What is the pay of a freelance writer in 2020?

Freelance writing is a great career path, provided you know your worth. And the term worth here means that you know about the quality of content you produce and the money you charge. As far as the pay rate factor is concerned, there is no bar for a good writer. But, there are many factors that determine the pay rate of a writer.

Typically, a freelance content writer’s pay rate varies from $10 to over $100 an hour. The aspects that extend this range so wide are:

Type of content

The type of content has a direct impact on the pay rate. The projects that include producing whitepapers cost over $100 and even $200 per hour. Other than that, technical writing, ghostwriting and copyrighting can go from $45 to $100 per hour. Apart from the hourly format, projects are also charged based on the word count.

Per word charge

As mentioned above, the earnings of freelance writers also vary based on the word count. Most of the experienced writers charge from $0.8 to over $1 per word. The paying method of per word basis is highly advantageous as it eliminates the time factor and allows writers to make money solely based on their performance.

Experience level

If you have more experience, you will definitely make more money. There are certain bars for payment based on the experience level. For example, a beginner writer (0-3 years of experience) can make anything between $21 - $40. For those who have 3-7 years of experience, the payment can vary from $41 - $60. Similarly, for 7-15 years, it is $81 - $100, and for over 15 years, the payment is over $100.

Project basis

Other than words and hours, some clients are also paid based on the project. This is primarily for website pages, PPC ads, and email campaigns.

For writing SEO optimized website content, you can get a whopping $1500 to $3500.

Well, copywriting can reward you with $500 per hour.

A PPC campaign of around ten ads can pay you around $2500.

A sales email can earn you at least $200 and at most $2000.

Why do sales copywriters make more money?

If you are a newbie, you need to know that content writing is way different from copywriting. Copywriting includes engaging promotional content that nudges the user to sign up for the services or buy the product. An average content writer can make around $40,000 a year, whereas a copywriter can make over $60,000. And there is no limit to that.

Where to get good-paying content jobs?

Although there are many ways, for a start, you can begin from social networks like Facebook. Most of the jobs will pay low, but it will be better to build your skills. Once you are confident enough about your content’s brilliant quality, you can move to bid platforms like Upwork. The pay rates are better there as compared to social networks, and the clients are also authentic.

Key Takeaway

As there are many methods to make more money via writing, the key thing that you need to do is prove yourself. Send pitches to the clients, show them your work, maintain communication with them, analyze your expenses, and charge them according to your work quality and time. Build a network and know about people and their content quality to improve and get the best rates.

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