What do online freelancers get paid?

Rob — Mon, 26 May 2008 15:39:53 +0000

One of the bigger differences between freelance writing online and being a freelancer for magazines and newspapers is the amount of money that you get paid per project. If you have a ‘for print’ writing background – you’ll probably be underwhelmed by the pay rates for online freelance writers. That being said, even would-be writers with no writing experience aren’t exactly ecstatic about ho much entry-level writers get for online writing jobs.

Really, a writers’ wages can be affected by a lot of different variables, such as:

How much experience a writer has.
How well the writer can write.
How well a writer has branded their name and maintained their reputation.

However – In my personal opinion a writer’s wages are affected primarily by who they are catering to. I’ve seen pay scales for online writers from the USA from .01 per word (that’s $5 for a 500 word article) to .60 per word ($300 per 500 word article). Sure, in most cases the quality for a $300 article is better than the quality of a $5 article, as it should be, but I’ve seen $300 content writing that was outperformed by work from a $40 article writer.

As far as averages go, though – for new writers in industrialized countries (USA, Canada, UK, Australia, etc) the pay scale seems pretty steady around $8-$12 per 400ish word article. Some new writers can get around $15 per article, though.

For established writers the averages go up a bit – starting at around $20 per 400ish word article up to $35 per article.

Now, something should be stated here – an established writer is not necessarily a ‘qualified’ writer when it comes to online content writing. There are a number of freelance writers who don’t hold a writing degree or an extensive background that can, time and time again, demand $20+ per article and people will pay for it without hesitation. But, I think this goes back to who a writer is targeting.

Freelancing online as a writer is an easy gig – you can get paid regardless of your experience and it wouldn’t be all that difficult to make $15/hour or more even with limited typing/writing skills.

If you are currently a freelance writer or a future freelancer, I suggest you check out my report on how to find writing jobs online, it’ll give you all the information you need to make a full time living as an online freelance writer.

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What do online freelancers get paid?