Get Your Freelance Copywriter Invoice Template for Production Effortlessly

Freelance copywriter invoice template for Production

foreign [Music] I am Robin the copy this is Stewie my sidekick sloth today we are talking about freelance copywriter rates and the reason why is because I've been getting lots of questions lots of traction on this channel which is nice to see we like that don't we and people keep asking about you know I want to do this copywriting things but how do I set my rates what do I charge I know it can be extremely overwhelming so I want to kind of demystify the process because I get it you are just starting out and you want to be fair be also kind of you know want to be able to keep yourself in beer and Skittles so or wine and Skittles or you know milkshakes and Skittles whatever it is that you like oh yeah milkshakes we like that so let's talk about freelance copywriter rates now I have another video about what to charge for copywriting services I'm going to link to that below I'm also going to link to this great resource that I found when emailing one of you guys about this question and it is from the American Writers and artists Institute awai I'm looking at my computer over there I'm actually familiar with this organization um so I'm not surprised that they have this great resource but it is a awai's 2023 copywriting pricing guide and what I like about this resource is I think they keep it updated so I will link to it below your I'm recording this video in 2023 but if you're watching this you know a year from now or two years from now I think the link will probably bring you to an updated version because what the link that I how I led how I got to this website was on a 2020 link so that leads me to believe that they keep this pretty updated which is nice and I looked through it you have to it's a big guide so you'll want to like go to page like the middle of it like page 36 that's where it is at least on the 2023 version and they start to go into the rates and it's it's like it's I definitely I definitely fall in most of their ranges so I think it's actually a very accurate rate guide now they're you know obviously prices on the lower end prices on the higher end and this is for people who are have working as copywriters so I realize that you might feel a little overwhelmed if you're new to the game to be like charging some of these you know prices first out of the gate I get that so here's what I want you to think about when you're setting your rates for the first time first of all a little reminder I definitely recommend you quote project rates rather than hourly rates and here's why first of all hourly rates can get out of hand really quickly and you shouldn't get penalized for being fast when you first start out it's probably going to take you a while to get some stuff done but you're going to get better and you're going to get faster and you're still delivering the Great Value so for example if you're working on a 1000 word blog post and in the beginning it takes you four hours to write it start to finish but then you get really really good and you can reduce that time to two hours should you make less money no because you're delivering the same value but if you're using an hourly rate that's what will happen the other thing with hourly rates too is sometimes psychologically we write to the hour like you know if we're like oh this will take me three hours like we drag it out and maybe it'll just take us 30 minutes or an hour and the other thing is clients don't like hourly rates either because they get in their head like oh it's going to take you two hours to do that it can take you one like they don't get it and again it's because you're delivering value you're not delivering something that takes it's not about the hourly rate you're not a law firm that's not how you should Bill Bill project quotes I highly recommend that with very few exceptions and just get into your head that said I know you need to start somewhere and you do need to know the value of an hour to you so when you're thinking about your rates it makes sense in the background behind the scenes to think okay what would you like to be making per hour is it 45 is it 50 is it 100 is it 200 right out of the gate it might be a stretch for you to be thinking in terms of like 200 an hour but it's not unusual once you get your writing chops and you're writing legs or whatever sort of you know weird metaphor I want to use to describe you know writing expertise once you start developing that you develop a reputation you can charge some of those bigger rates but for now probably if you're starting out if you're based in the US again I'm us-based I can't speak to other markets it'll be different in other countries but at least here I would say if you fall somewhere in the 50 to 75 to 85 to maybe 100 an hour in your head because you're not charging hourly rates but in your head that's how you know what you're an hour of your time is worth okay so start there figure out what that hourly rate is and you know what in the beginning you might be like I really want to charge 100 but I just feel like I just can't do that so I'm going to go with 50. that's fine that's okay you can change this you're not locked into this rate for the rest of your copywriting life you need to start somewhere so start with something that you can confidently sell and then do the project and then have a postmortem with yourself after the project is done and be like okay did I you know did that actually work out well did I make a good you know hourly rate um did it feel like I delivered the value and the client was happy and I'm happy with what I made and the answer is yes okay you're on the right track and if the answer is no that's okay it happens it still happens to me like there will be times I'll be like I should have charged more I should have charged more of it and I usually know that deep and down deep down inside because something about the project or the client is like you know what I should have a little bit of a you know extra pain in the ass fee added into it because I know this is probably going to take a little bit longer or you know maybe I'm just thinking sometimes I just you know don't have the confidence in myself even after you know 20 plus years it happens okay so you have your number you know you're not going to do an hourly rate but you have that number in the back your head what you need to do now is you get the project from the client and this is when things can go sideways make sure you know all the details about the actual project and I'll often have several back and forth sessions via email or I'll get on the phone with the client ask all my questions about everything about this project so it's easy for the client to think like I need a newsletter where you you know call someone and you interview and write up this article call on my clients and interview and you know write it up it sounds very simple but how many words you know will