If you’re new to freelance writing, you might be wondering how much to charge, what is fair, and whether clients will be willing to pay you the amount you think is fair. Should you charge by the hour, by the word, by the project or some combination of these?

Here are the steps I take to determine my freelance writing rates:

1. How much do I need to earn per month (per week, per day) to get my bills paid, plus taxes and a little extra? I take that amount (for hypothetical purposes, let’s say $2000) and divide it into weeks and days, so I know what my earning goals are for each day and week. For $2000, that would be $500 per week, $100 per day (with weekends off).

Note: If you’re a beginning freelance writer who doesn’t have ongoing assignments or regular clients, earning $100 per day can be a challenge. Once your freelance writing career is more established, you’ll have more work, and earning $100 per day won’t seem like such a daunting concept.

2. What type of work will I do? My rates vary depending on the type of work I’m doing. For freelance copywriting, I charge a lot more than for content writing. I charge less for blogging than I do for article writing. Etc etc etc. I balance how much I charge for each type of freelance writing job based on how difficult the work will be and how much time it will take. For example:

Will I spend two hours researching a 1000 word article? If so, I have to factor the research time into my freelance writing rate. Can I write the 500 word article in 30 minutes without doing any research? If so, I will charge less.

3. How much work do I have? If I’m working for a regular client who is assigning me 50 500-word articles every month, and I am committed to working for this client for $20 per article, approximately half of my month’s working time is accounted for. If another client approaches me with a rush job that will take my time away from the first client — or cause me to work late into the night to make a deadline, etc. — I will charge double my usual rate to accommodate the rush job.

On the flip side, if my workload is especially low one month, I won’t mind taking on a writing job of 75 500-word articles at $15 per article. I know I have to earn that $2000 per month to pay the bills, so if that means taking on more work at a slightly lower rate, then that’s what I do.

More info on how to set freelance writing rates:
If you want to see what other freelance writers are charging, there are some good links in the article Patricia Telesco wrote for write-from-home.com — Setting Rates as a Freelance Writer. Patricia also offers a more experienced perspective on how to set freelance writing rates. She’s been in the freelance writing business for 15 years.