A Big Error That A Lot Of Freelance Writers Make
A lot of freelance writers painfully underestimate the value of their work. A lot of writers end up working for content mills long term, and even more would-be writers fall for the professional content mills that masquerade as entry-points into journalism or freelance writing.
Places like the Huffington Post and The Guardian, which are both massive companies, “hire” writers with a single difference to a regular writing gig – they don’t actually pay!
Writers regularly get duped into writing without making any money from it.
This article is going to describe some of the warning signs that you need to avoid. Before I do though, I’ll give a golden piece of advice that makes this whole thing redundant.
The Easiest Way For Writers To AVOID Being Underpaid
Regular readers of the blog will know this already, but for those who are new; the best way to up your pay, self-worth and confidence is to create your own projects.
See: How To Get Writing Experience Before You Get A Job.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re looking to be a journalist, author or entrepreneur.
It doesn’t really matter what you even do.
Here are some things I’ve done which prove my worth to clients:
- I’ve built successful niche sites that make money every month
- I’ve written and self-published a number of books (Real books, not 5k essays on Kindle)
- I’ve had essays, short stories and articles published in various places in one-time deals
- I’ve written sales letters that convert (and thus prove a tangible benefit)
- I’ve printed out letters at home and tried direct mailing
The list goes on. The things that all of these things have in common are 1) They prove tangible results, and 2) they only took me a weekend to create.
A lot of writers spend years serving coffee at an advertising agency or getting ripped off by clients who don’t pay them what they’re worth. Don’t be one of these writers.
If you have profitable projects that guarantee £X return, then why would you charge like someone who hasn’t?
If you create your own projects, you’ll have the confidence to say “no” to the people I’m about to describe below.
People Who Are Trying To Get Your Skill For Less
Over the past couple of days, I’ve received a few emails from people who are being cheeky. Now, I receive a ton of spam every day from people who are complete scammers and spammers. Those are quite obvious. Here I’m talking about the not-quite-scammers who, none-the-less, push their luck and try and rope you into doing a lot of work for little gain. Here are some things people like this will say.
“Writing For Us Will Give You EXPERIENCE”
For some bizarre reason, the generation who are just entering the workplace (or not) seem to think that there’s some magical set period of time where you suddenly know what you’re talking about. Sadly, most of the people hiring them feel exactly the same way.
You don’t need experience. You need to be able to do the job. If you can’t do the job well enough to get paid for it, then practice on your own projects until you can. If you can do the job well enough, then you shouldn’t be working for experience.
You’ll gain experience incrementally, and you’ll learn more and do a better job when you’re getting paid for it.
“Writing For Us Will Be Great Exposure”
I have lost count of the amount of times that people have given me a variation on this. What’s amazing is that, in the majority of cases, you’ll find that the companies that say this actually have no exposure to offer you.
If the Queen, in her yearly speech, decided to tell everyone I was the greatest writer to ever live in front of millions of TV viewers, then that would be exposure.
Some random, no-name internet company that spams out articles about getting six pack abs? What is that worth? Nothing.
This seems obvious, but think about random news sites: you’re writing opinion pieces to rile up the fringe elements of either side of a particular argument.
For the most part, people are going to get their two minutes of outrage and then go about their day. They aren’t going to say to themselves, “I really hate these immigrants/bankers/politicians/millennials” and then, “But gee, this guy has a really insightful opinion and a stylish vocabulary. I should really put some money in his pocket!”
Some Iteration Of “We’re Doing You A Favour”
This was what I read in one of the emails I got sent earlier on in the week. Essentially, someone told me that they wanted me to write more with a huge discount (more on that later.) When I said that the price was the price, they told me that they were “doing me a favour” by putting more work my way.
Nobody hires someone as a “favour” outside of the shopkeeper who hires his nephew to work a Saturday job or something.
If you’re a professional writer, then nobody is hiring you “as a favour.” You’re providing a service which puts more money in their pocket than they took out to pay you.
Fixing Your Price / “I’ll Need You To Do A Discount On That”
If you’re a professional writer, then you need to act like a professional.
A guy who makes boots can’t just stick a price on his boots with a random figure.
He has to work out how much it costs to produce the boots, and then work out all his other margins and then price accordingly.
Writers all need to do the same. You have costs. You have to make a profit. If you’re not doing this, you need to. Then your pricing will become simple: The price you get paid is overhead + profit.
Now, some businesses that want you to work for them will consider you to be a magician who pulls words out of the hat without overheads.
You have to say no.
If you need to earn $30 an hour, and someone says they’ll only pay you $10 an hour, you have to say no. Otherwise you’ll go out of business sooner or later.
There will be people who try and take you for a ride: After all, they’re trying to get the most work possible for the least amount of money. You cannot go below your figure unless you’ve got some special reason for doing the job. It doesn’t matter what their reasoning is.
Final Thoughts
Those are just a few things that will pop up if you do freelance writing for any length of time.
However, like I mentioned at the beginning, a lot of this is tied to perceived self-worth. If somebody asked you to clean a sewer for $1 an hour, you’d say “no.” You’d feel you were worth more than $1, you’d feel like the job was too horrid to do for that rate, and you’d probably worry about the safety considerations and risks as well.
People do exactly the same with writing though. They get messed up thoughts like “writing isn’t a real job” and “I need to prove I can write by continually writing for free.”
The answer is simple:
Create your own projects so that you have a tangible value to a client.
Believe in yourself and act like you believe in yourself.
Work out how much it costs to provide the service you’re providing.
Stick to your guns and never go below that cost for any reason.