What Is The Adequate Pay Rate For Freelance Writers Today?

Several novice and experienced writers are turning to freelancing as a career choice to either supplement or become a primary source of income. There are a lot of perks that come with freelance writing, including setting your own hours and working from wherever you choose. It certainly allows for a lot of freedom but there are still some concerns and unknowns about what an adequate pay rate is for someone in this field. So here are a few questions to consider when figuring this out:

How Demanding Are Your Skills?

Some writing niches are in higher demand than others. This isn’t to say that if your niche is in less demand that you won’t be able to get enough job offers, it just means that the higher demand your style or niche is in the field, the easier time you will have to find offers. When clients come to you for assistance you’re given more room to negotiate to rates you prefer.

How Long Have You Been Freelancing?

You wouldn’t necessarily hire someone or a service provider that has little experience, unless their rate was pretty low. The same can be true about freelancing. The more experience you have the greater you can charge. Even if you have only completed projects for a previous employer you should show what your experience level is by creating a portfolio and presenting your best pieces.

How Difficult Are the Projects Taken?

Another question to consider is how difficult the projects you are looking to take are. If projects last several weeks to complete but you’re the only person working, then you might need to make it worth your client’s while or iterate precisely why you will be charging a premium. If you take on easy projects then you’re probably going to want to charge a small fee, considering that a potential client might find another service provider.

How Many Projects Are Completed in a Day?

This is closely related to the difficulty of a project. Clearly, if you take about 4 hours to finish a project and you plant to work on two projects a day, then you might charge about half a day’s rate per project. What this means to freelancers will vary from one person to another. If you plan on doing this full time then you will likely need a full-time wage or salary. Plan accordingly and consider that you will be competing against other writers.