While pricing content might seem arbitrary, getting it wrong carries significant risk. Pay freelance writers too much, and you won’t have enough to make a marketing program sustainable. Spend too little and you’ll constantly be sourcing new writers who will need time to understand your tone of voice, your audience, and a style that converts leads into buyers.
So how much should your company pay freelance writers for certain types of content?
This is the most common question we get here at nDash and one that we’ve successfully answered for thousands of brands. So, to help you gain a better understanding of content rates and prices, we put together this guide based on 100,000+ real-world transactions in the nDash platform.
This Guide’s Set Up
Before we dive in, here are a few things you should know about how this guide is set up.
First, the prices in this guide are not fixed. Ultimately, the amount you pay freelance writers will depend on multiple factors, including:
- Content length
- Turnaround time
- Research required
- Subject matter complexity
- Content calls
- Edits & revisions
Second, the prices are broken out by subject matter expertise. We’ll explain why this matters over the course of the guide, but for now, here’s how they are defined:
- Technical Expert: Someone who has years of hands-on experience in a particular field that knows the topic inside and out. Examples: a former software developer, CPA, or attorney.
- Topic Familiarity: Someone who knows the industry but doesn’t necessarily have experience as a practitioner. Example: a cybersecurity writer with 5+ years of experience.
- Generalist: Someone with little knowledge of the topic or industry but an excellent wordsmith. Example: a freelance writer who creates content based on interviews and/or outlines.
Lastly, it’s important to restate that the prices shown are averages based on actual transactions in the nDash platform, where we have writers in virtually all price ranges.
If you need help budgeting for your specific brand, be sure to create an account on nDash and contact our customer success team.
Let’s get started…
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Blog Posts
Blog posts are (by far) the most popular type of content that brands pay freelance writers for on nDash.
Whether it’s increasing brand awareness, displaying thought leadership, generating leads, or improving SEO ranking, a well-written blog can make a major impact on a brand.
Blog posts can range anywhere from 300 to 3,000 words, but for the sake of simplicity, we’re going to show prices for posts between 800 and 1,000 words that require no extensive research.
Prices (average)
| Technical Expert | Topic Familiarity | Generalist | |
| Technology | $600 | $350 | $150 |
| Business | $350 | $200 | $125 |
| Finance | $600 | $350 | $175 |
| Education | $500 | $300 | $150 |
| Health & Wellness | $250 | $150 | $75 |
| Lifestyle | $200 | $100 | $75 |
| Real Estate | $350 | $200 | $100 |
| Industrial | $600 | $400 | $150 |
| Law & Politics | $500 | $300 | $100 |
| Science & Medicine | $600 | $400 | $200 |
Notes: The prices shown here also apply to bylined articles for third-party publications.
Pro Tips
- Brand style guide: Even the most seasoned writers can fall short of the mark if they don’t know your content guidelines. Think about putting together a quick style guide covering things like audience, tone, keyword usage, and other important information.
- Blog examples: Show writers what success looks like. If you can point them to a previously published blog that you loved (with the reasons why), the writer is far more likely to deliver content that delights both you and your readers.
- Content briefs: The more information you can include upfront—including stats, talking points, and sources—the less you’ll need to rely on a subject matter expert.
Ultimately, we recommend building a team of 2-3 writers depending on the types of blogs you want to publish, especially if not all of them require deep technical expertise.
Whitepapers & eBooks
These types of projects tend to be more complex than a standalone blog post. Intended to generate leads, usually as a gated asset, whitepapers and eBooks can range from 4 pages of written content to 50 pages and beyond and often require multiple content calls and revisions.
However, to simplify pricing for these projects, we’re going to assume a length of 3,000 words with 2-3 rounds of revisions.
Prices (average)
| Technical Expert | Topic Familiarity | Generalist | |
| Technology | $5000 | $1500 | $650 |
| Business | $3000 | $1500 | $650 |
| Finance | $5000 | $1500 | $600 |
| Education | $4000 | $1500 | $600 |
| Health & Wellness | $2000 | $1500 | $350 |
| Lifestyle | $1500 | $850 | $325 |
| Real Estate | $2500 | $1500 | $450 |
| Industrial | $6000 | $3000 | $1000 |
| Law & Politics | $5000 | $2500 | $1000 |
| Science & Medicine | $6000 | $3000 | $1000 |
Notes: The prices shown here do NOT include design and layout work.
