Rates for freelance blogging?

Dirk_Gently_2

I know there is a thread on blogging, but this is a slightly different query so to avoid confusion I'll keep them separate.

I'm a reasonably well-established blogger in my field, but I've always done it for fun. Now I've been approached by a company that wants me to contribute 4 articles a week (each of c.1000 words) to their blog - on a paid freelance basis.

Obviously I'm jumping at this, but I have no idea what sort of money to ask for when we negotiate this later in the week. They'll ask me what I want and as I have no idea of what the "going rate" is I'm worried I might undersell myself.

Does anyone have any guidance for me or ideas of what pay rates for freelance blogging are?

Ewaf

Based on other freelance writing 'portals' such as copify, odesk, elancer etc. I would say around 3-5p per word, depending how good you are.

SammyLou82

As a freelance journalist I would say DO NOT accept 2p a word that Copify etc offer. They are considered by serious writers to undervalue their work. Instead, head to the NUJ website which has industry standard freelance rates and is a really good springboard and gives you an idea of what you should charge.

I would say from experience pitch your prices slightly higher then you want and then you have room to negotiate down.

mizzbiz

I charge differently depending upon the type of work. Article churning (basic, well written keyworded articles/blogs) I would charge between £7 - 12 each @ between 350 - 500 words. For more technical or professional blogs and articles, where you're talking quite a bit of research and specialist knowledge, I charge up to £35 per article, with a minimum of £18.

You have to look at the whole picture and value proposition. An arbitrary price per word, regardless of the type of work, is going to severely limit your market one way or the other.

SammyLou82

I agree with MizzBizz it really depends on the amount of work you are doing - a research piece costs more then a standard article. I tend to think of it in terms of hourly rate ie how long it will take to do a piece and how much I want to make per hour. I then pitch slightly above that to allow wiggle room.

shmeeko69

Dirk_Gently wrote: »

I know there is a thread on blogging, but this is a slightly different query so to avoid confusion I'll keep them separate.

I'm a reasonably well-established blogger in my field, but I've always done it for fun. Now I've been approached by a company that wants me to contribute 4 articles a week (each of c.1000 words) to their blog - on a paid freelance basis.

Obviously I'm jumping at this, but I have no idea what sort of money to ask for when we negotiate this later in the week. They'll ask me what I want and as I have no idea of what the "going rate" is I'm worried I might undersell myself.

Does anyone have any guidance for me or ideas of what pay rates for freelance blogging are?

It really depends on how quickly your mind works and how fast you can type. If you can do a 1000 word article in one hour then, I would charge £7ph x 4 articles = £28.

Don't undersell yourself and be scared to say no. Make sure you're getting at least what you would get as a minimum wage from an employer. It your precious time, so use it wisely and don't become a busy fool.

PasturesNew

I charge £25, plus lifetime residuals and retaining copyright, for an off-the-cuff 500-600 word article of no particular depth, with two PR6 backlinks to the client website. These I can bang out without much thought in under 30 minutes.... so I usually spend 1-1.5 hours faffing with them and doing post-write tweaks.

For something good/meaty I'd want more.

I know I am underpricing myself... and to the industry I'd like to apologise.

Dirk_Gently_2

Thanks for the responses here. I've been offered a flat rate of £500 a month for 4 articles a week, so have bitten their hands off and gone away thinking what lucky, lucky b*st*rd I am, to be paid for doing something I enjoy and am doing for nothing anyway.

Now I just need to investigate what I can off-set as expenses against tax in all of this this.

mizzbiz

Dirk_Gently wrote: »

Thanks for the responses here. I've been offered a flat rate of £500 a month for 4 articles a week, so have bitten their hands off and gone away thinking what lucky, lucky b*st*rd I am, to be paid for doing something I enjoy and am doing for nothing anyway.

Well done. Thats a very fair amount. This is my favourite type of work as a writer, although it can be a nightmare when you're just fresh out of inspiration one week and you still have to get four in! Good luck and enjoy. Try to build up some spares in a file for when you really can't think of anything else to cover.. The mental block is usually only temporary.

Dirk_Gently wrote: »

Now I just need to investigate what I can off-set as expenses against tax in all of this this.

Lol not much as a writer I'm afraid! Maybe a portion of your braodband, a bit of rent, light and heat and maybe:) a bit of equipment.

shmeeko69

Dirk_Gently wrote: »

Thanks for the responses here. I've been offered a flat rate of £500 a month for 4 articles a week, so have bitten their hands off and gone away thinking what lucky, lucky b*st*rd I am, to be paid for doing something I enjoy and am doing for nothing anyway.

Now I just need to investigate what I can off-set as expenses against tax in all of this this.

That is quite good considering the small amounts usually on offer. The most important part is the quality, so if you do a good job then, the chances are that it may become continuous.

Mark

Aaron28

I personally don't do that work but one of my friend do that.He charge $25 per article of 1000 words and its also depend on your writing skills....