How Much Does A Freelance Writer Earn In India? Is It Worth The Effort?

Ankita Purohit
Nov 25, 2020
7 min read

Finding out new opportunities whichever field you are chasing as your potential career path is indeed a difficult task. It does not matter whether you are a fresher or an intermediate employee happily working in a well-reputed company, it does have challenges to a certain degree. Although as a fresher you are still yet to make new connections and that is even more of a struggle, but as an already-established employee you will find assistance through your good professional network; nevertheless, several situations such as recession or Covid-19 will likely add up battles to your plans.

It is tricky to find a stable job at the time when people are practically losing their employment. Most of them prefer to remain with their current employer until the situation subsides.

Now what if you want a job as a freelance content writer because there are plenty of responsibilities on your shoulders and getting a full-time employment will not be feasible at the moment? How much should you demand from your clients? Is it hourly based, word-count based, or based on the entire document or draft you are going to write?

There are several areas one needs to think about. But first of all, it is vital that you introspect within that how much you think you deserve after analyzing your actual work experience. It also depends on where you currently reside. All countries have their own standards. For instance, the average price of an experienced writer in the United States will fall somewhere around $50 for a 500-words article. You do the math!

In India, an entry-level to intermediate writer has an average cost between 0.50 paisa per word to 2.5 INR per word. Those who have 5 or more years of experience charge between 5 to 10 INR per word. Obviously, if you had a deal of 1 INR per word in your previous projects, you will elevate your price over time. I have always chosen to elevate my price every year.

There will be instances when you will find yourself in a position in which some employers will fail to notice your skills. The reason could be any. They may think that researching and writing is not a skill to be counted, and is not enough to be appreciated. So, you may find yourself in a dilemma whether it is a right time to switch to somewhere better where you could be valued. But more about that we will discuss later.

You should also take note that your pay check depends on who hires you. A start-up company may not be able to pay you as much as an MNC would. Likewise, a US-based firm would pay you better compared to the ones that are situated in South-Asian countries due to the difference in their currency value. I still remember I used to be paid 100 INR for 800 words blogs in my first project as a freelance content writer. Little did I know that the price used to be too low to associate with that employer for long term.

Additionally, if someone is hiring you as an intermediate between you and the client, it is natural to expect some margin reserved for that firm that acts as an intermediate and then some part will be given to you. This is usually transparent between you and that intermediate party. However, the exact amount paid by the client to that intermediate party may not be known to you. Therefore, it is sometimes better to leave this scenario.

Although some popular freelancing sites like Upwork (formerly known as odesk), Fiverr, etc. have their margin but the percentage is written clearly on the site itself. This means if you are providing your service to a potential client and are paid through that platform then some fraction would be reserved for Upwork. I don’t think there is any issue in this. The advantage is that the associated clients are trustworthy. So, if they get satisfied with your work, they will pay you. If they don’t, you can write a negative review there itself so that others could see. If you are signing for hourly payment, some amount will still be paid for the hours given regardless of their dissatisfaction. As a writer, getting paid on hourly basis is usually rare. It is more common as a software developer.

If you somehow managed to find a good client, there can be instances when they would want you to modify your write-ups right after you submit your work. It could be due to the following reasons:

You couldn’t understand what they wanted (or not) to include.
They had changed their mind. So, whatever you had written may not come to terms with their recent ideas.

Making a few edits is not an issue. Naturally you wouldn’t want them to be unsatisfied. However, too much of rewriting can be real pain. Anybody who is not into the field of content development cannot understand that too much of modification takes nearly the same time as creating a fresh one, or more!

Even the pricing is based on how much research you put in the whole write-up. General topics require research but you can at least also mention your personal views. Conversely, technical topics need thorough research, and therefore, continuous modification of any blog or article can make a writer exhausted. So, it is always feasible to determine the price which satisfies your effort as well as the client. If you think that the client is not able to accept your contents no matter how many changes you make, better to move on to a new and fulfilling projects instead of stressing on the current one.

Content writing has always been a learning phase regardless of one’s years of experience. As a non-native English speaker, it is tricky to write the whole thing in a limited time with little to no errors. But as the time passes, most of us adjust and are capable to do that effortlessly. It also provides a stable job if you have multiple responsibilities at home and so are not able to manage a progressive yet stressful career like software development, management, and others. It is an ideal job for those who are good at storytelling.

With the onset of AI, traditional content writing has shifted from writing everything from scratch to getting assistance in faster research, fact-checking, repetitive and monotonous jobs in digital marketing and social media handles. Artificial Intelligence turned out to be a boon, especially in the case of technical write-ups, SEO/GEO-friendly headlines for blogs and articles, and much more because it speeds up the process.

One must know that content writing needs a human to provide directions on where the topic is going, psychological aspects, and the impact on the audience. Always remember that the value of a write-up goes down if it looks machine-generated. So, AI is not conquering humans anytime soon.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Can you become a freelance writer without prior experience?

Yes, anybody can become a freelance writer without prior work experience in the field, but there are things that need to be taken into account. One has to have a good command of the language in which they choose to write. Also, a person who has never been in this field previously thinks that it is an easy task that could be done within a couple of hours, which is not true. This field demands your excellent research skills, fact-checking, and several more hours of rewriting and resubmitting the same content until the work is satisfactory.

Additionally, since the launch of AI, the competition is fiercer because one has to first prove that their content is genuine. Over-explanation too gives the impression that your content is manually humanised by already generated AI content. Most social media marketing contents are built by AI, and that puts on more competition because they no longer need a person to write it.

Is freelance writing still worth it in the age of AI?

The demand for freelance content writing will never reduce to zero. They still crave an authentic voice for their platform, and try their best that it doesn’t look like a machine speaking to their millions of audiences. This doesn’t imply that AI is completely useless. It saves time in case of repetitive, monotonous tasks reserved for social media posts, or an eye-catching headline for a great article worth sharing across.

It also helps in faster research and presenting already researched documents needed for the write-up. Artificial Intelligence provides results based on prompts, but if someone wants to share something from their own experience, they are the only ones who can articulate that. AI could help, but the main voice needs to come out from the very person who is a literal human.

Do freelance writers need a portfolio to get clients?

An established writer who already has a list of clients to work with and has ongoing projects may not need a portfolio. But having it additionally surely helps. For those who are still looking for potential clientele due to a lack of projects, they have to showcase their work via portfolios. This helps them secure references because anybody can see their work and provide an opportunity if that aligns with their own internal projects.

Do freelance writers get paid per word or per project?

This depends on the client what kind of project they are hiring freelancers for. If the project is large and ongoing, there is a fixed price that is paid in fractions or at the end of the project submission, depending on how long it takes. Such projects are usually fictional or non-fictional novels, a storytelling book for children of varying age groups, and so on. Payments that are done on a per-word basis are usually for blogs and articles for websites. Writers are often hired as ghostwriters in that scenario.

Can freelance writing be a full-time career?

Freelance content writing provides a secure job, and one earns on a regular basis once they are established in the field. Over time, there is experience in hand on a lot of different topics, the kinds of pieces, and lengths, which elevate their income. A person can earn through this means as a full-time career if they dedicatedly put hard work and patience. They become senior in position and can guide their juniors. Although this isn’t something that could lead to promotion into higher management positions, but as a team leader of junior content writers and SEO/GEO/Digital Marketing experts, someone who knows how to strategise and how to rank better in search engines.