Asking how much it costs to hire a writer is like asking how much it costs to buy a car.
There’s no simple answer.
Do you want a Rolls Royce Phantom or Nissan Micra?
The cost of hiring a writer depends on your content strategy, content goals, and the writer who can help you achieve them.
And again, it depends on content types and the amount of content you want from your writer.
Put simply, it’s a pretty wide range.
So, how much does it cost to hire a writer in 2023?
The simple answer is any amount from $50 to thousands of dollars.
The full answer? That’s what we’ll explore in a moment.
Let’s dive into the breakdown.
Why do you want to hire a content writer?
The question on your lips may be, is this question even necessary on a page about the cost of hiring a freelance writer?
Yes, in fact.
I’m not trying to convince you to hire a freelance content writer here.
After all, it’s a business decision nobody can make for you.
But if you’ve decided to hire a writer, you should understand why you’re doing so.
Many businesses create content so that their website won’t be empty when people visit it.
Businesses with this mindset will look for the cheapest writer possible.
They visit a content mill to shop for content writing services.
And that’s fine.
But you can’t create content with this mindset and then blame the writer for your content not attracting leads and customers.
On the other hand, some businesses see content writing as a part of the content marketing strategy.
They see the opportunity to attract leads and customers with strategic content.
They know the importance of other content marketing elements such as:
- Customer research (creating buyer personas)
- Keyword research for strategic content
- Using a style guide
- Creating content brief that guides the writer
- Patience to see results
So, they have all these in place before hiring a writer.
And if they don’t, they can easily open up to the writer, “we don’t have a content strategy in place. Can you help with that?”
These businesses see hiring a writer as an investment that can yield 10X returns.
Like the car analogy, you can’t plan to buy a Rolls Royce and expect to pay $15,000.
Businesses hire writers to:
- Write content so their website isn’t empty.
- Create content to fill their blog like every other business.
- Create content as part of their content strategy to attract leads and customers at various stages of the sales funnel.
- Help with content strategy and creation.
In a nutshell, determine why you want to hire a writer.
Because this will determine how much you’re willing to pay the writer.
How writers charge for writing work
Professional writers charge for writing work according to their best interests.
These are the 3 common ways you can expect a freelance writer to charge you:
Writers charge per project
Some writers charge a flat fee for different writing projects. These writing projects include various content types, such as:
- Blog posts
- Landing page copy
- Ebooks
- White paper
- Video script
- Email copy
Each project will have deliverables.
So, even for blog posts, a writer can have 2 or more project prices depending on the deliverables.
For instance, a blog post can have deliverables like:
- 1,500 to 2,000 words
- Screenshots and images where necessary
- Minimum of 3 external links to reputable sources
- Minimum of 5 internal links to relevant pages
- Content editing
- Upload to your CMS (if requested)
If you pay a flat fee for such a project, you know what to expect in the delivered content piece.
Sometimes, you can define what you want in your content, and the writer will send a quote for the project.
You can expect project fees to range from $200 to $5,000, depending on the content type you want to create.
Writers charge per word
Some freelance writers charge according to the number of words they write for a content piece.
Of course, the cost per word is dynamic.
So, a writer will likely increase the charge per word as they gain more experience in their niche and become better writers.
Another thing to note is that a writer’s charge may vary across content types.
For example, a writer’s price per word for blog posts may differ from that of an ebook.
And even for blog posts, prices per word may differ according to the complexity of the content topic.
Overall, the price-per-word structure is the simplest for you as an employer.
The price-per-word for writers can range from $0.05 to $3 per word, depending on the project.
Writers charge per hour
Most people who work exchange their time for money.
And the same applies to writers.
That’s why some writers charge businesses according to the number of hours it will take to complete their work.
But this can get complicated really fast.
Is there a world standard on how long it takes to write a 1,000-word blog post?
If there’s none, a fast writer can be at a disadvantage with such a payment structure.
So, this is not as popular as the first two.
You likely want to pay for results rather than nitpick about how many hours it takes to create content.
For writers who charge per hour, their writing rates can range from $10 to $100 per hour and above.
Typical costs of single content pieces
As you’ve seen to this point, content creation costs will differ according to the writer.
Here, I’ll present ranges to remember when hiring a freelance writer to write various content types.
Cost of landing page copy
A landing page is a page that often compels its visitor to take action.
Examples of landing pages are:
- Home page
- Product page
- Product specification page
- Lead generation page
- Sales page
For most businesses, every landing page has a goal, like acquiring leads or customers.
And the best way to judge the copywriter is how well their writing helps your business achieve its goals.
Not by beautiful prose or how hilarious the copy is.
But how well it converts your visitors.
Because of this, copywriters who deliver high conversion rates command high writing fees.
Writing website copy can cost from $200 to as high as $5,000.
Before hiring a copywriter, understand the value of a 3 to 5% increase in your conversion rates.
If it’s $50,000 or more, then paying a copywriter who can achieve it $5,000 is a bargain.
Email copy
Email marketing has the highest ROI of marketing channels.
According to Statista, email marketing revenue is expected to hit $10.89 billion by the end of 2023.
But you can only get a good piece of that if you write compelling emails that convince subscribers to take action.
