Tag Archives: freelance fees

advice

Learning From Other Freelance Specialties


What does Jim Cramer’s book have to do with learning the freelance writing game? Simple–here’s a guy who you’d never identify with freelance writing dispensing his stories of what it took for him in the earliest days of his career to learn the ropes and succeed in spite of the odds.

He wasn’t writing, he wasn’t editing, he was trying to make it in the fast paced world of Wall Street. And his struggles are suspiciously similar to the uphill battles those new to freelancing deal with. From that perspective, Cramer’s book is quite inspirational.

You can learn a lot by studying stuff like this, but also by taking lessons from freelancers in other professions. How does a graphic designer set her fees? What’s a designer’s time worth by the hour? Per project? Can you translate their experience to your own? You bet you can–the things all freelance workers have in common is a need to put a price on their time, how to manage that time, how to convince a prospective client to take your resume seriously, the lot.

Study more established freelancers and you’ll find some consistent themes in all of them–the ability to finish a project on time, on or under budget, and without excuses for why things went wrong. When they do go wrong, how do these successful freelancers handle the issues? I personally like to read about how photographers, graphic designers, even professional thieves conduct themselves in when they’re on the clock. Trust me on the professional thieves front–they’re much more fascinating and informative than you might expect. Even ripoff artists need discipline and a clear head to make it in their chosen profession.

lifestyle

Freelance Ripoffs

freelance-writing-advice-3I  realized I’d never thought to do a Google search on the phrase “freelance ripoff” before and was curious  to see what would come up. Here are a few of the results:

The Ripoff Report is an interesting place, but the “you post it” style ripoff alerts seem vulnerable to sour grapes claims and one-sided storytelling.  This seemed to be beautifully illustrated by a rebuttal page thrown up by a writer who claimed to be a victim of just such a ripoff report post. It’s not my place to say who is right or wrong in this situation, but it’s proof that there are two sides to every story. Let the researcher beware!

One link gave me laugh-out-loud yuks because of the atrocious spelling in a complaint about “Copyscaped work”. I’d have felt sorry for this poster, but they wrote “Unfortunately we paid you before the work was copescaped (sic)”. Well, way to go, genius. I don’t think they’ll be making THAT mistake again.

I also found a collection of About.com posts which I ignored as I don’t have much use for About.com. Yawn. The advice on About that I have encountered is on the level of “If you want to learn how to play the flute, try moving your fingers over the holes while you blow into the mouthpiece.” Continue reading Freelance Ripoffs →

advice, resources

Setting Your Hourly Rates

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I haven’t done any resource posting in a while, so I thought I’d throw up some links to different articles and blog posts that might give you a bit of perspective on setting a fair hourly rate for your work. As always, NONE of these pages should be taken as the final word on the subject–differences of opinion vary greatly. This collection should be viewed as a way for you to form your own notions about what your time is worth as a writer:

Payscale.com has a handy chart listing hourly rates by amount of experience. I disagree with the first entry on that chart, if for no other reason than it is pretty tough to earn that amount of money in the first six-nine months. This chart is for technical writers, but even you tech writers might agree that it’s going to be a tough sell in the opening months of your career to earn $20+ an hour unless you have something you can put on a resume to sweeten the deal.

E-WritingJobs.com gives some food for thought on the difference between WORKING hours and BILLABLE hours.

Debra Jason wrote this one for The How-To Catalog on WriteDirection.com, a nicely detailed breakdown of fees vs. expenses and overhead.

Writing-World.com’s “How Much Should a Freelancer Charge?” by Moira Allen is required reading AND has a list of other resources (not listed here) to help you set your fees.

This one might not help you set your CURRENT fees, but is definitely inspirational. As someone who is only about 10K shy of being a literal six-figure freelancer this year, I can vouch for both the encouragement AND the criticism found in Michael Kwan’s blog post, How to Earn Six Figures as a Freelance Writer.

A great article giving you some perspective on what your clients are reading: Linda Alexander’s Working With Freelance Writers.

These are only SOME of the resources out there that can help you set fees and determine a realistic price structure, but in the end it is up to you to determine what your time is worth. The most important thing you can do is avoid the freelance newcomer’s mistake of undervaluing your time. If you don’t feel comfortable charging higher fees, perhaps you should ask yourself WHY. If you struggle with the notion that you are giving value for the money, consider taking some time with a writing coach or attending classes that will help you hone your skills and give you additional confidence that you CAN give the right value for your rates.