Raising Freelancer Rates for Blog Posts: Lessons in progress

I've now been a freelancer without any other job for 11 months. I decided to use the new year as a reason to revisit my rates. My hope is to standardize some things and also get some of my original clients up to a more reasonable rate now that I've proven my worth.

Going up?

Freelancer rates, at least for writing, have been and will always be a bit convoluted. It's impossible to know how much effort one blog post will take versus another, which one will take you into a research spiral and which one will fly onto the paper in a mere thirty minutes. We have to average that effort to come to something reasonable.

In searching for "standards", I find that most sites that speak to rates are vague or confusing. I also find that they list very large ranges, which I understand. I've decided that I mostly need to come up with my own system and learn as I go.

Right now the majority of my clients are for ghostwriting blog posts, so that's where I focused my standardization. Here's what I decided:

Short (< 600 words): $75
Medium (600-800 words): $100
Long (800-1200 words): $125

You will not find this transparency other places. If you find it, please tell me!

These are "base rates" of course, which you always have to stipulate ... because someone could ask for writing on a topic that takes a ton of research, or I could just come to realize their work continually takes much more effort because they are pickier and ask for more revisions ... but this is where I plan to start for all of 2015.

I will likely come up with some other standards as I pursue more web copywriting and editing work. I really enjoy the editing the most. Helping someone say what they want to say, but better, it's the most rewarding work. For me anyway. I also think it is my best work. People have lots of ideas--stories to tell and thoughts to share--and I love getting to help them put their words out there in a way that's clear and engaging. But I digress ...

This is just a newsy/update-y post because it's been too long (again). I want to write a post about Third Eye Blind lyrics, so I felt I had to write one about business first. Now, on to Third Eye Blind ...