How much do I bill for freelance writing website content?
June 28, 2017 8:00 PM Subscribe
I have been offered the opportunity to write a local publication's new website content. My skills are strong, my qualifications weak. I have freelanced drawing skills before and undersold myself. Never again. Guidance or resources appreciated.
I work for a regional craft brewery. My recent duties have included populating our website with the kind of snappy and sharable content that, apparently, people will pay for. Our marketing director (my supervisor) was contacted by a well established locally-oriented lifestyle publication who expressed interest in harnessing my talents to populate their own website redesign. I have no reservations about my ability to deliver the content they desire. But, aside from 15 abortive hours of undergraduate creative writing classes, I have no formal training and no documented real-world experience. I require reasonable guidelines concerning payment with which to approach them concerning this project.
I work for a regional craft brewery. My recent duties have included populating our website with the kind of snappy and sharable content that, apparently, people will pay for. Our marketing director (my supervisor) was contacted by a well established locally-oriented lifestyle publication who expressed interest in harnessing my talents to populate their own website redesign. I have no reservations about my ability to deliver the content they desire. But, aside from 15 abortive hours of undergraduate creative writing classes, I have no formal training and no documented real-world experience. I require reasonable guidelines concerning payment with which to approach them concerning this project.
Ask your supervisor, who is a marketing director, what they would pay for this sort of thing.
posted by turbid dahlia at 9:02 PM on June 28, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by turbid dahlia at 9:02 PM on June 28, 2017 [3 favorites]
This depends on how involved you are in the design process Will the design team say "we need 10-25 words here and 100-150 here" or will you just be asked to write content for (for example) the homepage? Or will you be giving input like, "about page needs a section on company history". Also do you have any SEO knowledge?
With no experience, I'd offer $50/hour and use this as an opportunity to contribute and learn. Really though, most successful companies shouldn't blink at paying $150/hr.
posted by paulcole at 9:15 PM on June 28, 2017
With no experience, I'd offer $50/hour and use this as an opportunity to contribute and learn. Really though, most successful companies shouldn't blink at paying $150/hr.
posted by paulcole at 9:15 PM on June 28, 2017
Response by poster: turbid dahlia, you'd think, right? Except I made the mistake of writing for my current employer gratis, because I enjoy the creative outlet and believe in the company. What a rube. I suspect he doesn't want to be the one to tell me what I should have been making these past few weeks. Live and learn, I suppose.
posted by barrett caulk at 10:01 PM on June 28, 2017
posted by barrett caulk at 10:01 PM on June 28, 2017
Best answer: 1) How much is your hourly rate? I charge a median of $75/hour for strategic copywriting, which includes website content. Some clients I charge more, but it's all about their ability to pay, and my need to keep a volume of work coming in the door to pay the bills.
2) How many hours do you estimate it's going to take you to write this content? You need at least 350 words a page in order to be indexed by search engines. It would take me 2 hours per page to write. If that's 5 pages, that's 10 hours.
3) You need to factor in time for a) research (4 hours) b) revisions (3 hours) c) admin / project mgmt (4 hours) d) contingency (10% of hours so far, which would be 21, so that's another 2 hours)
So, you're looking at 23 hours @$75/hr, which is about $1725 (for five pages at 350/words each).
You can adjust the inputs according to the client, such as more admin or discussion time, more research time, more pages, etc.
TBH, if you have no experience in SEO (SEO just means the copy and the page are optimized for search engines, and doesn't mean any sort of trickery; it's just a technical domain of writing) or writing persuasive copy, then charing $4000 for a project like this is NG. I also think in your case $2000 is the maximum amount for 5 pages of content.
I wouldn't focus on your credentials or CV so much, since it's a backward-looking exercise and is irrelevant. However, your lack of familiarity with SEO would mean that you can really charge "premium" rates. $75/hour is still acceptable, though.
Also: don't pitch on an hourly basis. Pitch on a project basis, and set a benchmark for a "minimal viable product" for your estimate, so you can go back to them at the end of the month for more money if need be.
posted by My Dad at 10:28 PM on June 28, 2017 [17 favorites]
2) How many hours do you estimate it's going to take you to write this content? You need at least 350 words a page in order to be indexed by search engines. It would take me 2 hours per page to write. If that's 5 pages, that's 10 hours.
3) You need to factor in time for a) research (4 hours) b) revisions (3 hours) c) admin / project mgmt (4 hours) d) contingency (10% of hours so far, which would be 21, so that's another 2 hours)
So, you're looking at 23 hours @$75/hr, which is about $1725 (for five pages at 350/words each).
You can adjust the inputs according to the client, such as more admin or discussion time, more research time, more pages, etc.
