There’s numerous dialogue on-line about writing charges. What’s one of the best ways to bid a mission? By the phrase? By the hour? By the mission?
All of them have their makes use of, particularly since some publications and companies are sort of within the behavior of utilizing one or the opposite of those strategies for deciding what they’ll pay.
Which writing price is one of the best ways to cost jobs?
To my thoughts, it’s by the hour.
Time is your most treasured useful resource. You solely have so many work hours within the 12 months, so it is advisable make as a lot per hour as you possibly can. Which leads me to my one necessary rule of pricing jobs:
Regardless of the way you value the job, monitor your hours and work out your hourly price
As a result of in case you don’t know your hourly price, how will you work on elevating it? How will you examine purchasers and know which to maintain and which to drop?
Now, in case you’re working for an ongoing copywriting shopper, I personally imagine bidding by the mission is greatest. Your shopper is completely happy as a result of they know precisely what they’re going to pay, and you’ll finances for the quantity you’ll earn.
The trick to selecting one of the best writing price is making a flat payment for that mission that will provide you with what you need
You possibly can solely do this by getting some expertise with how lengthy it takes you to do issues. Clearly, this setup rewards effectivity. For those who’re unusually quick, you possibly can bid on a par with different writers, however find yourself with a greater hourly price, and earn extra over the course of the 12 months.
Earlier than the downturn, I believed excessive per-article charges had been the reply to maximizing earnings. However I’ve discovered that’s not all the time true. Once I was scrambling round for a number of new purchasers in late 2008/early 2009, I obtained a suggestion from an outdated editor pal to put in writing some fast articles for $100 apiece, simply primarily based on my data of enterprise matters, supplemented with just a little on-line analysis. (Hey, it’s above my $50 an task restrict, folks!)
At first I used to be appalled. Previous to this time interval, concerning the very lowest article price I took was $300. Then I believed what the heck, and gave them a attempt.
I discovered I might write them in an hour to 90 minutes. A bit of fast math and hmmm…that’s $70-$100 an hour. Not too shabby. I’ve saved this work nearly as good occasional filler tasks . A fast scan of my payments confirmed I picked up $1,700 this manner in 2010 in perhaps 20 to 22 hours. So the lesson is: Any work that earns a excessive hourly price is nice writing work.
In fact, getting a shopper the place they’ll allow you to merely invoice for nonetheless many hours you’re spending on their tasks every month is the perfect. Then you realize you’re getting paid for each hour you’re employed. I had a shopper like that at $95 an hour for greater than a 12 months, sending me work each month. I feel proper now, these jobs are tougher to return by.
However billing hourly protects you towards the evil that’s scope creep: the state of affairs the place you bid a flat mission payment, however then the parameters of the mission continue to grow, as does your time spent. Been numerous dialogue of how you can deal with this sticky drawback on LinkedIn.
Most publications are inclined to assign a value per phrase or give a flat article value. Through which case, you might have to work in your effectivity to verify your price stays nearly as good as attainable.
However you possibly can all the time ask for extra money. I’ve gotten corporations so as to add $50-$200 to an article task or extra in the event that they ended up wanting sidebars, or an extended size, or I knew they had been a sluggish payer.
What do you like? Billing by the mission, the hour or the phrase?
Picture through Flickr consumer zoutedrop