FWJ Poll: What Do You Consider a Fair Wage
October 23, 2008 by Deb
Filed under Freelance Writing
I’m going to throw these out from time to time to see what you feel is fair.
Here’s the scenario: A 500 word, well-written, factually correct article. Not a Google job but an expert web article. You won’t need sources or interviews but you are expected to be the cream of the crop and an expert in the niche. Because you’re an expert, research is minimal – but again, the article is expected to be well written and factually correct.
I hope you will be realistic and honest and put in your going rate or what you consider is fair. Hopefully these polls will help clients determine a realistic fair wage.
I set up a poll to allow anonymous entries, but please feel free to discuss why you arrive at your total or factors involved in the comments.
What would you expect to be paid?
Great poll, Deb. This is pertinent considering the pay changes over at Demand Studios and Associated Content. I’m curious to see the results of this poll. Thanks for posting!
Hi Tara,
May I ask the new pay rate for AC and Demand?
I just joined Demand, and haven’t heard anything about a new pay rate. I’m curious, as I don’t want to submit anything for less than what I originally agreed to.
This is a good topic for a poll. I recently started pricing my services based on value, rather than on just the time it takes me to complete a project. If I write an e-book for a client, and that e-book is used to entice people to sign up for an e-zine or newsletter, and those extra subscriptions result in more sales, then I should definitely be paid based on that. If I write landing page text that results in increased sales conversions, I should be paid for that value.
Be honest..for those of you writing in $100 or more for the article, is this what you’re really getting paid? Or is this what you wish to be paid?
@ Deb,
That’s what I’m wondering too. I went in at $40 to $50, which I honestly feel is more than fair.
Demand still pays $15 per article, but now they only pay that for the titles they provide. User suggested titles are generally now getting only $5 instead of $15; they just sent an e-mail out explaining that it was a business decision and promising to pump new titles into the system so that everyone can write at the $15/article rate if they so choose. I think it’s still pretty easy money, just not as easy as it used to be! Congrats on getting accepted at Demand, Leigh. I have only been there for about two weeks. I’m no expert but I was there when this change came about.
Associated Content generally used to give higher offers to writers. Now their offers are lower and they are stressing evergreen content with page view bonuses. I have about 170 articles on there (including poems that I publish for page view revenue only) and generate about $20/month just letting it sit, so I can tell you that the page view bonus thing is real. AC offers special bonuses to successful producers, calls for content (their suggestions; they bring in page views, but most of these calls don’t pay up front), and community events and training. I was writing consistently for them and made up to $500/month on AC, but now I realize it’s much easier to do that with Demand Studios.
Generally I answer calls for content asking for poems. They kind of diversify what people see when they are looking at my Content Producer page, they are easy to write, and AC tends to advertise the holiday poems and they do bring in new readers and page view money.
Articles (exclusive) at AC which used to fetch $7-$10 are now fetching $3-$4. There is really a debate over whether it’s true (”are you sure your writing quality hasn’t gone down?”) so this is just personal experience.
I’m freelancing part time and like the fact that I can count on AC and Demand to pay me on time. I know that if I will be short on money in a week, I have the option to submit a lot of content to those sites and I will see some revenue. It really helps when I’m not sure if other clients will pay on time or what work I’ll pick up during the week.
Leigh, you have a good point about value. I have been offering flat rate quotes for specific jobs (like rewriting web content) and find that people are resistant to the whole ‘hourly rate’ thing. I’m not sure if I’m marketing myself improperly or what, but I keep finding that a project based fee and contract always come across as the most fair to both parties.
I understand my hourly fee is on the low end ($30/hour, where many freelancers on the Demand boards are saying $60/hour), but that is just based on what I have read over at Demand. I’m not sure what most people charge for an hourly fee. I determined this rate by:
a) What I can make per hour at Demand. Two articles per hour = $30.
b) An average of what I make at my full time salaried position and during my part time tutoring position when broken down to the hour.