Pro Tips
- SMEs: Many clients on nDash find it helpful for the writer (regardless of their own expertise) to interview an in-house subject matter expert (SME) to ensure that the whitepaper conveys the proper insights and expertise their audience expects.
- Outlines: Many clients will also pay freelance writers to develop an in-depth outline before completing a rough draft. This often helps to ensure that the content hits all the key points.
- Supporting assets: Consider re-purposing your whitepaper into several blog posts or other forms of content that can link back to the full version for greater visibility.
At nDash, we’ve seen that whitepapers and eBooks almost always require a writer above the generalist tier. Still, if certain information is provided to them upfront, that restriction can often be relaxed.
Case Studies
Case studies are another extremely popular type of content on nDash. Designed to showcase a real-world success story of your company’s product or service, a well-written case study can be a valuable piece of content for prospects in the middle of the sales funnel.
These projects can also be time-consuming, requiring multiple calls with you and your client. For these prices, we are going to assume the project will require an hour-long content call, 3 rounds of edits, and a written deliverable between 800 and 1,000 words.
Prices (average)
| Technical Expert | Topic Familiarity | Generalist | |
| Technology | $1000 | $650 | $250 |
| Business | $850 | $300 | $100 |
| Finance | $1000 | $400 | $200 |
| Education | $850 | $300 | $200 |
| Health & Wellness | $225 | $150 | $75 |
| Lifestyle | $175 | $150 | $75 |
| Real Estate | $850 | $275 | $250 |
| Industrial | $1500 | $850 | $250 |
| Law & Politics | $1500 | $850 | $200 |
| Science & Medicine | $1500 | $850 | $300 |
Notes: The prices shown here do NOT include design and layout work.
Pro Tips
- Recorded interview: If you don’t want your writer to interview the customer directly, it helps to have a recording (or transcription) of the interview for the writer to work from.
- Published samples: Case studies are often highly formatted and templated, so be sure to share previous case studies with the writer before they start on their draft.
- Supporting assets: These projects also tend to require that the writer have a solid grasp of the product or service being highlighted. As such, make sure to provide as many resources as you can so the writer has the proper context.
While not every brand uses nDash to produce case studies, those that do tend to do a lot of them, as they are extremely valuable pieces of content. Once you get into a case study groove with 1-2 writers, they become easy to scale.
Sales Collateral
Designed to help a sales team educate prospects, sales collateral can take the form of one-pagers, brochures, solution briefs, user guides, and other types of product-centric content.
These, too, can vary greatly in terms of scope and length, but for this exercise, we are going to assume a sales collateral project between 1,000 and 1,500 words, with 2 rounds of revisions.
Prices (average)
| Technical Expert | Topic Familiarity | Generalist | |
| Technology | $1000 | $650 | $250 |
| Business | $850 | $300 | $100 |
| Finance | $1000 | $400 | $200 |
| Education | $850 | $300 | $200 |
| Health & Wellness | $225 | $150 | $75 |
| Lifestyle | $175 | $150 | $75 |
| Real Estate | $850 | $275 | $250 |
| Industrial | $1500 | $850 | $250 |
| Law & Politics | $1500 | $850 | $200 |
| Science & Medicine | $1500 | $850 | $300 |
Notes: The prices shown here do NOT include design and layout work.
Pro Tips
- Templates: Like case studies, sales collateral is often highly templated. To avoid content “design gaps,” be sure to share with the writer what the final deliverable will look like.
- Feedback: Consider having the writer get some feedback from a salesperson on how the asset can provide more value.
- Updates: Products tend to change a lot over time, so be sure to keep your sales collateral updated (with a freelance writer’s help) on a regular basis.
Many brands tend to keep sales collateral content in-house due to the extensive product knowledge that is often required. However, those that take the time to educate freelance writers on their products are able to scale this content production and focus on more strategic endeavors.
Emails & Newsletters
Promotional emails, drip campaigns, and newsletters are highly effective in terms of engaging an audience. Still, they are also among the hardest forms of content to produce on a consistent basis, hence the need for a great freelance writer.
For this pricing, we’re going to explore what the cost of an email would be for a one-off email send (between 100-150 words).
Prices (average)
| Technical Expert | Topic Familiarity | Generalist | |
| Technology | $400 | $250 | $125 |
| Business | $300 | $200 | $50 |
| Finance | $400 | $250 | $75 |
| Education | $300 | $200 | $50 |
| Health & Wellness | $200 | $100 | $50 |
| Lifestyle | $200 | $100 | $50 |
| Real Estate | $200 | $100 | $50 |
| Industrial | $400 | $250 | $125 |
| Law & Politics | $400 | $250 | $125 |
| Science & Medicine | $400 | $250 | $125 |
Notes: As you see here, the need for technical experts diminishes significantly for these types of projects.
