Hi everybody,

I'm trying to get an idea of what normal/average rates are nowadays, but in order to make the numbers make sense we'd need some context as well.

So I'd like to know the following:

1. Where are you based (North America, Latin America, EU, Afrika, Asia, or travelling/digital nomad)
2. Is writing your main/full time job
3. What niche/industry are you writing for and in what language(s)
4. What type of content do you write most, how long does an article take and how much research do you do
5. How many years of experience do you have
6. What is your standard rate (per word or hour) and what is your target income per week or month.
7. What is the average rate that clients offer you.
8. What is your professional plan for the future and how do you percieve the role of AI

Let me go first:

1. Europe (Spain)
2. writing is my main income, effectively I work 30 hours a week. But this includes side projects, staying up to date in my industry in general, administration etc.
3. I'm writing for the iGaming (online gambling) industry in English and Dutch
4. I mainly write blogs, and guest posts. I try to only write about the 'more serious' topics such as regulations/compliance, responsible gambling, etc. however I (have to) do some 'standard link building content' as well. Standard content (1000 words average) should take me about 2-3 hours, but often takes 4. My 'real' articles are approx 1200-1500 words, but with all the research those takes me a full day to write.
5. I've been working in this industry for 8 years and writing (and editing) myself for the past 3 years.
6. My standard rate is € 0.11 a word or € 35 an hour, I offer a discount of 5% for orders over €500 or 10% over €1000 a month. For 'standard content' (which requires little research) in 'bulk' (minimum 5 articles a month) I offer a deal of €70 for articles that are on average 1000 words.
7. From my experience the standard rate in my industry seems 6-8 cents, however low effort content can be as low as 3 cents.
8. I'm working on becoming an expert in the 'more serious' topics, among other things by building a reputation by writing under my own name, as I think that should justify charging 20-25 cents a word. However, I feel that I have to be very lucky to find clients that are willing to pay that much, as it still is quantity over quality in this industry. I do notice though that many clients are struggling with AI: the quality is not what they expect it to be, and it's simple not good enough. I therefor still see AI more as a tool and less as a threat.

Hope this post catches on, because previous ones don't seem to have gotten too many responses for some reason.

I’m trying to put together a portfolio, as I’m looking to get into freelancing and applying for some writing gigs. I have a lot of my old writing saved, and a lot of college assignments ranging from popular science articles, research essays, and speech outlines. I’m expecting I’ll need to write a handful of new samples for my portfolio, but using old assignments is tempting and the quality of my old stuff is overall pretty good.
Because I have less experience and I’m applying to entry-level positions, will it reflect poorly on me to include assignments from college? And are there any copyright issues with assignments I submitted that I need to be aware of (e.g. are they technically property of my university now)?

I bought a cheap keyboard for my new desktop, and I see there are a lot of people espousing the virtues of a mechanical keyboard. Specifically, the Logitech K380, K830, and the MX Keys. Assuming that I'm keeping the keyboard in one place and using it for writing primarily and gaming secondarily, what brand and model of keyboard would the reddit suggest? Budget caps at $100, but I've seen those three online for less...

Edit: Tried to order an MX keyboard online earlier and got scammed. Any suggestions for trusted websites that I won't have to refund two days later?

I've written about a wide variety of subjects in my career, ranging from a series of ads for an erectile dysfunction company that had a renaissance-related trademark (which ended with my all-time favorite client note: "You can't compare ED to the black plague. JESUS CHRIST") to a touching series of interviews detailing the experiences of exchange students decades after their trips. Right now, I'm in the middle of my book about long-term healthcare. And, it's getting to be a bit much for me.

Basically, I'm not comfortable with death. Kudos if you are, your award is in the mail tough guy. But something about the slow disintegration of our physical and cognitive abilities, combined with a sneaking suspicion there is no afterlife, gets me a bit glum. Usually, I do what most people do: don't think about it, have a drink, try not to ruin the party by bringing it up, go to Dennys after if anyone is still awake. Unfortunately, "don't think about it" isn't really possible for this assignment. I have to think about it constantly, and in the most sanitized, dispassionate way possible.

