Words on the Page

Freelance Writer for Hire: Really?

Posted on by lwidmer

Here we go again. If you’re a freelance writer, you’ll recognize this. A while back, these emails were circulating within the freelance writing community. Antonio Michael (brwdev@gmail.com) Hello, I am Antonio Michael, an academic consultant., I have a speech distorting condition called Apraxia. I got your contact details online and I need your service. Can…

Freelance Offer: Fame & Fortune or Bait & Switch?

Posted on by lwidmer

Randy Hecht is the consummate writing professional. She runs a very successful freelance business, Aphra Communications, and works with international businesses handling technical and shareholder-facing content. But even the most professional freelance writer runs into things that are inexplicably awful. Randy and I often compare notes behind the scenes regarding freelance life, clients, lousy gig…

Freelance Writing WTF: This Job, Not That Job

Posted on by lwidmer

Sometimes in freelance writing, you just have to go with your first reaction, hence the WTF in today’s post title. Because it’s a true WTF moment. This is the message I received on LinkedIn offering me a freelance writing gig. And it’s bad enough that it’s perfect for my ongoing This Job, Not That Job…

Wednesday WTF: Freelance Writing or Serfdom?

Posted on by lwidmer

When it comes to freelance writing, there’s little that leaves me speechless these days. This post on a Facebook forum sure did. The Post I’ve been writing for a “national magazine” which no one has heard of, for a few years now strictly on freelance basis for the quarterly publication. My editor/publisher only pays per…

Freelance Files: Is This Client Worth It?

Posted on by lwidmer

It’s been a while since we exercised our client-vetting skills, which is what this Is This Client Worth It segment is about. If we see real scenarios and how it turned out, we might get better at vetting potential clients. Let’s consider this scenario: The client reached out via an established contact. He needed a…

The In-demand Freelancer Persona

Posted on by lwidmer

I saw an interesting discussion on a LinkedIn forum recently that got me thinking about the way we present ourselves to potential clients. The discussion was around the use of LinkedIn’s “Open to Work” banner that one can put on their profile picture. It is meant to signal to future employers that this is a…

Freelance Game Plan: Finding Client Contact Info

Posted on by lwidmer

There it was. Or rather, there it wasn’t. Looking for contact info for prospects yesterday, I realized that my usual ways of finding that info weren’t working. There were several reasons for that, but the running theme seems to be poorly written websites that assume you know who’s running the company. That’s right — nowhere…

Monthly Assessment: March 2024

Posted on by lwidmer

For those of you who have followed this blog for a while, you may remember the Monthly Assessment series. When I redesigned in 2019, I had all intentions of restarting the assessment series. So many of you were happy for the monthly reminder to self-evaluate and attach some accountability to your freelance business. Then 2020…

Your Freelance Career Speed Bumps

Posted on by lwidmer

If you look online long enough (two minutes), you’ll find ample evidence of why some freelance writers are still struggling with running a successful freelance business. I present Exhibit One here, a writer who, upon attempting to identify the roadblocks to their success: My credentials don’t align with straightforward career trajectories. (They go on to…

Client Red Flags Every Freelancer Needs to Know

Posted on by lwidmer

I was reading through some old social media posts recently and came across discussion of a job posting that just plain sucked. In fact, I blogged about it not long ago right here. The issue was that the job poster, a household-name publication, was presenting a full-time employee position as a freelance job. Why? Because…

Randy B Hecht

My favorite is a recurring theme that comes up on Upwork in particular, though not exclusively: It’s the line that tells you how much you “can” earn as one of their “top” freelancers.

There may be an hourly or per-piece rate attached to these claims.

“The rate for this work is $50/hour, which translates to a six-figure income for our top writers.” This starts out as really easy math, because $100,000÷$50=2000 hours. So you need to work 2000 hours a year to hit $100,000 at that rate. Let’s say you can reasonably expect to work 48 weeks a year, which allows two weeks for vacation and two weeks for holidays, sick days, and personal days. That means you have to have 41.66 income-producing hours every week for each of those 48 weeks to hit 2000 hours and $100,000. Not 41.66 work hours a week, but 41.66 income-producing hours per week, and then you pile admin, invoicing/billing, client contact, marketing, email, and so forth on top of that. It’s because of all that other stuff related to running a business that the customary calculation gives full-time freelancers 1400 working hours a year, and 1400 hours x $50/hour brings you to $70,000 a year. In other words, the “can earn” number assumes that you’re putting in a ton of overtime.

“We pay a flat rate of $25 for 350-word posts, which works out to a rate of $75/hour for our best freelancers.” The math here is even easier. They’re telling you that their “best freelancers” speed-dial through 1,050 words an hour, because you can’t turn a $25/post rate into a $75/hour rate unless you’re cranking out three of those puppies an hour. And hey, most of us can do that in a pinch, for a short term: 1,050 words in an hour isn’t beyond the realm of possibility if you already know the topic and have the information at hand. But can you sustain that over the course of a business day? Can you write 21 350-word posts during a single workday to pocket $525 for the day’s work? If you can’t, or if the client can’t provide that volume of work, then the $75/hour rate is meaningless in addition to being fantasy.

For the most part, when you see these fanciful claims, your best bet is to kick the “can” to the curb.

1. Lori
  
  Excellent breakdown, my friend!
  
  You COULD earn that much, but hey, who are we to tell you what that entails?
  
  The more disturbing trend these days involves the “full-time freelancer needed” bullshit. This is a company that needs you present for 40 hours a week — their stated hours, not yours. And guess what? They’ll pay you employee wages. But no benefits. That, friends, is called illegal.