Businesses need to hire freelance writers, but stumble when it comes to working out what they should pay. The sheer number of job titles out there adds more confusion and there are no official rates published anywhere.
The question of price is a tricky one for both freelance writers and their clients.
I attempt to answer this question for businesses by applying my own experience of running my freelance writing business. My answers are given in the context of the era of digital marketing.
Usually businesses will hire a freelance writer because you are seeking some business growth – achieved through marketing. Remember that throughout this article.
Why is there so much conflicting information?
Pricing varies so much.
It’s partly because of the nature of the freelance market. It’s also due to the different types of projects that may fall into the broad category of ‘freelance writing’.
That’s why I always ask quite a few questions when a potential client wants to hire me. This is to check we’re on the same page for our terminology.
For example, the term ‘content marketing’ is thrown around a lot – but it actually has a very specific meaning. Far more than just ‘writing’, content marketing has a price tag to match.
Also, freelance writers are usually marketers. Calling them freelance writers doesn’t really cut it and adds more confusions. Call them writers if you will – but be mindful that marketing is the business function.
‘Copywriting’ is also different to ‘writing’. It’s a highly marketable skill that people perfect over years. Copywriting is directly geared towards conversion and selling products. Copywriting is a subset of freelance writing.
My personal favourite, blogging, is another type of writing that also requires a specific skillset. Done correctly, blogging is a subset of content marketing. Blogging is not just writing an article, posting it and praying for traffic. We’ll cover this in more depth later.
Freelance writers produce content that provides some kind of value for its intended audience – these professionals do not simply provide a mouthpiece for whatever company happens to hire them. Neither are they a way of outsourcing work companies don’t ‘have time’ to do themselves.
There are freelance writers out there like that, of course. But they won’t produce the results you need.
Types of writing services to hire for
Freelance writers specialise in different areas – resulting in more price variation.
Some are professional copywriters. Others are professional bloggers. Others still are professional ghostwriters or SEO copywriters. Some focus solely on email sequences or landing pages.
Types of freelance writers you might hire:
- Blogger $$
- Content marketer $$$
- Content strategist $$$
- Copywriter $$$
- Conversion copywriter $$$$
- Editor $$
- SEO writer $
- Features writer (more for media publishers than other businesses) $$$
- Social media writer $$
- Ghostwriter $$
- Technical writer $$$
Different types of writers will have their own rates. Broadly speaking, each field tends to command it’s own average. Prices are calibrated depending on level of specialist skill and value provided to the business.
Freelance writers are managed by someone at mid-level in your marketing department – probably a Content Marketer, Marketing Manager or Content Editor. The senior team should not really be running day-to-day operations like content production – unless your company is absurdly small.
The title of your project manager doesn’t really matter, but they must be responsible for scaling your marketing strategy and able to manage outside help.
Next we’ll go into what you’ll actually be paying for when you hire a freelance writer (HINT: it’s not writing).
Focus on deliverables rather than services
Don’t hire a freelance writer per hour or on a day rate. Hire for specific digital marketing deliverables.
These could be:
- Blog post $$
- Website copy $$$
- Landing page copy $$$
- Product copy $$
- Email sequence copy $$$
- Lead magnet $$$
- Social media $
These deliverables are usually priced according to the value they will bring to your business (cold hard cash) if done well. Website copy is evergreen and is your main conversion tool.
Be prepared to shell out a lot for decent copy.
Similarly, landing pages and lead magnets are high-conversion tactics aimed solely at generating leads or customers. See this post from Copy Hackers about how much some companies are willing to pay for a single long-form landing page.
It’s typical for freelance writers to charge on a ‘per word’ basis, or maybe a flat rate for a specific deliverable (eg a ballpark example could be £500 for a lead magnet or £1500 for full website copy). This is where rates can really vary.
For a single blog post, I’ve been paid anywhere between £20 (far too low, but this was when I started out) and £1,000.
Of course, the time and effort that went into each post varied massively. You can bet I spent a lot more time and effort on the £1,000 blog post than the £20 one.
How much do different types of freelance writers cost?
You’ll pay more for a freelance writer who specialises in a particular industry versus a generalist.
