How to Calculate Your Freelance Writing Rate in 7 Simple Steps
I want to clear up a common misconception about setting your freelance writer rates. Namely, you don’t need to accept peanuts for your work.
If you are an aspiring freelance writer, you’ve probably already visited the most popular boards for getting freelance writing jobs and you’ve seen the salaries that are offered there.
You know, all those jobs that pay $10 per hour.
Now, to some people, $10 per hour may sound like a good salary. After all, the cost of living can vary dramatically depending on where you live.
However, your lifestyle may require quite a lot more funding than a $10-per-hour job can provide. This doesn’t mean that freelance writing isn’t for you. It’s definitely for you! If you want to charge higher freelance writer rates, you certainly can do so.
Why? Because the salaries you see on freelance writing job boards are not indicative of how much money you can make as a freelance writer. Employers on job boards are able to pay less because, by posting on job boards, they attract many potential candidates who will accept lower and lower rates just to get the job. It’s a race to the bottom.
This is how you can justify charging more for your work:
1. You write well.
2. You can follow instructions from the client.
3. You stick to deadlines.
4. You provide value to your clients (meaning that you consistently meet and exceed their expectations).
5. You have a good freelance writer portfolio and position yourself as an expert.
Seriously, if you can do those 5 things, you can charge way more than $10 per hour. It’s actually quite difficult for companies to find reliable writers to work with. If you can be that reliable writer, you can charge whatever you want!
Create Your Own Job
So, how can your freelance writer rate be more than what is offered on freelance writing boards? How do you actually get a client and get paid?
By cold pitching, baby!
When you’re cold pitching, you are reaching out to a company in a one-on-one format. It doesn’t matter how much other people charge, because you’re the only one offering your services.
Let me put this another way. Have you ever been outside on a hot day in a public place, and bought a bottle of water from someone for $1 each?
Sure you have. We all have.
It doesn’t matter that we could have gone to the grocery store ourselves and bought our own water bottle for $0.79. This person is here, right in front of us, with cold water, and we are willing to pay a little more for the convenience.
The same thing goes for freelance writer rates.
You identify a potential client who needs your help, and then pitch your services. Sure, they could probably receive the same service from another freelance writer for a lesser price.
However, that would force them to search for that freelance writer who charges less, and that takes time. Marketing professionals are always pressed for time. So when you show up in their inbox with that perfect pitch for the exact service they need, they will probably be happy to pay your rate, no questions asked.
But wait… How Much Do Other Writers Charge?
Let me say this louder for the people in the back: IT DOESN’T MATTER HOW MUCH OTHER FREELANCE WRITERS CHARGE.
All that matters is that you charge how much you feel your time is worth.
The Freelance Writer Rate Formula
OK, so, how much should you charge? Don’t worry, buddies. I have a simple formula for figuring out freelance writer rates.
Please keep in mind that this is a basic formula for new freelancers who don’t have a lot of business expenses like website hosting, advertising, subcontractors, etc. (If you’re more established and need a different formula to account for those expenses, leave a comment below and I’ll write a post about it.)
1. Figure out how much you need to make to not only make ends meet, but thrive. A good rule of thumb in personal finance is to calculate by the 50/30/20 rule:
- 50% for needs: rent/mortgage, car payment, utility bills, student loan payments, credit card payments, groceries, etc.
- 30% for wants: clothing, beauty & grooming services, travel, etc.
- 20% for savings: paying off high-interest debt, creating an emergency fund, saving for retirement
You can figure out the total by adding up all of your expenses that fall into the needs column, then doubling that to find how much you’ll have available for wants and savings. This is your personal income.
2. For Americans, add 15% to your personal income to find out how much additional you need to make to pay taxes. For non-Americans, consult with an accountant about how much you should be saving for taxes.
3. Multiply that by twelve to find your yearly salary goal. Now think about how many weeks per year you will work. Will you take 2 weeks of vacation, or 4? Divide your yearly salary by the number of weeks per year you will work. This is how much you need to make per week to meet your salary goal.
4. Now divide that number by how many hours you will work in a week. Here you need to be realistic. The typical American workweek is 40 hours per week. However, you are usually only actually working for 20–30 hours of that time. The other 10–20 hours are spent interacting with coworkers, crying in the restroom, and waiting in line at the Starbucks around the corner.
If you’re not sure how much you want to work, start with 30 hours per week. If you feel burned out, you can always readjust this number to be lower.
5. Now subtract how many hours per week you’ll need to deal with administrative and marketing tasks like checking emails, calling prospective clients, etc. Let’s estimate that at 10 hours per week. So subtract 10 from 30, and you’ll have 20 hours per week spent doing client work.
6. Divide your weekly salary by how many hours you’ll spend on client work. This is your base hourly rate.
7. Now tack on at least an extra 25% to that hourly rate. Why? Well, we created this hourly rate based on you working on client work for 20 hours per week. If you don’t have a full book of clients yet, then you’ll need to pad your rates a little bit to meet your income goal. It’s fine. Everyone does it (or at least they should).
Did you catch all of that? If not, no worries. I’ve got a calculator for you right here!
How to Use Your Freelance Writing Rates
Now that you know your freelance writer rate, what are you supposed to do with it? First of all, you can use your new freelance writer rate to provide your price for any project by estimating how many hours it will take you to complete and multiplying by your hourly rate.
Hot tip: You won’t know how long projects take to complete when you start out! That’s OK. You’ll learn over time. Just guess. Keep a record of your estimate for each project and how long it actually takes to complete each piece of the project.
You can also use this as a guidance when applying for freelance writing jobs. If a writing job pays $10 per hour, but you know you need to make $45 per hour to hit your income goals, save your precious time and don’t apply for that job!
Well, buddies, I hope that answers all of your questions on setting your freelance writer rates! If not, hop into the comment section below and let me know!
Like this post? Sign up for my newsletter here! I’m always updating my blog with tips on how to be a freelance writer. I went through all the trial and error of building a freelance writing business so you don’t have to!
Originally published at colleenwelsch.com on August 12, 2020.
