by James Chartrand
This is the first post in a series on increasing your rates and how to get more money writing for a living. Feel free to ask your questions in the comment section, and we may cover the answer in an upcoming post.
We all want more in life. More freedom, more fun, more money… It’s perfectly fine to want these advancements and a better life, and it’s perfectly acceptable to ask for these “mores” from others.
We could ask a partner for help to lessen our workload. We could find a friend and ask if that person wants to join some activity. We could ask clients for a wage increase on the work we do. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, after all.
But I believe there are times when you shouldn’t ask for more – especially when it comes to money.
Accepting a pay rate for any gig creates a standard of expectation for value delivered. If you provide a particular level of quality and a certain set of services for a determined dollar amount, then that’s it. That’s what you do, and that’s what you deliver, and that’s what you get paid for it. You agreed to it, after all.
Let’s say that in a year’s time, you’re still doing the exact same thing for the exact same pay rate. Should you ask for a raise? I don’t think so.
Remember the movie Flatliners from 1990? I do. The green line on the medical monitor’s screen was completely flat, the hum a dull monotone. The group of med students stood there watching nothing happen.
That’s the case with pay raises: They flatline. Unless something happens to change the situation, unless someone grabs initiative and puts life into the issue, the green line drones on without a blip.
A pay raise has to be justified. When there are no changes in the gig, the working conditions or the outside factors, no valid reason justifies asking for more money for your work. Even reliable loyalty and on-time delivery don’t provide enough justification – being reliable and delivering on time was part of the original contract that you agreed to.
So when can you request a pay raise? Here are some situations when increased wages are completely justified:
- Your tasks and duties related to the job have increased while your pay rate has remained stable
- You have increased your skills or improved your service and these changes have affected the results you deliver
- You have begun providing extra value on a consistent basis and the client would like you to continue doing so
- The market value of the product or service you provide has increased and your rates aren’t in keeping with that standard
- Demand for your services has increased and you need to cut back on the number of clients you currently have
- Economical factors outside your control (such as cost of living) require that you adjust your rates to be able to make ends meet
- Your writing has increased the customer base or sales of your client and you have measurable results to back up that claim
Simply showing up for the job, being a loyal worker and doing the writing you’re supposed to do doesn’t qualify you for a rate increase. If you’re going to ask for more money, make sure you have good reason to ask for it and proof that you deserve it.
And if you do deserve that pay increase? Stay tuned. Over the next few weeks, we’ll cover how to ask for a raise, the best way to announce a rate increase and what to do when your client won’t give you more money for your work.
This came at a good time. I’m currently writing an online bio for a guy’s online dating ventures and I charged him .15/word which isn’t too pricey I don’t think. I told him I’d do 1 rewrite but after that I’d charge him. We even discussed that a rewrite were “changes to the first draft I sent him” but then he emails me asking me to write another one so he can compare the two! There is a huge difference between switching some words around to make it sound better and starting all over! I haven’t emailed him back yet, but do you think I should just do two to appease him, charge him another 20 bucks for another one, or charge him .15/word for both?
Matti,
Do you have a contract with this guy? I never begin work with a new client without signing an agreement. That way you have all agreements in writing and there’s no need to haggle.
– Allison
I have to disagree. While I don’t think you can justify a huge jump, asking for a small annual pay raise, even if your duties have not changed, is not out of line considering that the economy will ALWAYS change slightly. In my mind, it is better to be pro-active and increase your rates slowly rather than get to a point five years from now when the market value has increased to the point where you have to jump your prices more than 20%. Plus, proving that you are reliable and provide high-quality work is extremely important in this business. Just my thoughts!
One crucial aspect I’ve always found about working with others is clarity right up front of what you’ll deliver, how, when and how much. Stating this protects you later on.
The choice of what you’d like to do is up to you. If you feel it’s out of the scope of your agreement, you can always cheerily say, “Sure, I’d be happy to do that for you. My rate would be XX and I can get that back to you in YY days. You’ll be able to compare the two and pick which you like best!”
What do you think?
@Matti- I’ve been there. My assignment was to write 10 articles on parenting including diapers, breastfeeding, etc. from my experiences. And I did the job and even received payment. A month later, the woman emailed me saying that she’d finally read them over and her viewpoints on using cloth diapers and breastfeeding were completely different to mine (I am on a well, so cloth diapers were not an option for me without risking running out of water (no diaper service here) and I am very pro-breastfeeding, therefore she wanted them written from her point of view.
