Freelance writer told me her rate is $2 per word, I laughed until she showed me her contracts

I was chatting with a copywriter at a networking thing in Austin. She flat out said she charges $2 a word for web copy and gets it. I had been charging $100 a flat rate for blog posts. She pulled up a contract on her phone and it was real. Made me rethink my whole pricing structure. What do you charge per word or project?

3 comments

3 Comments

tessalane10d agoMost Upvoted

The $2 a word thing blew my mind too! I've been doing flat rates for years and never even thought about charging per word.

the_sage10d ago

Blew my mind too @tessalane, now I'm over here doing math on how many words I need to write to afford rent. Guess my flat rate was basically me paying them for the privilege of writing.

the_laura10d ago

God, same here! I did a flat rate for a local magazine a few years ago and after I did the math it came out to like $0.15 a word. I basically paid them in time and stress. @tessalane that post really opened my eyes too. Now I'm looking back at all those gigs and cringing. I had one client who wanted endless revisions and I just kept saying yes because I thought that's how it worked. Never again. I'm starting to realize how much I undervalued my own work for way too long.