In my previous post I did not give examples of how much money freelance writers make from their writing. My previous post was “How much do freelance writers make?” Not giving amounts in that post was mostly due to the simple fact that how much money freelance writers make from their writing is mostly up to these freelance writers themselves, and differs per writer and per month.

In this post, however, after some research, I can tell you how much money freelance writers make from their writing – or at least how much some of them sometimes make.

My previous post about How Much do Freelance Writers Make? suggests that making money from freelance writing is not that easy to do,

and that if you are thinking that you can make a lot of money from freelance writing easily, then perhaps freelance writing is not for you. Even if you can write well, there’s a lot more that goes into freelance writing than just writing.

Some freelance writers do really well, but their success didn’t just happen overnight. They put a lot of time and effort into perfecting their writing skills, into learning about writing for publication online, into marketing themselves or their freelance writing services effectively, and into communicating professionally with their clients.

For my research to find out how much money freelance writers make from their writing, I looked at oDesk, an online freelance job site, Constant Content, a site where writers can sell their articles, and at some individually owned sites – in South Africa, and in the United States, where writers offer their freelance writing services.

How Much Money Freelance Writers Make from Their Writing on oDesk

(or how much some freelance writers are earning or charging on oDesk)

General examples of the types of writing job postings I saw on oDesk:

–
Search Engine friendly articles consisting of about 1 500 word articles (about roughly three A4 size pages in size 12 font), and the job poster is offering only $1 for each article.

–
Another job poster needs an average of about 30 articles in a month, each of about 500 words in length, and is offering $5 per article. The articles should target certain keywords (should be Search Engine friendly).

–
Another job poster needs a few articles of about 850 words in length each, and will pay $9 per article.

–
Somebody else needs 4 000 words written for a very short ebook, and will pay $25 for that.

–
A business owner needs about 400 words written for a marketing brochure and is happy to pay up to about $150 for that.

So, what is your writing like? Do you think you’ll beat the other applicants for the $150 writing job, or do you think you need to start with the $1 per article job while you learn your way around a site like oDesk?

General examples of the rates of some writers on oDesk
Some do fixed rate jobs only (and don’t apply for the hourly rate jobs) but they still need to display an hourly rate on their oDesk profiles:

The hourly rates of 5 randomly chosen oDesk writers in the U.S.A.
– $3.33
– $8.89
– $10
– $22.22
– $33.33

The hourly rates of 5 randomly chosen oDesk writers in India
– $3.70
– $5.56
– $8.89
– $13.33
– $55.56

The hourly rates of 5 randomly chosen oDesk writers in the Philippines
– $4.44
– $5
– $5.56
– $6.67
– $10

the hourly rates of 5 randomly chosen oDesk writers in South Africa
– $6.67
– $11.11
– $13
– $15
– $33.33

What are your freelance writing skills? The more you know, can do, and have experience doing, the more you can charge. Of course, as a new writer on oDesk you may need to charge a little less than you’re expecting later, just to get your profile off to a good start – to get some good feedback and ratings from your oDesk clients, so that other potential oDesk clients can later see that you have already done some oDesk work, and that you got good feedback and ratings from your clients (making you more appealing to a potential new client).

How Much Money Freelance Writers Make from Their Writing on Constant Content

(or how much some freelance writers are trying to sell their articles for, on Constant Content)

I myself have made a sale on Constant Content 9 times to date, and have sold my articles for as little as $8 or for as much as $17. I have so far been selling my articles with usage rights only, meaning I can sell them over and over again. Sometime in the future I plan to submit some articles where I sell them with full rights, which although means that I can sell them only once each, means they may be more attractive to potential buyers who want to be the only owner of that writing, and I can charge more too. Some writers sell their articles on Constant Content for as much as $40 to $70 or more each.

How Much Money Freelance Writers Make from offering their writing services on their own sites

(or what the rates are of some freelance writers who detail and offer their freelance writing services on their own sites)

Many freelancers won’t display their writing rates on their sites, saying that they need to learn more about a project before they can quote. It is true that it is difficult to know how much to quote for one’s freelance writing services until one understands how much work is involved in getting a project done. As said before, freelance writing is often not just about the writing itself. However, some freelance writers do give rough freelance writing rates amounts as guidelines for general reference as to what you can expect to pay if hiring them.

The rough freelance writing rates of 3 random United States writers, offering freelance writing services on their own sites:
U.S. freelance writer 1:
– $200 to $400 or more for sales letters and brochures
– $150 to $500 or more for a page of website content
U.S. freelance writer 2:
– $0.15 per word for certain types of writing projects
– $75 to $100 per hour for certain types of writing projects
U.S. freelance writer 3:
– $180 to $800 or more for brochures
– $120 to $350 plus for website content writing, per page

The rough freelance writing rates of 3 random South African writers, offering freelance writing services on their own sites:
South African freelance writer 1:
– R800 per hour for corporate writing
South African freelance writer 2:
– R250 per hour for any type of writing
South African freelance writer 3:
– R1.50 per word if research is provided
– R2 per word if research is not provided

What to do if making money from freelance writing sounds a bit daunting to you, but if you would still like to try:

Take it slowly. Learn how to be a better writer along the way. Join online writing sites, like Bubblews or HubPages or any of many other online writing sites, and earn extra income from your writing there. Or start your own blog, write and add new pages of content to it whenever you can, and once your blog is getting about 50 or so daily visitors, monetize your site with ads or offer your freelance writing services on it, or sell some products from your site – even if the products don’t actually relate to writing, by drawing visitors to your blog through your writing efforts on your blog (writing about any topic, but perhaps at least fairly often related to the products you’re selling) you could still say that you’re earning from freelance writing – it’s helping you make money from selling products from your site.

There are some incredibly successful bloggers out there – look up the likes of John Chow, Pat Flynn, and Lisa Irby, and read what they have to say. You are likely to pick up many tips if you wish to attempt blogging for money.

How much money freelance writers make from their writing is usually entirely up to them. The harder they work at producing good quality writing (or writing that many clients will pay good money for, or writing that will encourage many people to visit their monetized site or blog), and the more they market themselves well, the more they may earn from their writing.

© Copyright Teresa Schultz 2014