freelance writing days was that I undervalued my worth. In other words, I worked for low pay because I didn’t think that I deserved more. While there is nothing wrong with starting out at the bottom, too many freelance writers work for peanuts for entirely too long.
The main reason that many freelancers are afraid to raise their rates is because they think they will get laughed at. But guess what? This very rarely happens unless you increase your rates above and beyond anything imaginable. Remember, clients are willing to pay good money for good work. Believe it or not, a lot of companies and webmasters have been burnt by low quality content in the past because they tried to skimp and save money. For this reason, they are more than willing to pay you what you think you are worth.
The question is: how do you determine what you are worth as a freelance writer? There is no easy way of doing this, and much like me, you will have to learn as you go along. With that being said, there are two points to consider.
1. How much experience do you have? As mentioned above, when you do not have a lot of experience you cannot command high rates. But luckily, as you build a client list and samples you can quickly increase the amount of money that you charge. There is no easy way of taking your experience and directly relating it to your rates. This is something that you have to decide on based on what you are comfortable with, as well as what you think your clients will pay. My freelance writing rates are always on the move, and yours will be too.
2. Although I have beat on this a lot in the past, I want to say it again. Find out what other freelance writers in your shoes are charging. I am always on the look out for other writer’s rates so that I know what I am up against. If my prices are lower, I know that I have a leg up on them from the start. If they are higher, I don’t lower my rate, but instead sell my experience and work samples against the competition.
It is important that you believe that freelance writers are worth a lot of money. Remember, content rules. If a company or website does not have the words to explain themselves or sell their product, they will be out of business in no time at all. For this reason, they are willing to spend a reasonable amount of money on a solid, reliable freelance writer like yourself. Â
As you may have seen, I switched ChrisBlogging to the new design this morning. Well, several unexpected issues occurred. They included some Internet Explorer compatibility issues, and some problems with the sidebar. At this time, I am working with the designer to figure things out.
In the meantime, I wanted to go back to my original theme. Even though I like the new design, the whole point of this blog is to teach freelance writing, not to look good. So until the new design is 100 percent correct, I’ll stick with this one. Simply put, I don’t want to do anything that will compromise the information that I supply!
Thanks to everybody for their patience. For now, let’s get back to talking about freelance writing!
If you are reading this post, you are doing so while looking at the new design of ChrisBlogging. What do you think? Even though it took a while to get the new theme up and running, I am quite happy with the final result. I really wanted to add an updated look and feel, and in my opinion this was accomplished quite nicely.
You will notice that this design is nothing like the old one. Just a few of the major additions include a 728 x 90 banner, as well as six 125 x125 buttons. If you read other blogs, which I am sure you do, you have probably seen similar set-ups.
Additionally, you will also notice that I have added a search box and the ability to subscribe to ChrisBlogging via email. Both of these tools should definitely help readers. If you don’t use an RSS reader, taking advantage of an email subscription is a great way to stay up to date with all my posts.
All in all, I am happy to finally be working with the new design. It is my hopes that this will make for a better experience for me, as well as all my readers.
If you have any opinion or question on the design, be sure to leave a comment or send me an email. Of course, Stumbling this post and/or subscribing to my feed are also greatly appreciated!
