One of the keys to a successful career as a freelance writer is figuring out how to price your services so that you can win the jobs that you want, and hopefully even get repeat work. Since writing projects vary so greatly in what skills they require and how long they take to complete, it can be hard to determine what to quote for any given situation.
Some job postings ask for you to submit your bid with a certain type of pricing, either hourly or for the project. That takes the guesswork out of which type of bid to submit, but you still have to calculate your price. If the job posting does not ask for a specific type of pricing, you will have to decide how to proceed with pricing before writing up your bid. Since project pricing seems tricky, it may seem safer and easier to quote an hourly rate. That is not always the best idea, though.
There are a few reasons why you may want to reconsider before submitting a bid with an hourly rate. One major reason is that many clients do not like hourly rates. Also, if you are quoting an hourly rate, the client will most likely want to know how many hours you think that the project will take. In other words, you will have to estimate a project price anyways. Once your skills are more advanced and you can really crank out your work quickly and efficiently, an hourly rate can serve to “punish” you for being so efficient because it takes you less time to create each piece of work.
That said, there are certainly situations where an hourly rate is much more appropriate. An example of this is a project where, when you read the project description; there is no real way to tell how long it would take you to complete the project. As with most things, pricing your freelance work effectively takes time to learn. Do not get discouraged if you make a few mistakes along the way, because you will get better at it with time.
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