A large portion of this book is about the fact that the latter part of life is not only greyscale-picture-of-a-sad-clown depressing, it's expensive. If you don't have enough money, you get thrown in the long-term care equivalent of a raccoon-infested dumpster. And I don't know about you guys, but freelance writing isn't exactly a goldmine, especially these days. And I'm saying that as someone who makes a comfortable full-time living from this. But enough for retirement? In a future where Social Security has collapsed or a sentient cloud of pollution runs the country? I'm not sure.

Anyway, the rant portion of this post is over. Does anyone else ever feel emotionally taxed by a project? Should I just shut up, have a delicious Grand Slam™ breakfast, and get over it? If anyone has had a similar experience, I'd love to hear about it.

I am crafting content for my client who has specifically requested entirely human-generated content, without any AI assistance. Despite my efforts to ensure the content is 100% human-created, when I review the articles through AI content detection tools, they mistakenly indicate a 60% AI contribution.

Can you provide insights or suggest how I might address this issue?

(Repost)

I found an ad to be a freelancer writer on a PeoplePerHour.com and I inquired about it. The account sent me a link to a telegram account and they gave me 80 images to type to pdf in 48 hrs. I finished within the deadline and sent them the pdf via email(as they asked). For the payment I was sent another telegram account link to the "payment manager". So texted him and told him to send me the money through western union. He said I needed to make a freelance id card which I had to pay $50 for. I wanted the money I worked for so I paid. I had to pay into another telegram account which told me to transfer the money. Then the payment manager told me to make a bank account on a website that their company operates with. I made the account and he transferred me the money into that account. The payment manager told me to withdraw the money to my Revolut account. I did that to find that I needed to purchase an IMF code. I contacted the bank and the live support chat told me to purchase the IMF by depositing money. They also said I couldn't pay with the balance I had which was suspicious but I had to pay $250 to get the code. The $50 were my dad's hard earned money. I couldn't afford it and was honestly quite suspicious.

P.S Every email was always in caps.

I just feel terrible. This the first job I ever tried so I didn't have any experience and I didn't get any money but I lost $50 it may not seem like much but to me it was a lot.Thank God I came on here just in time but they have my ID, email, name and age so I'm scared. Is it dangerous that they have my information?

Edit: Some other manager (from the Payment management for D&B Corporations) has now messaged me asking me to pay a small VAT amount of $80 (HA!)

I’m at a point in life where I’m worried about my future. I have two options I believe. One is find a stable good paying regular job or test my luck and become some sort or freelance writer. Either blogging, copywriting, script writing for like YouTubers or podcasts etc, or content writing. I would much rather write for a living. If I can make 3-5k a month writing I’d be happy. There are so many “Make 10k per month! Make 30k in one month working 4 hours a day!” And most of them seem to be just selling an e book or course which is fine if it’s actually going to help me escape this 9-5 rat race prison for lack of better words. Hoping this message reaches someone who can guide me in the right direction. I really don’t want to continue living like I am. Thank you for reading.

Hello! Is it possible to work as a writer, in any position, without a laptop or desktop? I've been looking up some job postings about freelance writing and a lot of them requires having equipment. I only have my personal phone and knowledge to some apps needed for writing. Thank you to those that will answer!

I'm having a call soon with a client about a content strategy role. Although I'm an experienced freelance writer, this is the first content strategy opportunity I'm getting and still have a lot to learn. I'm wondering what to charge as a beginner content strategist and if to charge by the hour.

Also this may sound like a dumb question, but I've never charged by the hour. When charging by the hour, how is the time tracked and who monitors it for transparency? Do you and the client agree on a specific time tracking application to use.

Your tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Hey ya'll,

I work as a content creator for a start-up. Last year, they got me the GPT4 subscription and asked me to use it to write content. I felt super weird doing that, but I didn't care much because I was a newbie and didn't think I could voice my opinion. We created content for several landing pages and blog posts.