Regarding Demand and AC, I put my freelance clients first, then my Demand work, and then once I max out my Demand workload allowance, I go to AC. Demand usually starts users with a 10 article limit, but it takes time to review them. They do increase limits once a writer has proven it’s necessary by writing consistently–I have not been there very long so I do not expect them to do that for me yet.
I’d be curious to see what others have to say on this topic.
Considering many of our writers say there are no $100 jobs on the web, I’m not sure the people posting $100 for a gig are being realistic. I wouldn’t mind hearing from some of the people who are claiming $100 to learn if this what they are being paid, or what they want to be paid.
I based my answer ($100 or more) on the basis of 20c per word. Have I ever made that for an online article? No yet. Maybe “The Writer’s Market” has me brainwashed.
I understand, Kendra. I’d like for this poll to be as realistic as possible so that when clients ask me about writers and pay I can say “this is what they feel is fair…”
“put in your going rate or what you consider is fair” – Using these terms, I went with the “what they want to be paid” scenario.
That’s why I voted for $50-100. I didn’t consider whether this would be the average or realistic wage. I considered on what an expert writer should be paid.
Sorry to say, but these are all far too low. I often get 50 cents a word, even for Web work (typically Web sites of print pubs). I just took on one at 25 cents a word, which is low, but business is slow.
Great question, Deb. Count me in among those who would charge in excess of $100 for an assignment of this type. I would charge $250, and that’s on the low end. It assumes a per-word rate of $0.50, well below the $1/word seen in many marketing circles.
@Phil and @All – this is very good to know.
I was actually offered a rate of $100 per article once. However, I wrote the article and the client never paid me. He then submitted the article to a major content portal, where it now sits collecting Adsense income and taking up the number one search result on MSN, Yahoo, and Google for the specific keyword. Makes me mad!
When it comes to personal finance and health topics, I can write and edit a good article (500 words) in about an hour. Getting paid $30 to $40 for an hour’s work is more than fair.
Good idea for a poll Deb and it’s interesting to see people’s responses.
Hi Leigh – Why are you letting him get away with it? If he didn’t pay you he has to take your content down. And if he won’t take it down you can take action. Plus it’s your content not his – so put it wherever you want with your own byline.
It’s happening because you’re allowing it to happen. Take your content back, contact Angela Hoy…do something but don’t just sit idly by watching him steal your content.
All is right about $1 a word, but I tend to find that’s for specialized writing, often in print or for a white paper. In fact, I have one client who pays $1 a word for print and 50 cents a word online.
I have found the $1 word assignments tend to take twice as long as the 50 cent a word ones, so the pay rate on a time basis is similar.
Deb @ A 500 word, well-written, expert Web article in my focus topic area – I wouldn’t do one for less than $100. 500 words is not a length I usually work in (but rather 600-800 for Web), where my standard rate is well above $100.
For me the poll was a bit difficult to accurately vote in, because of the 500 word bit which I have no experience with – but I think I averaged it out well enough.
If I were personally super-ecstatic about the topic or I wanted to get my foot in the door at the publication, I might consider lower if I felt that over the time the rate might be better and the work ongoing after a few submissions.
Leigh @ Horrible. You need to go after your content and get it back.
$100 for 500 words is okay. I’ve written 400 word CD reviews that only ran online that fetched $200. It’s a matter of not settling for that associated content nonsense.
PR
Deb:
I took action. The company he submitted the article to is a huge online company. I don’t want to name it here. This happened about two years ago. I contacted the company when I found it online, and filled out a contact form on their legal page to let them know they had my content online. I got a reply back from their legal counsel, asking me to fill out the attached DMCA complaint, which I did. I sent it back the same day. I never heard back from the attorney again. I sent several follow up e-mails asking the status of my complaint, and never heard back about those. At this point, I don’t know what else to do. Funny thing is, I published the article on Go Articles as soon as I figured out the guy wouldn’t pay me. So the company displaying my content actually has duplicate content, but because they’re such a well-established online company, their ranking hasn’t been affected at all.
