I’ve been a so-called “freelance writer” for about a year and a half now. And while I’m not a full-time freelancer, I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to make that jump someday. That said, there’s a handful of factors that make such a jump extremely difficult, most of which fall under two separate reasonings:
Scams
Firstly, the amount of scammers posing as clients is truly staggering. This isn’t unique to the writing industry, or even to the freelance community as a whole: If there’s a quick, easy buck to be made, scammers will take advantage of it. That’s just the way it is. I’ve personally been fortunate (and cautious) enough that I have yet to fall victim to such a scam, but this is largely thanks being overly cautious, as well as a healthy dose of blind luck. Off the top of my head, I estimate that around ~25% of the potential clients who get in touch with me are some sort of scammer.
The biggest reason these scams have become so prevalent is that there’s an intrinsic power imbalance between the freelancer and the client. At the end of the day, the freelancer is the one working for the money, while the client is the one with the money. Just to be clear: I’m not saying that there aren’t good-natured people looking to hire writers. I’ve built up a small list of clienteles, and I can honestly say that I have yet to have a bad experience with any of them. But again: blind luck. And evidently, others aren't so lucky.
There are certainly steps that freelance writers could (and should) take in order to minimize their chances of being cheated. Watermarks, deposits, contracts, and so on; but ultimately, a scammer who is well-versed in their twisted craft will find ways to get around this. As a result, the onus is on the freelancer to vet their clients– further contributing to the aforementioned power imbalance.
And then there’s also employers who go to great lengths to obscure how much they’re actually willing to pay their writers. One such example can be found below, where a Reddit user discusses the underhand tactics used by one such company.
The company had initially posted an advertisement for writers, stating that they were looking for part-time writers, and paying $15-$25 an hour, depending on the writer’s level of skill. Not enough to freelance full-time, but pretty reasonable for consistent part-time gig work. Right?
And then they went on to give a few more details–AFTER participants had already gone through a two-week screening process that required two separate applications, as well as a 90-minute unpaid meeting. And again, this is all after participants had already spent their time going through their seemingly rigorous screening process.
And the details they give out? Writers are expected to churn out 500 words an hour– which includes finding images, linking to external references, SEO optimization, and so on. The result is that, realistically, any writers employed by them are going to be making more like 3-5 cents/word which is really, really low pay considering the level of quality that they’re looking for. This isn’t an outright scam, but at the very least, it’s shady and underhanded. It also leads to the next barrier in the way of being a full-time freelancer: finding work that's actually worth your time.
Freelancing is a Numbers Game
To the uninitiated, freelancing seems simple. If you have a marketable skill that also happens to be in demand– in my case, writing– building a client base should be easy, right?
Yes and no.
It’s important to note that my situation is a bit different than most other freelance writers. I hold both a Major in English, and a Minor in Creative Writing. This doesn’t automatically mean that my writing skills are flawless (far from it), but it does mean that finding a 9-5 job that pays the bills is simple, especially given the current strength of the job market. It also means that– in theory– expanding my client base is pretty simple. In practice, though, it’s a different story.
It’s important to note that there are very few people that start off in the freelancing world. Finding clients can be difficult, and the nature of freelancing means that it offers basically no stability.
The issue with writing in particular is that there’s a lot more that goes into it than just sitting down and churning out a thousand or so words. If the subject is a topic that you’re unfamiliar with, you’ll have to research it. Depending on the complexity of the topic, this could take hours– time that you typically aren’t paid for based on the typical per word payment model.
Assuming that the average person is capable of finding a full-time position, freelancing becomes a numbers game. If you’re not making more per commission than your hourly pay, there’s no point in doing it. You can spend your leisure time building your portfolio, and eventually, a client base, but most people (understandably) aren't willing to do that.
The obvious answer to this is to either charge more per word, or simply charge an hourly rate, but this introduces its own set of issues.
For example, I charge 10 cents/word for simple writing that involves little to no research. It’s double what beginners charge, but in exchange, I offer unlimited revisions, SEO optimization, and plagiarism-free work; and of course, high-quality writing.
Unfortunately, the writing industry is oversaturated. You can see this on other freelancing platforms like Upwork and Fiverr, as well as on other smaller platforms like r/Slavelabour. Writers willing to work for as little as 2 cents/word, sometimes even less. I’m confident that my writing skill is head and shoulders above the "average writer," but the nature of content production and digital influence means that quantity is more important than quality.
It also means that writers charging less are more likely to be selected by employers looking for quantity over quality. If I want to compete with these types of writers, I’d have to lower my own rates, which is where the “numbers game” comes into play.
I write substantially faster than most other writers. Depending on the topic given to me, it takes me around ~2-4 hours to write a 1000-word blog post, meaning that my pay comes out to around $50-$25/hour. It sounds good, but it doesn’t take into account everything else that I’ve already mentioned: Finding images, SEO optimization, and so on.
I make around $35/hour after taxes at my day job. For 2 hours I’m guaranteed to make $70, for 3 hours I’m guaranteed to make $105, and for 4 hours, I’m guaranteed to make $140.
On the other hand, nothing is guaranteed in the freelance market. And while writing is my true passion, I refuse to write for less than I’m worth– which puts me at odds with the industry as a whole.
It's my hope that platforms like Contra give some power to the freelancer, while allowing freelancers to spend more time actually working, rather than spending hours building their clientele base.
