This question is obviously highly dependent on what part of the world you are living in, or rather, where the employer is that you are working for - if a $5 hourly wage is normal where you are, then I suppose it is not surprising you are getting paid that for copywriting. However, for this kind of work you would expect to be paid much more than, say, the average wage for a cleaner in a warehouse ($5 is about what I was paid in England as a student for that job 15 years ago!) - it demands an expertise, skill in your native language (writing in a foreign language? Forget it...) and breadth of knowledge and experience that put simply, not everybody can offer. I am not a copywriter (well, I could be, I suppose, but haven't gone that route), but I am in the translation business which is similar in many ways, and we charge $0.16/wd in the Western markets and about $0.06/wd in our local market (East-European) for high-quality translations. However, at the end of the day, I think market forces will determine what you are paid - put simply, all else being equal, we are all being paid what our services are worth. And what they are worth boils down to what someone is prepared to pay. Which means one of two things (at least that I can think of): 1) your services are not worth more than you are currently being paid 2) you have not convinced the right customers that your services are worth more...
GO JASON!!! I still hang around the $20-40/hr mark... though, my primary aim is to keep this rate consistent before I work to increase my earnings...
Wow, cheers... but this is an old thread I now earn double, if not treble that when I can be arsed to write
I have been stuck in the 20-30 hour range for a while now. I am seriously trying to learn how to better market myself to make what I should be, which is a much higher range. I have 2 areas that I specialize in and have just raised my rates in those areas. Now I need the marketing to back me up!
about $40-$60 an hour, but I'm in a specialised niche that requires a lot of skill, so its not an obscene amount.
Deciding on an hourly rate is different for everyone. I would suggest starting out at $8-$10/hr depending on the project, your writing ability, and any overhead from memberships if you chose to go that route. There is good money in writing if you do it right. Starting out I would recommend to write to a few blogs and use them in a portfolio. Even if you have qualifications (i.e. an English degree) it is important to not price yourself out of the market. It is hard to find accounts willing to pay $100/hr to an untested provider. It is also hard to compete with others who are charging many times less. Start small and work your way higher. I started out at $10 per hour. Right off the bat I was pegged by several buyers for having professional quality work for so cheap so after about a month it was boosted to $15, then $20. I stayed at $20 as the work kept coming in and hired content producers to help with the burden. For most projects I still charge $20, I go higher if I have a producer that is an expert in the field they are writing about and lower to establish a long term account.
I think $10-15 an hour is reasonable. I think that it is not convenient to pay more even if quality could be better
I write relatively quickly and I have solid research skills, so I generally make between $40-$75 per hour, depending upon the project and how I'm feeling.