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Not too long ago, Tamara took a risk and shared her freelance income here on the blog. To be honest, we didn’t know how people would react. Would other freelance writers think we lacked class for talking about money? Would they laugh at how little we make? Would they be inspired to work harder at their own businesses?
James, Allena, Melissa, and Genesis weighed in, and they were all really supportive. We wanted to say “thanks” to all of you for that.
But, it turns out that we’re not done with this topic yet. In fact, it seems that we don’t plan to ever be done with this topic. One of the basic tenants of Freelance Parent is that we want to encourage those who are willing to work hard enough to take the leap into freelancing. In order to do this, we feel it’s important to share the truth and give people a factual example of what others are doing.
In honor of our recent revelation, we’ve decided to offer a monthly look into the finances and workload of the Berry-Brewer Freelance Agency. We are opening ourselves up to scrutiny in hopes that our struggles and successes can inspire others to learn what it means to be a freelance writer in the current market.
Whether you want to compare your own successes to ours (for good or evil purposes); you are a new freelancer wondering about the hows, wheres, and whys of making money on the Internet; or you are simply a lookie-lou of the freelancing community, there is information here for everyone. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions as to how we came up with our numbers or why we do things the way we do.
Total Income for July: $2248.88
Total Number of Clients Served this Month: 13
Number of These Clients Who are New: 3
Original Client Contact Point
Guru.com: 6
Elance.com: 0
Subcontracted work: 1
Referrals: 6
Total Number of Projects Completed: 18
Project Types
SEO and web-based article writing: 3
Website content: 4
Blogs and blog-related work: 5
Nonprofit: 2
Product descriptions: 1
Press releases: 2
Newsletters: 1
Look for additional tallies in the upcoming months. This is no fair weather project; we mean to expose ours numbers every thirty days or so regardless of feast or famine.
Lorna Doone Brewer is both a writer and an entrepreneur at heart. This is where those two worlds meet. She also blogs at 
Tamara Berry used to miss interaction with her daughter. Now she misses interaction with adults. Freelance writing is her happy medium.
This was very interesting. Thank you for sharing. I think I am going to do that for my own income at the end of August and see how I am doing. I have not tried Guru, but with not getting any jobs from Elance in July (I bid on over 50), I may have to. Elance used to be good to me, but not so much lately. I have been freelancing for over six years and this summer has been the driest money-wise that I have ever had. At least I had fun with the kids!LOL
Janiss last blog post..The Falcon and the Sparrow by M.L. Tyndall
Wow, you girls are really putting yourselves out there! This is great, though, I am really interested to see the variety of work that you do.
Very good both for you and for your readers to see.
BTW, your new blog looks very snazzy.
18 projects? Good lord how are you still standing? I should do this…I’m just too chicken cause my summer numbers are awful. 30 more days til school starts! Counting down. . .
Janis - Thanks for the support! A word on the Guru/Elance issue: we’ve been with Guru for a year now and just joined Elance. Our ranking and feedback on Guru is great (and has taken quite some time to build up), so we do get a few well-paying gigs through them. Our ranking and feedback on Elance is nil, so we don’t get the same kind of reaction at all.
Genesis - It was really interesting to see these numbers for ourselves. It made me feel good about what we’ve accomplished and gives us food for thought for next month.
Allena - I’m not sure if you think 18 is too high or too low? (If it’s too high, bear in mind that there are two of us and some of those projects constitute a single press release.) I think you should do it, too! I bet your readers are curious.
Huh, good on you guys. It’s interesting to see where you’re at and what went into making that happen.
While it’s probably something you don’t want to hang out there, I’d be curious about gross revenue versus net revenue. There are certainly expenses involved.
Those numbers are awesome gals! Thanks for your transparency. It’s so refreshing
Kellys last blog post..Work at Home Moms Talk Radio #233
Good for you for showing how everything breaks down! It’s nice to see that others keep track of this type of thing, and that your projects are diverse.
Courtneys last blog post..Why aren’t more writers marketers?
I was meaning that’s A LOT of juggling, but I forgot theres two of you. I think I dealt with all of 5 clients this month.
Allenas last blog post..What Tech Do We NEED To Know As Writers?
First, thanks for the link
I’ve been meaning to add a Guru profile and your post just moved that task up a few notches on my to do list. I primarily use Craig’s List and get pretty good results, believe it or not.
Like James, I think it would be interesting if you added some notes about expenses. My overhead is pretty low except when I have to spring for something big (like a new laptop).
Also, it would be really interesting to find out your rates for specific projects. I’m not sure if you’d be willing to share that information but lately I’ve been wondering — why are freelancers so secretive with their rates? Most product and service providers pretty much put that information out front for all the world to see. So why don’t we?
Melissa Donovans last blog post..The Benefits of Journaling
@James and Melissa - Of the money that we take in, a flat 15% goes into our business account. The rest gets divvied out according to who did the work.
Any expenses we incur come out of the business account. For example, this month we had to re-up or Guru membership, and that was a $200 payment out of the business account.
Each of us is responsible for our own taxes, however, so I like to take out another 20% or so and put it in a special account so I can mail them in quarterly.
Our overhead is ridiculously low, and if we want something we can’t realistically afford from what we’ve stashed into the business account, we wait a few months and save up for it.
Does that answer your questions, or was there something more specific you’d like to ask about?
@Melissa - It seems like rates are a pretty closely-guarded secret among freelancers, and who can blame us? No one wants others to think they’re not charging enough. There’s a real stigma to it, and no matter what amount you put out there, people are going to judge you for it.
Having said that, I will admit that I’m not 100% sure what we are earning per word/hour. Our stated rates begin at .10 a word or $30 an hour.
