The One Piece Of Information I Wish I’d Known When I Was Starting Out As A Freelance Writer

By Dan Smith

I can’t think of a definitive date when I decided to become a freelance writer. Like many things in my life, it kind of just happened.

Around 2006, I started to take an interest in web design and CSS and spent hours every night after work trying to teach myself the basics before moving on to more advanced techniques.

This naturally evolved into learning about search engine optimization and in late 2007 / early 2008, I started to put my new found knowledge to work, providing advice on a relative’s online business, helping them to develop their online presence and rankings in the search engines for certain keywords.

This lasted for six months and around the time it finished, I came across an advert on a webmaster forum for a freelance writer. I’d carried out a few one off writing assignments prior to this, mainly out of interest to see what was involved and so I threw my name into the hat and was successful in gaining the work.

What I didn’t know at the time was the company was — and still is — one of the largest SEO agencies in the UK and over the last three years I’ve had the pleasure to work with some global brands through them.

My main problem at the time was that as a new freelance writer, I had absolutely no idea what the going rate for any type of writing assignment was and I’ve said it before, but I honestly thought getting $10 for a 500 word article was good going.

When I started writing this post, I was initially going to base it around the fact that if I had known the average price for various writing projects, it would have helped me out massively and maybe I wouldn’t have spent over a year slowly learning the ropes.

However, I then realised that it wasn’t just the fact that I didn’t know the average price for a piece of writing, but that in fact, I didn’t know much about freelance writing at all.

At the time, I thought this was just me being a particularly new freelance writer, but now I look back on it, I realise that although this was a factor, it wasn’t the main one and the one piece of information I wish I had known at the time was that there aren’t any set rules when it comes to freelance writing.

There are no set costs for writing blog posts, press releases or website content. There is no minimum or maximum length of time to deliver a piece of work in. There are no guidelines as to how to communicate with a customer. There is nothing set in stone that tells you where to find new clients, nor how to stop working with existing ones.

It’s a strange point to consider when thought about, but the simple fact is being a freelance writer is something that’s almost entirely dependent upon the individual.

Everyone will have their own way of pricing their work. How much one writer charges for a blog post will no doubt be cheap compared to another, but in the same vein, it’s likely to be expensive when put alongside another writer’s costs.

Each writer will communicate differently with their customers, some preferring to have in-depth face-to-face conversations with them, while others make do with a short, concise e-mail.

It’s this information — simply knowing that are no set rules — that I honestly believe would have made my time as a new freelance writer a whole lot easier.

I spent a lot of time trying to find out about pricing, where different clients can be found and what the most appropriate way to communicate with them was, but just like the Holy Grail, the information didn’t actually exist in any one form and to all intents and purposes, it was open massively to people’s individual perceptions.

Of course, in one way, I already knew this and I made my own way to becoming a freelance writer, developing my own views and perceptions on the different aspects of freelance writing, but I’d say that it’s only since the start of 2011 that I’ve truly realised not only that there aren’t any set rules for being a freelance writer, but just how beneficial it would have been knowing this information from day one.

Image: mj12982 (Flickr)