Are You Earning $20 an Hour Writing Online? You Should Be!
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By Lisa Kroulik © December 10, 2011
So I’m a little slow. Although I have been working full-time as an online freelance writer since April and have kept track of my daily, weekly and monthly earnings in that time, it never occurred to me to track what I make per hour. I read of the suggestion by another Hub Pages member, Hike Guy, and tried it out today for the first time.
The Bottom Line: What I Actually Pulled in Today
I have learned several important things from this little experiment. First, I tend to work six hours during the day between 9 am and 6 pm and another two hours at night from 10 pm to midnight. Everyone else who works full-time puts in an eight-hour day, so I figure I should too.
Secondly, it is amazing how much more productive I am when I can see a direct correlation between my efforts and my pay. I had a very good day today, in spite of only putting in seven hours. This is what I made:
Hour 1: $28.00
Hour 2: $22.68
Hour 3: $23.83
Hour 4: $19.99
Hour 5: $23.09
Hour 6: $22.41
Hour 7: $21.46
To arrive at these figures, I set the timer on my cell phone for one hour the moment I started looking at the next article I wanted to write. Each hour included time to choose articles, write them, proofread and submit them. When the buzzer went off at the end of each hour, I stopped writing and calculated my earnings. I then immediately transferred that number to an Excel spreadsheet.
When You’re Self-Employed, Productivity Must Come from Within
I take a five to 10 minute break after each hour of writing and nearly an hour off at lunchtime. If I don’t feel like I need a break at the end of the hour, I don’t go more than two hours without getting up. If I fail to do that, I become fatigued and it affects the quality of my work.
In the interest of honest disclosure, I have to admit that it was a very easy day on the writing boards. Assignments were plentiful and I stuck to writing for only two different clients. If I had done this experiment right after Thanksgiving, my hourly rate would have been about $1.50 with the pittance of work that was available. The life on an online freelance writer truly is feast or famine, so I need to grab the opportunities while I can.
I have found that they key to increasing my hourly rate is to go with subject matters I know well that require little to no research on my part. It can get boring, but so can any job. There is just no reason for me to switch to another client or topic when I am doing quite well writing 10 articles in a row about loans and then another 20 short blog posts for different retailers. I got very lucky today in that half of the articles were essentially the same thing with different keywords emphasized while the other half were general blog posts that are very easy for me to write. With both clients, they are more concerned that their specified keywords be included than with what I actually say.
I plan to track my hourly pay every day from now on and it will be interesting to see which topics slow me down. Naturally, if non-preferred topics or heavy research articles are all that is available, then that is what I have to take
In case you are wondering about the one hour that I made less than $20 by one penny, that is what I get for allowing an email to distract me.
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Well, I am very intrigued, I think yesterday I made an eight of a penny...
I am off to read more about it with your other hub links thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the inspirational hub! Jenubouka, I know exactly how you feel! When I started hubpages, I wanted to make money. I kept checking my earnings and was greatly disappointed to see that I made a whole one cent one week. But I kept at it and started writing a lot more and watched my earning increase, even if it only went up to thirty cents. It made me realize that the more I write, the more I make. Unfortunately, I am still not to $20 and hour. ;)
You are so right Marlena, though I come from a fast paced field and am used to quick results so the gradual pace can be tedious and frustrating.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for this hub. I'm going to bookmark it.
This is a great way to measure productivity and keep yourself motivated. I am not earning nearly as much as you but you are ahead of me, and I am striving to be closer to where you are at.
Right now, I am so slow at writing. Everything seems to take so long. I think I might be earning about $3.00/hour, but I haven't figured it out.
I know it is very much a learning curve, though, and every topic I take on will be slow at first, but I get repeated assignments in that topic, it will get better. I love it when I can write about my own personal niches, like relationships, because that comes from experience, and from the heart.
Like you say, when there's no research, the writing can be so much faster. But when you start, you have to take what you can get.
Absolutely fantastic hub!
This is great! Thank you for sharing.
Excellent hub and bookmarked. Voted up and useful.
Nybride, thank you for the inspiration that it is possible. I wish I had 8 hours a day to devote to writing. Most of my writing occurs during naptime, but next thursday is my last day working a job : ) For those who are looking for more traffic....I've been working on increasing traffic this week. I submitted links to Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon. So far I've only seen a boost from StumbleUpon. It's already my 4th largest traffic source EVER : ) Highly recommend. Thanks again for a great hub : ) Voted Up!
Thanks for your comments everyone. I just thought I'd share that when I first started at this I probably made $2 an hour on a good day. I never would have thought I could nearly double my hourly wage from the job I left to do this full-time.
Very useful topic! I don't have an interest in doing freelance writing full time at this point, but I do believe that it is important for any writer to keep track of earnings and maximize writing time.
