Ok, I am planning to raise my rates. My darling husband thinks that I don't charge near enough at 3cents per word, however, I am just starting out and have been writing professionally for less than a year so I was a little confused about the raising process. I do want to hit the 5cent per word mark by summer. I was wondering if someone would care to critique my style and let me know if you think I can write 5cent per word material? I believe that I can charge a higher rate than my current rate, however, I have a couple of clients that say I can't. I thought that maybe there was something that I could do to improve upon my writing skills. Then again, maybe my clients just don't want to up their retainers Anyway constructive criticism is highly appreciated (let me have it, I can take it) If you would check the blog in my signature (Write next door) and let me know what some of you think, I'd be forever grateful. The blog is a temporary fix until I get my site up, so if you go into the samples page you can see samples by hitting "previous entries". thanks much
Hi Vanessa, I only read the first paragraph of the "Link Building" thingie article - noticed some errors. Major search engines, such as Google and Yahoo, use incoming links as a way of determining how important and popular your site it. If you have great quality incoming links, and several of them doesn’t hurt, then your popularity is up, the search engines see your site as more important than those that don’t have links, and suddenly you find yourself with a PR (Page Rank)1. Well, how ecstatic you must be. Your website if highly popular. But do you know what you did to get it that way? You placed links, and not just links to any sites, but links that are directly related to your site, that come from highly unique and popular sites, and you didn’t get caught up just trying to fill a page with links, you put only the ones that will bring you a good reputation with the search engines. ===== IMHO, there's something wrong with the use of commas and of "and's." It's like - the reader thought that your point has already been made and the sentence is about to end. However, there's a comma and the word "and" so the reader will find it taxing/dragging to read. Maybe you can try to split the sentences?
Hello Vanessa, I caught an error in the "Quality Content for your online success" page. Web Content is truly the most important aspect of owning a website. You need fresh, high quality content in order to satisfy the search engine’s, as well as to keep your visitors informed and interested. No apostrophe needed. Your website copy will likely be the very first impression that potential clients get of your writing. They'll likely scan through a couple of lines on your About page before they head off to see samples or rates (although some will probably hit the Rates section first! Either way, you can be sure most of them will want to get a better sense of your writing style before they commit). Typos, grammatical errors or punctuation errors (this last one is my Achilles' Heel) don't inspire confidence. A little more effort in proofreading and editing would be great. Also, if I was a client looking to pay higher than 5 cents a word, I'd want to see more samples. Maybe that's a limitation because you're currently on wordpress?
Thanks you guys for the feedback. As I said, I am fairly new to the world of internet writing and still have a lot to learn. I was wondering, though, how many samples are the norm? I have three, which I do plan to increase once I have my "real" website set up, but I'm not sure how many to include. I also know that I have to fine-tune my proofreading skills a bit. Actually my husband normally does that for me over my shoulder while I write He just happened to be gone when I put the samples up Anyway, thanks for the tips. I really appreciate it.
Vanessa, Three samples is plenty... if they're the right samples. Like Rayaan and What mentioned above, you do have a tendency to let your sentences and paragraphs run on too long. What I would do in your position, is sit down and write three of the absolute best articles you have ever written in your life. When you're done, send them to a professional editor, and have them critiqued... Then rewrite them. Once they are "perfect," post them as samples. Just my two cents, but until you get the hang of web writing, hiring a professional editor/proofreader to double check your work would be a great investment. It takes time and practice, but the fact that you're willing to ask for advice/criticism shows that you've got what it takes to get it right. Best of luck!
I find it hard to actually find people willing to pay over the $1.5 per 100 words that I am charging at the moment. Then again I haven't really looked around that much, only here in DP. I've also seen that in GAF people are looking to pay the lower rates, can anyone suggest where to find the people who agree with paying for quality?
There's your problem right there. I've said it a thousand times, and I'll probably say it a thousand more - STOP charging so little! Raise your rates! If you believe that your time is worth more, then you will be able to convince others of the same. If you are just happy to be getting paid, then you'll never make any more than what you are making right now. It's up to you to decide how much you're worth. Yeah - everywhere but here! If you visit a site and see that it is saturated with people who are only willing to pay .000001 per word, why in the world would you want to waste your time? Set yourself up a blog where you can showcase your talents. Make it interesting, and put a notice on one side letting folks know that you're available for hire. Stay away from sites that only pay pennies for your hard work, and head over to o-desk or elance to find folks who are willing to pay you what you're worth. Or, better yet, strike out on your own and start contacting people through Craigslist, website owners, etc., and show 'em what you're made of! Just to wrap my little rant up, consider this: When people call me and ask my rates, I am very up front with them about the fact that I will not work for pennies. If they balk at my prices, I remind them that there are thousands of people who are more than happy to get paid much less. No hard feelings, have a nice day. Then I hang up, and go about my business. 90% of the time, my phone will ring within the hour. Same client, same project,same price - sold. Only you set the limitations on what you can earn in this business.
Thanks for that, I was going to tackle the blog side of things to try and get the word out. I think I will try alternate methods at the moment as I feel the blog approach would take more time and money to get moving. I will check out those sites you mentioned before and see if I can find anything to get started.
Brilliant post - rep added. I used to be like that too - I used to do 500 word articles for $2.00 (fooking hell, eh ). Eventually moved on to an oh-so-generous buck a word after finding DP; realised that it was just not worth it and now I charge ten times that - more for sales letters and the like You will probably get less clients by raising your prices, but you'll make more money if you do the marketing aspect right
I think that is where I am going to strugle Finding work on DP is much easier but not very profitable long term.
Thanks Spot on! That's just it - who cares if you've got clients coming out of the wazoo if it takes every one of those thousand just to pay the rent, right? Me, I'd rather have one or two steady clients who value my time, and are willing to pay accordingly! And bravo to those who make that decision to say "I'm worth more than this, by gosh, and you're going to pay me for it!"
Great stuff there as Jason says. Although my rates start at 2 cents a word, it's all set up in a way that I'm paid the same amount per hour regardless of what my pricing is. With that said, taking your timing (how much content you can churn out in a day or hour) into account is of importance when setting your rates. There was a time when I wrote for $2.5 per 500 words but back then I didn't know what a forum or a bidding site was Get your own website like I have. Then use places like free ad sites, forums etc. to market yourself. If you do this right, you'll have more opportunities knocking at your door than you can handle. Cheers
That's a nice website, I will make one and give it a go to see if I can get the word around showing what I can do Thanks for the help everyone. -PS- I'm sorry for taking over this thread as i didn't even start it but I believe that the information will be helpful to the thread starter.
Hi there - How many 500 word, well researched and edited articles can you write in a day, on average for a five day work week? Say you average four per day. At .03 cents per word, that would be $60 per day. Ok. Say you can do six per day on average. Now you're at $90 day/$400 per week/$1600 month. Per year, that would be less than $20,000. Is poverty level really what you're worth? Scott Frangos, Managing Editor - WebHelperMagazine.com
You've opened my eyes Math sure has its ways of showing you what's right and wrong. Good post (I'd rep you but I can't yet)
For those of you who like looking at the math behind your rates, I actually did a big post on this very recently: How to Set Freelance Writing Fees Every new freelance writer needs to look it over and learn how to really crunch the numbers. Most never do, and frankly, it's a big reason most freelance writers will FAIL! Most of what people are saying in this thread has been said repeatedly by the more professional writers on this forum over the last year or two. Search around a bit, and you'll find quite a lot of information about how some of us do use places like DP very effectively for bringing in high-paying gigs.