This is because you’re not really hiring a ‘writer’. You’re hiring someone who can turn ideas into ‘skyscraper content’ or ‘persuasive copy’ that customers will go crazy for. The more specialist knowledge a writer has, the more you need to pay them.
For example, if you need a freelance writer with software development skills, be prepared to pay them a lot of money. Think of how much they would earn being a software developer instead of a writer. The same goes for financial writers with accounting experience. These people are combining two sets of professional skills so they’re worth more money.
There’s a difference between B2B (Business to Business) and B2C (Business to Customer) writers.
B2C writing is a lot more competitive. You can get freelance writers on the cheap who need the experience. Higher end freelancers will cost a lot more in B2C than B2B. There are far fewer B2B writers overall than in B2C (in my experience). More people want to write about shoes than write about enterprise grade software.
The more competition there is for a small pool of freelance writers, you can bet they will be charging more. This is based on the scarcity principle.
In the same vein, journalists cost a lot more than freelance writers.
Freelance writers are not usually journalists, but some journalists may have transitioned into freelance writing. You can safely assume they will be charging a higher rate for their specialist background. They had to go to journalism school and gain qualifications. All this cost them time and money for them to obtain. They have specialist skills. They also have many contacts – in some ways their most valuable asset.
So how do we come up with these prices, anyway?
Pay for ROI, not time spent
Price is related to ROI.
The more revenue that the deliverable is likely to generate, the more it will cost. Which is a good thing for you.
Start thinking less like an employer with an employee, and more like an entrepreneur looking to generate revenue through marketing.
You need to divorce the idea of ‘time spent on the job’ from price. This has absolutely nothing to do with the value you’re going to get from it.
Media companies (formerly newspapers or publishing companies) might have an entrenched habit of contracting writers on a ‘day rate’, treating them as a type of temporary worker. This has influenced other industries, but it’s the worst possible way to hire a freelance writer. It encourages unproductive working practices and doesn’t necessarily produce value for your business.
I’ve been asked about my day rate many times, but I’ve never seen any value in working like this. My focus is on deliverables, not time spent sitting at my desk.
That was what my office job was for – and one reason why I left.
What freelance writing is not
Freelance writing crosses over with the field of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). It often involves content marketing, which is intertwined with SEO. Content drives traffic and improves your website ranking in various ways.
It’s purpose is NOT for ‘brand-building’ – despite what many sources out there may tell you. This is another hangover from the heyday of advertising when simply dominating an industry got you customers.
That being said, you should not expect your freelance writer to do much SEO work for you – another highly specialist skill. This needs to be done in-house, through another SEO professional, or through hiring a digital marketing agency.
Writers are not PR specialists. If you need to generate buzz for your company or its products, hire a PR consultant or agency to do that for you. This is their specialism. While experienced freelance writers should have industry contacts, those will be for their benefit – not yours.
As I mentioned before, sometimes very small companies are literally just looking to outsource some parts of a job. This is usually writing blogs that are not really much more than business updates or thought pieces. Such companies will usually be an individual freelancer themselves, a new company founder, or a contractor.
In that case, you probably aren’t looking for a professional freelance writer since your focus is not revenue generation. This work does not require any particular professional expertise in writing or marketing, and can be obtained at a reasonable cost.
You need a Virtual Assistant (PA or admin assistant who works remotely) to write your blog updates, publish them, and post on social media. Don’t waste your money hiring professional writers if you don’t need them.
The focus should be on growing your business.
Why does freelancing writing cost so much?
Some companies might balk at paying the rates I have mentioned. Others may be nodding vigorously along to what I’m saying.
The rate you pay is based on the results you get. It doesn’t matter if the freelancer spent five minutes or five weeks on your copy (hopefully neither!).
I’ve demonstrated the value of what you’re paying for. Freelancers aren’t a way for your company to save money. Hiring a freelance writer is not equivalent to hiring a full-time employee. The latter would be far more expensive – and a much bigger risk for the business.
If you still think freelance writing costs a lot, remember freelancers have to pay for all their own equipment, software, and office space. Then they have to pay tax out of what you pay them and also invest in their business. They don’t get paid holidays or sick leave – all things you would have to provide to an employee.
Freelance writers also spend a lot of time learning how to be a better writers and about their particular industry niche (or they should).
