by Rachel Smith
31 August 2016
Hi Rachel, wondering if you can help me. I’m after some advice on what freelancers should charge for blog posts. I find it’s a tricky one because there are a lot of terrible bloggers out there that aren’t even trained writers, who charge peanuts and drag rates down for the rest of us. The particular client that has requested my quote has said there would be no research or interviews involved and they would usually give me the topic. They went on to estimate it wouldn’t take up more than 2 hours which was actually too much info if you know what I mean because then they start thinking about your work in hours vs cost! Do you have any guidance on this? Thanks so much. Madelin
We have answered questions like yours before. A lot. Maybe because there are a lot of jobs out there for blog-writing that pay $5 a post, and probably even more wannabe writers putting their hand up. And you’re right – it is crazy-making and creates a super competitive marketplace where, ridiculously, professional writers are pitted against shysters who can barely string a sentence together.
All you can do (and all I do myself) is refuse to accept mediocre rates, stick to your guns if someone tries to bargain you down, and walk if a prospective client clearly doesn’t value what you do (or thinks the value of it is approximately $5).
To give you a benchmark (and this is just mine; others might charge differently), I don’t think of blog posts in word rate terms like I do if I’m writing for a magazine. I do blog posts for a number of clients in healthcare, branding, alternate therapies, etc and when it’s straight research / writing and between 600-800 words, I charge between $300-500. I reason that’s around 2-3 hours research/writing time and in those terms, not a bad rate. If interviews and transcribing are involved, the price goes up.
Some clients will try it on, saying something like, ‘this will take you 2 hours and it’s $40/hour’ and for me that’s not worth it. You have to determine what’s worth it for you. It might be that you think it’s worth it converting it to a word rate and charging accordingly.
I hope that helps!
List members: what do you charge when you’re writing blog posts for clients?
This is fab advice, and I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks $200-300 is fair!
BUT, that said, I was approached to do some blog posts for around a quarter of that and i agreed, because:
The brief is so detailed, the post practically writes itself
The SEO terms have been researched already – and are provided in the brief
The headline is given to me
The company is really nice, considerate, polite (such a rarity!)
They pay me within days of invoicing.
Hi Louisa, I think if you get that much info and you’re able to write it in an hour, then that probaby works out as an ok hourly rate for you. I do a mixture of hourly rates, project rates and word rates for different types of businesses (print, copywriting clients, brands needing blogs etc) and if I have the luxury of setting my rate I consider what is fair in terms of my time and the work involved. Print is the only one I still have to suck it up and accept the rates they offer 🙂 Long gone are the days when you could negotiate your word rates… for me anyway!
And, being paid within days is always a major plus for me too! I love it when I do advertorials on my other blogs and they pay BEFORE the post goes up. So awesome.
I should also say – they don’t take longer than an hour.
I think $200 – $300 per blog of 400 to 600 words, is OK. I tweeted this link from the National Australia Bank on how to calculate your hourly rate as a freelancer:
http://yourguide.nab.com.au/how-to-calculate-your-hourly-rate-as-a-freelancer/
and got a comment that it didn’t take into account how much the market would pay. It does, however, encourage you to consider your costs and how your freelance work might cover them, and that’s useful when being asked to accept peanuts for pay.
Those calculators always bamboozle me, especially if they need loads of info. I used a simple one (will have to dig out the link) and it was really helpful. I also have a rates card and go off that a lot, especially with brands (I charge differently for social media, WordPress updates, blog writing, copywriting, WordPress design and so on). I generally don’t like to go under $200 for blog posts, but recently I did a job where they wanted only 300 words, no interviews and wanted to pay $150. I figured that was pretty fair, in both hourly rate and word rate if I broke it down. So I took it 🙂
I wrote 10 blog posts (around 400 words each) for a small design company wanting to increase their exposure on LinkedIn.
They provided each topic and I allowed them one draft to be amended and then a final. As there were 10 posts requested, no research or interviews involved and topics I could write in an hour, I charged them $1000+GST as the package rate.
I did find a couple of the topics went back and forward a little but in the end felt it was a fair rate.
I think that’s fair Kylie, especially as it was a chunk of work and you could do it quickly. And, that they were good to work for and paid in advance!!
Oh, they also paid in advance!