Things You'll Need:
- Clients
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Step 1
Compare prices online. Many freelancers’ copywriting websites list ballpark prices for various projects.
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Step 2
Buy a book on freelance copywriting. These will often have useful lists of reasonable prices to charge clients. Be sure your book is current! If it is more than a couple of years old you may find yourself being railroaded!
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Step 3
Determine what your time is worth to you. Are you willing to charge higher rates and potentially have less work, but more pay per job? Or, do you want a long list of work with less pay to show for it? Ultimately, you have to determine what your needs are and how much you can afford to charge.
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Step 4
Find out what the average writer makes in your geographic area (there are many websites that assist with this). Divide that amount by 52 (weeks per year) and then that number by 40 (hours per week). This is the approximate amount you could expect to earn per hour.
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Step 5
Decide if you want to become an ‘expert’ in one area of copywriting. If you become well-known for one type of writing you could reasonably expect to charge higher-than-average fees for that type of writing.
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Step 6
Evaluate the difficulty of the project. For example, if you are asked to write a case study and they hand you the audio of the interview and numerous brochures, sales letters, and materials to work with you would charge much less than a case study project of which you are required to do all of the research.
