Listing Rates: An Honest Choice
You may have noticed that I post my rates along with a description of the work involved. Not all freelancers do, so I wanted to take a moment to explain my choice.
The TL;DR version is that it makes it easier on both of us. You know your budget. You know the quality of work you need. I know my budget and the quality of work I provide. Posting my rates allows you to quickly decide if it’s worth your time to open the lines of communication.
If you’d like to learn more about my decision – and possibly some things about the freelance writing world, as well – then read on!
Pricing is not a zero-sum game
Some freelancers try to maximize their profit by offering quotes that are tailor made not only for a project, but for the client’s ability to pay. In the industry, this is sometimes called a “custom quote.”
Sometimes this happens because the freelancer is just following an industry norm, or is trying to stay afloat in a competitive market. Some freelancers custom quote in order to undercut their competition, which is usually good for their clients but is often bad for the freelancer.
Just as often, however, custom quotes are an attempt by the freelancer to maximize their profit not by offering better services, but by offering a budget that falls just outside of the client’s pain threshold. This is, in a limited sense, good for the freelancer but bad for their client.
Pricing for writing and freelancing services doesn’t have to be that kind of zero-sum game. The gains of one party don’t have to be offset by the losses of the other.
Instead of looking at pricing as a give-and-take, both freelancers and their clients can benefit by having fair, up-front pricing strategies.
A freelancer needs to be paid within industry norms and according to their experience and education. That is also what a client should be charged. That’s what my rates represent.
I have developed these rates after working in this business for years, learning how long it takes me to write and edit certain kinds of work, and knowing how much a project should cost my clients.
AND ANOTHER THING!
Crafting text isn’t a one-off deal. Rather, it requires collaboration and communication even beyond the publication date. Today more than ever, documents are living things that should be updated and maintained in order to help web content stay current and drive traffic.
I choose to post my rates so that I can develop the kinds of honest, professional relationships that will help your content not just in the drafting stages, but throughout its life cycle.
Do my rates ever vary?
In a perfect world, my rates would be static. In the real world, however, projects are rarely cut and dried. Texts I’ve been asked to proofread have had formatting issues that also took hours to correct. Manuscripts I’ve been hired to copy edit needed a fair dose of content editing. And clients have reached out asking for a blog post, but their description of what they needed was a longform article.
I list my rates to let you know what I charge for a given task. As we negotiate the price and I am able to review the material and the project brief, we’ll discuss what tasks I see will be involved to get you the content you need. The price I’ll quote you will list those tasks and their rates.
