How much should a good freelance copywriter charge?
After a lengthy discussion on my blog earlier this year, I abandoned the policy of setting variable copywriting rates and settled on a flat-fee structure.
My copywriting rates are completely transparent: I charge £25 an hour, £200 a day, with a minimum spend of £100 for new customers. For that price, your first edit will be free.
The only thing ‘variable’ about my copywriting rates is the number of hours I estimate a job will take. Existing clients will…
Continuing my series of blog posts for freelancers starting out in this game, I thought I’d take time to answer the most important question of all. As I’ve already covered, time management isn’t easy — but it’s a necessary skill. Some weeks, you’re going to be doing nothing but revising copy for a Friday deadline. Other weeks, you’ll be skimming your favourite blogs and playing internet poker while you wait for your next job. So how do you manage your time?
Let’s break it into five days for simplicity. I’d say, on average, I spend three days a week working,…
“It’s good to talk.” At least that was the tag-line for the famous BT ad campaign of the 90s. But is it better to write? Of course, there are few things less personal than an email. But email is around for a reason. It works and, more importantly, there’s a record.
I’m all in favour of the quick phone call. In fact, I think it’s great when a potential client rings me up and asks me for a quick run-down of what I can do for them. It’s nice to be able to put a voice – if not a…
Occasionally I get asked for advice by people looking to make the move into professional copywriting. Alas, I don’t have time to respond to you all in detail, so I’m going to write a little bit about my experiences here.
I started out as a journalist. After almost two years of badly-paid freelancing and doing mostly unpaid internships in the editorial departments of medium sized magazines, I came to the conclusion that there simply aren’t enough jobs in journalism to go round.
Fact. As a copywriter, you will earn more than a journalist.
As a young journo, I was charging…
I usually blog about copywriting. Sometimes, I blog about my business. Sometimes, I don’t blog at all. Why? Well, because even though my blog is my number one marketing tool, sometimes, I get too busy. It’s the nature of freelancing. It’s not the kind of job where you can show up to the office, do a set amount of work as dictated by your boss, go home, then start the whole thing again tomorrow. You’re your own boss, but you’re also alone.
Snow days
At the start of 2010, it snowed. A lot. In fact, I was almost snowed in…
Every client is different. Fact. Some clients want you to make their business look young and dynamic, attracting investors. Other clients want you to make their latest product offering sound irresistible — to the right people, of course. But what all clients have in common is that they’re looking for you to improve on reality in some way — to take a story and tell it better. That’s the name of the game.
When you’re dealing with SMEs and start-ups, companies that don’t have much of an image yet, companies with products you probably haven’t heard of, the temptation is…
No, I’m not going to make you take another stupid quiz.I’m about to let you in on a little secret. This is the most important question I ask my clients when I take on new work. I ask:
“If your website / company / brand was a person,
what sort of person would they be?”
Copywriters thrive on detail. Often, we’re given a brief for a site, design or company that lacks character. The client has come to us because they want our copy to provide that character. But without direction, all we…
This is a blog entry about changes to my pricing structure. If you’re looking for details about my current daily rate, take a look at my rates page >>
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Copywriting rates should be transparent.
Clients are happy to pay you for your hard work. They’re not so happy to pay you to answer your emails, price up and send out detailed quotes, and, of course, do your taxes. Yet “admin” work takes up half my week. So I have to factor this into my prices. Every freelancer does. That’s why when people come to…
Straplines, headlines, taglines, slogans. Call them what you will, they’re what make the advertising world go round. It’s rare to find a good headline writer. That’s because headlines are hard to write. Anyone can fill a page with four hundred words, but how many people can catch an audience’s attention and sum up the product they’re selling in four or so words?
It’s more important to sound natural than to be clever.
F Scott Fitzgerald famously started out in advertising and came up with the slogan “we keep you clean in Muscatine” for an Iowa based laundry service. While he…
I can wire a plug. So somehow this makes me think I can re-wire my house. Several electric shocks later, I’m reaching for my yellow pages. I’m not a mechanic, so when my car breaks down, I call the auto club. When I get sick, I call a doctor. The point? These are all professionals plying their trade.
But when it comes to writing, everyone’s a DIY merchant. Everyone thinks, well, I speak English, so I can write well. That’s why it’s hard for a copywriter to make it in this modern climate. People will happily shell out for web…