Advice on how much to charge

RuthnJasper

Good morning.

I was wondering if someone might kindly be able to give me one or two pointers. I write articles for local magazines, as well as my blog and the landlady of a local pub (for whom my neighbour works) has asked, via my neighbour, if I would be interested in designing a couple of adverts for her. It's right up my street and I'd love to do it.

My neighbour then said "And she'll pay you the going rate..." Please could anyone advise me as to what a fair rate would be? I don't want to sting the woman for as much as I can get, but I have no idea what is reasonable.

Money is REALLY tight for me at the moment, so this would be helpful - but it's not in my nature to leech off others.

Any advice or information would be very gratefully appreciated.
Thank you.

daisy_chainsaw

If I were you, I`d think about how long it`ll take, and what you`d like to be paid per hour- don`t undervalue your skills; if you get a lot of work doing this, its better to charge a decent rate for yourself now, than trying to increase your fees later on. You could try googling writer`s rates for a rough idea.

ThemeOne

Google rates, or track down others offering the service and pose as a potential customer to discover their rates.

Don't charge "mates rates" as it only encourages people to undervalue you and what you do. Plus if you charge more, there's a subconscious suggestion that you're worth it.

heart_free

Work out an hourly rate for your Orkney and then price as per that. Remember that you need to pat tax and NI so you must include that into your hurly rate.
Also work out who owns the copyright/intellectual property. If the client wants to buy the rights to prevent you reusing for another liens then you can incorporate this into your price too.

InsideInsurance

So are you writing copy for adverts or actually doing the graphical design for an ad?

Assuming it is the second then approach a printers in your region but not too local and pose as a prospective customer and get a quote from them. Google online and see the sorts of prices the online only places are offering it for and go for something somewhere between the two.

A lot will depend on if she'd be happy for a stock design and just her copy/ images put into it in which case online will be under $50 including 250 prints.