If you are a small business then you want to make sure that you have got control of your marketing budget and you may well be wondering how much employing a blog writer is going to cost you.
Good question
So if I had my sarky hat on I’d probably give you a picture like this;
But I’ve got my professional head on today so I won’t do that. Instead, I’m going to try and answer your perfectly reasonable question using my adult voice.
Which frankly is making me feel a bit shaky…but here goes…
Answer the question – how much does copywriting cost?
OK so it depends what you want done and how big you are and who is doing it.
Now let’s start at the top.
If you are commissioning a big agency to do your copy and you are doing a big national campaign and you are a big company with a fat marketing budget then you are probably going to spend the thick end of £250 per hour.
Oh yeah.
But you’re not a company with a big fat marketing budget because they don’t care how much they spend and they don’t google how much does it cost…
You are probably much more intelligent than that.
Pay by the word
There are four main ways you can pay for copy
The first of these is to pay by the word.
You’ll often see prices quoted by the word for things like blog posts (like this one!) or for eBooks and stuff.
This is because it’s fairly easy to predict how long it will take to produce a thousand words on any given subject with or without research.
Now to be fair the main factor in how much it costs to get copywriting done will be quality.
So if you go on a platform like People Per Hour or Upwork then you can probably get some copy done for £8 per thousand.
Yeah really
What will it be like?
Well, it’s probably going to come from a copy farm where they blat out thousands of words using some software that doesn’t really care what it’s doing.
So if you want to spend the next hour proofing and editing the post you’ve just paid £8 for then…
In fact you can find out what happened when I bought some cheap copy here. Spoiler alert:- it didn’t end well.
Pay by the Hour
The second method of paying for copy is to pay by the hour.
This is often preferred by freelancers who need to do a lot of research before writing.
It’s also useful if there is an uncertain brief or where it’s just not clear how much work is really going to be needed.
Again good copywriters will charge you £250, bad copywriters will do it for £7 but on average you should expect to pay in the region of £25- £60 per hour.
Pay by the project
This is a really good way of making sure that the budget doesn’t go crazy and freelancers are often happy to use this method.
It’s good where there is a clearly defined project and where the freelancer knows the client and what they like.
So they may say for example they will write a set of five blogs for £250 all-in and this will include their research time and amendments.
Paying on retainer
Some clients (and many freelancers) like to pay by retainer.
This means that the client has a standard amount that they pay per month and the freelancer works a certain number of hours, almost like a part-time job.
This has the benefit that the client knows exactly what they will be paying for their content every month.
I have clients that do this to spread the cost of their content over the year, some months I do more, some less but it generally evens out.
What should you pay?
Well, I reckon that as an average you’ll pay somewhere between £30 and £75 per thousand.
It very much depends how much effort you want the freelancer to put into your post.
I don’t mean that unkindly at all.
For instance, some of my clients have posts and articles that they want rewriting in their house style, and that’s really quick for me to do.
The thing that takes the time is where I have to do desk research and then write up my findings.
So as an example, I’ve written reviews for things (software mainly) where I have to set up an account, install it, use it and then write up my thoughts.
So a thousand words take a lot longer.
How much does it cost?
This is a different question.
You see I know how much I have to pay for a plasterer to come and sort out my wall in my office.
I could do it myself but I’d get a worse job, it would take longer and I’d make a mess.
Just watching tradespeople do what they do proves why they are professionals and I am a writer.
So the price of a job isn’t the cost.
I might pay a plasterer £40 an hour to work but charge my clients £50 per hour.
My job gets done, I make money so the job has cost me minus £10.
Or I might pay them £60 an hour and while they are doing it charge £50 but have no stress and no mess at the end of it.
That’s why getting a professional writer to do your blog might not cost you anything!
Now you know how much it’s going to cost to get a professional and frankly amazing blog writer then why not drop me a line?
I’ve got some whizzy package deals on for new customers and if nothing else we can have a chat about motorbikes or plastering.