Late last year, they got on a call with me (after hiring an SEO marketer) and told me they needed me to re-write ALL the AI content throughout the website because they wanted a human voice. It was a painful experience because they made it seem like I'd relied too much on AI when they literally got me the subscription and asked me to make "full use" of it??

Anyway, all that happened and fast-forward to now - 2024. Our pages aren't ranking, and my boss found another AI detector that they think is the "most accurate". I lost my shit when they asked me to re-write everything (yes, all the pages) Again using this new detector.

It doesn't make sense. What are we even aiming for here? What is the purpose? What are we planning to achieve? Isn't the big picture to judge whether we're offering enough depth/information/insight (which is how we can differentiate human/AI text, in my opinion)? What we're doing now is 'our content vs. AI detector' rather than creating quality content and providing meaningful information.

Honestly, I get it. They're a start-up and want to try everything to establish themselves. BUT. If we've already tried this approach once and it didn't work, why are we doing it again and again and again? The funny thing is they want the detector to show 100% human text and want me to keep going until I get that result. Sometimes, I use synonyms or change the order of sentences and boom - it's down to 0% AI. It feels insulting to me.

I don't see how repeatedly re-writing the existing content will get us ranking. I'm no SEO expert, but I don't think this will work. I'd rather we focus on creating fresh content and move the frick on from "AI" re-writing, especially when it's so glaringly obvious that it's human-written.

Sorry, one last thing - my boss first thought using a formal/law-ish/textbook-y (all their words) tone would help deal with the AI detectors. I did that. It didn't help. Now they want me to use "layman" language and keep it extremely simple (didn't help). Recently, they wanted me to use the exact phrase from "People also ask" questions on Google for our FAQ questions because even our questions were detected as AI. Obviously, this didn't help either. I was curious about other competitors and scanned their content. The detector showed almost 70%-80% AI content for every single website. Isn't it already obvious that we're not focusing on the right thing here?

They were going through a page with me and rephrased a sentence, and I informed them that I'd written the exact same thing in my first draft but had to re-write because it showed AI written. After all this, they had the audacity to tell me, and I quote, 'Oh f*ck AI, let's just use logic" I'm seething.

How do I even use logic anymore? What logic of mine will they align with? How do I use logic And get AI% down to 5% simultaneously?

I don't feel good about writing anymore. I've lost the interest and drive to work here because all I'm doing is re-writing the same damn content. I'm so tired.

It’s been a while since I’ve needed to apply for gigs consistently, but I had a client’s whole website just totally bite it. So I go to update my portfolio/clips and many of my bylines are gone. In some cases other people update the article and erase my credits completely. Some are just shady credit stealers. Other times sites are dead now. Sometimes sites are so old the formatting went wonky and I no longer have active contacts at the company to request they fix it.

This is ridiculous. I’ve been prolifically writing and publishing articles for over 15 years. If I wasn’t going to keep credit for it, why do it?

I have Wayback Machine links for a lot of it. But that feels weird: “Here’s my work from a failed publication! I iz gud righter!” Does anyone else use Wayback Machine links? Is this even acceptable? So many ads want links to previous work on the topic, and I have the experience, but the links aren’t there.

I have literally no idea what my recourse is here. This seems illegal, but it’s not like I can pay a lawyer or start threatening cease and desist across the internet. Talk about a bad rep.

I'm a fledgling freelance writer and what I want to know is: is it worth paying to become a friend of Medium for more visibility? Most of my pitches don't get replied to, or I'm told "no space, please do pitch to us again". I'm just wondering if it's worth investing in Medium as then at least I'll spend more time honing my craft and less time emailing editors and getting rejected

I wanted to know from the SaaS freelance content writer , why they chose SaaS and what's so special about this industry that sets it apart from other industries for content writing.

You need to have experience to get jobs and jobs to get experience, how do you get your foot in the door for the first job? I’m doing a degree in engineering at the moment so maybe angling towards technical proofreading would work?

So I applied for a copywriting position recently, went for an interview two days ago and was told they'll send a test, unpaid, of course, to gauge my skills.

