Charging Per Word May Not Work

Many freelance writers charge by the word, probably because many content mills and other places writers get their starts pay that way.  For the most part, pay by the word can be a successful and profitable model, but there are times that writing a word will take much longer than other times, and you need to be able to account for those times when you are billing a client.

For instance, a couple of months ago I was hired to write a bio page for a prominent professional.  It was to be 500 words, which is a piece of cake for many standard web articles.  I discovered, however, that a bio takes a whole lot more research.  In addition to learning how to write a bio for that particular industry, I also spent 45 minutes on the phone with the client to get interview material for the bio.

My standard writing rate usually nets me upwards of $50 per hour, but in that particular case, I spent several hours researching, interviewing and writing the bio, and my hourly rate came out to about $10 per hour.

When you are deciding how to charge for your writing, be sure to allow yourself the ability to charge hourly or a set rate for additional research above and beyond a standard writing project.  When talking with customers, you can just include a small blurb saying that you reserve the right to charge extra for extended research, or you can calculate that extra time up front and include it in your quote.

The next week after my bio was complete, an associate of the client requested his own bio.  This time, I included an additional $25 charge for the research.  Since I had already familiarized myself with the process the time before, this worked out to be on par with my normal rate, and I enjoyed writing the piece.

The clients you would want to work with will be willing to pay a fair wage for their projects.  Remember that and have no shame in asking a reasonable rate for your expertise.