As a freelance writer in the age of new media, blogging for pay is one of the many types of writing I do. I first started doing this at the beginning of this year. Initially, I set my rates for blogging by the seat of my pants. Meaning, I had no clue how much to charge.
Why It’s Hard to Price Blogging Jobs
Blogging jobs were hard for me to price because:
(i) it’s such a new medium that there are no “standard” rates;
(ii) client posting schedules can vary; and
(iii) how you post can vary.
As for number (i), this was easy to get around because freelance writing is kind of like this. As in, freelance writing rates tend to be all over the place.
As for number (ii), this is where it starts to get tricky. I have clients who want anything from once a week posting to five times a week posting. In this case, the obvious question is do you charge by the post or by the posting schedule (eg, one rate for a week’s worth of post).
Number (iii) presents a different conundrum. Some clients like for me to email them the posts, and they upload them. Others allow you to set up an account and you go in and post yourself. This means more time on your part.
So, just how do you price a blogging job?
How to Properly Price a Blogging Job
I take the following four things in consideration when pricing blogging jobs: (i) Subject matter/type of content request; (ii) Word count required; (iii) posting schedule; and (iv) manner of posting.
These four things cover every aspect of your time, which is what pricing any freelance writing job is all about. How much is your time worth? Answer this question successfully and you will be able to come up with a pricing schedule that works well for all blogging jobs that come your way.
I am absolutely surprised that no dollar figures were mentioned in this post. I know the rates and ranges vary wildly, but I would like to put forth that no matter what a person charges in blogging that they should make sure they are making at least minimum wage in their area or they might as well get a job earning minimum wage at a store or something…
If the minimum wage is $7 per hour, use that as a starting basis of how you charge clients. If you can do one post per hour, including research, writing, editing and promoting, then charge at least $7 per post.
Also, think about what you are getting in a per word rate. If you are writing 1000 words for $7, your rate is less than $0.01 per word, which to me is slave labor. 500 words at $7 gives you a per word rate of $0.014 per word, which is approaching a good no-experience starting wage of around 2 cents per word.
If your goal is $50 per day, with 2 hours of work or $25 per hour, how much can you produce in those two hours, and how does that work out for content for those purchasing your services? Make sure they don't forget that there will be time needed to research, edit and even promote articles, and that time is all billable as well.
Don't just charge for your writing, unless that is all you are ever going to give them. If you want to build a community, and will be managing comments, among other things, you deserve some sort of compensation for that as well.
Much of this is based on what you hope to earn from your work, and I think numbers need to play a stronger part in building examples of pay rates. Why people publish such posts without example numbers is beyond me. How can you talk pay without numbers?
@ David, in answer to your question, "How can you talk pay without numbers?" Easy, it's not my business to tell others what to charge. I outline the guidelines I use to come up with my pricing.
In freelance writing, rates are all over the place and I didn't want to start THAT particular war with this post. Whenever specific rates are mentioned, the conversation always becomes about the rate — which may or may not be what was intended. In this case, I did not want to visit "the rate question." Only what goes into coming up with a rate, from my perspective.
Thanks for weighing in.
Oh, I totally get what you mean, but no one ever "gets" the whole picture until they see examples. Hopefully, the ones I've left will help people, and NO the numbers I left aren't standard rates, just EXAMPLES to help understand some more about thoughts that go into rates
Very nice subject to share opinions and a lot of things to talk about.
I fully agree with david and don't know what more to say.
Cheers!!
I think most blogging jobs now charge by the word rate and it's pretty smart to do so.
-Mike
I have to side with Yuwanda here. There are too many variables to come up with any sort of figure.
Sure i can throw out .05 a word or $25 per post. But it isn't that simple, because there is word count to consider, length of time it takes to craft an article, what other duties are involved besides content creation, etc.
On the flip side, if you own a blog and want to to hire a writer, but can only afford say $10 per shor blog article. This has nothing to do with variables. Because regardless of someones experience, knowledge, etc if i can only afford to pay X amount. That is all i can do.
So at that point it is about the writer. What is he/she willing to take a job on for? There is the writer's side and the employer's side.
It varies for both. There is no one right or wrong amount. The whole thing should come down to a mutually beneficial set up.
A friend took a blogging job and she makes about 7 cents an hour (slight exaggeration). She reads she looks at podcasts she comments. For sure evaluating the amount of time required is impossible in most cases. It better be fun reading or writing cause $25.00 an article would be considered nirvana level pay to most buyers.
She said though "Hey I used to do Yahoo Answers for wind down time at the end of my writing day" so it all depends on perspective.
She did mention she prob won't do a blog job again. (not my writing, your mind dudes)
It is not cost effective although it's a fun part of freelancing. I couldn't afford to take time away from my other writing, ie articles, press releases, seo cause it's just too time consuming compared to going to one place, writing and then sending to the client.
It is really difficult to gauge time when charging to write a blog. One unexpected thing to consider is the transitions and then the ones that don't go through as expected.
Great article, I think it's also important to consider how much you need to make. If you need to make X amount per month and you accept jobs paying way less you won't be happy and it'll come across in your work. Charge what you think you're worth and you'll write better quality, you'll make the money you need to live off your writing and you'll find more jobs at that rate. When you start accepting the $2/article jobs you put yourself in a category and somehow you just keep finding more and more of the low paying jobs. That's just my 2 cents, but if it's not worth my time I'd rather be looking for better paying gigs or playing with my family.
My recent post Social Media Wins From Big Businesses
Josh, I found your point of view is the most appealing one. It's better NOT to be a freelance blogger then making our skill cheap and low. If our writing makes the differences in the particular market (either product/service for whom we do write) then WE MUST CREATE A CONFIDENT LEVEL. Then charge sufficient amount which can make win-win situation. Otherwise, after sometime we may looses our motivation and will not be able to market properly and professionally.
Cheap is Costly (at least I do believe).
Murtaza.
My recent post -વેપારસંક્રાંતિ- વેપાર-વહેવારનો દરરોજ ઉજવી શકાય તેવો તહેવાર!
This article told me absolutely nothing. Thanks for wasting my time.
I agree with some of the people here. I was looking for what to charge and thank fully it was a short post about nothing! lol I kept reading looking and waiting for an answer and you just left me hanging at the end. Kind of like an ex girlfriend who left me hanging once after she received a phone call from one of her kids and she jumped right out of bed and left me hanging too!