Just got the test today at 5 pm. The test is due tomorrow at 5 pm.

I'm required to come up with two different content calendars for two companies and present them on Google slides (a monthly content calendar for each.)

Next part, I'm to make up a fictional tissue company and come up with four different marketing campaigns for Customer Service week, Easter, December and January, each inclusive of images, art, hashtags, captions and other things.

Next, I'm required to come up with a marketing strategy for a newly launched app for a loan company.

And finally, the last task requires me to come up with a marketing strategy for a failing insurance company.

When I agreed to do the unpaid test, I thought it would probably be like one of these tasks.

They also claim they have given me 1.5 days to complete all these tasks, yet it's 24 hours.

Is it just me or are they asking for too much?

Where I reside though, marketing, especially digital marketing and writing, isn't as valued as it should be (it's an African country) but even though, never have I ever come across such multiple tasks for a job I know I'll probably be underpaid.

Hello,

So, I have seen and heard a lot about "solving" client's problems. So, as a content writer, how exactly am I supposed to market myself and what potential problem of a client is a person who writes articles and content actually solving?

My skillset: I have written articles for a tech magazine (a few months) and an Edtech company (almost 2 years) full time. I can optimize content with basic SEO practices, can use a bit of Ahrefs, but not much of other tools. Have written blogs, articles, and product descriptions, but no social media work ex.

Here are the things I could use advice on:

1. I would love it if you could give me some advice on how to brand and market myself.
2. I want to target coaches since I have some experience with education, so if you have any advice on how to approach them, I would be grateful.
3. What other (doable) skills do you think I could learn and offer as per my skillset and experience above.

I know that there are some really seasoned and talented freelancers here, so I'd love to hear from you, as someone new. Thanks!

Im a newbie copywriter. I learned how to write blogs, different emails for different purposes and how to write ad copy for different platforms. Ill also be learning funneling and ai website building (wordpress to be specific)

What more should i learn and what more should i do

Pretty simple question, but I get a ton of different answers. I'm looking for overseas clients. I have a fiverr gig- very low impressions. Main questions I'm looking answers for are:

1. How often should I post on LinkedIn promoting my gig? I tried once a week for 2 months, I gained some impressions but that's it.

2. Where do I begin learning SEO from?

3. Should I cold email potential clients? Should these emails contain blog pitches or pitches for me as a freelancer?

4. Any other platforms I should share my fiverr gig on?

5. Any other advice.

Thank you so much guys, I have one client as of now and I write mental health blogs for them.

I've been looking for work, some coming as close as we'll start tomorrow, then silence!

Some of you are so lucky you have multiple clients. I wish I could have just one. It's a new month and I'm so worried and losing weight rapidly. It's never been this tough for me.

Been posting a few fiction teasers and such online and got quite a few requests for commissioned content...was wondering if this can eventually be a source of significant income?

Most freelance connects on LinkedIn and offline are copywriters, or write marketing or tech content for startups and other companies. The few connects who are making dough from fiction work are either with a literary mag or are published.

Was wondering if freelancing as a fiction writer could be a thing? And, suggestions or advice for this?

Hello,

I am looking to begin freelancing as a content writer. I have professional full time experience of about 2 years as a content writer and instructional designer.

Now, I want to learn how to find clients. I am not very comfortable posting content on LinkedIn for now but since some have mentioned that you can generate leads by commenting and engaging with the target audiences' post. I wanted some advice on how to go about that and how to actually close deals.

Anything you can tell me in this regard in your experience would he very helpful! Thanks.

I signed a doc. But felt the trial was a lot of unpaid work, (it has a 26 page brief).

I want to delete the account. I also read too many posts about it being an underpaying content mill...

Is there any way I can back out without the repercussions of the thing I signed?

Hi everyone, long-time lurker, first time poster here. I've been toying around with the idea of freelance writing for a while now, and I think I'm ready to finally take the dive into this field--this sub has given a lot of helpful, actionable advice!