TBH, if you have no experience in SEO (SEO just means the copy and the page are optimized for search engines, and doesn't mean any sort of trickery; it's just a technical domain of writing) or writing persuasive copy, then charing $4000 for a project like this is NG. I also think in your case $2000 is the maximum amount for 5 pages of content.
I wouldn't focus on your credentials or CV so much, since it's a backward-looking exercise and is irrelevant. However, your lack of familiarity with SEO would mean that you can really charge "premium" rates. $75/hour is still acceptable, though.
Also: don't pitch on an hourly basis. Pitch on a project basis, and set a benchmark for a "minimal viable product" for your estimate, so you can go back to them at the end of the month for more money if need be.
posted by My Dad at 10:28 PM on June 28, 2017 [17 favorites]
I agree with My Dad, although if they are unsure about the project scope, then I'd offer an hourly basis of $75.
posted by slidell at 10:39 PM on June 28, 2017
posted by slidell at 10:39 PM on June 28, 2017
I tend to think it's in the vendor's interest to nail down scope. This makes it easier to achieve and demonstrate success, and keep working with the client. There are a couple of dangers of charging per hour: you end up charging for doing a lot of work with no tangible result, which may make it more difficult for your client to defend internally their choice to hire you. The other danger or aggravation with hourly rates is that the client then focuses on the hourly rate, and not the project, and will want to nickle-and-dime.
If you, as a freelancer answering to no project manager on your end, focus on outputs instead of billable hours, the hourly rate is an entirely abstract number.
posted by My Dad at 11:02 PM on June 28, 2017 [2 favorites]
If you, as a freelancer answering to no project manager on your end, focus on outputs instead of billable hours, the hourly rate is an entirely abstract number.
posted by My Dad at 11:02 PM on June 28, 2017 [2 favorites]
How much content are we talking? Here is a great discussion on the topic, linked from here, which suggests that a 5-7 page project, including all edits, should cost between $2000 - $4000.
Uh. Purely from a market perspective, online writing is not like other writing. I know nobody who is paid per hour unless creating online content is just one part of a social media job or webdev agency contract. Plenty of outlets (I'm looking at you, HuffPo) pay nothing for content. Outlets that do pay seem to pay $150 per article at the top end, or offer a rate per word.
I dunno how much content we're talking about here but I suspect this project would be priced along that budgetary guideline.
posted by DarlingBri at 12:02 AM on June 29, 2017 [1 favorite]
Uh. Purely from a market perspective, online writing is not like other writing. I know nobody who is paid per hour unless creating online content is just one part of a social media job or webdev agency contract. Plenty of outlets (I'm looking at you, HuffPo) pay nothing for content. Outlets that do pay seem to pay $150 per article at the top end, or offer a rate per word.
I dunno how much content we're talking about here but I suspect this project would be priced along that budgetary guideline.
posted by DarlingBri at 12:02 AM on June 29, 2017 [1 favorite]
Freelance writer based in Europe here: I do almost all of my work — online and offline — on an hourly-rate. It varies a little, based on the type of work and the length of the project, but it's mostly stable.
Plenty of good advice above about scoping and pricing, but I want to add something about negotiation here: they approached you. This puts you in a strong position! Don't worry about (lack of) qualifications, and don't lowball yourself.
I would work out how much money it would take to make me happy to do the work. Then I'd pitch myself in at double that number. They can always come back with a counter offer if they don't like it. With a bit of luck, they'll feel like they got you at a discount, and you'll get more than your baseline. Everyone's happy.
Good luck!
posted by ZipRibbons at 12:29 AM on June 29, 2017
Plenty of good advice above about scoping and pricing, but I want to add something about negotiation here: they approached you. This puts you in a strong position! Don't worry about (lack of) qualifications, and don't lowball yourself.
I would work out how much money it would take to make me happy to do the work. Then I'd pitch myself in at double that number. They can always come back with a counter offer if they don't like it. With a bit of luck, they'll feel like they got you at a discount, and you'll get more than your baseline. Everyone's happy.
Good luck!
posted by ZipRibbons at 12:29 AM on June 29, 2017
I dunno how much content we're talking about here but I suspect this project would be priced along that budgetary guideline.
My experience is completely different. I support a family on one income by writing "web content" (website copy, newsletters, PPC land-pages, lead magnets for those landing pages such as e-books and white papers), and I also do a bit of freelancing for traditional print magazines and web outlets in the same tier as HuffPo that do pay me quite well. I'm not especially talented or well-connected, either, although I do have a good background in marketing copywriting, online marketing, journalism and feature writing.
