The Secret to Freelance Blogging
As you might already know, one of the ways I earn income is by blogging for other people. This practice is becoming more and more common as companies realise the benefit of having a blog but their staff do not have the time to keep up the content.
Companies can choose to go with a freelance blogger for many reasons
- Linkbait and search engine boost
- Having the credibility of a recognised authority blogging for them
- Constant content to keep client and prospect relationships warm
- Attract attention to convert to sales leads
For the blogger the benefits come down to increased exposure and pay. Payment can be per-post, word count based, or on a retainer. Obviously all fees come down to negotiation, expectations, article length, complexity and blogger experience. If you are just starting out do not expect to get more than $20 a post, while for a proven blogger in a competitive niche, with lots of research required, you can earn ten or twenty times that amount.
Added Aug 15th : Marshall Kirkpatrick has written a post where he quotes what he believes a company should be willing to pay …
top-tier bloggers that will be tied closely to your brand should be paid between $5k and $8k per month.
… so for those who wrote to me doubting what I say above you can see in fact I am undervaluing compared to the market!
The arrangement can work very well for both the blogger and the client providing everything is clear from the start, and the responsibility for making sure this happens is down to the blogger.
So what is the secret to freelance blogging? Asking the right questions
Some example questions you might need to agree beforehand are:
- What is the client goal for the blog? Who decides? Who is the boss? For example do they want a search engine boost or to grow readership? If you have two contacts, who makes the decisions?
- How will the goals be measured? Will your performance against metrics affect the contract?
- Which topics should be covered? Are there verboten topics?
- On what schedule and deadlines will posts be delivered? Daily? Only Wednesdays?
- Will posts be draft and edited or created and directly made live? You might get a login or you might email your posts. Some writers do not like to be edited while others are grateful for the polish.
- What payment method, arrangements and schedule will be used, including invoicing? I prefer to be paid in advance, many businesses like to pay after 60 days. Best to work that out before you start writing!
- Will it be adhoc, fixed or permanent contract? You might build up months of research only to not get paid and have the contract pulled.
- Who owns the content? Who owns unused content? In most cases you are “work for hire” which means the client owns published content, but in some cases there will be unused work that you will want to re-purpose.
- Will the blogger be responsible for promotion and housekeeping or just writing? If you are only being paid, say, $50 a post, you will already have to research and write fast for that to work out to a reasonable hourly rate. If you have to add housekeeping and promotion then the client should not be expecting long essays!
- Is there a budget for photography, advertising, prizes, etc? On some blogs you will need to include photography on every post, or create a buzz through giveaways. This should not come out of your own pocket but it is best to prevent disagreements up front.
I usually deal with this by having a telephone/skype conversation followed by a letter of engagement that the client signs and faxes back to me. This is just a one pager with bullets saying what I will do, when, for how long and for how much.
Do you blog for hire? Do you want to? Is it a good way to make money? Got any tips? Would you not blog for hire? Why? Please share your thoughts in the comments …
Tags: freelance, contract, writing, blogging, tips, advice
Posted on August 10th, 2007 by Chris Garrett in Writing
Great info! KNOWING responsibilities and who owns what is always critical in a business situation. I am not currently doing this but wouldn’t mind doing so.
This is an excellent post. I currently don’t blog for hire, although I have guest posts on various blogs, and have thought about blogging for others for pay. If I go that route I’m definitely going to come back and refer to this post - thanks Chris!
Jason Alba
CEO - JibberJobber.com
:: managing career contacts ::
That is exactly what I wanted to do in my country. Unfortunately, many companies here consider the online presence as not being so important. Besides, beaurocracy makes product managers to stay aside from whatever may burden their daily schedule (and a blog would involve some responsibility from the company’s side). Briefly, I started promoting corporate blogging and I ended up by making websites, managing PPC campaigns and SEO, which is also not bad.
I like your point no 8: I never thought to discuss ownership of unpublished content. I’ll keep it in mind for future projects.
Chris,
I think you hit the nail on its head. We hire bloggers on regular basis to do work for our clients. I am going to make this piece a mandatory reading for all of them. I think the two biggest challenges of working with a blogger is figuring out an acceptable pay arrangements and making sure the blogger style is matches your needs.
Khalid
I do some freelance writing now and would do blogging if someone was to pay me. For me the issue of doing or not doing is the time. If I didn’t have my IT geek day job I could spend more time developing my writing income. But I’m having trouble just keeping my own blog content coming. So adding additional writing would just make get me more behind.
So it’s the chicken and egg thing. I can’t quit the day job because of the income and don’t have the big time block to put into writing because of the day job. I think I will eventually have to make a break though.
