How Much Should You Charge for a 1000 Word Article?

Whenever you are getting started as a freelance writer, 1000 words should be a good baseline for you to try and hit. It’s about two pages, give or take depending on formatting and font size, and you can talk about any topic under the sun for about 1000 words. However, there’s a small matter on what you should charge for the 1000 word articles.

Typical writers just starting out charge between $25 to $30 for a 1000 word article. All of this depends on your skill level, how long you’ve been writing, what you offer as a writer.

There are plenty of advantages and things to consider as you start your freelancing career. Here are some of those things, and once you get them mastered you will be able to charge for your work with confidence!

How Much Should You Charge for a 1000 Word Article?

For most writers, especially if you have a decent command of the English language and your grammar is pretty good, you can start by charging up to 2 to 3 cents a word.

This means that you can make around $20-$30 bucks an article, but for a starting freelancer this isn’t set in stone.

Most of the time you’ll be going on job boards and connecting with clients, and the clients will be setting their payment plans for you.

A good client will offer at least 3 cents per word, and they might even negotiate if you can provide relevant samples and other extras for them.

As you pick your niche, create more samples showcasing your style, and focus on improving your writing, your price can start to go up all the way to ten cents a word!

How Does Article Pricing Work?

Whenever you are a freelancer, you can charge for your work in one of three ways to make sure that your article is completed and you will get a good payment.

1. Charge Per Hour

First, you can focus on paying per hour. If you know it takes you two hours to write an article, you can charge $20 an hour, and make $20 per article.

If you can write 3000 words a day, that’s 3 hours and $60. As you get faster, you might even be able to write a 1000 word article for your client without any trouble.

Then you can double your earnings without making any changes to your time.

2. Charge Per Word

You can also charge per word, often at 2-3 cents per word, and that’s $20 to $30 dollars per article. The main downside to this is that the article might take longer to write.

If it takes you two hours to write a 1000 word article at 1 cent per word, you are only making 5 dollars an hour.

Depending on how you break everything down, you might not make a lot of money.

3. Chare a Flat Rate

The last way you can charge is a flat rate.

You can make a deal with your client to make $30 dollars per 1000 word article, and it doesn’t matter how many words you write or how long it takes you.

The 30 dollars are locked in, and you will be paid based on that.

What Determines How Much You Can Charge?

Your Experience

First, your experience level is one of the largest things that can affect how much you can charge.

If you are an experienced writer who has written for the topic at hand before, then you will be able to charge much more. Your 1000 word articles will be much better quality than someone who is a beginner.

Beginner writers who have never written professionally, will charge on the lower end of the spectrum.

Being a beginner doesn’t mean that you are automatically a bad writer, but if you don’t have the experience you will need to start at the bottom of the ladder to earn that experience. And the higher fees!

Research

Next, the level of research on the topic will also affect your rate. Most writers only take in the time needed to write the article, but for most people, there is research time required as well.

The research will vary based on the complexity of the topic, and your background.

For example, if you were a doctor and then write about topics in a doctor niche, you probably don’t need to do a ton of research.

If you never went to medical school and need to write about being a doctor, that might require a lot more research into the topic that you will need to take into account.

Other topics, such as writing about quantum physics or rocket science, can be very tough even if you are only writing 1000 words.

A 1000 word article typically skims the surface of any given topic, but even the surface of tougher topics can seem like a lot.

As always take all your fees on a per article basis. While you might like to have one rate that you stick to, don’t be afraid to make changes.

You might choose to add on a flat fee for research time, in addition to all the writing that you are planning on doing.

Once you figure out how much time research takes you, you can add it to your fee.

What’s the Type Of Writing?

Finally, clients are going to want different types of posts. Some people might want a simple 1000 word blog post, while others are in the market for a 1000 word college research paper.

One of these is going to be harder than the other, and each one has different rules and other requirements that you will need to keep in mind.

It’s perfectly fine to have different types of rates for different articles, where you might charge 20 dollars for a simple blog post, but 40 dollars for a college paper.

Additionally, if you’ve been with a client for a long time, you might be able to ask about a raise for your work as well. The amount of money you charge is going to change, and that is perfectly okay.

3 Places To Get Your Start As A Writer

1. Writer Platforms

These writer platforms, also called content mills, have thousands of pieces of content available. You simply pick from a massive list of content and then do the work.

This would include platforms like iWriter, Textbroker, and Writer Access.

You don’t need to market, write proposals, or find a lot of work that doesn’t meet your needs first. Instead, you can scroll through all of the topics and only pick ones that are relevant to you.

It also lets you get comfortable with freelance writing, even though you will never see the client. Instead, you will simply work with an editor and have them help you.

2. Contract Platforms

Websites like Upwork and Freelancer are all great places to find writing that works for you and also connect personally with some very amazing clients.

You work with your client one on one, and they assign your assignments based on the contract.

You can build your name and your niche, only submitting proposals for clients that sound fun.

If you love writing blog posts for healthcare topics, then you can only work with clients who do those topics and build your niche and credibility with them.

It’s a great place to make connections and see what you need to learn in your industry and niche.

Plus, you might be able to find recurring work with one or two clients who are willing to pay you the big bucks if you do it well.

3. Writer Job Boards

Finally, places like the Problogger Job Board allow you to bid on jobs.

They are a lot like contract platforms, except they are a one-on-one connection with your clients.

You won’t be using the platform to conduct your transactions and you often won’t have to pay any hidden fees.

Writer job boards are great once you have some experience in everything, and they are the best for larger paying jobs.

That way, you won’t lose some of your profits to the platform because they do take a cut from every transaction that is done on the platform.

Final Thoughts

When you need to know how much you should charge towards when it comes to a 1000 word article, you need to take every single variable into account.

The time frame, the topic, the client, and everything else, and will help you make some changes to the price point.

Your price points will probably change, and once you get a few niches and high-quality articles under your belt, you can have different prices for 1000 word articles for different situations.

That’s perfectly okay, and it will only help you grow as a Freelancer.