A kind of copywriting? please advise
Thread poster: Valeria Burova
Valeria Burova
Valeria Burova  Identity Verified
Indonesia
Local time: 05:51
Member (2014)
English to Russian
Aug 1, 2016

Hello, dear colleagues,

I got a proposal where a client from tourism area who is setting up a new website would like to have a copywriter who can create new content based on the localization of their brand.

Basically, the client would provide keywords and themes so that I could write content based on this information.

I am asked for the price for 100 words of redaction per hour.

I am a bit confused with pricing, could you give me some advice?
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Hello, dear colleagues,

I got a proposal where a client from tourism area who is setting up a new website would like to have a copywriter who can create new content based on the localization of their brand.

Basically, the client would provide keywords and themes so that I could write content based on this information.

I am asked for the price for 100 words of redaction per hour.

I am a bit confused with pricing, could you give me some advice?

[Редактировалось 2016-08-01 20:55 GMT]
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Sheila Wilson
Sheila Wilson  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 21:51
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
"Per 100 words per hour"? Aug 1, 2016

That doesn't make any sense. They're trying to dictate to you how fast you must do a creative task. Of course, there has to be a limit to how much they have to pay, but you can't be creative with a metronome going tick-tock. They must pay for your time, not by volume.

If it's something you feel capable of doing, I would advise you to quote your normal hourly rate, or maybe a higher one as it's a particular skill in addition to translating. Give them an idea of your expected output p
... See more
That doesn't make any sense. They're trying to dictate to you how fast you must do a creative task. Of course, there has to be a limit to how much they have to pay, but you can't be creative with a metronome going tick-tock. They must pay for your time, not by volume.

If it's something you feel capable of doing, I would advise you to quote your normal hourly rate, or maybe a higher one as it's a particular skill in addition to translating. Give them an idea of your expected output per hour and try to stay close to it, but don't guarantee anything. You could find one paragraph takes hours and then you finish the page in a flood of inspiration.
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Lingua 5B
Lingua 5B  Identity Verified
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 22:51
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
Depends on client. Aug 1, 2016

I agree with Sheila that 100 words per hour sounds strange (are you sure you understood them well?)

I do have a copywriting client who sets hours for each task (eg. 2 hours) but not the amount of words? And yes, if I were paid 5 hours I would provide a higher-profile copy, but I adjust my copy to 2 hours, and they are always happy. This is what I do and this is a reasonable client who is able to match the time and copy type well.

Depends really on the copy requested, yo
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I agree with Sheila that 100 words per hour sounds strange (are you sure you understood them well?)

I do have a copywriting client who sets hours for each task (eg. 2 hours) but not the amount of words? And yes, if I were paid 5 hours I would provide a higher-profile copy, but I adjust my copy to 2 hours, and they are always happy. This is what I do and this is a reasonable client who is able to match the time and copy type well.

Depends really on the copy requested, your style and speed. Discuss this with client and ask them what they require and how it is supposed to be done.
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Valeria Burova
Valeria Burova  Identity Verified
Indonesia
Local time: 05:51
Member (2014)
English to Russian
TOPIC STARTER
well that is what I got Aug 2, 2016

Sheila Wilson wrote:

That doesn't make any sense. They're trying to dictate to you how fast you must do a creative task. Of course, there has to be a limit to how much they have to pay, but you can't be creative with a metronome going tick-tock. They must pay for your time, not by volume.

If it's something you feel capable of doing, I would advise you to quote your normal hourly rate, or maybe a higher one as it's a particular skill in addition to translating. Give them an idea of your expected output per hour and try to stay close to it, but don't guarantee anything. You could find one paragraph takes hours and then you finish the page in a flood of inspiration.





They think the client wants to know the average price as a flat rate depending on the number of words for the brief.
For example, if they want you to write a text in Russian of 300 words, they want the price to be the same for every text of 300 words.
That is why the base rate is calculated on 100 words, not necessarily by the time spent

[Редактировалось 2016-08-02 09:50 GMT]


 
Sheila Wilson
Sheila Wilson  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 21:51
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
So, it's "per 100 words" Aug 2, 2016

Valeria Burova wrote:
They think the client wants to know the average price as a flat rate depending on the number of words for the brief.
For example, if they want you to write a text in Russian of 300 words, they want the price to be the same for every text of 300 words.
That is why the base rate is calculated on 100 words, not necessarily by the time spent

That makes sense in linguistic terms. But it doesn't make sense to me personally in business terms. You aren't a typist, churning out text at so many words per minute. 100 words of an "easy" text will take far less time than 100 words of "difficult" text. How you define easy and difficult in this context is impossible to say as too much depends on inspiration, your own knowledge of tourism and tourists, the keywords to be used, etc. I'd advise you to ask if you can do a paid test of two or more - at a rate that's suitable to them and doesn't seem crazily low. Then you can come up with an informed guesstimate rather than a complete guess.

But do take the opportunity to remind them that you'll be charging the per-word rate for texts that take you very little time, and that there could be savings if they agree to pay for your actual time spent on each one. Maybe they'll trust you more when you've done a trial. It's how I always work with my regular clients for anything other than straight translation. They get to trust the fact that it's fairer to both parties. If any text is going to take a crazily long time for some reason (other than a personal one, in which case I cap the cost), then I let them know asap so they can decide if it's worth doing.


 
Valeria Burova
Valeria Burova  Identity Verified
Indonesia
Local time: 05:51
Member (2014)
English to Russian
TOPIC STARTER
Thanks a lot! Aug 2, 2016

I am grateful for your suggestions and your time, hopefully the client will change his line

 


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A kind of copywriting? please advise







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