You may not realize it, but I wrote the chapter “How Much Should I Charge?” in the 2022 Writer’s Market this year. It was a humongous assignment, and until I did the research, I didn’t realize how much had changed in the last five years as well as mid- and post-COVID.

Freelancers are very much alive and well. Employers have learned to embrace freelancers with a passion. Freelancers tackled social media as marketing tools and learned new methods of landing clients, establishing a brand, and networking.

But how much you should charge depends on so many factions:

1) your experience
2) your niche (and sub-niche)
3) your diversity in skills (i.e., more than writing an article)

You can get down into the reeds and try to break it down into small sub-factions, but these three major ones pretty much steer your ship and dictate your income.

A beginner is usually anyone with 0-3 years of experience, however, you will find the exceptions who leaped in and made six figures within two years. Many others will brag about how much they made in spurts, like four months, but the proof of success manifests itself in how well you can perform over an entire year, because there are high and low seasons within a year that tend to average out that income. An intermediate is 3-7 years and a professional 7+ years. If one cared to, they could call anyone over 15 years an expert.

I learned that beginners tended to charge conservatively and often adhering to whatever the client wanted to charge. Intermediates hit a comfortable range that pays well. The pros are ever hungry and charge a premium for their valuable time. In other words, the amount of self-assurance grows almost exponentially with age.

But if you really want to know what to charge, ask your peers. But an equally as valuable method is to look at things through the customer’s eyes.

Foundation is a site that offers content services, and they posted an educational piece addressed to businesses on how to hire a content creator. The graphics are wonderful. But what is interesting is that they suggest in hiring a freelancer writer, they hang out where writers hang out. In other words, go to the social media and online sites where writers are – Facebook groups, Medium, even Instagram and YouTube/

The next best avenue is to ask fellow entrepreneurs for suggestions, especially through LinkedIn, but also through Quora, Reddit, and Slack.

So if the content hungry are hanging in those areas, why aren’t you? The world is crazy busy with work for freelance writers. If ever there was a time to leap into the business, the time is now.