Paula, excellent idea.

Exactly right — sometimes it's a quick job, other times not so much. 🙂

Yup, sounds like chances are that client would've been a chore to work with anyway!

I never shared my rate in the past because once you reduce it to hourly, they start watching the clock. I much prefer per-project rates as they're easier for clients to budget for and easier for me to avoid the "But you've spent four hours on this! Why?" comments.

Your way isn't a bad way to do it at all. Eventually, you'll come across a client who won't balk at the hourly rate no matter how high it seems. That's the sweet spot. They value your work and they know it comes with a reasonable price.

For now, I suspect I've lost the client, but if it's down to such detail, I don't think they will see the price is still the price even if stated another way it sounds worse. 🙂

I understand this depends on the writer/client/project/etc., but up until now I've always charged per-project & I avoid sharing my hourly rate for a lot of reasons.

It varies a lot by client, project, etc., and depends on a lot of factors. Some clients I have a much lower hourly rate but get other benefits from working with them. New clients have a lower hourly rate, but it rises when I get to know their needs better & can work faster.

I have a target hourly rate & I meticulously track how long every assignment takes me. BUT I don't necessarily want my clients to know exactly how long everything takes me. Due to various factors, the same blog post might take me 1/2 an hour one day, or 3 hours another day. Disclosing exactly how long everything takes feels like crossing that employee-contractor line.

Now, related to your post… I also hesitate to disclose an hourly rate because I think it does make people balk more.

When an independent contractor quotes an hourly rate, one can't help but compare it to an employee hourly rate since it's an individual. It's the wrong mindset, of course, because our hourly rates aren't directly translatable into our salaries. It's the hourly rate we charge to run our business, not an hourly rate for our take-home pay.

But because we are individuals, not agencies or big businesses, I think people tend to automatically equate that with our salary, and balk because it sounds like we're making way too much per hour. So a client who won't bat an eye at paying $150 for a blog post may balk at paying an independent contractor $150 an hour because that's WAY more than anyone in their business makes hourly.

I understand some work lends itself more to charging hourly, but I tend to think I'd somehow find a way to quote it per-project instead 🙂