I told her that since she’d paid anyone would assume she’d read them over and was happy, so if she wanted new articles, I was charging her for new articles. She actually went to Paypal and tried to get them to close my account for failure to provide satisfactory services. Paypal tends to back the buyer over the seller, though this time they were on the fence. In the end, I wrote new articles because the time involved in the fight was taking up too much of my day and stressing me out.
Ann, I’m sad that you wrote new articles. In the future I would encourage you to speak to a freelancer such as James or Deb for a further opinion— your work was DONE.
Yeah, we usually write something like, “If these meet your final approval, please feel free to make payment.” That way, when payment is made, we have backup that this was the condition of payment.
We also have a time-delay on revisions so that people who approve and pay can’t come back in six months, say they just got around to reading and would like everything changed.
But fear of PayPal? I get why you would have chosen to do that. That SUCKS.
If I’m writing for someone who pays me fairly little to begin with ($15 for a 500 word article), then asks for me to “flesh it out more”, then asks for me (seemingly arbitrarily) to rewrite it, then asks for me to additionally promote it, how do I go about addressing this? The work I’m doing for him recently just got massive recognition (to the point that the amount of visitors crashed his server) and I feel like I’m in a good position to lay out some terms, but money is obviously one of his main concerns and he wants to share as little of it as possible with me.
My main concern is that there seems to be, for every freelancer who genuinely values their work, a freelancer who will do anything for any price. How do we keep our jobs and ask for more?
Thanks so much for this article!
xAC
@ AC – There’s a difference between being paid to write and paid to promote. Promotion, to me, is either a separate service you offer clients, or an “extra mile” service that you do freely to boost your own value. After all, if your work does well, then you’re seeing in a better light and become a valuable writer, no?
But writing something certainly doesn’t obligate you to promote it too, unless that was in the terms of agreement, I feel.
On the other hand, writing well and having your piece be so good that Diggs galore crash your client’s server doesn’t really mean (in my opinion) that you have the right to demand more money the next time around. It could have been a lucky shot, could have been the right day, could have been a fluke, who knows? It could have been that good a piece, too, and in that case, you should be able to repeat the process in the future.
Consistently crashing servers, I would think, would put you in a much better position to raise your rates.
As for freelancers who do anything at any price, be cautious about passing judgment. Some people may need the money that badly, some may live in locations where the economy permits lower rates, and some may just feel that this is what they want to charge. There’s room for everyone 🙂
I have to say, I disagree with you big time. Employees in every other sector that I can think of expect and generally receive an annual raise, why should writers be any different? With increases in cost of living, inflation, etc. services increase in cost. I’d love to tell the local coffee shop that the price of my latte should remain the same for the indefinite future, but I don’t think that would cut it. I’d love to pay the same for groceries that I did 5 years ago, but that’s not happening either. I don’t quite understand any fundamental difference that would make writers’ fees any less subject to increase. Obviously it’s up to the individual writer/business but I don’t think a general rule of not raising rates is very helpful.
@ Chris/Allison – I think you should perhaps have another read. I wrote:
Cost of living, economic factors et all are all outside influences that change the gig’s working conditions and thus do justify a raise.
The post refers to arbitrarily requesting a raise. No one can come in and say, “I’ve been your writer for ten years. You should pay me more,” if nothing at all has influenced any change in the situation.
I understand what you mean, but don’t see how it applies in a real life situation. Economic factors are always going to be present, and annual inflation would be a main factor that I would consider in raising rates annually. While I agree that just randomly asking for a raise because you decided for a trip to Tahiti rather than the Jersey shore is out of line, I think an annual raise is generally something that is necessary to request. I guess I just take issue with the section where you discuss not asking for a raise after a year’s time; it seems to limit writers to a stricter standard than most other workers/businesses. Other then that, you have some interesting insights and considerations here.
@ Chris – True. The world is never a stable place. However, take a look at the usual rate of inflation as indexed by governmental agencies – 2%? Say you earn $50 an hour. That justifies a request of $1 per hour.
The problem is that the numbers don’t match up. People want huge raises. Great! Go for it! Back it up. Cost of living generally isn’t enough to warrant the big money people want to leap for.
I don’t want to discourage people from asking for raises, but I do rather want to demonstrate that to get more money, you need to find ways to justify doing so. Make sense?
Definitely. It’s even more dramatic when you’re making say .10 per word. Even a very generous raise of 10% comes to .01, not necessarily even worth asking for.