Competent email copywriters can help you achieve this by writing:
- Broadcast emails
- Automated email sequences
- Promotional emails
- Transactional emails
Writers can charge $50 to $300 per email.
Low-end cost for blog posts
Blog posts are the most popular content type for most businesses.
They use their blogs to attract targeted traffic to their website.
A competent blog writer should be able to write helpful and engaging blog posts for your audience.
In return, you’ll build trust with people who can become your customers down the line.
At the low end, blog writing can cost between $50 to $200 for a 1,000-word blog post.
Midrange cost for blog posts
At the midrange, you should expect more researched, formatted, and well-written blog posts.
The writer should be able to present their captivating ideas to readers.
You should get statistics, research, and other elements to present compelling messages.
For instance, if you hire a SaaS content writer, they should mention your product’s use cases where they’re relevant to your topic and audience.
At the midrange, blog writing can cost between $200 to $500 for a 1,000-word blog post.
High-end cost for blog posts
These blog posts are usually thought leadership content written by subject matter experts.
The writer can give unique insights into popular topics.
And they can get quotes from other subject matter experts to make your content full to the brim with authority.
In some cases, the freelance writer can offer to create outreach emails to build backlinks to your content.
At the high-end, blog writing can cost between $500 to $1,000 for a 1,000-word blog post.
Sometimes a single writer can write separate content pieces in the midrange and high-end costs depending on the content’s complexity.
While the rule for writing is that the higher you pay, the better the resulting content, there are many exceptions to that rule.
You’ll find writers in the midrange who are as competent as those in the high-end.
Although, you may have to dig deep in research to find them.
But if you have a small content marketing budget, you may have to shop in the midrange costs.
Ebooks
Ebooks can be useful as lead magnets. Apart from that, it can help increase trust with your new lead.
On average, they’re longer than blog posts.
Ebooks can cost $100 to $1,000 per 1,000 words.
Whatever type of content you want to create, you should check a writer’s samples to ensure they’ve created it in the past.
Factors that determine the cost of hiring a writer
Even before you approach writers, you can guess their possible rates.
The writer fees prediction is based on factors you can easily look to.
Here are 6 of them:
Writer’s expertise and experience
This is one of the most important factors that determines what a writer will charge you.
And this makes a lot of sense.
An expert writer has created a lot of content pieces that people love.
Naturally, many businesses want to hire them. Because of that, they’re often swamped with work.
The truth is that an experienced writer who creates quality content can command high rates.
And with these high freelance writing rates, they’ll still be swamped with work.
One obvious way to determine an expert writer is the results they’ve achieved with content.
This will usually include quality content on their blog and content for top websites in their niche.
All things being equal, an expert will charge more than a beginner.
Their years of experience can help your business achieve the results you want to achieve.
Scope of the writing job
Some writing jobs can take a writer less than 3 hours. Meanwhile, some will take nothing less than 8 hours.
Based on titles and your requirements, content pieces vary in scope.
For example, some content pieces may require your writer to:
- Speak to subject matter experts
- Research the latest trends and statistics about the topic
- Go through a tool to take screenshots
These requirements will increase the content cost as the writer has to spend more time and effort to create kickass content.
In addition to that, some businesses hire writers to take on their content strategy.
So, if a writer has to do more than just write, they’ll ask for more money.
The volume of your work
It’s a classic marketing strategy.
If you subscribe to an annual plan of a SaaS tool, you get a discount compared to renewing your subscription monthly.
The same applies to writers.
Most writers will give you a discount if you commit to a retainer for 3 months rather than a month or a single content piece.
Giving your writer more work to do can reduce your writing costs.
Absence of byline (ghostwriting)
A writer gains more popularity when they write with their name.
They continue to build authority as an expert in their niche.
In addition, more potential clients can find them and send them job offers.
But that all goes away if you employ them as a ghostwriter.
Instead, they now create content to help boost your authority.
Some writers ask for 20% to 25% on top of their rates to ghostwrite.
So, if you want a writer to write content in your name, you may incur more costs.
The amount of work the writer has
A freelancer can work with as many clients as possible.
So when a writer is swamped with work from other clients, they’re in the feast mode.
This means they have little desperation to take on your work.
In this case, don’t expect a discount, if they take on your work.
That said, there’s no sure way to know a writer is busy unless they tell you.
Writer’s location
The cost of living in a writer’s location can affect how much they’ll charge.
After all, writing is a job.
People consider their practical needs in relation to their income.
So, most people will only take a job that can meet their needs.
Let’s consider an example.
A writer in Serbia can live on less than $1,000 a month. On the other hand, a writer in California will live on an average of $4,423.
The practical implication is that the writer in California has to charge a lot even to make ends meet.
Of course, expertise can override the issue of location.
But the reality remains that some experts can afford to charge less due to where they live.
Conclusion
Generally, the cost of hiring a writer can range from hundreds to thousands of dollars over a month.
In most cases, it’s important to judge the cost of a freelance writer with the lens of how much their content can bring to your business.
Once you understand the value of their content pieces, it’s easy to decide how much to pay when hiring a writer.
Are you looking for a writer in the marketing and SaaS niche?
I create content (such as blog posts, guest posts, and ebooks) for businesses to attract more leads and customers.
Reach out today to know how much it will cost you and the possible results you can get.