Any tips on making the jump to fulltime writing?
I can see a personal/category blog hiring our their posts to freelancers, but companies? (”companies realise the benefit of having a blog but their staff do not have the time to keep up the content.”)
Isn’t a company blog supposed to be about the culture / inside view of that company, written in their voice? How is a freelancer going to capture that?
You just gave me my goal chris!!! Thanks
I have put in my About page that I do ghostwriting, but nobody has yet taken me up on it. I don’t see it as more lucrative than blog consulting, though.
I just wrote a post yesterday about writers for business blogs. I think I should update it with a link back to here.
Thanks Chris. I wouldn’t mind seeing a post with some advice and resources about who to contact to break into freelance blogging. I think once you’ve established yourself it’s easier to negotiate, but for someone just starting out where would you suggest they look for blogging gigs?
@Dave - Yup, uncertainty can spoil a business relationship down the line. Best to start well.
@Jason - If you do come back and let me know what you learn
@Simonne - Actually the UK is not exactly up to speed with this stuff either (although I see signs this is changing), I have blogging clients everywhere but!
@Khalid - Yes, the tone of voice, topic, style, everything has to fit and enhance rather than detract. It can be delicate to not alienate the audience.
@Steve - The best thing you could do is to write on a topic you know inside out, therefore less research, and find a company or blog you could do an adhoc arrangement for so you are not tied to a regular gig but can get paid per post as you have time. Storing up a set of posts when you are quiet is also a good idea. You might have to do some gratis guest posts to get your name out, put in the attribution footer that you are available for paid gigs. Good luck and let me know how it works out if you do go for it
@sam - Usually the arrangement is the staff do the news and company stuff and the hired blogger does the additional content. Some also hire ghost bloggers but I don’t really go in for that (although I came close at one point). Company blogs are not always corporate blogs. Think of store and in flight magazines that are like lifestyle glossies. These companies want to attract an audience with interesting and helpful content rather than an insight into company culture. It’s just a different type of blog really and you can have a mix too.
@Ashish - Glad to be of service
@Michael - I never refuse a link
I find some of my blogging gigs start out with “how do I …?” and end up “can you do it?” 
@Steven - Your audience know and like your writing so announce to them. The best places outside of your own readers is to look at my forum and Darrens job board. Perhaps if there is enough interest in this I should do a series?
This is something I’ll have to consider when approaching prospective clients. I enjoy writing blog posts, so it makes sense.
Invaluable info here, which I’ve bookmarked, and Dugg. Cheers Chris.
I have hired a blogger to help me blog on a side project. I will pay him per post on how succesful the article is. I have to guide him though as he is particularly new to blogging. I edit, and promote the content he makes because he doesn’t have enough knowledge of what it takes to succeed. Hopefully though he will be able to take more responsibility and he’ll probably make more money as a result as well.
Great write up, will be useful to our readers when I give out the next batch of link love
Cheers,
Glen
I just partnered with an established blogger. I’m currently blogging for one of his blogs. There is no formal or official piece of paper declaring whereby he has to pay me much, or I have to blog that (number) of posts for him.
Do you think it is necessary to establish an official contract between us or is just a word for word association enough?
Chris, I’d be interested if you were to do a series on the topic. I’d like further information on how to go about it. I’m probably a fair way from actually doing it, as I’m only starting out with blogging, but it definitely appeals to me.
doing it now
Great article, Chris. But seriously, $20/post? I was being waaaay underpaid. I say WAS. Things are mostly better now, but I still have to do far too much writing each day to make a decent living.
But that goes both ways. I certainly can’t afford to pay anywhere near that much per post for any of my own sites. None of the junior bloggers I’ve previously hired had all the skills to warrant taking a leap of faith. I did bump them up in fee as I was able, but I’m nowhere close to $20, and most of the blog owners I know can’t pay that.
What Marshall Kirkpatrick quotes is nice. I’m assuming that such bloggers would be working full-time, though, including moderating comments, commenting elsewhere, etc. Freelance bloggers such as you and I have to supplement contract blogging with linkbait, copywriting, consulting, etc., to work up to that point.
@David - Let us know how it works out when you do
@Edward - You could say your guidance is a form of payment?
@Glen - Cool, thanks
@Gyanish - Only you can decide if a contract is necessary but I would get in writing the agreement, who gets what, to avoid confusion or arguments.
@Stephen - OK, I will look to do that
@scot - Good stuff
@raj - We all have to start somewhere and yes I think the top end involves doing more than just writing, probably running the whole blog and all that entails.