I’ve been around the blogosphere enough by now to come to understand that there remains one issue that freelancers skirt, avoid, and downright ignore: money. Oh, sometimes we talk about how much to charge or our goals for the future. There’s even a fair amount of discussion about how to set freelance pay rates. But rarely does anyone come right out and say, “Hello. I’m a freelancer. I’ve been doing this for about ten months now, and I’m happily bringing in what averages out to $1,200 per month take home pay for 15 to 20 hours of work per week.”
But there you go. I’ve just said it. After reinvesting in the business and taking taxes into consideration, my pay rates allow me to take home about $1,200 a month working a bit less than half time.
Money is one of those things few people talk about, and I get the reservations. You don’t want to seem boastful when you talk about your six figures. You don’t want to be ridiculed for what you charge. You don’t want someone to come right out and say, “Dude. You are making way too little. I’m making three times that in my first two hours of the week.” However, I can’t help but feel that it’s the elephant in our giant freelancing room.
Here at Freelance Parent, we actually get quite a few questions about money and freelance pay rates in general. Oftentimes, these aren’t asked through the blog itself, but come through in our personal email.
- Readers want to know if my pay rates for spec work are the same amount of money I would normally charge for a job. (Yes.)
- Readers want to know how much money we are actually making through Guru.com. (We expect to hit the $10,000 mark by our one-year anniversary in August.)
- Readers want to know how we came up with the pay rates listed on our website. (It starts at $0.10/word or $30/hour. Believe us, this number took some agonizing over, and we don’t always get this much.)
- Readers want to know what portion of our freelance income comes from a single client. (Most of mine comes from two regular, well-paying jobs that I’ve had for six months or so.)
- Readers really, really want to know how to make more money freelancing. (This isn’t a one sentence answer. It’s a complicated tangle of marketing, writing skills, perseverance, and luck.)
- Readers want to know why we undervalue ourselves by charging lower pay rates than many others in the field. (We don’t. We are learning to traverse the fine line between charging what we feel we’re worth and having enough work to keep us busy.)
Money, income, and pay rates are also very much dependent on the freelancer. I like working only a few hours a day, but I know that I make less because of it. I live in a pretty cheap city and have super-low overhead (as well as a husband), so I can get away with making less without stressing about it. Although my income is small compared to someone working full-time, it, along with my average pay rates, has been increasingly growing since I started. I’ve also reached a point where I can turn away work I don’t want without worrying about it, which is one of my financial goals.
Money makes people nervous. I get it. But I’m hereby inviting everyone to ask questions and share their opinions on this oh-so-touchy subject. Let’s talk about freelance pay rates. Let’s talk about how much money we’re really taking home. I’m happy to have this conversation with you.
FREE 21-Page Internet Business Idea Guide
Enter your name and email below and we’ll send you our unique 21-page guide chock full of Internet business ideas – for free! Your information will be kept private, of course.
Christina Lemmey is the mother of two school-aged girls, a wife, and the owner of 
Hear, hear. I’ve been freelance writing for a few years now and I’m one of the lucky few that does have a six-figure business.
And I still squirm over pricing. I hate, absolutely hate, how people attach dollar value to their perception of people value.
“What?! That’s all you charge? What’s wrong with you!”
“What?! You charge THAT much? Who do you think you are!”
“What?! You actually accept clients who try to negotiate your pricing? Have you no self worth?”
Yes. Yes I do have plenty of self worth. I don’t talk about my rates because I want people to judge me for me. What I can do. Who I am. My skills. My personality. My values and beliefs.
I don’t WANT people to say, “James is X kind of person because he charges Y.”
The problem is, soooo many people do that. The worst offenders?
Other writers. And that *sucks*.
Helooooo I’ll play for the sake of new freelancers out there.
Jan-May, working about 25 hours per week, I made ~2500 a month.
June-August I work siginificantly less (About.com plus one smallish project) and make ~1400.
September- December …My youngest is going into Kindergarten in the fall. Which means GWP will be going FULL TIME!!! (35-50 hours per week) and I fully expect to make 4000 per month.
Wow, that’s only about 35,000 a year, which is sad, as I left employment that was much more. HOWEVER as a full time worker I paid out 8,000 in childcare every year, plus commuting, plus wardrobe, so I bet I’m about even.
I’m not sure I want to make three figures someday. I would prefer to leave that to my partner while I work on my novel and keep an eagle eye on my kiddos…but we’ll see how the chips fall.
