From Blogger to Copywriter

I had a call recently from a blogger who had been commissioned to write a 2,000 word feature for a website. She’s been trying to break into freelancing for a while, but wanted to know if the rate she was being offered was fair – £100.

I referred her to the very useful NUJ’s guide to freelance fees and suggested that £500 would be more typical for this sort of work, although I was surprised someone would want that sort of content for a website – it would be more typical to split the word count into smaller posts, with relevant links and search terms, to maximise the benefit of the copy.

When the blogger went back to the client and asked if there was room to either increase the fee or to create a series of shorter posts, she was told this wasn’t a project that required any copywriting or journalistic skill, and there wasn’t any room for negotiation.

While I might query the decision of a brand to post 2,000 words on its website written by someone with no copywriting or journalistic skills to save a couple of hundred quid, I am increasingly talking to bloggers who want to break into freelance writing (God knows why, I can think of easier ways to earn a crust) and don’t know where to start. So here are some tips:

1. Know your value. You might think that £100 is a great deal for writing a feature on a topic you know inside out. It’s really not. Look at the NUJ guide to fees, to get an idea of what a professional would charge and always negotiate. If you’re asked to quote, quote high, with a view to coming down. But do bear in mind you might be expected to accept lower rates to get a foot in the door.
2. One of the reasons a professional writer might charge more for a paid blog post or online feature is that we know what producing a proper piece of copy takes. For starters, you need to know the basics of copyright and libel (the best resource here is McNae) and you should also familiarise yourself with grammar and spelling (this is a recommended text) and ensure you don’t have any bad habits or ingrained mistakes.
3. If you’re doing online copywriting, it’s also useful to understand the basics of SEO and how to use keywords to help drive relevant search traffic to your client’s site. There are lots of people who are very good at SEO. There are lots of great writers. However, there still aren’t that many people who are good at both, so having those skills makes you more marketable.
4. If you take on a blogging job, expect rates to be significantly lower because writing blog posts tends to be far quicker than producing other sorts of copy – rates of between £35 and £75 per post are typical, depending on the level of specialist knowledge required and the number of posts being commissioned - I would charge a lot more for one solo blog post than for each post if I was writing 3 posts a week over 6 months, for example. However, if you’re solely responsible for a brand’s blog, I would try and negotiate a higher rate to include time spent promoting posts via Twitter and Facebook, or commenting on other blogs, to help drive traffic.
5. Understand what you’re selling. When you’re a writer, you may provide a client with first British rights or first online rights to the work or exclusivity for a certain period of time. For example, when I write for one UK newspaper, they have the exclusive rights to the work for six months, after which I can sell it through a syndication agency, which might sell the work to any number of newspapers or websites around the world. Sometimes the newspaper’s own syndication department resells the copy, in which case I get an agreed percentage of any fee they charge. Always be clear what rights your client is buying, and if you’re selling copyright to your work, that you’re being fairly compensated for that.
6. When quoting for copywriting jobs, remember the job isn’t just writing the article. It’s the time you take being briefed by the client, then researching the topic online. It’s potentially doing interviews, or finding pictures. It’s writing the article and taking extra time to make sure you’re adhering to the client’s style, and within copyright and libel laws. With copywriting, you will often find yourself making two or more rounds of revisions, as different people within the client organisation want to make changes or additions. Once the thing finally gets approved, you’ll need to file the copy, produce and send the invoice, and potentially chase it a couple of times before being paid. All of that takes time, so your 2,000 word feature may well actually take up three days of your time. Looked at that way, £100 doesn’t look like such a great fee, does it?