How to research salary ranges and benefits for a freelance writer
Before you begin your career as a freelance writer, I am sure you want to take the time to research the salary ranges and benefits you can expect to receive throughout your new journey.
First you will want to an online salary wizard to calculate for the area in which you reside, the median freelance writer’s salary.
For example, I used salary.com and for my area in PA, the salary wizard on the website stated that as of March 2009 the data shows that the medium salary for freelance writers in my area of the United States is between $45,037 and $58,942.
Now, you need to also take into account, that as freelancers, you are self-employed. In essence this means that you work for your selves and will not be receiving “company benefits”. You will responsible to provide your own health insurance, 401K, pension, and, etc.
If we continue with my example from above: For someone that lives in my area, based on the data that the salary wizard showed, this freelance writer, would need to save $1831 for 401K, $5722 for health insurance and another $2339 for pension.
The benefits of being a freelance writer are the ability to work from your home office, set your own hours, work at your own pace, do not have a boss to answer to, can be creative just to name a few.
The main points of being a freelance writer is you are in charge of securing your income potential. If you know you need to bring in at least $2000 of income each month, then you should be sending out query letters totaling doubling that amount, $4000, since freelance writers that are good at what they do, still only manage to sell about forty to fifty percent of write, submit or query. Hopefully, you will be able to reach your minimum income needed per month. As you get yourself established, this will be easier for you. Along the road, you may even pick up some regular contracts that will offer steady income on a regular basis. As you pick up regular contracts you may be able to scale back a bit on queries for a while if you decide.
As you begin your freelance writing career, be sure to check the medium salary range for the area in which you live. This will help give you a starting point of what to charge your clients. Also, keep in mind you will be responsible for health insurance and any retirement plans. It is also a very good idea to seek the advice of an accountant, to assure you of paying proper taxes when the time comes.