Pro Tips
- Stats: What emails have performed the best for your brand? How about the worst? If you can share some stats with the writer, it’ll help them craft an email that drives results.
- Tone: Emails generally call for a master copywriter, someone who can mimic your preferred tone, and not necessarily someone with deep technical knowledge.
- Subject lines: Have the writer deliver as few subject lines as part of the assignment, as this can often be the deciding factor on whether the email even gets read in the first place.
Emails are another type of project on nDash that generally comes in large batches, as opposed to one-off projects. The more deliverables you can send to a writer, the faster you’ll develop a rapport and the easier it becomes to scale this type of content production.
Social Media Posts
Keeping your social media channels populated and updated can be taxing to marketing teams, which is why many brands turn to nDash to pay freelance writers for compelling social posts to use on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and others.
Social media content almost always comes in batches of at least 10-50 posts, as it doesn’t make much sense to send a one-tweet project to a writer. Here’s what you can expect to pay for a batch of 20 social media posts.
Prices (average)
| Technical Expert | Topic Familiarity | Generalist | |
| Technology | $500 | $250 | $100 |
| Business | $500 | $250 | $100 |
| Finance | $500 | $250 | $100 |
| Education | $400 | $200 | $100 |
| Health & Wellness | $300 | $200 | $75 |
| Lifestyle | $300 | $200 | $75 |
| Real Estate | $350 | $250 | $75 |
| Industrial | $500 | $250 | $100 |
| Law & Politics | $500 | $250 | $100 |
| Science & Medicine | $500 | $250 | $100 |
Notes: As with emails, the need for a technical expert rarely surfaces for social media content.
Pro Tips
- Images: Often, companies find it helpful to have the writer suggest images for each social post, as this can save a considerable amount of time (but may increase the price).
- Formatting: Be sure to have the writer deliver social copy in a way that makes it easy to copy-paste into the social publishing platforms.
- Stats: If you can share stats on which social posts performed the best, it will give the writer a “north star” for what to shoot for.
As with other content types that do not require deep subject matter expertise, social media content underscores the importance of having 2-3 writers on your team as opposed to one.
Websites & Landing Pages
Website content projects have a wide variance on nDash. Sometimes the brand will need a complete overhaul where every page is written from scratch. Other times, they simply need a tweak of a few existing pages.
Aside from pillar pages, which are more like whitepapers in that they start at 2,000 words, the typical website project involves writing copy for one page, at 400 words, with 2 rounds of revisions.
Prices (average)
| Technical Expert | Topic Familiarity | Generalist | |
| Technology | $500 | $250 | $125 |
| Business | $500 | $250 | $125 |
| Finance | $500 | $250 | $125 |
| Education | $350 | $200 | $150 |
| Health & Wellness | $250 | $150 | $50 |
| Lifestyle | $250 | $150 | $50 |
| Real Estate | $350 | $200 | $100 |
| Industrial | $500 | $300 | $100 |
| Law & Politics | $500 | $300 | $125 |
| Science & Medicine | $500 | $350 | $125 |
Notes: The prices shown here do NOT include design and layout work.
Pro Tips
- SEO: Give the writer a sense of your SEO requirements so they can work keywords into the first draft, as opposed to “keyword stuffing” them after the fact.
- Design: Website projects can be extremely counter-productive if the writer doesn’t have a good sense of the final design, as they may provide too much (or too little) content for the space.
- Branding: Consider engaging writers for site pages that are more informational and less aspirational, as not all writers are experts in branding.
Aside from great writing, the success of a website project on nDash is also attributed to organization and communication. For this reason, it might make sense to leverage the help of an nDash project manager.
Final Thoughts
You can always find a cheaper writer, but at what cost?
Here at nDash, we find that the companies who try to get the lowest rates often spend a considerable amount of time editing the work and get frustrated as a result.
On the other hand, brands that opt for higher price writer(s) spend far less time making edits and can focus on more strategic initiatives.
Ultimately, there is no concrete answer for how much you should pay freelance writers. There are a lot of factors at play. This is why we made nDash an open marketplace with writers in all sorts of price ranges and varying levels of expertise.
Do you need help finding writers within your budget or determining what to pay freelance writers? Then please create a free account (if you haven’t already), and our team will reach out to offer some assistance.
Thanks for reading!