You can find in this article a series of tips from QuiGig.com, that hopefully will help you either get more customers or set a better price to ask for your content writing services.
What not to do as a freelance writer
# 1 Do not set an hourly rate
Many freelancers tend to say, “My fee is 10 Euros per hour and I estimate that your project requires 4 hours of work, so the total is 40 Euros.” It’s wrong! I have known freelancers who say this; I would not want to contradict the experienced ones who know exactly what their hourly work is worth. However, such a tariff should not be communicated. Even if you estimate how many hours you will work, do not tell the customer that your fare is hourly. Calculate and then tell him the total fare. Find additional info here.
Setting an hourly rate can make it much harder for you. As you gain experience, you will work faster and automatically earn less. The customer will be skeptical of your fare because he cannot check how many hours you actually spend working on his project. If you make a wrong estimate and the project lasts less, what will you do? Will you pretend to work a few more hours? So, give up this habit because you do not sell your time to your client, you sell a solution to his problem.
# 2 Do not set your fee per word
Another mistake made by many freelance writers is to put a price on the word and tell the client: “The price per word is 0.01 euro, so we will calculate the price at the end of the project.”
By the end of the project, what will you do? Will you multiply the number of words with the price per word, think about how much each text you have written is worth, and then add all the words to calculate the total price? You will get into a mess that will put you at a disadvantage. And you will involve the client.
The client is not interested in checking your fare to see if you have calculated well. In addition, he will be skeptical if you give him a piece of the total fare from the beginning. So, my advice is to try to give prices as concrete as possible.
For articles, find out first how long it should be and then tell him the price per article. If you have to write more articles per month, tell him the price per month for everything.
For the texts of a site, you have two options:
- you estimate from the beginning how long the text should be and say a price for the whole project, or
- you provide your client with a round-trip rate (for example, 10 euro / 1000 words) and specify that the price is calculated at the end of the project.
In other words, make your calculation as simple as possible for the client.