@ Valencia – I am with you there, kind of moving into that bracket. When I line up a steady night’s work at that rate, I feel like I am making good money.
@ PR – You are right, it is about deciding not to settle. It also depends upon how many of the ‘better’ gigs one can find. I find them, but they don’t seem to be plentiful enough to rely on them exclusively.
I am finding that content written for individual clients (such as small business owners) tend to result in a lot of referrals and helpful networking, and most of those are in that $100/500 words range or higher.
Leigh you should continue to take action until they remove your content. For you to allow them to leave it up like that tells this company it’s OK to rip off writers.
I agree that these are all far too low. The only time I ever did $100 articles at all when I just started. Otherwise they are not worth the time they take, especially for a well written article. And if you are really an expert or considered to be one, then alot of publications and websites will pay you much more for your name anyway.
If you are just starting in the writing business or are trying to get your first crack at a particular subject sure, write a 500 word article for $100. And if you truly are an expert on the subject do not waste your time on someone who is only paying you $100 for expertise you built up over the years. The only exception is if you are doing an easy write-up for a well established, high-traffic brand like Wall Street Journal, US World News Report, Vogue, etc. websites.
I posted $20-30, not because it’s fair, but because in my niche (music journalism) it’s not unheard of to be paid that much (on the lower end) for articles involving sources AND interviews. I’m more willing to take lower rates for jobs that don’t require interviews, transcribing etc.
I just sent the content portal another complaint. I got taken to an acknowledgment page, so I printed it to PDF so I have a record of the date and time it was submitted. I will keep following up. Thanks for the encouragement, Deb.
This is an interesting poll, Deb. I would also be interested in a poll that asks how much your site visitors make per year as writers and how many hours they work per week. To me, this is perhaps more meaningful than the rate per article. After all, I may be getting $100 per article, but it may take me 5 hours to write it and I may only receive 3 of these assignments per week. On the other hand, I may be writing 2 or 3 articles at $20 per article and am completing 50 articles per week. It’s all relative.
I answered for the “more than $50 but less than $100.” I have taken more or less, but this seems to be the average right now (writing web based stuff for lawyers).
I find it interesting that when people voted for $100 or more that the assumption is that they are not being “realistic” or “honest.” Years ago I made $100 per article for Zooba.com and my rate per word was around 33 cents. Recently I invoiced a client for three articles at $100 each as agreed upon in the contract. This week I applied for a job that pays $200 for 500-650 word articles. All of these articles are for the Web. I know of several other websites that pay 25-50 cents a word but I haven’t contacted them. So yes, there is $100+ per article work available.
Louise – Just to clarify, I don’t believe the people are being dishonest or unrealistic. Most of the mail I receive is from people who want to break away from the cheap article mills. In the comments here and on forums all over the web most web writers complain of low wages and wish they can earn $30 an article or .10 per word. I don’t hear from many writers who earn $100 or more a gig at all. This is why I asked if $100 is what they’re earning or what they want to earn. Not because it’s that I don’t believe they earn this money but because the majority of writers I speak with tell me they don’t.
Deb, I would also like to add that part of the perception of “there aren’t better paying jobs out there” might be because (in my experience anyway) pay tends to be higher for folks who pitch clients and get gigs that way rather than relying on the job ads. It’s been a long while since I was on CL or similar sites every day, but I rarely saw any job ads like that (not that they’re not out there, but they’re certainly not the norm). So for a while I assumed the pay just wouldn’t be there for web based stuff. Once I started pitching around I found out there were plenty of folks willing to pay that rate. They just don’t seem to be the same folks posting ads. Still, this is on the corporate end, so that probably makes a big difference.
I agree, Amy. Once I raised my rates (I voted $40-$50) I finally started finding clients willing to pay the rate I charged by pitching to them directly.
