What would you charge for freelance blogging?

[Jen]

I've been scraping the pro blogs for information on the "going rate" for various types of freelance blogging jobs, and coming up just a bit short.

Below are a few of the best resources I've found on Freelance Blogging, in case anyone else is moving down that road and has questions about finding jobs, establishing an understanding with the client about scope and responsibilities, etc. (Question follows list...)


How Freelance Writers Can Become Freelance Bloggers

Blogging as a Full-time Career?

Can you earn a good living blogging?

Writing for Freelance Blogging Gigs

How to Apply for a Blog Job

How to Get Your First Freelance Blogging Gig

The Secret to Freelance Blogging


No disrespect to ChrisG, who seems to have written a disproportionate number of these posts! But the hitch is, concrete advice on putting a price on freelance blogging services seems to be
(a) slim,
(b) very general, and
(c) centred, for the most part, on gigs where the blogger is paid by the word or paid by the post.

I'm thinking, what about salaried freelance jobs?

What about those blogging jobs that include a requirement for networking, promotion, and general housekeeping, on top of posting?

When the job's duties extend beyond the research-and-writing of posts, it seems common for the client to want to be quoted some kind of terms -- a salary requirement, or a flat rate with bonus for traffic, or such -- so it's the would-be freelance blogger's challenge to come up with a fair and competitive rate for the work to be done, based on his/her best estimate of the time that would be required.

Exactly the same as if you're freelancing in print, right?

Fair enough.

But this is a brave new online world. The field of blogging is still very young -- the field of corporate blogging for hire, even more so. From what I can gather, there's so much competition that the rates for blogging gigs are nowhere near as high as an experienced freelancer might be used to earning offline... but I could be wrong on that!

Online as much as offline, freelancers do tend to be cagey about sharing financial information -- understandably so -- but I'm convinced it might benefit all freelancers to compare notes just a wee bit more than we do.

So...
Does anyone here have tips or experience to share, about how to come up with a fair rate for full-scale corporate blogging? Or at least a sense of what range of hourly / weekly /monthly salaries might be the norm?

[Michael Martin]

I don't think you'll find advice that gets any more specific than that I'm afraid. The amount that a blogger would be paid would depend entirely on their writing ability, their knowledge of the field, and possibly their interaction with readers (comments). Even the niche itself would come into it (Profitable niche = better pay).

That is very different for every person.

Also, if some agreed level ever was set quite specifically, it would be price fixing, which is illegal.


One bit of advice is to check out the ProBlogger job board. Some list prices, but most don't. Email a few with a bit about yourself, and ask what the payment would be.

[Jen]

Heavens, no, Michael, I certainly didn't mean price fixing! (And you'd never see a handful of freelance writers "agreeing to agree" amongst themselves long enough for that to be a risk, in any case!!)

Yes, absolutely, every job (and every freelancer) will be different. But up here in the land of maple syrup, for example, we've got a very useful group called the Professsional Writers Association of Canada, which has developed a set of rate guidelines based on data collected from members and those who use the services of professional writers. (See PWAC: Best Practices and What to Pay a Writer.) Minimum rates and/or rates guidelines are also established in film/television/video production jobs, especially in a union shop: e.g. Writers Guild of America,
Writers' Guild of Great Britain, Writers Guild of Canada, Australian Writers Guild ...

Interestingly, the HTML Writers Guild (which does not publish rate guidelines for its sector) goes into the fine points of open discussion of compensation in the Guild list, as far as US law is concerned:

# Acceptable: Services rendered.
Types of services provided, levels of service, quality of service and such are acceptable.

# Acceptable: Source information for standard rates.
Standard rates are published for most industries by independent sources. For those who are curious about where to get information about salaries, costs, etc, asking for, or providing pointers to information provided by independent 3rd parties is acceptable on the Guild Business Discussion List - [hwg-business]. In addition, the Guild has a FAQ on how to set your rates; it lists several methods.

# Acceptable: Take it to email.
If two people wish to take on a private discussion, that is their affair. The Guild and its members cannot prevent, nor does it have any interest in, a discussion between individuals. The Guild and its members as a group will not knowingly participate in or condone any discussions that may be construed as price-fixing...

No lawyer, moi, of course, but I gather that the US law is meant to discourage anti-competition price fixing within an industry organzation -- the kind of practice that used to set exhorbitant gasoline prices back in the day, when industry members quite openly decided how much the gas-guzzling consumer should pay at the pumps.

For a professional organization or other group to survey professional writers and their clients, and then to publish a schedule of rates or rates guidelines based on that data seems not only legal in the USA as elsewhere, but also deemed ethical and, as the HTML group points out, a common practice in many sectors.

And for an informal group of people who happen to work in the same general area to compare notes about the going rates for that work? If the US government wants to hike up here with shouts of "collusion!" and bust everyone at my next writers' group meeting... well, I'll have to throw the hors d'oeuvres at them.

Okay, sorry, now I'm getting silly...

But I do just want to be plain that I was not, in any way, suggesting an illegal or unethical activity.

Hope that clears it up?

p.s. --
Gui had a few interesting thoughts on the "professionalization of blogging", related to a survey on A List Apart about the web design business. But perhaps there's not yet the "critical mass" of freelance bloggers for anything of that sort to be feasible. My question -- nay, this whole line of thought -- may very well be jumping the gun. It's not so long since "what I had for dinner" and splogs were dominating the 'sphere, after all...

[Michael Martin]

Okay, all cleared up now. And I enjoyed the articles/sites you linked to!

[Jen]

Never hurts to share the results of self-education, eh?

[Mitchell Allen]

Jen,

I've revived a pet project of mine (you may recall Ghost it, Host it or Post it).
One of the things I like about the snippet from the HTML Writer's Guild is that they recognize the private affairs of the negotiating parties.

I have discussed projects with several free-lancers and the rates are all over the dartboard.

I prefer to work with free-lancers who are creative with their pricing. Prix-fixe may work for dinner at the fancy steakhouse, but I don't want to have to "mince" words to stay within a strict budget.

Cheers,

Mitch

[Jen]

I hear you, Mitchell. And it works the other way round, too -- you know, I've always given a break to not-for-profits, and then charged a bit more for boring boring corporate / government work, to make up the difference!

[Mohsin]

I am thinking of starting a collaborative blog, and I need to hire writers for it. I'll let you guys know how I manage the whole thing. It would be a new experience for me, and am hoping to learn a lot from it.

One thing is for sure, many medium to semi-large blogs pay their writers somewhere between $10 to $20 per article. While I think offering $10 to a good writer is an insult, paying $20 or $25 per post is fair enough. What do you guys think?

[Jen]

That's comparable with the pay rate for articles for a community newspaper -- at least in my experience, though other regions/markets may be different. So it seems reasonable for writing blog posts, also.

The pricing question becomes more complicated, for freelance bloggers, when the job description includes networking & promotion -- so complicated, so many variables to try to nail down! -- but for straight article writing, I think you're very much on track.

I'll be interested to hear what others think...

[chrisgarrett]

The reason I don't mention rates in posts is because what I see as normal rates might not be for the people reading. I know what I charge, anything else is speculation. For beginners being made an offer is a victory, for old hands you need to know what you can manage to live on.

I have no doubt in my mind that the people present in this thread could make far more than the baseline $10/post, $25/post or more but it all depends on the particular gig, niche, research, word count, yada yada.

It's like selling a house, it is only worth what someone is willing to pay.

What you have to do is get some gigs then put your rates up until your rates are too high so you don't get any work

Really.