Comments on: How to Set Your Copywriting Fees and Earn What You’re Worth

By: Dottie

Dottie — Sat, 12 May 2012 16:09:17 +0000

Gosh, what a much-needed pick-me-up! Living in Malaysia where most local talents have no value regardless of capabilities, my dream to write has been dashed and drugged so many times by the very culprits you all speak of. I cannot even begin to share how discouraging it is to be told that proper English does not matter. Most clients actually believe that good/awesome writing doesn’t require human intervention. Sad.

By: Writing Online A-Z Links Directory « Emotional Sobriety: Becoming Friends & Lovers

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 15:20:05 +0000

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By: Debbie Bouwer

Debbie Bouwer — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 09:43:46 +0000

Nice to find somebody who says it like it is! My take on the issue is that birds of a feather flock together. Rubbish businesses will always be content paying rubbish money to rubbish writers to promote their rubbish products. Not very sustainable, now is it? But here is the thing. They don’t mind being unsustainable. Like locusts, these businesses swoop in, nibble away at a few gullible consumers’ cash and fly off only to resurface under a different guise somewhere else. My perspective on the matter is that reputable writers should avoid these cyber-pests like the Plague and concentrate their efforts on building long term relationships with reputable businesses instead. Although it will take longer, it could be worth their while in the end.

By: Audrey

Audrey — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 13:32:31 +0000

This is a dog-eat-dog world and I agree one should charge as much as one possibly can. Like many other writers and translators, I am sick of the ‘globalisation’ con. Clients think that because some poor bastard living in a shanty town on the outskirts of Manila is willing to cobble a badly-written text together for next to nothing, the rest of us should work for peanuts. Unfortunately, the brainless cunts who work in most companies fail to appreciate: (1) human skills vary; (2) they are not buying widgets; (3) there are no economies of scale worth talking about (as Arthur Andersen found to its cost in the auditing field—another labour-intensive activity); (4) ‘market’ type web sites are a con. The wankers who run them could not care a toss about quality or realistic rates (most use the ‘Dutch auction’ approach) – they are only interested in taking a cut and the bigger the volume, the better.

By: James

James — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 22:06:40 +0000

Thanks, Peter – much appreciated!

By: Peter Wise

Peter Wise — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:52:49 +0000

A really good article, and throroughly deserving of getting comments after nearly two years. Should be required reading for every freelance copywriter.

By: Vicki Wagner

Vicki Wagner — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 07:32:15 +0000

This was a great post! I’ve been doing lots of writing projects and I just finished reading a great book on copywriting. Unfortunately at my local library, they only copy they had was from 1985. Interesting how LOW the rates have become since then and everyone is prostituting themselves out for a $5 Blog post. Believe me, I’ve looked at those Elance writer’s and thought: WTF? WHY would anyone pimp themselves out like that?!!! Then people say to me- “Well I can get a Blog post for $25.” I say, “Good for you, but you won’t get it from me!”

By: Katherine

Katherine — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 22:08:40 +0000

I started writing professionally a year ago just before my husband’s first back surgery. It’s been a real struggle ever since, but I refuse to quit because I just love what I’m doing, and I’m great at it! Pricing has been a real issue, though, because I didn’t know where to start or how to price. I don’t work by the hour because my schedule has to be so very flexible, and I believe people prefer a fixed price (I do, anyway). This article may be more than a year old, but the info in it is invaluable to me! Now I know where to go with my prices, and I wish I’d been able to find this a year ago when I first started. Thanks, Dean.

By: Jed

Jed — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 19:39:42 +0000

I too love the fact this article throws out hard numbers! I needed to come up with a quote today for the first time ever, and bang, I had good guidelines thanks to Dean.

Oh, sorry to revive this old article, but it came up very high in Google, so…

By: Kristen

Kristen — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 23:02:51 +0000

I really appreciate finding posts like this that are so specific in their advice. For those of us starting out in performing freelance work, this is invaluable.

I admit, I do fall into the category of people who feel uncomfortable asking for so much. This is largely because I’m new to freelancing and it’s so much more than I would get or expect as an employee and, while I’m confident that I’m a good writer and do have some experience (about 3 years, primarily at one company), I recognize I’m not as experienced as some out there.

I’ll be bookmarking this as a reminder not to second guess my worth and remember the going rate for copywriting services. Thanks.