the article be or do you want the article to be will they be setting up the intro and setting up the time to chase down the client or will you have to do that how many rounds of revisions are you offering those are all the things that you have to think about and each project is going to be a little bit different with a website project you're going to want to know has the keyword research already been done is there a site map are you just you know working from a site map with the keyword phrase Focus for each page and you're on your way or you're going to be doing the keyword phrase research does the client need education on SEO so everything is going to be a little bit different but you need to get as many of those details as possible up front before you can provide a quote otherwise your quote won't be right whether it's an hourly rate or a project rate because you don't have all the details and that's when things can go off the rail and that's when you can get really resentful as a copywriter because you realize oh this is so much more involved than I said but I you know gave them this quote and okay so make sure you get all the details and then once you have the project and what's going to be involved that's when you have to ask yourself reasonably like how long do I think this is going to take me now you will get to a point where you're just gonna know like a blog post typically takes you this long and you might just have like a going rate for a 1 000 word blog post that's what I do like I just know because I've been doing this for so long but in the beginning it's going to take you a little bit longer to figure that out now you have to keep in mind that for those first projects you do you're probably going to be spending extra time doing the work because you're so worried and so excited and you want to make sure it's perfect and you get it right you're going to want to do that of course with all the work that you do but you'll be spending more time so you need to kind of consider that and not necessarily charge for that but let's say you have you know a 1 000 word blog post on a topic where you have to interview one person and you do some research but the key word is provided to you like ask yourself like how long is this going to take how long do you know the topic do you think this is going to be fairly straightforward you know maybe maybe three to four hours which is probably Fair um or maybe you need a little bit more maybe you're really confident you know that you can do it in a little bit less figure out what the number is multiply it by that hourly rate that you have in your head and then look at that and feel like do you feel like that's fair for the value that you're delivering like maybe you have agreed that in the back your mind that your hourly rate is going to be 50 an hour sixty dollars an hour and you you think okay it'll probably take me three hours to write the blog post and you know at 60 an hour that's what 180 right that is very very low for the value that you're delivering it's the starting point of how long it's going to take you but it's a it's the value you're delivering is much more so that's how you have to think so maybe you bump that up to 300 because you know that's where you are in life like maybe you don't feel confident going to 500 but like 300 feels Fair and that's what you do for the first series of blog posts that you do for several clients and then you you you readjust you look at what you're making and you look at the value you look at how fast you are and then you figure it out from there you're not locked into these rates at the beginning you just need a starting point you need to lay a stake in the ground so again project rate think about how much you want to make an hour get all the details from the client about the project in hand and then that's how you develop your rates and over time it's going to become second nature like you're going to know okay a thousand word blog posts one interview keyword phrase already in hand I charge this amount if I have to do keyword phrase research I have I'll charge this amount if it's two interviews I charge this amount and you will develop what's called a rate sheet and you will have that and whether you share it with a client or not is up to you but just internally you can have this rate sheet so you know what you charge for a website page you charge this for a landing page you charge this for the home page you charge this you will get a feel for that over time but in the beginning you have to start somewhere so just figure out what do you want to make an hour what do you you know remember the value that you're delivering to the client how long is something going to take you always conduct a little internal postmortem after you finish your project and ask yourself okay was that reasonable that I you know nail that quote or was I way off in either direction and then adjust for the next client or if you're doing regular work for the same client you can always have that conversation with them in fact that's another thing I would recommend um if you are working with a client you're doing regular work and like maybe they're having you quote on doing like monthly blog posts and monthly emails and monthly social media posts when you're first starting out I would say quote a quarter so quote three months worth of work and in your quote because you're going to want to put this in writing you'll want to add some sort of um not a disclaimer but a notice that says you know after three months you and I will you know connect and see what's working what isn't if we have to adjust to anything and that's where you could actually make an adjustment if you have to if you don't feel comfortable doing it at that time you could do it the following year like it's not unusual for companies to have a rate increase you know every now and then year to year because hello inflation anyhow make sure you check out the links below because I will include a link to that great rate sheet that I found you can check it out and you know that's a great guide I think most copywriters that I know probably fall on those ranges they're always going to be people on the high high end and people on the lower end you can always find that but I think for you know the average copywriter like me probably somewhere in that range and that could be something you can aspire to or if you feel really confident in your skills you can do that out of the gate I'll also include some other links to some of my videos that I feel might be helpful because I do have one that talks further about charging for copywriting services so I'll include that link as well and we are so happy that you're here and going on this copywriting journey and we want to cheer you on I am Robin the copy so you can ask me a question anytime this is Stewie my side kicks off if you like this video make sure you give it a thumbs up because that helps us out subscribe to my channel and we will see you next time [Music]