Questions concerning freelance writing "per word" rates.

November 9, 2009 10:27 AM

I'm an occasional freelance writer with a background in print magazines considering taking an online gig. What kind of pay should I ask for?

From 2004-2008, I wrote book and movie reviews and conducted Q and A's for a Midwestern regional print publication with an annual circ. of around 150,000, making ten cents a word. Not fantastic, but I understood that to be an at least marginally acceptable rate, and I enjoyed the work.
This weekend I was offered a gig to churn out a 2-3000 thousand words a week for a pop-culture website (and I used to struggle to get around that many assigned a month!) Seems great, and it looks to be really easy stuff. I'm concerned, though, about the pay- it hasn't been discussed. Because of that, I haven't accepted yet.
I expect the pay to be lower than print, but I'm wondering how low we're talking about. BTW, I think the website gets a few hundred thousand clicks a month. Or is that how you even measure these things?

posted by joechip to media & arts (7 comments total)

It's a big red flag if they haven't brought up money. The person making the employment offer should be the one to broach the subject and they should have a figure for you. Ask them straight out what their pay structure is, and if they're unwilling or unable to say, move on and look for another opportunity.
posted by dortmunder at 10:38 AM on November 9

I agree with dortmunder. Other than that, hourly rate works best.
posted by bunny hugger at 11:10 AM on November 9

They offered three cents a word. Meh.
posted by joechip at 1:10 PM on November 9

I'm still really interested in this answer since I'm looking into freelancing online too. If 3cents is too low what would have been acceptable for that much writing? 5? 7? Would you have accepted the 3 if you had a lower minimum of writing for then every week?

Care to name the site? [for no reason at all ;-) ]
posted by Potomac Avenue at 1:57 PM on November 9

I've had online gigs that pay PER POST, not per word, with incentives based on how much traffic the posts receive. The "per post" varies, but seems to run from $10 to $30 an entry (mostly on the low end) for a site managed by a major media outlet.

In part, this model is based on the idea that if you post often, you'll build your own audience, and people will click over more often... and that web metrics are based mainly on page clicks.

I imagine one advantage to a longer entry (and thus pay per word) is that the article could be broken up into multiple pages that you need to click thru to... but it seems like, online, there's more value in having 4 250 words posts that 1 1000 word post, due to the short attention span of web readers. Not that this helps answer your question at all... But I suppose potentially useful for when you're offered or seek your next web writing position.
posted by Unsomnambulist at 3:39 PM on November 9

From my partner who is a writer:

"Yea, print will always pay better, in terms of how much to charge it depends on your resume, whether you are dependent upon the money, whether what you write is so interesting to you that you'd be willing to make the sacrifice of getting a lower pay...
2 - 3000 words a week is heaps though. Depending on the company profile and resources I really would be hard pressed to write that amount for less than 10c per word."
posted by Enki at 4:15 PM on November 9

Thanks everyone. I realize I'm probably taking on too high a word-count for too little, but I'm taking the gig for two reasons:

1) I could use the money, even an extra $300 a month.

2) I was worried about the pay, but I broke it down like this: I used to write 1500-word book reviews and make $150 dollars and a free book. It would take me 6-8 hours to read the book, 3-4 to write the review, and 1-2 on rewrites. It came down to less than 15 bucks an hour (though I guess getting paid to read ain't so bad.)
Thought the word count is higher, this new gig works out about the same, per hour-wise, because it will not require that kind of research and polish. It's more like glorified blogging.

Ah, the internet age!
posted by joechip at 4:41 PM on November 9