The Well Paid Writer

I have made a good living as a professional writer for 10 years. White papers, case studies, press releases, and trade journal articles are my bread and butter as a freelancer. My rates are average for business writing:

•    $200 per press release page (not per release, per page)
•    $500 for a 2-page case study
•    $1 a word for a trade journal article from 800-2000 words
•    $600 a page for white papers from 5-12 pages

I am NOT saying this to brag. My rates are decidedly middle-of-the-road.

Here is the million dollar question: Why should you care?

Because so many writers write for peanuts. Because so many buyers pay pennies for good work. Because so many new writers think they’re lucky to make minimum wage.

I’m sick of it and I suggest you should be too.

The truth is that while some writers make very good money writing for online-only business, it’s far easier — and more lucrative — to write for businesses whose primary outreach is not Internet marketing. This is because pure Internet marketing — i.e., using the Internet as your primary marketing vehicle — is founded on the low financial barrier to entry. It simply doesn’t cost very much to buy a URL and pay a small monthly fee to host your website. It can take a lot of hard work mind you, but not a lot of money. Many of these people (including yours truly) write their own content so writing fees are a non-issue. But those who don’t are simply not interested in paying their writers a  lot of money. That would go against their whole economic model.

So if you can write — and are sick of writing for peanuts for an Internet crowd — then read on.

With more and more marketing information going digital, you need to have a downloadable information kit available from your blog or website. This information kit should include a cover letter, benefits-laden article, brochure, fee schedule, and clips. The final form should be PDFs but you might generate those using different applications.

#1 – Cover letter. The letter is a concise, 1-page document that introduces your writing services in terms of benefits to the customer. (Actually you should frame everything in terms of benefits to the customer.) Use white space and bullet points to help spread the word, and the good old P.S. as a call to action.

#2 – Benefits-laden article. This article serves to hook the prospect’s interest. When you give your download link on your website, feature it prominently. Write the article on some aspect of the prospect’s business that will help him or her, such as “7 Ways to Hook the New Technology Client” or “5 Ways to Clean Up with a White Paper.”

#3 – Brochure. This can range from a 2-4 page Word document to a classic tri-fold brochure done in Quark or Publisher. Make it visually snappy and always remember to write the text in terms of benefits to the prospect. Do point out your subject matter expertise but don’t lead with it.

#4 – Fee schedule. Speak in terms of ranges. For example, you might price a white paper from $400 to $600 a page depending on length (the longer it is the less per page) and subject matter (the more technical it is the more expensive it gets). This way you are not sucked into a specific price for all comers, but they know what to expect.

#5 – Clips. Include types of clips and samples. This is really a digitized portfolio. It’s most attractive to send PDFs of published/uploaded documents as they will look more attractive, but you can’t always get hold of these. In this case your text will still prove that you know what you are doing. Be careful not to send sensitive documents to a client’s competitor!

When you do business copywriting, you need to attract PR department and agency attention. One is within the company and one without, but they are often looking to build their corps of trusted freelancers. You want to have a solid core of blogs and published articles available when you contact them. Better yet, if your information is good then they may well contact you.

1. Publish a series of blogs on your industry specialty. This is one of the simplest ways to establish yourself in a business segment and one of the most ignored. Most writers write about writing on their blogs and websites. There is nothing wrong with this and you should have your share of postings about this very thing. However, when people hire you to write they want to know that you can a) write AND b) know their subject matter. By writing well and consistently about their subject matter you kill two birds with a single stone… which is a bloodthirsty analogy but you take my point. If you know healthcare, then write about healthcare and make sure that readers know you write professionally about the area. If you know pharma, write about pharma. If you know IT, write about IT. You get the picture.
2. Publish articles on your industry specialty. Trade journals are hungry for good articles. Most of them do not pay but placing articles in trade journals is a marketing expense and not an income. Believe me, these articles will pay for themselves many times over. Many of these trade publications have email lists into the hundreds of thousands, and a single well written article can get you tremendous exposure. Your only expenditure is your time. The publication carrying your article should allow you to include a tagline with your name, profession (“freelance writer”) and contact information.

Many writers, especially ones who have interrupted their careers to build families, are uncertain how to break into copywriting. Start with what you know – always a good plan.

It is helpful to break in if you share the background you are writing for. This principle goes for both horizontal markets and vertical markets. (Horizontal market means a job type that ranges across industries, such as IT or Human Resources. Vertical market means the same industry, such as healthcare of finance.) If you have a background in healthcare then this is a natural for writing for and about healthcare, a very well paying niche. If you have a background in IT (Information Technology) then this is an excellent way to break into technology writing, another prime source of business writing dollars. The same goes for other job types and industries such as pharmaceutical, finance, or utilities. You don’t have to have a deep background either; just something you can point to so your prospective customers understand that you know their readership and concerns.

Once you are a more established writer it is easier to cross specialty boundaries. For example, if you are good at writing direct sales letters – an excellent way to command very high fees – the industry does not particularly matter. The more technical you get, such as writing an annual report for a pharmaceutical or writing white papers for a technology client, the better your background and knowledge should be in the discipline.

You can parlay even some knowledge into a good writing career. Let’s say that you were a low-level computer support person just out of college. 10 years later you are looking to make some extra money as a freelance writer. You may sell a few articles at a paltry $5 an article (or less) and despair of getting into business copywriting. Don’t! Construct a website around your IT experience and your ability to write about it. Sure it was 10 years ago but that is not your prospects’ business. You talk about your background as an IT person and how that gives you a unique perspective and skill set when writing about technology for corporate clients.

Now start blogging about technology in your area of interest and place a few well-written articles in technology magazines. These publications may not pay (many of them do not) but that’s not the point; getting your name out there is the idea. Once you are published – and a well-written article will be – then contact PR agencies with your information.

One other step you might take is to do a pro bono piece for a technology company. When you are done and they are happy, then you’ve got your start.

• Hire an accountant or a bookkeeping service. Every writing business must keep a record of its day to day financial transactions and even the smallest of transactions add up to big tax deductions over the period of a year. You can’t simply file everything under ‘miscellaneous’ and you can’t spend an hour or so every day taking care of just mundane bookkeeping duties either. Bookkeepers and accountants only charge for the time that they actually spend working for you. Usually they have many clients. If they spend one hour working on your records then you will only be charged for that one hour. You aren’t a bookkeeper or an accountant and you would have likely spent three or four hours doing the same tasks and then with questionable results. Hire an accountant or a bookkeeping service!
• Hire a VA (Virtual Assistant). A virtual assistant can save you hours and hours of time on the mundane tasks that are required to run a successful business. A VA can check your email and send only the emails that you need to personally deal with to you. Entrepreneurs get more junk mail than anybody! A good VA can also act as a travel agent and make airline and hotel reservations for you.
• Subcontract assignments to other writers. This bears some explaining. When you are starting out then obviously you are going to be doing all of your own writing. But as your business expands, then consider assigning some or all of larger or frequent projects to subcontractors. They will return their drafts directly to you for finalization and client approval. You will pay them a portion of client fees. Of course, if your business gets really big then you can hire writers. But subcontracting is great for flexibility and growth.