My real goal is to win the lottery and start non-profit work in Mexico
Anyone reading these (those starting out)should keep in mind the difference between work hours and billable hours.
If I work 10 hours in a week, that doesn’t mean I am actually charging someone for ALL 10 of those hours. About half of them are probably administrative, email, watching for other jobs, maintenance,account balancing, etc.
James – Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I choose to see your incredible financial success and consider it something to strive for rather than belittle. Good for you!
Allena – I’m so glad you decided to share. I think it’s the starting out freelancers who really need to hear this stuff (I know I would have loved to).
I agree with your work/billable hours assessment. When I say I work 15 to 20 hours in a week, that includes everything I do (from chatting with Lorna to making bids on jobs).
Congrats on the upcoming move to full time. Kindergarten sounds heavenly!
@James, Maybe the writers are saying these things because they think your writing (not you) is worth more than what you’re charging. That’s sort of a compliment isn’t it?
It’s pretty silly to judge an entire person solely on the rates they charge. Have I passed judgment on other freelancer’s rates? Yes – both good and bad. But that is not the same as judging them as people. We sort of have to judge others’ writing and rates in order to run our own businesses.
I recently found a freelancer who charges over a thousand dollars to write a home page. “Good for her!” is what I thought about that. I bet she delivers a mighty fine home page!
I don’t negotiate only because it drives me crazy to have all my clients on different rate schedules. I feel like if I start negotiating, I’ll have to actually increase my rates to cover the time I spend negotiating.
Melissa’s comment reminded me of something on rates– when I first set my rates, I did it in a very anal way. I actually used “Data” on the net from places such as the Editorial Freelancers Association but also from freelancers who had similar education and experience as me- and who happened to post their rates on their websites. I then plugged all the data into a spreadsheet and let my accountant-hubby-silent partner work his magic.
My point is that there’s TON of data out there to be had on this type of thing.
@ Tamara – Aw, thanks. Sometimes I envy you two, because with financial success comes a ton of pressure and a higher workload. I can’t remember the last 20 hour workweek I had
@ Melissa – Oh, for sure. There are some people who definitely say, “Too low!” because they believe we’re underselling. I was discounting those people from my mild rant, because I know those people think of our best interest.
What bothers me is the arTEESTe attitude and people who tend to negate our mission, vision and beliefs. THAT bugs me. Those people are just plain nasty, and unfortunately, there are a lot of them.
@ Allena – There is a good deal of data, agreed. Unfortunately, most of it is location-specific and not particularly accurate. However, it *does* give a good general guideline.
What’s most important is finding a rate that the writer feels comfortable with, whether that be too high or two low for others. It’s just right for the writer, and that’s all that counts.
@ Tamara/Lorna – You guys got a follow-up post coming on this?
@James, On the other side of the coin, you have the corporate mogul, who is just as annoying as the arTEESTe. It’s like Republicans and Democrats and I always feel lost in the middle, frustrated by both extremes.
On a side note… I’ve never seen anyone negate the MwP. What on earth are you talking about?
Melissa Donovans last blog post..How to Face the Blank Page When Your Muse is on Vacation
@ Melissa – Ha, now that’s the truth. Much as I know how to navigate the corporate world like I was born in it, it doesn’t make it any easier.
And negating the Pen Men? Sure, it happens
James Chartrand – Men with Penss last blog post..One Easy Way to Welcome People to Your Blog Community
Thanks,Tamara, for stepping out like this! It`s kind of sad that we writers don`t feel that we can share with our peers, so it`s good to see someone who doesn`t feel bad about it!
I personally work about 3-4 hours a day, depending on how many assignments I have and I earn between $1,000-1,300 a month at the moment. Which, since I live in Guatemala, is really great!
Genesiss last blog post..Motivational Monday: The Power of Words
Thanks for sharing this info with us. Let me share that I earned about $400 a month, working two or three hours a day, and it was like that for about two years, when suddenly, last year, I started working in other projects that make me take home $3,000 or $4,000 a month. But I do not work two hours a day anymore, now I feel like going crazy, with jobs, house and kids. It´s not about the money, but the lifestyle that I used to have, the balance between family-work that so many women seek, but can´t find. So at this point, I´m going to do less work, to be more with my family. I do not care about the money anymore. And I live in Guatemala too, which is really great