When working as freelance writer,  one of the most difficult things is to calculate the budget. Let’s discuss some things to take into consideration.

When biding for a job, you always are afraid to ask too much, because in the end, if you don’t get the job, you don’t have the money, so you can be tempted to think “better a low price than nothing”.  It is not always true, we can talk about it in a future post. By now, let’s think that some clients are not interesting, and let’s discuss about the reasons in this same future post.

What to think about to set a writing price

1. How much time will you need to write the text? Each writer finds some subjects easier than others. If the text will take a long time to write, you can’t do it so cheap. Think in the time you will spend writing the application, researching, writing the text, proofreading it, getting feedback and maybe rewriting and generating the invoice. Your time is limited and each small job has at least these tasks, and likely more. It is a good idea set a minimum price and never bid for less, even if the task is small.
2. Are you an expert about the subject? If you are, value yourself. You can write about other subjects cheaper, but If you are the best SEO in the world and you are writing about SEO, your client has to pay for it.
3. Will you have to find an image? Some clients will ask you to find an image to post with the text. It is up to you if you accept this condition, but finding an image free of rights could be difficult. If you know where to search add 15-20 minutes more, if you don’t know, add an hour.
4. Will you have to post it? Post it always means that you need to fulfill the SEO widget, you need that the image looks good in the text, you maybe need to put some html codes. More time, more money.
5. What is the deadline? If you can do It when you want, you can low the price, because it is good to get some work to do when you don’t have more urgent tasks. If you need it for yesterday, the price is higher.
6. Is your client well known and regular? A long relationship means trust. The risk of not be paid is less, you always can give them a good deal.
7. Value your time, value yourself. It is ok, there is thousands of people ready to do the same job for less money but is it really the same job? If you are providing a good final result, you deserve a good payment. I am not saying you will be rich with that, but having good texts is a very important part of the company’s online marketing strategy.

It is a very good idea measuring the time it takes to you writing each kind of text. Knowing that is the first step to calculate your prices accurately. So, when you have a new task, take your watch and control your times.