I submitted a vote for over $100. My best gigs pay 30 cents per word, plus $50 per photograph. These are for print magazines that also run a web version. My pay rate does often dip below this level, however. For example, I just completed a six-month contract, writing fifty 750-word articles at $75 each.
The jobs I mentioned above I found on job boards. One even gave me the topics to write on. But I am in the process of contacting clients directly. I agree that I will make more money with this approach.
I think it is better to set my own rates with a client instead of accepting a rate posted in an ad.
@ Avid Writer: I found the same thing. I tripled my rates and have more work than ever. They all pay on time, and don’t give me as much grief as the lower-paying clients did, either.
I’m one of the $100 or more votes. My work is for print, and none of it came from job boards. Like other posters have said, my best paying work came from either pitching myself or getting recommended to an editor. I’d also love to know where that $100 and more work is on the web – I’ve never been able to find it.
To those that are “pitching” to clients directly, how exactly do you do this? Send an email, a sample article? What do you say, etc.?
Thanks for any ideas!
Momma
feature blogger at Engineer a Debt Free Life
http://engineeradebtfreelife.blogspot.com/
To those that are “pitching” to clients directly, how exactly do you do this? Send an email, a sample article? What do you say, etc.?
Thanks for any ideas!
I chose the $20-30 mark, but I think that as a student I am more willing to go for the lower paying jobs (either I’m desperate or I just don’t know what payment to ask for, take your pick
)
I based my answer on how much I think I would have to be offered in order to consider writing 500 words to make it worth my while. In the case of a simple topic (opinions, etc) I would likely even write for less, where if it were a topic for which I needed to do some research and put a little extra effort into the article, I would expect to be paid accordingly.
I’m a medical writer/editor and generally am paid $0.50/word; this is considered cheap. I have one writer who is paid $0.80/word. Needless to say, based on my experience and if this was a gig of mine, I would be getting at least $250. The thing is…I’m not sure WHAT is a fair rate for a web article but am stunned at how low the rates are.
AC is a rip off, I’m sorry to say. I was offered $3.08 for a 600 word article. I was offered a little over a dollar for a 300-400 word article. Lately they have only offered “performance only” work. You get $1.50 for every 1000 views. To make $10, I’d have to have over 12000 viewers.
Jenn: The difference is that for print, there are information sources where you can find where it’s worth trying to pitch/network/introduce yourself – where you can find out what pay rates are for different publications.
For the web, there doesn’t seem to be any such thing, and I’m not going to waste my time pitching a $100 rate to a site that for all I know pays $10.
Because suggesting a rate doesn’t mean they’ll magically decide to pay ten times what they were expecting to pay. I had an email once from a blogging gig saying “we’d love to have you, what are your rates” and when I told them, I never heard another peep out of them!
Deb,
I’ve been lurking on FWJ for a long time but just had to respond this time. Yes, the $100+ article gigs are out there, but the quality of the writing expected and knowledge required just won’t allow for the possibility of writing several of these per hour. I earn $.50/word for a steady gig I’ve had that requires specialized research from government sources and medical journals. The good part is, I earn up to $1,000 a week doing this. I realize I’m lucky (I’m also very disciplined), but I just can’t understand why anyone would accept a $5 or even $20 article gig. If you can write 50 of these a day, how good can the writing be?
Jenn, what is Marcomm writing?
I had a hard time choosing just one pay range, so I went with the $30-40 (then I realized that this was too low.) It all depends on where and how the article will be used. For example:
A 500 word article on a typical blog might average $40-50, assuming you don’t have to link much.
If it’s an article for a corporate blog or a company website, then I’d expect at least $60, and more likely $100.
If it’s an article for a print magazine that is being published exclusively online, I’d expect somewhere around $200.
It also depends on how much work I’ll be getting, the length of the contract, and how pleasant the editors are. Nasty people aren’t worth working with at lower rates. Nicer clients that pay quickly and regularly are worth a discount.
My rates are so varied, that it is difficult to place a single rate on an article. I would guess that I’m making anywhere from $50 for a 500-word article (low end) all the way up to 5-7 cents a character (including spaces) for web content in the 500-word range.