Realistically, though, it seems like almost every project gets individually priced. It might take a while, but I think I’ll go back and see what we’re *really* making on a per word/hour basis.
I think you might be surprised, actually. Contrary to what many believe, there is overhead. Lower than other businesses? Certainly. But virtually none? No.
Let’s say you win a job on Elance for $30. Elance scrapes off 8.75%. You’re down to $27.35 right off the bat. You’ve spent half an hour futzing with negotiations for the client… what’s your time worth again?
But for argument’s sake, let’s only knock off 5$. We’re down to $22.35.
Now you can knock off expenses. Electricity (that computer has to run). Heating (unless you live in Florida during the winter). Accountants (unless you do your own bookkeeping - what’s your time worth again?)
Alright, another $5, let’s say. $17.35.
You’ll pay income tax on that amount (if you have no other deductions). In Canada, figure 30% (I have no idea what it is in the states.)
You’re down to $12.14. You started at $30 - more than half of what you actually put in your pockets at the end of the day.
Oh, right. And you have that Internet connection and computer you had to buy… hm.
Writers have no overhead? I think not, and this is a common, common perception that actually hurts people because most don’t have the bookkeeping know-how to sit down and do the proper math.
We bring in six figures each year. What we put in our pockets when it’s all said and done is a small fraction of that beautiful-sounding amount. Plus, we work bastard hard to make that money, and we’re doing the math every day.
It’s a tough world. Anyone who has it easy isn’t doing the math properly.
Disclaimer: This was a general rant and not directed at anyone. Please don’t go get your knickers in a twist.
@Lorna, If we’re not charging enough, I’d like to know so I can charge more! I see a lot of writers either charging or earning really low rates and ever since I listened to an interview with Brian Clark where he actually laughed at the idea of writing a press release for $100, I’ve been giving much thought to the actual value that we provide (and I’m not talking about keyword articles).
I break down my rates hourly only as a means to come up with what I need or to compare my salary with others. In terms of actual projects, I try to come up with rates that are somewhere between the value for the customer (for example, a home page — that’s worth A LOT) and how much time/energy I need to give it.
@James, You make a good point. The only thing is, wouldn’t you be paying for that same internet connection regardless? And it would be hard to figure how much electricity one project uses. But you are right. Few freelancers truly figure out the actual cost of doing business. Great analysis!
I’d like to see a real play-by-play breakdown of the net/gross using a particular project as an example. You’ve kind of started that James.
Anyway, when I think about what other specialized service providers charge (usually $50 an hour minimum), it becomes pretty clear that writers are undervalued and I think we’re doing it to ourselves. For example, the guy who fixes my computer gets $100 an hour. The clerk at the video store probably gets $7. I figure I should be somewhere in the middle.
Thanks for the comment, James. You’re totally right about a ton of this. This was based on the amount that actually made it to through the doors, so we weren’t figuring in the Guru charges, PayPal, fees, etc. I didn’t even think of it until you just mentioned it, although you can bet it will be considered heavily come tax time! Maybe we will have to adjust better for net and gross in future reports. This is our first attempt at this, after all.
The heating costs, internet connection and such is sort of a wash for me, as I would be paying for those things anyway since I’m at home with my computer on 18 hours a day whether I’m working or not.
I also didn’t think of the time spent bidding, bookkeeping, etc. as overhead. I was really just looking at it as hours worked. When I figure out how much I’m making per hour (which I need to do again in the near future), I don’t just count the time actually spent writing. Of course that lowers the dollars-per-hour ratio, but I just see it as part of my “job.”
In short, you’ve made some excellent points. Some of them I will try to consider in future income reports, other don’t seem like quite as big of a deal to me. And my knickers aren’t even remotely twisted.
@ Melissa - This is where waters get murky. The guys up here who work on my machine charge $45 and they’re pricey. $15 an hour is a good salary and nothing to sneeze at. So when people start crying about value and charging rates triple a teacher, double a police man and the same as a lawyer, I start to squirm.
There is no one rate and there never will be on the internet. Too much else comes into play, like location, cost of living, local economy, health care costs, etc, etc. It really has nothing to do with the writer’s value - I already know my value. My rates are no reflection of my value. They’re just… rates.
@ Lorna - well, if I didn’t work online I wouldn’t need the uber-high speed bells and whistles version of my internet connection, so I could save a small fortune dropping that down. I wouldn’t need two computers, a laptop and two external drives. I wouldn’t need PayPal. I wouldn’t leave my computer running 24/7. I wouldn’t have to heat as much during the day. I would have a regular phone plan and not an international one, and I wouldn’t have a cell phone.
That stuff adds up, y’know?
Hm. I’ll keep the cell phone.
James Chartrand - Men with Penss last blog post..Guest Posting: Finding the Motivation to Write
This is all great input, and we’ll be taking it into consideration as we continue to post our freelance income reports in the future.
Wow, how brave! Like the others, I look forward to following along. I think this is an awesome comment thread too!
Micheles last blog post..School Days and Reading Rockets
Thanks for sharing - this is exactly the kind of practical, no-hype information I look for in a site on this topic. I freelance, as my schedule allows, and your information helps me to know that I’m on the right track. I’ll be following you!
This is so interesting and hard not to understand the potential all of us have.
Thanks for making this crystal clear…
Dorothy from grammology
grammology.com
Dorothy Stahlneckers last blog post..Gifts
Thank you for putting this out there, it is certainly frustrating how secretive people are about rates.
I have found that it’s easier to charge much more if you find your clients “in real life” vs a website like guru. BUT it tends to be much more time-intensive to find those clients.