I think there are probably very few copywriters who charge ‘per word’ in their projects.

That’s not to say they’re not out there, or that they’re not doing a fab job of running their business, but you can see how someone in our profession might get easily shafted if ‘per word’ is their chargeable rate.

Brand names, business straplines, company slogans, social media captions, profile headlines… they’re all short, hopefully sweet, and a lesson in the fact that most often, less is more when it comes to ‘cut to the core’ copywriting.

Getting a message across in a clear and concise way that isn’t going to take up too much of anyone’s time, attention or brain power in trying to figure out what the hell you’re on about is a skill, whereas if you throw a thesaurus and a blank page at pretty much anyone who doesn’t possess this specialist skill, they’ll waffle. They’ll say everything without saying anything at all, and your message will be lost. Or ignored (which is so much bloody worse, if you ask me).

Much as I’d love to charge per word in a project and then convince you that every piece of your written marketing needs to be a minimum of 2000 words long, I can’t do it. There are two main reasons.

Firstly, I can’t bring myself to stray into school essay territory when it comes to overly-wordy web pages, blogs and sales pitches.

And secondly, we both know that as soon as you see the ‘per word’ rate, you’ll make me do the work, then decide you only want the content to be half as long or squeezed into one bloody paragraph, or something.

I charge by the project and the value I know I can bring to the table, and the return on investment I know you’ll get when you pick up my wordage from that table and go off to show everyone how fucking amazing it is.

But, if you prefer to go ‘per’ anything…

I charge per the number of times you tried to write your stuff yourself and thought… ‘I know what I’m doing, I just don’t know how to put it down in words…’

I charge per the number of ways that you’re going to look amazing on paper/on screen when I’ve finished with you.

I charge per the number of comments and compliments people are going to give you about the content you’ve had written for your banging new website.

I charge per the number of views/likes/comments/shares (pick your favourite engagement metric) that you’ll now get as a result of presenting posts that people actually want to read.

I charge per the number of leads that my words are going to generate as a result of the interest in you that they inspire.

I charge per the number of clients who are going to sign up to your project or offer because you put yourself across just so damn well.

I charge per the number of sales your copy will close, giving you those oh-so-delicious power ballad fist pump moments that make you realise that you can comfortably pay the rent AND have something of a life this month.

I charge per the number of people who will recommend your product or services to others on social media, because even though they’ve never met you… man, you sound like you know your stuff.

I charge per the number of people you went to school with who’ll now look at you enviously and wish they’d have been nicer to you.

I charge per the number on your ever increasing bank balance, as you realise that you can’t sell fuck all without people knowing, well, fuck all about it.

Getting a professional copywriter to craft your content for you is one of the soundest investments you’ll ever make in your business, so when you’ve decided which one might be right to write for you, consider the fact that ‘pricing per word’ may not be in their vocabulary.

And, if you’re interested in all things pricing and want to see what came out in the ProCopywriters 2019 Survey, click here!

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