There are plenty of places that do not pay for web content, but there are plenty of places that do pay, and pay quite well.
posted by My Dad at 1:06 AM on June 29, 2017 [5 favorites]
My experience is completely different. I support a family on one income by writing "web content" (website copy, newsletters, PPC land-pages, lead magnets for those landing pages such as e-books and white papers), and I also do a bit of freelancing for traditional print magazines and web outlets in the same tier as HuffPo that do pay me quite well. I'm not especially talented or well-connected, either, although I do have a good background in marketing copywriting, online marketing, journalism and feature writing.
There are plenty of places that do not pay for web content, but there are plenty of places that do pay, and pay quite well.
posted by My Dad at 1:06 AM on June 29, 2017 [5 favorites]
Except I made the mistake of writing for my current employer gratis
Ah. Well, then your employer has probably told the lifestyle publication this, which will make things interesting. But: I have also done a bit of freelance here and there and My Dad's advice above seems pretty good.
posted by turbid dahlia at 12:17 PM on June 29, 2017
Ah. Well, then your employer has probably told the lifestyle publication this, which will make things interesting. But: I have also done a bit of freelance here and there and My Dad's advice above seems pretty good.
posted by turbid dahlia at 12:17 PM on June 29, 2017
Like ZipRibbons said, don't ever forget they came to you. Worst that can happen is you ask for too much and they walk away, which leaves you in exactly the same place you were anyway. I'm a freelance copywriter, mostly ad campaigns, but over the past few years it's necessitated way more digital writing . I always start with an hourly rate, but if they insist, I do a little brain math to turn that into a project fee. However, I make sure both parties know exactly what that project rate includes.
In my experience I've found it best to agree a price based on first drafts - I will write a first draft of all of this content for x amount - and then tell them rounds of revisions will be an additional fee. I do this thanks to painful experience. Every single job I ever took where I agreed a flat fee for the entire project up front has run on WAYYYYY longer than the client initially explained due to rounds and rounds and rounds of revisions, which made me hate the job and hate myself for agreeing to do the job.
I think My Dad makes some good points about scope, it's solid advice if you want a career in content writing. But, unless I'm reading this wrong, you're not looking for a career change, so worrying about fostering a relationship to create a long term client doesn't apply to you. That gives you the power. I don't mean in a Scarface tyrannical laughter way, I mean in a ask for exactly what you want and be firm with it kind of a way, because, back to the top, oh how I love to go full circle, THEY CAME TO YOU!
posted by AllTheQuestions at 5:06 PM on June 29, 2017 [1 favorite]
In my experience I've found it best to agree a price based on first drafts - I will write a first draft of all of this content for x amount - and then tell them rounds of revisions will be an additional fee. I do this thanks to painful experience. Every single job I ever took where I agreed a flat fee for the entire project up front has run on WAYYYYY longer than the client initially explained due to rounds and rounds and rounds of revisions, which made me hate the job and hate myself for agreeing to do the job.
I think My Dad makes some good points about scope, it's solid advice if you want a career in content writing. But, unless I'm reading this wrong, you're not looking for a career change, so worrying about fostering a relationship to create a long term client doesn't apply to you. That gives you the power. I don't mean in a Scarface tyrannical laughter way, I mean in a ask for exactly what you want and be firm with it kind of a way, because, back to the top, oh how I love to go full circle, THEY CAME TO YOU!
posted by AllTheQuestions at 5:06 PM on June 29, 2017 [1 favorite]
Marketing firms that I see doing content for a full website build charge a fixed rate per project, which they base on an hourly rate and an estimated number of hours.
Individual freelancers tend to charge per article, but they're typically write, say, a blog post, not the content of an entire website.
I'd tend to hone in on a scope of work and propose a fixed rate, w/ the possibility of a scope extension or hourly work in the case that it's not enough. If $75 is typical (which sounds about right to me), I'd use, say, $60/hour because you're inexperienced. Unless you think you can get away w/ $75. :)
posted by nosila at 12:08 PM on October 23, 2017
Individual freelancers tend to charge per article, but they're typically write, say, a blog post, not the content of an entire website.
I'd tend to hone in on a scope of work and propose a fixed rate, w/ the possibility of a scope extension or hourly work in the case that it's not enough. If $75 is typical (which sounds about right to me), I'd use, say, $60/hour because you're inexperienced. Unless you think you can get away w/ $75. :)
posted by nosila at 12:08 PM on October 23, 2017
Whoa, I just realized that I replied to a post from June. In October. Super.
posted by nosila at 12:15 PM on October 23, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by nosila at 12:15 PM on October 23, 2017 [1 favorite]
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posted by sevensnowflakes at 8:04 PM on June 28, 2017