This is a very intriguing hub. I have never thought about looking into what my hourly earnings are. Very useful and insightful. Voted up!
very informative article! I hope I can do that too. :)
i prefer to play poker =)
Whatever works, aumgaze :)
This is very informative and very motivating. I have yet to make much on my writing but I've only just started here.
Don't feel bad. I joined Hub Pages in February and just qualified for my first payment this month.
I'm a perfectionist - takes me just too much time to write. I have to get over it, and you are encouraging me. I could write faster, i'm sure of it. i think it may be a matter of training myself, and getting into the mindset.
After you write 100 articles about payday loans, you may change your mind, LOL.
Great hub :) I have been slacking off a little on my writing, I had a lot going on with my own blogs and business. I want to dedicate more time to writing more articles. It is a great way to earn more of an income, you are an inspiration and hopefully a kick in my rear to get me writing more :)
It sure beats earning $12.22 an hour as a data entry clerk and being monitored every second of the day. Today's average so far is $17.56 while Friday's was $22.76. Friday was a rocking day, I wish they were all like that.
Great hub, at the moment, I have too many irons in the fire to work on my writing full time. I am lucky enough to find time reading and submitting comments. Hopefully as winter sets in full time here, I can slow down enough to go back to my old routine. Thanks for the tips!
I have no inkling on how to earn that sum of money like you did, but I do enjoy every article I am writing. With confidence, money comes in succession.
I agree. The more you write, the more confidence you gain and the faster you get. I have gone from $1,500 my first full-time month in May to $2,500 last month so I know how important it is to use my time wisely.
I wonder if I'll ever get to where you are in terms of earning. But this hub surely taught me the real importance of time management. Thanks.
It really is important. I have been able to double my monthly earnings since I first started.
I guess it's time for me to try elsewhere along with my Hubpage writing. Thanks for the good article.
BK - I have yet to get a payout from Hub Pages after nearly a year. I've resigned to the fact this is just for fun.
I'm afraid I have to take back my last statement. I got a payout from HP today for $62 after 11 months on the site.
Congrats on your excellent progress. Your timer and tracking system are on-target, and it's great that you're noticing what's efficient for you and the small things that can put you off track. What wonderful progress! Happy you found my tips helpful and put them to such effective use.
As freelancers, we're the ones with the power to give ourselves a raise -- by finding higher-paying gigs, doing fast assignments and increasing efficiency. I learned the hard way that sometimes doing a few quick assignments at a lower rate is more profitable than one high-hassle higher-pay assignment. You're mastering all of it. Way to go!
I think that I may qualify as an "online writing stalker" because I have followed your online writing career via Hub Pages and Textbroker since last fall. You were truly my inspiration to try online writing. I had only done a few articles for Textbroker before I had to take a significant hiatus, but I am returning to online writing and hope to spend more time at it. I would love to make the kind of money that you are, but I find myself afraid to take assignments because I don't know enough about the topic. What is your advice for researching assignments? I also seem to be a slow writer, but hopefully experience will heal that. Thanks for the great hubs, the inspiration, and your insight into writing online.
Thanks, Sue. All I can say is that it just takes time. Start with topics you know something about and after a while writing about them will come so naturally you won't need to invest much time in research. I've worked a lot of different jobs in my past and had some personal experiences that actually helped me on TB. The topics I tend to stick to on there include business, finance, health, law, home and family and the catch-all, miscellaneous. I don't even bother to look at things like fashion and logistics because it wouldn't be worth my time to research an article I know so little about. Hope that helps.
Also to Hike Guy, thanks for your valuable feedback.
Hi Lisa,
You must be writing for sites that pay you per article directly, I am guessing. As to HP, it takes a while to get that first payout but it happily builds to become a nice monthly extra source of residual income. Residual income is the key here! We get paid over and over again for doing the job once, with occasional updating of our hubs, if necessary. As for your income, I can only hope to follow in your footsteps someday! You are doing great! Approaching your writing job as a real job and not just a hobby obviously also pays off in the end. Voted up and interesting.
Thanks, Peggy. Since online writing is my FT job, I have to focus on upfront pay. HP is slowly getting better. It took 9 months to get my first payout, then 3 and the next one will be after 2 months. I hope to get to the point of reaching payout monthly soon.
Thanks for the inspiration!
I never knew a person could earn that kind of money writing online, but like you said we all should be able too, why not right.
This hub is essential, and truly useful indeed, and I'll be off to another hub of yours, as soon as I get some grub to eat. Voted Up!
Emma Harvey Level 6 Commenter 5 months ago
Hi nyebride710,
I am so jealous you have been doing so well with your writing! I have been writing hubs and articles for months but I have no idea where to go for a 'regular' income. I don't want to earn mega bucks but just enough as a second income in our household. I have no idea where to attract clients, especially with limited experience.
I am glad to hear it can be possible - great hub.