I'm struggling with how to best define my niche, so that I'm able to create a strong portfolio. I'm most interested in writing about politics, government, history, and social justice topics (lgbtq, civil rights), although I do have a big love for fitness, improv, and pop music in general (I understand fitness and music are pretty saturated). The thought of doing marketing, especially content marketing, makes me groan.

Are those socially-focused topics possible to niche down in, especially as someone who isn't coming from a journalist background? Is there even a market for those topics? Any helpful pointers about how to best source clients looking for writing in those fields?

Edit: my background is in financial planning and analysis (budgeting) for nonprofits and local government.

Anyone else struggling to find work on Upwork. I felt like I was on a roll and now nothing, my proposals aren’t even getting looked at. It is so frustrating. I’m really trying to focus on larger ghostwriting jobs and get away from articles but I’m forced to buy connects and try to get smaller jobs to cover some bills but it seems like that’s a waste of time now too. And with there new AI update I’m nervous about upwork going forward in general.

I can "smell" a darned AI-WRITTEN rubbish blog.

Dudes and dudettes in my team write content themselves. But the stupid Copyleaks, ZeroGPT, and whatnot will keep bugging us.

Feeling super bad.

Hi guys, a quick sort of off-topic question here.

I often find that, while working, I'm somewhat anxious and "accelerated." What I mean is I will unconsciously hunch over the desk, cross my legs instead of sitting properly, tap my foot, and all that stuff. Overall, it often seems like I'm just too eager to finish my job ASAP instead of enjoying it and letting myself take as much time as it needs. I also tend to write faster than I need to, which isn't necessarily a bad thing but takes away some of the joy in writing.

Just to be clear, I'm usually in no rush to finish anything — no strict deadlines or the likes. It's just that I'm not properly relaxed, and no matter how much I try, I always end up rushing all my work and feeling frustrated about it, as it leads to burnout in just a couple of hours.

I don't know if any of you have also gone through this, but please share your tips! Any pointers would be greatly appreciated :)

For context, I was the one who reached out to an old client to see if they're in need of a writer.

They said yes, but it's been a year since we worked together and I'm wondering how I can ask them to pay a higher rate as my rates have changed since then. How would you approach this subject via email?

Thanks!

The agreement says I will be getting paid 10 usd per hour. Should I ask anything related to invoice?

For practically my whole career I've been a crypto and blockchain writer. However in the last two years I got some gigs that were specifically in the psychedelics industry. It's a fun niche and I've made some cool connections so I'm thinking about switching up my LinkedIn to reflect that.

However my LinkedIn page is very crypto/blockchain focused. I'm wondering if it's worth trying to make it clear that I'm available for work in both sectors.

Does anybody have any tips for navigating this? Is it as simple as just writing "blockahin // psychedelics writer"? Or would that simply be offputting to potential clients?

I'm not sure if this counts as a dumb question or not, but i was curious to see how others handle their professional presence when they are multi-niche

Hello! I am new to this subreddit, and I am looking into freelance writing as a start to my career. A bit of background about me: I have a BA in English: Technical Communication (finished last August 2023), where over the course of my college career I have written several different things, from grant proposals and cost reduction reports to a portion of a hypothetical writing manual for my university’s students and staff. I have also been freelancing with a big esports organization for almost two years, writing a couple of articles a month for them. These are typically guides and tutorials on the different esports that they like to cover. I have around 30 articles with them published. Now this gig does not pay me that much at all; I mainly do it because I enjoy the topics and I just want some work under my belt before starting freelancing or a full-time job. My question is, with all of these guides I have written, is this a good niche to look into? Writing guides and manuals for businesses? I would love to do this. My main goal in pursuing my degree was to try and do technical writing. My main concern is that since a majority of my portfolio is in esports, businesses won’t consider me for their projects, even though I have a formal degree in the area. I know that esports is an extremely saturated market, and I’m not necessarily looking to stay in it since the jobs typically won’t pay well. I’m just curious to see if including these guides in my portfolio when I make a website for myself is a good idea or if looking into technical writing, guide writing, and manual writing is the right move with the experience I have and with my degree.