6.5 words every freelancer has said at least once

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6.5 words every freelancer has said at least once:

“I should’ve charged more for this”

And who can blame us?

Setting freelance rates is hard.

You don’t want to charge too much and miss out on the work…

But you want to undersell yourself, either.

So, what’s a freelance content writer to do?

Listen to Hsing Tseng, is what.

She gives us the blueprint for how to set – and raise – our rates in From $0.30 to $1 a Word: How I Scaled My Freelance Writing Rates.

Here are my fave bits…

🎯 One sentence summary

Hsing shows us how to go from “I should’ve charged more for this 🤦” to “I just earned how much an hour!? 🤯” by giving us a framework for figuring out exactly what to charge for each project.

💬 One important quote

“The jump to $1 a word came when I stopped selling writing and started selling outcomes based on what my portfolio of work has achieved.”

🗝️ One key takeaway

Think I know what I’m doing?

THEN THINK AGAIN!

Because the other week I wrote an article I thought I’d charged a great rate for…

Then it went through so many rounds of revisions it actually worked out as the lowest effective hourly rate I’ve ever charged in the five years I’ve been freelance.

🫠

Y’know what would’ve helped me swerve that whole mess?

Tsing’s tips for working out what rate to charge for each new freelance project.

Here are the questions she says you should ask yourself before you pitch a rate:

Am I going to need to do SME interviews? 

↳ That’s gonna take time (not to mention expertise). And you know what they say: time (not to mention expertise) = MON€¥ 💸

How complex is the content going to be? 

↳ Top tip: charge more for in-depth how-to guides than for straightforward SEO articles.

How many rounds of revisions am I going to be expected to do? 

↳ A great rate doesn’t look so great any more when you’re an outline change and five rounds of revisions deep (take it from me 💀)

How many stakeholders are going to be involved? 

↳ AKA “how much of a nightmare is this client going to be to work with?” 🙃

Can I use their name and clips on my portfolio? 

↳ If not, charge the big bucks 🤑

Is this going to lead to regular, ongoing work? 

↳ $1/word for a one-off article is great. $0.60/word for four articles every month is better.

👉 Check out Hsing Tseng’s article From $0.30 to $1 a Word: How I Scaled My Freelance Writing Rates to get your Goldilocks on and charge a rate that’s juuuuust right 🥣

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