I know that there have been some threads about monthly income (and even weekly income). But personally I prefer to think about how much I earn per annum / year.

I'm a freelance writer focusing on working with technology clients. I offer a mixture of articles/blogs, ebooks, white papers, and (rarely) speeches. I probably average, conservatively, 40-50 hours of work per week. I'm currently onboarding new clients in the $0.30-$0.40 per word range (I don't charge per word - for comparison) but my main client is grandfathered at $0.22 approximately.

My year to date income is $36,700. I'm currently owed about $6,000 on top of that. So I'm really at about $42,000.

Obviously this is only October, so it's definitely credible that I will pass the $50K milestone by the end of the year.

Personally, I'd like to be making $60-70. I live in Israel, which is blood expensive, and I think that's what required to live a good quality of life here. I've wasted a lot of time this year on marketing and BD that went nowhere (and onboarding clients for a few months). So going forward I want to focus on clients with recurring work - at my target rate. I think once I fill up my book of business to that level and keep it that way my target should be credible. Maybe next year.

How much do you make per year, give or take? What does your client base look like? And what kind of writing do you do.

I made $7k last month in total freelance income, and it's looking like I might get to the 8 or 9k range soon. I can't imagine pushing much past $10k a month. My writing quality and health would suffer if I tried to take on more work than I do now, and my hourly rate is about $100. Convincing clients to pay more than that for written work doesn't seem likely.

Where do I go from here? I can keep on with my retainer clients and the occasional one-off project for the foreseeable future to cover my cost of living, but it's getting kind of boring.

I've been thinking of starting my own agency, though that might have more drawbacks than positives, and I don't think being a people manager is in my wheelhouse. Hard SEO skills, maybe? Go back to being a full-time in house writer and work my way up their marketing career ladder? Give being a novelist another shot?

IDK. Freelance writing is the career that appeals to me most, yet hitting that income wall in my early 30s feels wrong. What do freelance writers do when they want to move up? What skills should I focus on building to increase my earning power?

We've all seen so much "end of the world" on this and other subreddits lately so I thought I'd chime in with a useful humblebrag.

In March I left my full-time content writing job (couldn't stand the return-to-office) to go back to freelancing. No clients booked, no plans other than to start browsing UpWork.

By the end of April I was booked up with work and had hit my day rate goal of $500. I write two blogs every weekday and handle whatever edits they want from previous work, if there are any.

Today I saw a comment on r/ChatGPT ostensibly from a writer with about as much experience as me (five years) who also left their job and claimed to have sent out 200 applications without a single word back. That's absurd. My clients explicitly hire me off the strength of a few pieces in my portfolio they probably skimmed through. If you can't do the same then your body of work isn't good enough. Simple as that.

I have more work than I can handle. I could very well be making more money if I actually knew how to prospect on LinkedIn or network online or in-person. But I don't and that's okay, for now.

Don't get bogged down in doubt. There are plenty of clients out there looking for high-quality work, and if you can provide it you'll be able to make money today, and tomorrow. Next month? Next year? Who knows. ChatGPT has another update coming out next week and maybe it'll be the one that drives away at least one of my clients. That's freelancing for ya.

Until then, keep producing the kind of work that we all claim only humans can create. Hone your style. It really all comes down to being a stellar writer.

I'd like to say there's more to it than that but when all my client-finding boils down to "scroll through UpWork and only apply to jobs that are offering >$50/hr," I honestly can't say it's about anything more than git gud.

And I mean gud. I have a bachelor's degree in English, previous in-house and agency experience, and a strong portfolio. Since I'm a writer, I know how to write a good UpWork pitch too. I meet deadlines and stay in communication. It's really not more complicated than that. Just. Write. Well.

Storytime!

Two years ago, I created a couple of gigs on Fiverr out of curiosity, and one of them blew up.

You can say it was the start of my freelance writing career, and I've made around 10k on Fiverr to date. My monthly turnaround is around $500 more or less. Considering my economy, $500 is more than enough for a student.

I'm also pursuing Computer Science, but programming isn't something I really like.

I write mainly on self-help and mental health, and I've gained a lot of experience in this niche.

Throughout the years, my love for writing has increased drastically. When I started, I only treated writing as something that could help me make pocket money and manage my school expenses, but now I think I can make a full-time career out of writing.

I'm thinking of getting out of this Fiverr loop and starting somewhere else where I will be adequately compensated, considering my experience in the mental health niche.

From what I've seen, Fiverr is a good platform that can help you get some work at the start, but most people who come here are not willing to pay good prices for quality work. And increasing your prices is also something that mostly backfires as thousands of people are willing to do the same work for 1/5th of the price.

I just wanted to see how others make their living, what platforms are best for long-term work, and how much income is considered suitable for a freelance writer.

Any suggestions, tips, or personal experiences will be highly appreciated :)

I'm a freelance writer from India and charge somewhere aroun USD 0.10/word.

I usually write blog posts in the B2B niche that requires some research. I can write around 1200 words per day and write approximately 2 pieces per week these days.

While this makes me enough money to get by, I'm wondering it would be impossible to sustain with these earnings in the USA or UK.

Therefore, I'm wondering how much do US and UK-based writers charge, make? Also, what's your daily productivity and workload, etc.

Apologies if I sound intrusive; I'm just curious to know. Thank you!

Hello fellow redditor, I hope your day or evening is going well so far. I have been searching for a job for several years now and haven't had any luck at all. My family is just squeaking by on my husbands salary, however if anything happened to him we'd all be screwed. We also have several major expenses looming in our immediate future, which we cannot afford. I really need to bring in some income so I'm now considering upwork, but don't how viable it is these days. How much did you make your first year writing (the only skill I'm fairly good at) and approximately how many hours did you put in to make it? Thanks

Hi, I'm new at freelancing (translator and content writer) and I'm asked for my payrate per Word, I don't wanna be too low, what is yours?

