IntegrityLance Blog

Freelancing prices.. what should you charge? well other than the usual things to take into consideration like..

1. The budget of the Buyer

and

2. Searching for only projects that fit within the rate that your willing to work on.

Some of it is guesswork, past experience and a little bit of calculating overall the time involved.. but here are some thoughts that may help

1. Total Cost – Consider a number of things not just how much it costs to do the project, think about the cost of stock images if your going to use them, the hours your not going to be working on the project, taxes and smaller items that you may not have considered

2. Profit Margin -  Think about how much you are looking to make above breaking even, ultimately you dont just want to cover the cost of working on a project, you want to actually make some money. There are a lot of freelancers that only cover the cost of the work they put in.

3. Average – Do some homework if your not sure about what to charge, look at some similar projects and see what other freelancers are bidding, visit other freelance websites, 2  or more and see what they are bidding. Remember though bidding high because you see others bid high, can be a little bit deceiving as, you have to take into account that each freelancer has a body of work behind them, that can speak for itself. If you have lots of experience, you certainly can request more as you have the goods to show, but if you have done nothing.. dont expect people to take you on your word.

4. Demand -  Consider this, if there is a high demand for say C++ software and hardly anyone skilled or providing that service you certainly should be looking to charge more. So keep an eye on other freelancers and the amount of work they have done within a particular area, this will let you guage some of the demand

5. Consider your skill level – I know, your superb, fantastic, there is no one like you.. yada, yada, yada… be realistic, if you have played around in php or one particular software product, be straight up as clients will smell a rat pretty quick and its only going to come back and bite you in the ass. One programmer may charge $30 an hour while another will charge $15, it really depends on the level of experience they have had and the body of work they already have behind them.

6. Carve your Niche – If your an article writer, consider focusing on one aspect of writing, maybe ebooks.. people are more willing to pay big bucks for someone who has done a lot of work already, has highly focused skills in one particular area than someone who has a hand in anything and everything.

7. Client Consideration – You as a freelancer have the right to secure a better deal if the buyer has little or no feedback, it means possibly more risk on your end, even if you are using escrow service.. you want to bear in mind the history of the buyer as you can bet your bottom dollar they are going to take into account your history.

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