Business is better now that the economy is turning, in my opinion. Freelancers are cheaper to keep, even at premium rates. And for all of you who think there is no $100+ work online, you are mistaken. I thought that too, at first. I set my rates at whatever I could get, and gradually, I found higher and higher rates with each new job. The key is to only accept higher paying, and never lower paying. Work your way up and replace the low-pay jobs as the high-pay come in.
I have found much of my very high paying work from the ad listings on places like this. Also from networking with other writers, writer’s forums, and from directly contacting websites that I know use freelance writers via LinkedIn. Just keep networking! If you can write, sell, and meet deadlines, the business will grow.
Consider Reading the Well-Fed Writer books for inspiration on selling your self. It’s hard work, but really, really worth it.
Thanks for the awesome survey!
If the $20 gigs are the only ones available (or seem to be), I accept them, even if they are not on a preferred topic. Truthfully, a lot of jobs at that level involve little to no research or regurgitating very basic information in a more prosaic way. I don’t think these would necessarily meet the criteria Deb originally posted (not Google job/expert article).
At my current level, I keep writing them to pay the bills. I am still at a full time publishing job, but even at the lower-paying level, my freelance income is approaching what I make at my day job. I am also still trying to build a diverse portfolio to exhibit an expert level on multiple topics. Recently (as in the last month), I started landing those $100+ gigs; I pitched my services and offered the price up front, to much success. I needed those well-written $20 articles to get the $100 gigs, which may prove the point that those articles are worth more than $20.
At this point, I’m not finding many $100 gigs advertised, but I am getting business from referrals before I even complete the jobs. I’m also confined to searching for them on evenings and a one hour lunch break. The $20 articles are the foundation of my ability to potentially consider this as a full time opportunity in the future, now that the income is rivaling that of my day job.
I also keep getting the feeling that my $100+ clients are sure they’ve found a ‘gem’ when they hire me. Perhaps that is also an indication of a potential increase in prices.
How long are people taking to write these type of specialized articles? If it only takes 30 minutes, then the pay could be less. If it takes say 2 hours, the pay should be more… so really, the answer could vary depending on your specialty/niche.
Momma,
Generally, because we are “experts” it is assumed that it should take no more than an hour. I would even say that it should take less than that, as I can do 2 an hour (more or less) of these types of articles. Every writer is different, but $200 an hour for “actual” writing time is not unreasonable. You have to remember that your billable hours are different than your writing hours. You still have to pay for your time spent marketing, job hunting, bill-collecting, insurance, vacation time, sick time, etc. When you figure all that in, $100-$200 an hour is not asking for too much for a freelancer that relies solely on their work to support themselves (or a family.)
That’s just my experience, however. I’m sure others have their own take on it.
What LinseyK and MM have said is along the lines of what I am talking about when I said I am more interested in knowing how much people are making per year rather than per article and how many hours they are having to dedicate to the job in order to earn that salary. While one person may charge $10 for a 500 word article, that person may not have to spend a great deal of time with marketing, pitching for jobs, etc. So, that person may be making a handsome annual salary while working the same number of hours as a person who makes $100 per article. To that end, I would be more curious to know how many hours someone like MM is dedicating to his/her profession (not just the actual writing of the article) in order to make $1000 per week rather than how much a writer charges per hour. With that said, this has certainly been a very interesting poll. Thanks, Deb!
Elizabeth –
I typically work between 34-40 hours per week to make that kind of money. Those hours include researching and writing, of course, but also the “business upkeep” of invoicing, job prospecting and sending out query/cover letters. Most weeks I earn in the $750 range; it reaches the $1,000 mark when I’m pretty much pulling my hair out from the stress, but of course depends on what projects I’m working on. And I have managed to keep the same core group of 5 clients for about the last year — all have constant work for me, and all pay very well. That’s how this has worked for me.
Thanks!
MM