Hi Redditors, essentially, my question is the title. I've been wondering if working as a freelancer can earn you more in a month/year than being employed for a position. If so, what factors contribute to that? Could you give some figures between what you may have made freelancing versus what you'd earn from a job? Any other insights related to this topic would be highly appreciated.

Peace

Edit: I didn't expect this many responses. I'm glad to have got my answer to this question. It may have seemed a little obvious or perhaps vague, but I believe many of the commentors tackled the topic in a much deeper way (which was my desire) and offered some interesting insights. Much appreciated to you all for taking the time to comment.

Everyone talks about the earning potential as a freelance writer. We all love to hear how we can make 100k+ a year and still work according to our own schedule. However, it seems the harsh reality is that most of us, including myself, don't make enough from writing to have a comfortable lifestyle, or even pay all the bills.

As someone who is new to freelance writing, I certainly don't make enough to pay all of my bills. For the sake of honesty, and for those who are working towards a dream, what's the harsh reality? How many people don't make enough in writing and have to rely on other part-time jobs, or even full time?

I charge 10 cents per word - $100/1000 words.

If you work on a per word basis, could you share your rates?

Just curious :)

Greetings,

I'm currently exploring the option of bringing a Freelance Writer on board for my Blog, centered around Architecture, Culture, and Design. However, I'm feeling quite uncertain about the pricing aspect. I'm curious about how much a Freelance Writer typically charges and what payment structures they prefer (such as monthly, per article, or hourly). Additionally, I'm interested in learning about the compensation rates at comparable blogs and magazines like Hypebeast, Dezeen, Dazed, and Highsnobiety.

If any of you have experience with similar blogs, I'd greatly appreciate if you could share insights into the average payment per article. Thanks in advance!

Simple question. Excluding any contracted jobs, how much do you earn per week solely from freelance writing?

I’ll go first.

I do 2 days freelance writing per week, and over the past 12 weeks I’ve earned on average £212 per week.

I've been offered my first paying freelance job, and I realized I had no idea how to respond when they asked for my rate. In researching, I've seen some people charge by the word, a flat rate, or by the overall length brackets. For those of you who do consistent paid freelance writing, how did you determine your rate and whether you charge by word, length, etc.?

What sort of rates can a freelance writer expect?

I'll share mine: From 10 cents USD per word to 26 cents USD per word depending on my client.

This is writing blog posts for client blogs. Word length can range from 1000 to 4000 words although 1000 to 2000 is most common. Each article usually requires images which takes up quite a bit of time. Then I have to upload it to their WordPress blog.

Typically the lower paid work takes me less time so the average per hour equivalent works out fairly similar.

Ideally I'd like all my work to pay 26 cents per word but I'm a way off from that.

I've been going for about 4-5 years!

Anyone else care to share?

I recently became a freelance writer for compose.ly where I write random articles and blogposts. It's a far cry from writing anything that really conjures up your soul, but I get to write about a bunch of different semi-interesting topics.

I'm currently in the "probationary" period where I'm making about five cents per word, but soon it'll be bumped up to 10 cents. When I originally signed up I told them that I could write around 10,000 words a week, or about 7 - 10 articles. This would come out to around $52,000/yr which isn't too shabby.

I saw on my dashboard that I can max out at 20,000 words a week which would a significant pay jump from what I was previously making in my day job. I'm still trying to figure out if it would be worth it. The work isn't exactly hard, but 20,000 words a week seems like quite a bit.

My previous experience writing was primarily in college when I was very research-paper heavy and I was able to to really hammer those out. Those papers though were on subjects that really peaked my curiosity and were fluent in subject matter throughout the entirety of the 20ish thousand words.

I found quite the massive spread in terms of what people charge per assignment and how much people are getting paid for contracts. How does 10 cents a word really align with the average?

Hi everyone! I’ve been a copywriter since 2009 (over 15 years of experience) and have been a freelance copywriter for a large corporation for 11 years. I’m based in Seattle, WA. I’m essentially a senior copywriter and editor at this point. My current pay structure is as follows:

$68/hour for content planning and coordination/project management/anything ad hoc

12 cents per word plus $30 per article written

My pay rate hasn’t changed in two and a half years (the last time I adjusted my rates due to inflation). I’m thinking about notifying my work that I plan on increasing my rates by 5% as a COLA (rounded up), which would bring my rate to $72/hour and 13 cents per word plus $32 per article. Does this seem reasonable? Or too high? Too low? What do you all charge?

I’m also thinking about putting in the body of the email that I’ll automatically adjust my rates by 2% at the start of each year to account for inflation. Does anyone have any thoughts about this?

Thanks for your input!

I am interested in becoming a freelance writer. I would say that my writing skills are above average for an American. My grammar and punctuation skills could definitely use some work. My research skills are excellent. Of course, I am willing to put in some work to improve my writing skills.

I am mainly interested in writing informational articles for online publications. But I am open to all possibilities.

What scares me is the idea that I invest a lot of time into breaking into this profession only to end up a failure. My savings are significant and I am currently unemployed. Time is not really a big issue. I have enough saved for several years of living without an income.

My goal is to be paid at least $16 an hour and work 20 hours a week.

Do you think I have a good shot? Or do you need to be exceptional in order to succeed?

Guys hi,

I am looking for a long term writer for our blog now and speaking with several candidates. I want to make sure price is fair for both parties.

What is average rate for good blog post (say 800-1000 words) ?