Copy writing freelance has become quite an intriguing line of profession for those who enjoy writing and have an ability to create powerful, appealing content. And now, with digital marketing on the move, companies just don’t stop finding a highly qualified copywriter that can deliver fascinating copy for the website, social media, blogs, ads, and much more. You might already know the answer, but if you have chosen this as your career, then you sure must have asked any of the questions below: How Much Can You Earn as a Freelance Copywriter?
We’ll take a look at the possible income ranges of freelance copywriters, influences that affect pay and how to earn more in this competitive field.
Know Your Freelance Copywriting Rate
In fact, just as in other occupations, rates for freelance copywriting vary from one another depending upon experience and niche, type of project, even down to the budget of the client. And this is a general breakdown of what you should be earning:
1. Entry-Level Copywriters
When it comes to beginners in the freelance copywriting industry, the pay is relatively low when one expands the portfolio. The new copywriter, most of the times, receives an hourly pay that falls in the middle range between $15 and $35. Most novice copywriters usually start at small freelance jobs or on low-budgeted clients when they are just learning about the profession. Those who are beginners take to charge between $0.05 to $0.15 for every word on a per-word rate.
2. Intermediate Copywriters
If your portfolio is well-rounded and you are experienced enough to work without a tight leash, you can charge at the high rate. Experienced copywriters who have served 2-5 years in the trade may ask for between $35 to $75 per hour. Words per hour rate might be around $0.15 to $0.50 depending upon your specialty and project complexity.
3. Experienced Copywriters
The higher the rank of the freelance copywriter in the pecking order, the more one is willing to pay, certainly when they present productive portfolios of work, specializations, and lengthy lists of known clients. More mature copywriters can charge $75 to $150 an hour or more. The very specialized fields, like writing in medical or legal or financial fields, command premium pricing. And experienced copywriters might even charge $200 or more an hour in those cases.
4. Hourly Rate
Most copywriters are paid on an hourly rate. However, for bigger projects or more complicated ones, some will charge by project. For instance:
Copywriting for a Website: A big and complex website copy would cost between $1,000 and $10,000 depending on the size and complexity of the website.
Clearly, though, anything like conversion-type sales pages would obviously fall in that range from $500 to $5,000 or even up to that depending on the market and niche area about which you specialize, whether persuasional or in conversion-type writing.
Blog Posts Blog Posts : The rates on the blog posts will have a range of $50 to $500 depending on its length, the amount of research needed to be made or the level of experience you may need to put into this.
Factors That Affect Freelance Copywriting Earnings
Some of the determinants of your take-home money that you can bring home as a freelance copywriter will provide you with an asset in your setup process for determining your rates and getting back as much money from these rates as possible.
1. Level of Experience
Experience goes well with what you get. Because you continue earning and honing the expertise to pitch clients on a more advanced scale, the possibilities are that the fees inflate. Perhaps, starting copywriters work on a smaller scale so that you can gain all the experience while the experienced copywriters command a higher scale because they have a broader wealth of experience.
2. Niche Specialization
It is the niche you specialize in that really determines what your potential income is. Specialized copywriters in high-demand, high-paying niches such as SEO copywriting, technical writing, financial writing, or medical writing command a premium rate of pay compared to work in general areas. Specialized copywriters are perceived as specialists and thus command a premium price because of the in-depth knowledge of that specific niche.
For example:
SEO copywriting: just because they always aim to stay as high up in the search engine as possible, a good copywriter can charge as much as $50-$200/hr
Medical or legal copywriting: these are mostly niche areas that are rather problematic due to experts, hence paid at the most premium rate, and rates can shoot up to as much as $100 to $300/hr.
3. Type of Client and Industry
The other thing is this, and it’s about the client’s budget and his industry, which sets also how much you make. Large corporations or established brands have huge budgets to compensate for good copywriting, while start-ups or small businesses will have smaller budgets but still require appealing copy that makes the phone ring and achieves the right engagement level.
Although not necessarily a ‘cut and dry’ billable hour formula, pay will be more in order simply because the specific industry falls under tech, finance, law, healthcare, or real estate purely because the subject matter is very specialized in nature and often of a demand that calls for higher quality-driven content than hospitality or retail.
4. Quality of the Work and Portfolio
Valuable clients like the best product and a quality portfolio. Deliver measurable business outcomes through your copywriting : increased sales, higher conversions, or greater engagement-to deliver premium value for what you do. Finally, you’ll be able to pitch yourself as a valuable copywriter with plenty of positive testimonials and case studies to back that up.
5. Location
While still quite location-dependent, freelancing lets you work from any place. UK or US copywriters will charge more than in cheaper regions. Of course, the remote work and global freelance workplace also change this situation because it matters less where you are: clients all over the globe agree to work with a good copywriter from anywhere in the world.
How to Make More Money as a Freelance Copywriter?
If you do want to make more money as a freelance copywriter then the following would be applicable:
1. High Demand Niche
The ones of the fastest ways to make more money are niches that are high in demand. The areas that could be such niches include SEO copywriting, law, medical, or financial copywriting. This is because many niche-type areas tend to pay better when expertise is involved.
2. Building your personal brand
Personal branding is also a must to go along with freelancing because it proves to be very relevant in this aspect. A professional website and portfolio with social media or one of the other channels like Upwork or Fiverr will definitely throw you to the top of the competition. And after some time, when your reputation is well-established in a niche of expertise, you will even get clients who are willing to pay more and come back for repeats.
3. Updates of Skill Development Exercises
The fee is levied at a higher level because the skills of writing can never be stagnated; instead, they should be updated again and again and continuously for both present and future with regard to changing trends in the industry. Thus, taking courses about copywriting, SEO, and digital marketing may be done as ways of positioning oneself ahead of the competition and better services rendered to clients.
4. Retainer Agreements
Use trial retainer contracts with clients and not jobs. A retainer means you have a steady, solid stream of income, which allows you to specialize in long-term clients and projects. To work with a client like that you might say the client commits to a regular retainer where they will continue to need your services on a monthly basis to develop copy regularly for their blog, email newsletter, and social media posts.
5. Network and Ask for Referrals
Sometimes, even a great freelance business can be obtained through word of mouth, from one satisfied client to another. Networking with other freelancers or entrepreneurs in the same business can bring so many very useful contacts and collaborative opportunities.
Conclusion
Freelance copywriting is a pretty good business: the more experience you have, the narrower your niche, the better clients you are working with and the better quality of work is done, the more money you get. In average for starters: $15-$35 per hour. In average for veterans: they can collect everything from $75 to $150 and even more than that per hour, experienced ones in highly specific niches. There are such opportunities to earn much more money, especially by specialization in very demanded areas, personal branding, and the development of further competencies.
