Today I’m asking WordCount readers to help me answer a question about rates.
The question comes from Alice Chen, a former Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reporter turned Bay Area freelancer who’s written for the San Francisco Chronicle and BNET. She writes:
Dear Michelle,
I’ve found your blog to be informative and inspiring. Thank you! Would you mind writing a frank post about how the lucrative online opportunities pay?, i.e. ranges for hourly and per word fees, and also what you think is the average or fair. Have you found that social media like Twitter, Facebook and blogging opportunities pay lower rates than regular online writing?
Also, could you specify the types of organizations that offer this work; you had mentioned that it’s not in the conventional places, and the best way to get it?
Thanks for your insight – I really appreciate learning from you!
Warmly,
Alice C. Chen, MSJ
Writer and Editor
alicechen.info
Chen elaborated a bit more in a private message to me, noting that she came across an online community management and writing position at a certain hourly rate and didn’t know how to compare it to what else was out there.
As much as I hate to say it, the answer is: it depends.
Today, there’s so much writing that originates online, so many different markets and so many different types of writing that there’s no one size fits all answer to Chen’s question. In fact, it’s kind of like asking, “What rates do magazines pay?” The answer to that question varies depending on the type of magazine – consumer, business or trade – the publication’s circulation, business practices, advertising rate card and a lot more.
I know of online publishers that pay the equivalent of high-end magazine rates of $1 to $2 and more for features and other stories. Other publishers, like Gawker, pay based on traffic – Nick Denton said recently that a scoop that brought 500,000 new readers would be worth a $5,000 bounty to the writer. Still others use a formula that combines set fees with traffic-based bonuses.
Then again, I know writers who are getting $25 to $50 for reported blog posts. And of course there are the content farms like Demand Media and Associated Content that pay even less than that.
If you’re looking for online markets that pay more than content farm rates, I’d suggest getting a copy of The Urban Muse Guide to Online Writing Markets, from freelance writer/blogger Susan Johnston. The $15.99 e-book includes 40 online writing markets that buy freelance articles, samples of successful query emails and a glossary of writing and web terms. By the way, Susan will be my guest on the next WordCount Last Wednesday live chat on Wednesday, Oct. 27, talking about e-books.
All of that is separate from the social-media management and copywriting work that Chen mentions. To date, my experiences with those responsibilities have been somewhat limited. In one case, I’m being paid a monthly fee for a variety of editing responsibilities that include some social-media promotion. For two other publications that I write for on a regular basis, I’m expected to help promote my work on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook as part of my fee for the assignment. There are no specific guidelines about what social media promotional activities are required of me in any of my present contracts, though I wouldn’t be surprised if that changed in the future.
But that’s my two cents.
I’d love other writers to weigh in on this. What type of online-only writing are you doing, and what rates are you seeing? Are you being paid separately for social-media work, and if so, what type of work are you doing and what rates are out there?
Thanks for the plug, Michelle! I haven’t done any projects that were exclusively social media, so I can’t speak to those rates. Often when I write an article for an online outlet, there’s an expectation that I’ll tweet the link, post on Facebook, etc. I try to spread it around so my friends and followers aren’t blasted with lots of links from the same website. The most I’ve made from an online article was $1/word, but they tend to be quicker assignments than print, so you can earn a pretty decent hourly rate if you’re a fast writer/researcher.
Thanks for the info Susan. I agree that there’s a general expectation that writers will tweet their own stories. In fact, I expect that from the writers I work with in my freelance website editing assignment. Right now all that’s very loose, but I could foresee a time when publications would set down specific requirements for social-media promotion, write it into a freelance contract and pay extra for it. Anybody out there already got contracts like that?
Michelle
I, also, can’t speak to the social media side of things. Though I wonder if a site like Mashable has info on that, as they also regularly post social media job listings.
But like you say, rates vary so wildly from publication to publication, even online. I’ve done blog posts for $10 a pop. And I’ve done them for $100 a pop. In other cases, I was able to set the fee, and charged a lot more. When it comes to social media, I’d definitely negotiate for an hourly rate that makes sense to you.
Good info Steph, thanks for sharing.
As I’ve said here before, I could definitely see the day coming where freelancers will start negotiating social-media terms in their contracts: if editors and publishers are eager to drive eyeballs to their sites, it would be in their best interest to compensate writers to help them. At least that’s my hope.
MVR
Hi Michelle!
I work for an online site, but don’t get paid separately for the social media I do so can’t really say much about that. In general, all the social media, including blog posts have been lumped into an hourly rate that I’m usually able to negotiate.
Brandi – You bring up a good point. If you’re negotiating a freelance contract and think the assignment will entail some social media promotion, consider the time it will take you to do that when you’re negotiating your fee. Maybe the publisher won’t paid you an hourly fee, but you might be able to get an extra $100 or $200 from them and write something into the contract to the effect that said fee will cover up to X hours of social-media promotion. If you do that, though, be prepared to use time-tracking software or something else to prove that you did the work.
Michelle