Defending Your Prices

I used to avoid any potential job where the client stated prices up front that were too low. I would just not apply to the job, or I’d let the project go without any objection. There was plenty of work out there that paid well, and I didn’t want to waste my time.

It occurred to me at one point, though, that negotiation wasn’t necessarily a bad thing—and some of these lower prices represent what the client ideally wants to pay, not what he or she is ultimately willing to pay. I started defending my prices in situations like this—more as an experiment than anything else. Sometimes, it didn’t work—the budget was truly inflexible. Other times, however, it actually did work—and I got some projects I never would have landed if I hadn’t bothered. Here are a few pointers for defending your prices.

Talk about what the money buys you. One of the things I emphasize—particularly when talking to the five-dollar-an-article crowd—is that there are certain things you can’t get when you’re paying that little for writing. You don’t get research, for one thing. What you’re usually getting is work recycled (or sometimes directly cut-and-pasted) from other articles already on the web. You don’t get someone assessing your market and the type of information your audience is hungry for. You don’t get research into topics that aren’t already well-covered. You definitely don’t get interviews. Breaking down exactly what work and expertise the client gets—and explaining why they won’t get that with the low-budget option—can be enormously eye-opening.

Talk in terms of money saved, not money spent. If someone’s trying to find a student or newbie to do their ten-page brochure for $50, it’s not necessarily money wasted—there are a lot of talented newbies and students out there. But the likelihood is higher than if you pick someone with a track record of experience in this area. And if you’re putting money behind the campaign—mailing costs, printing costs, graphic design, etc.—then the message is definitely something you don’t want to skimp on.

Talk about results. I like to talk about successful past campaigns. I talk about clients who’ve dramatically decreased time spent in sales, boosted revenue, or raised their click-through rates or web traffic as a direct result of my work. It helps to occasionally check in with clients to get the results of finished projects—and a few testimonials with specific figures definitely don’t hurt.

This won’t work all the time. But it does work enough that it’s worthwhile to do. How do you defend your prices?

My Message to $5 Article Writers

I went over to Web Writing Info the other day and saw an interesting post--It's Okay to Start Low, where Courtney admits she started as a $5-an-article writer.

I got my start article writing, too. I liked it because it wasn't salesy and I really wasn't comfortable with the idea of selling when I first started out. I charged $15-$20 an article off the bat. I just couldn't stomach charging $3-$5 for what I knew would be an hour job, or longer--I've never been able to churn out articles consistently in under an hour, although it happens sometimes when I'm really focused. I thought that if I was going to get paid that little, I might as well do it for free--because I sure wasn't doing it for the money.

I've always thought that people who work for that little were probably coming from other countries where the cost of living was lower, and they could afford to undercut writers in the States. But (and maybe I'm the last person surprised by this) it seems a lot of really fantastic English-as-a-first-language writers are doing the same thing. If this is you, I'm not going to berate you with accusations that you're ruining the copywriting industry or anything like that. But I would like to see you earning more--I feel you deserve it--and I have a few things to say.

You DO deserve more. I think a lot of people get started charging low because they feel they're inexperienced and don't deserve more. But anyone who can research well, not make grammar and spelling mistakes, and string together coherent sentences deserves more than $3-$5 an hour. People who work at McDonalds get paid more. The minimum wage is more. You're an educated, skilled worker, probably with a college degree, and you didn't go through college to get paid less than minimum wage on anything. You are offering a service that someone else can't do--and you deserve to be paid a fair and realistic price for your skills.

Writing is a job. I think a lot of people fall into the trap of getting paid less because they get all precious about writing. They feel honored and flattered that anyone would pay them anything at all to write. But let me tell you, what you're writing isn't glamorous. It's not going to make you famous. It's not even that creative. You're writing articles that are basically grist for the search engine mill. You're not writing poetry or memoir or the great American novel. People may insist that they "have to" write; that they'd do it even if they weren't getting paid. And maybe that's true if you're a poet or a novelist. But would you really write fifty 500-word articles around the keyword "diamond engagement rings" because you felt the call of the muses? No. You wouldn't. The kind of writing you're doing is a job, not an inspiration-fest. Even if you're treating it like a hobby, it's better to get paid more than less for it.

Ask for more and you'll get it. Believe me, this is true. I started out working on Elance, where people regularly pay less than a penny per word. I was asking $25 and $30 per article--and getting it. You can do it too. If you don't believe me, give it two weeks. Quote a price you'd like to get paid for an hour's worth of work to everyone who asks. I'll bet you'll get a few takers. If you don't, you're looking in the wrong place.

Your market isn't paying? Find another one. Now here's the key. You don't want to be working with affilliate marketers. In my experience, this is the group that expects to pay dirt for articles. However, getting a few professional SEO firms as clients isn't a bad idea. These folks tend to pay more because they can then turn around and charge their clients for it--and they're regular work. Right now I do ongoing article writing work for several top SEO firms and I charge $45 an article and higher. If you're not getting any leads when you charge more, it's not because you're charging too much. It's because you're in the wrong market. Check out this post I did on clients who will pay good rates for the same articles you'd write for $5 elsewhere.

If you're getting paid $5 per article, believe me--you can get paid more. Just ask for it. If the client balks, there are all kinds of things to say to justify your prices: that you do high quality, well-researched work; that their articles are a projection of them and need to make a good impression; and that great writing will make their articles stand out from a sea of sludge, among other things. And guess what? They'll all be true.

When You Have to Raise Your Prices

When I first started freelancing for companies--about four or five years ago, when I still had a full-time job--I really didn't know the first thing about setting my prices. I was a service provider on Elance, and I based my prices on what other people were bidding. At first, I tried to come out on the low end of the pack because I believed that would get me more work, especially as someone who didn't have a ton of experience or feedback. For those of you who've worked on Elance before, that tells you how low I was charging--even the high priced providers on Elance often don't charge market rates.

I never planned to be on Elance long-term--the fees were just too high. But although I was successful in moving my business away from Elance, I had trouble moving away from Elance rates. For a while, I priced myself quite low--simply because that's what I was used to charging and that's what I believed people would pay.

I had a wake-up call when I quit my full-time job. I realized I needed to make a certain amount to succeed--and I developed a strategy for setting my prices. Last year, all seemed well--I was charging enough to pay my bills, and I was thrilled to death that my business was thriving.

Then I got another wake-up call. My tax bill came due, and it was much larger than expected. I didn't put money aside for taxes last year, so it all had to come out of my savings. If you're a freelancer, you know how crucial your savings account is--it's your safety net against slow months, your secret weapon against emergencies. Without it, you're naked. I jumped into an onsite job--something I really wasn't thrilled about doing--that took my attention away from growing my business for two months, simply because it was a guaranteed way to replenish those savings.

In the wake of the Great Tax Disaster, I decided to re-evaluate my prices. I realized that if I wanted to make tax-paying painless, I had to account for it in my pricing--just like I account for all other expenses. That means I had to start raising my rates again.

I have a lot of repeat clients, and some of them have been with me since the Elance days. Last year I didn't get much resistance to my price hikes--but just yesterday I had a long-term client who drifts in every couple of months get back in touch. The quote I gave him was higher than what I've given in the past, and I got some resistance. It's not that tough to charge more to new clients, but with your old ones, I imagine this isn't uncommon. Of course, sometimes you just outgrow certain clients--but when you're first raising your rates, it can be tough to risk losing regular customers who give you a lot of business.

So I'm throwing the question out there to freelancers: how do you handle raising prices for regulars? What's worked for you in the past, and what hasn't? Do you take the "love it or leave it" approach, or do you try to hang on to customers who are used to paying lower rates?