If you hire a freelance writer, trust they’ve priced themselves correctly. Never try to haggle – this reduces the perception of how much you value their services. If you reach out and find that you don’t think you’re a good fit with a particular writer, be polite and move on.
You still don’t think it’s a profession worth paying for? Maybe you don’t need a freelance writer at this point in your business.
How can I get a cheap freelance writer?
Many companies are still desperate to find freelance writers on the cheap. They want to achieve a specific business objective while also saving money at the same time.
This is wrong.
It’s counter-intuitive to the whole premise of business and capitalism.
You have to spend money to make money. Unless someone is running a scam, rates are always proportional to value. You get what you pay for. There is no such thing as a free lunch. It’s possible that some freelance writers might be trying to scam you with inflated prices, but most costs should reflect the quality and value of the service.
Still want a bargain-basement freelance writer?
This is where content mills like Upwork, People Per Hour and Fiverr come in. They are places where companies can find cheap freelancers. Remember the price tag is going to reflect the value you will get for your money. If you post low quality job ads, you will get hundreds of applications that you will then need to sift through.
If you do your research properly, you’ll realise that paying $5 for a blog post won’t get you quality writing.Paying someone peanuts will not motivate them to do a great job. Don’t try to offer them ‘exposure’ or ‘possible future work’ – this is just insulting.
Bargain-basement content is a relic of the earlier days of search engines when Google favoured sites that had lots of content – regardless of quality. This led to keyword stuffing lots of low quality content pages that had no real value for anyone but the marketer. These pages got lots of traffic and the site’s ranking increased – leading to much of the content we see today.
Google has penalised this practise now, but some companies are still hopelessly out of date.
Cheap content doesn’t translate to a living wage for your writer.
Maybe you want to pay a bit less if your freelance writer is very new to the game and you’re taking a big risk on them. They might be willing to work for low rates to establish their reputation. Even if this seems to work for both parties, you may still be undercutting rates for the industry as a whole – making it harder for established writers to support themselves.
What if I’m a small company?
Rates are determined based on the type of client you are.
Small businesses should not be paying thousands of pounds for a blog post as they won’t see the same return as large company with a huge audience. You’ll probably never be paying this much money for a freelance writer. The only exception to this rule is if you’re employing a high-conversion tactic like a long-form landing page – with the potential to generate very high revenue very quickly.
Bigger companies will have to pay more for services in general than smaller companies will because they stand to gain far more value from a writer.
Think this sounds unfair?
The old ‘$5 a blog post’ idea is actually laughable for a company with a budget of millions. They don’t want to hire someone charging so little. Corporates intimately understand value to price ratio – and will pay the going rate for quality work.
Smaller businesses may not have learned this lesson yet. They feel they can’t pay the going rate of freelancers – or they may have been put off by apparently extortionate rates.
Is it possible that you can technically afford it, but you don’t fully appreciate the value of what you’re buying? If so, hold off on hiring any freelance writers.
I don’t want to see any of my clients wasting money on high-value services that won’t get them a good return. That wouldn’t be a good long-term strategy for me because I would be helping my clients literally waste their money.
Small companies are often churning out ‘blog posts’ with no particular direction or purpose behind them and calling it ‘content marketing’. They’ve heard they need blog posts – and now! – but have no understanding of why. They think it’s to do with ‘branding’. These companies are most likely to think freelance writers are a waste of money.
In such a case, refer to my earlier point about hiring a VA. Freelance writing should always be getting you a return on investment. If you can’t afford the investment, maybe you’re just not ready to hire a freelance writer yet.
Final remarks
The growth of digital marketing has created whole new industries with startling speed. Sometimes, the terminology and business understanding has not caught up with the options out there. Freelance writer is such a broad term that there is great difficulty in evaluating rates.
The answer?
Forget about terminology. Focus on deliverables. Understand the value.
I specialise in supporting companies with content marketing strategy. If you already have some idea of what kind of content you need to increase traffic and generate leads, I can help you boost your conversions. If you don’t know what content you need yet, I can help you figure it out.
Get in touch with me at catherine@awaywithwords.co for rates and services.
Image by Andrew Neel on Unsplash
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