I’ve been freelancing for a little over a year and a half. I have a few clients that I started with that I still work with today. Recently I’ve started asking them for raises. Why? Because others are willing to pay me more for my work now because of my experience, number of published clips, etc. Do you think the fact I can make more working for other people justifies asking for a raise?
I did read what you wrote, but I still disagree. Over time, you’re proving yourself AND gaining experience, on top of changing economic conditions. Someone who’s been in any business for 15 years should, in general, have a higher pay rate than someone who’s been in the same business for only a year. Personally, I choose to raise my rates slowly rather than making a big jump. As a writer, I’m always learning and always getting better at my job, even if my duties do not change, so I definitely think annual price changes are justified, just like they are in every other industry.
@ Allison – Again, same thing with what I mentioned earlier. In that case, a rate increase is justified because you’ve increased your experience and skills. If you do the same thing routinely without increasing anything at all, then no rate increase is justified. Proving yourself doesn’t, I feel, justify a rate increase – a writer should have proved his or her worth from the initial agreement to work, don’t you think?
@ Krista – If you’re willing to part ways with the clients you have, then yes. If you can get more elsewhere and are willing to pursue that, then yes. Both cases mean that you are making a *choice*. You are not demanding more money just because. See the difference?
Great series, James! I’m looking forward to reading the rest of it.
This is a great list, and I have used several points from your list to justify rate raises.
At this point, I don’t really ask for raises. It’s more like “I’m increasing my rates by X as of [next month]. If that works for you, great. If not, I’m happy to recommend someone else.” Not this exact phrasing, but that’s pretty much it.
So I’ll be eager to see if the way you do it is better than mine. You know, so I can steal your way. 😉
@ James Yes, I certainly do. Thanks for the response.
I guess I’m just confused as to what instance in the writing world you’d work for someone for a year but not be justified in asking for a raise. Even if you’re just writing a set number of articles on a set subject every week, after a year, you’ll likely be more understanding of a client’s needs immediately, know more about SEO concepts, etc. If you don’t get better over time, you’re not a very good writer, right? I guess if you’re a bad writer you aren’t justified in asking for a raise, haha. I’m just having a hard time thinking of a scenario where you wouldn’t learn and get better over time.
And yes, I think that proving your dedication to a project is definitely part of justifying a raise, the same way someone who has worked for a certain corporation is honored after a few decades for loyalty to a company. I have one client, for example, that gave me a raise after a year because I stuck with his project for that long. There may have been other writers who submit quality pieces as well, but he could count on me to be around every single week, not wonder if I was going to leave after just a month or two.
@ Allison – You’d be amazed at the number of people who do the same thing day in and day out and who never change a thing. No new knowledge, no attempt to improve the process, nothing. They do their job. Day in. Day out.
Kinda sad, really.
The example you used is a bit faulted, too. You were granted a raise for loyalty in the face of others who didn’t hang on – that’s not the same as going to ask for a raise. There’s a difference 🙂
But I hear you. I know where you’re coming from and it’s good.
Very interesting discussion, and after reading James article, I’m now reconsidering asking a client for a raise as I near my first anniversary with them. I mean, I’ve been doing the basics of what they ask, but I haven’t had the time (freelancing is supplemental to my day job) that would enable me to justify asking. I would like to increase the services I provide for them and will probably make that offer in conjunction with a requested raise in the future when I can commit to going above and beyond.
@Allena – Actually when it happened, I did come to this board for advice and the overwhelming response was to tell her no. But as James said, “Fear of Paypal…” The majority of my employers pay through Paypal. Had I told the woman no way and she’d won the claim with Paypal, my account could have been shut down leaving me out of many of my best jobs. I wasn’t willing to take that risk.
What this did teach me is to be upfront that I expect revisions to be requested before payment is submitted. Once payment is received, it is my understanding that they have read and find the articles to their liking and there for no revisions will be expected. Revisions requested after payment’s been made any revisions are charged my normal rates.
I’m of the opinion that freelancers should never be afraid to raise rates if they feel the time is right or the project warrants. Every single business does this, and it’s no different. Now, if we raise our rates every other week this could be a problem, but if you work with a client for a year, it’s not unreasonable to give notice of a pay increase.
As freelancers it’s up to us to dictate the rates. If we leave these details up to our clients we won’t get paid at all.
There is obviously excellent deal to know about this. We think a person created great points also.
I Adore my Paleo wraps I ate one particular proper
away at function with a salad I brought for lunch.