Freelancer Not Free: 7 Things That Should Guide Your Freelance Pricing Strategy Every Time
Okay. I am just going to say this: some people's freelance pricing strategy is way out of whack. You want me to do research, write a 3,000-word article, and read you a bedtime story for $5? That's an automatic no from yours truly.
Yes. You may be able to find someone willing to meet your crazy AF demands. Or you may find a freelancer who doesn't mind working for less than minimum wage. I will pass.
I am an extremely fast typer, I just took a typing test that put me at 55 WPM, but that would be if I knew exactly what I needed to write and I was just typing it. Which means, at full blast, I could finish a 3,000 word something in about an hour, but that's now how writing works.
Great writing takes time, energy, and effort. People don't give that to anyone paying $5.
You want someone is genuinely ready to invest in your company. You want a freelancer who enjoys working with you and puts out continuously fabulous content. It's hard to get that from a low budget freelancer because they are too busy hopping around from client to client.
So, today let's fix your freelance pricing strategy by delving into things that you should consider while putting together your budget for freelancers.
Related Reading: 7 Reasons To Create Valuable Content To Stand Out Online
1. How Much Time Does It Take To Research?
Every project that you offer a freelancer takes time to research. It doesn't matter if they are a writer, an app developer, or a photographer. Your freelancer needs to take some time to study ideas and get acclimated to your project. This time is essential, and you should see it as such.
You have to be careful when it comes to including things like research time in your freelance pricing strategy. A lot of companies skip over this. You could spend hours researching a topic before you ever put pen to paper, but that's still time that freelancers are utilizing!
Make sure that you give extra money to your freelancers if you are looking for an extremely well-researched piece. If you want that kind of well-researched piece with few errors, you are going to have to give up more than $5. Even if you don't want something well-researched, you should factor a bit of time for research, because all excellent freelancers dig into research before they start their project.
2. What Is The Estimated Length Of Your Project?
If I am going to be working on your project for months on end, I expect a steady and decent pay.
You need to make sure that you are paying your freelancer a fair wage for the amount of time and energy they will be putting into your work.
It's hard to sustain enthusiasm for a project when the price is low. If you have a low-priced project, but you only need to deal with it for a few days, you will probably get over it and go on to the next project. It's a life lesson, not a dire situation.
When you are thinking about your freelance pricing strategy, consider this.
Long-term work takes dedication, and likely your freelancer will be turning down other projects to help you out. You need to pay them well, or your freelance relationship could be cut short sooner than you would like.
3. What Experience Do You Want Your Freelancer To Bring To The Table?
🗣Your expert freelancer isn't going to take minimum wage.
Sorry to scream at you a bit there, but you have to be realistic.
If you want an expert who knows their stuff writing content for your blog, you can't pay them entry level prices. If you're going to pay $8.50 an hour for content creation, expect to get $8.50 an hour writers.
Don't write off all freelancers because you worked with writers who didn't have enough time to create exceptional content for you.
If you want experience, excellent content, etc. you have to be willing to put your money where your mouth is.
Of course, this is if you are getting a freelancer in the United States. Freelancers in a different country may enjoy getting $8.50 per hour depending on what the average per hour rate is for their country. You always want to make sure that you are giving people a fair wage for their work no matter which country they are from.
4. Is The Piece Ghostwritten?
Next, you want to consider the author of the piece. If you can claim authorship over someone else's content and they won't try to claim it or put it in their portfolio, there is a premium to that.
I personally mainly write a lot of ghostwritten pieces, and I am totally fine with that, but I do want decent pay for creating a piece that you will be able to claim as your own in perpetuity.
Any time a freelancer is creating content for you and not getting credit for writing it, they are taking time away they could spend writing content they do have a claim over.
Just like influencers expect a premium for you owning their content, so do freelance writers. Make sure that you add authorship to your freelance pricing strategy so that you are giving people a fair amount for how much you will be able to utilize their work.
5. How Easy/Hard Are You To Work With?
Some people are just hard to work with.
If you know that you aren't the rosiest person to work with, or that working with you would require more work, add that to your freelance pricing strategy.
Don't tell freelancers that you added a "difficult to work with" fee, but add a bit of padding to your price to account for it.
Experienced freelancers can usually spot someone who is difficult from a mile away and decide how they want to proceed. New freelancers are a lot less knowledgeable about how to read perspective clients. Over time, though, new freelancers will be able to see through the mask you put on how demanding you are. Then they will have a tough decision to make on whether the money you are paying them is worth the stress they feel.
Make sure you are giving freelancers enough money to deal with your needs.
6. Do You Require Extra Things Like Graphics Or Interviews?
When you require these extra things like graphics creation or interviews, those take time. Never pay someone the same price if they have to go above doing the task you hired them for (i.e., writing a post or creating an infographic.)
Sourcing the right images takes time. So does building interview questions, reaching out to people, and interviewing them. These activities take longer than just writing up a piece, editing it, and sending it your way.
There is nothing wrong with requiring images or interviews. If you do, though, you must consider it in your freelance pricing strategy.
7. How Many Edits Of The Project Do You Want?
I think most freelancers expect 1-2 edits per project as a part of their fee, but if you need a ton of edits on small things and you know that you will be difficult, you should include some extra money for the edits that you need.
Edits take time and energy to complete so you should include them in your freelance pricing strategy.
When freelancers have to spend a ton of time looking through your content that is time spent focusing on your articles when they could spend time with other clients. If you pay them well, they won't mind the edits, but if you are paying them $10 and expecting ten edits, you won't be happy with your results.
Conclusion
There are so many elements that should go into your freelance pricing strategy. I hope that reading this article has helped you come up with different things to consider. I love freelance writing, especially when I am working for a client who values my time and talents.