You just got a new lead. In the midst of all of the excitement of possibly gaining a new customer and making more money, you start to feel that familiar feeling in the pit of your stomach.

Goddammit, you’re gonna have to have that dreaded conversation again. The one about pricing.

For most of us, figuring out our rates and discussing them with clients is the worst. There’s always that worry that as soon as you mention money the client will disappear, or tell you straight to your face that you’re not worth that much.

We all remember those days starting out when we’d see job ads demanding what sounded like an obscene amount of work for a tiny payoff and thought “is it even possible to make money at this?” (Then we discovered people like Sophie and Carol Tice and learned better.)

Here’s the problem: jobs like that can only exist as long as there are writers still grossly undervaluing their services. As professional bloggers, our biggest competition is not other professional writers, it’s the mistaken mentality that writing is cheap.

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Do you enjoy giving up perfectly good money to someone who probably has more than you?

No? Then this is the blog post for you.

One of the lessons I’ve learnt the hard way in my 3 years as a freelance writer is that giving clients discounts seldom works in your favour.

If you’re new to this profession, you might be swayed into giving discounts so that you can land a writing gig. I know I did. But don’t make my mistake! It’s not a good idea.

Like many freelance bloggers, I started my writing career on a bidding site. I signed up, completed my profile, wrote a few sample articles, and sent applications for every job I felt I could handle. As is the norm with new users on bidding sites, most of my applications got rejected, but once in a while I got a response from a client who was willing to hire me.

After exchanging a few messages about the job and convincing the client of my competence, I would often get a message that went something like this:

Hi Eric. We really love your work and we’d like you to join our team. We have many more projects in store for you once this is completed so we would like you to send us your best rate. What’s your hourly rate for clients who offer continuous work?

There are two ways to handle this scenario and I’ve tried them both. Want to know which one works best? 

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If you’ve got kids and you like writing, chances are you blog about parenting.

Maybe you don’t even mind when people call you a “mommy (or daddy) blogger”. After all, you’re a parent. You’re a blogger. And your family inspires your writing.

Maybe you started blogging as a kind of baby book, a way to remember all the cute things your kids did. Maybe it was just a way for you vent about your experiences as a parent. But at some point, you realized that what you’re doing is different from what most “mom bloggers” do.

Not to be rude about it, but you’re damn good at this.

The truth is—and I don’t want to sound mean, but it’s a fact—a lot of parenting bloggers aren’t that great at writing. And many of them don’t even want to be. Some of them struggle with basics like grammar and word connotation. Others are good writers but don’t really understand blogging style, so their blogs rarely gain traction. Only a handful write at a professional standard.

Luckily, you’re one of them. 

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Hello freelance bloggers!

I know that you’re serious about being successful as a freelance blogger; you’re here, after all.

Now, I don’t want to distract you from this important work—but let’s be honest:

You know you can be a freelance blogger. Sophie knows you can be a freelance blogger. And I have no doubt in my mind that you can be a freelance blogger. But the fact remains that it isn’t always easy to make a decent income right from the get-go. Clients are sometimes few and far between, and even with the best pricing strategy, you won’t always be making as much as you want to.

Your bills, of course, remain largely the same. Groceries need to be bought, the mortgage paid, and the internet kept connected.

So sometimes you need a little extra.

Acquiring that little bit extra, and seeing it put to good use, is a passion of mine, and I think it can be done in a way that complements, rather than replaces or takes away from your freelance blogging work. 

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