The oDesk hourly rate.
It’s the grand finale, the coup de grâce, the moment when your freelance career is ready to set sail through the treacherous oceans we know as the freelance market.
But you’re stuck. You’re unsure as to how much per hour to actually charge your future clients. You browse through several contractor profiles and see various hourly rates. Some would charge $20-50/hour, others seem to be satisfied with just $1-2/hour!
You want a fair and reasonable hourly rate for your services without attracting cheapskates. There are several ways to determine the best hourly rate for yourself, but you can actually gauge if you’re charging too low based on several observations.
Are You Charging Too Little?
You know you’re charging too little when
- Several clients invite you to apply to their job posts in a day. 70% of them don’t have detailed company profiles or verified payment methods.
The job post details are vague in every aspect. What’s clear though is the client is not willing to hire and pay more than $1.11-$3.33 an hour.- The number of applicants who placed their own bids is thrice than what you’d normally see in other job posts, particularly those that don’t use price as basis for acceptance.
- Looking through their contractor profiles, there isn’t a single person with an hourly rate higher than $4-5/hour. They’ve all followed the client’s requirements to the T.
- You get hired instantly. Interviews? Pfft! Why waste time when you can get your $1.11/hour contractors to start working?
- The client offers you a barter instead of actually paying your hourly rate. He thinks he can convince you to work for a “more profitable” deal.
- If not a barter, the client will pay commissions or bonuses for excellent work. The more work hours you do, the higher the possibility of being given a $5 bonus in the next couple of months.
- You’re expected to revise, change, and revise the work as many times as needed.
- You suddenly receive requests to do work that isn’t part of the job description. There’s no indication of a price increase.
One minute you’re busy working, the next you’re replaced by someone with a much lower hourly rate. In other words, you’re dispensable.- At the end of the day, you are mentally and physically exhausted. You wish you didn’t have to get up in the morning and you’re still unable to earn more than what you hoped to earn as a freelancer.
Above all, you are unhappy. You hate what you do, you can’t stand seeing the client’s emails in your inbox, and you wish that you could just shut down your freelance business and end your misery.
If you notice or experience one or more of these signs, you’re probably charging your clients way too low for their own good. The same signs can also crop up even when you’re finding work through other freelancing websites. It may be a good time to sit down and reconsider how much to charge your clients for your freelance services.
Have you experienced any of these signs? What other indicators can you think of that will tell you you’re charging too little? Share them in the comments below!
About the Author: Stef G.
Founder of The Freelance Pinoy, Stef is a freelance copywriter and blogger who loves writing great content and helping fellow freelancers in their journeys toward success. You can follow her on Twitter @stefgonzaga. Related Posts
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I couldn’t help but remember that one client who hired me to edit but asked me to “find the cheapest publishing company in China and I’ll give $10″. I seriously said WTF out loud.
I can relate to some of these things. So glad you pointed more out though. Thanks!
I was hesitant to increase my rates at first, but ever since I did, yes, I had fewer invites for interviews, but those who do find me really pay.
That’s great, Glori.
Re: finding the cheapest publishing company in China, good luck to whoever that client was in finding one!
Experienced that my first week in oDesk, when I was hired at my first rate of $2ph. Happy to say I moved on and never looked back since then
Awesome.
Great post Stef. In my first months at oDesk I have experienced some of these things. When I gained confidence, I had to raise my rate. I’m more fulfilled now and have a roster of happy and satisfied clients who continuously offer jobs. I think the minimum hourly rate should not be lower than $8. It is not easy to write and it can really consume time.
Anthony, I agree. Writers work really hard, and yet people think all we do is to spew words onto paper and submit them to Google.
Amen! Excellent way of saying it Stef. I hope people will realize, especially those who hire writers that writing is a special skill earned by burning tons of mental fuel. Writers should be paid more. It takes years to master it. In every article your soul is poured out for the whole world to see.
Nice article Stef. I myself am feeling that way sometimes when I was with Odesk as contractors are even bidding for less than $1 just to get the job. So I am thankful that there are alternate sites that provides full time home based work like Staff.com or Onlinejobsph wherein you can deal for a fair price for the work that you will render and not be abused in the long run.
Thanks, Daniel. Although I can’t agree on your suggestions. Staff.com doesn’t look legit while OnlineJobsPH (based on past experience) is one of those places where clients will expect you to work long hours for cheap rates.
Hi Steff! Staff.com is actually legit cause I am already working for them. I never had any issues with receiving my payment so far and their management is excellent. I’d recommend that you check their site too.
I feel like OnlineJobsPH has turned into an Email directory for Marketing personnel whose targets are freelance contractors. But I got a really good job from OnlineJobsPH. I’m paid $40USD for every one-page article I can submit.
very informative post!
[...] The Freelance Pinoy | 10+ Signs That Your oDesk Hourly Rate is … [...]
As I was browsing today’s new jobs at odesk, I couldn’t stop myself from flaring because of the ridiculously low wages these clients are giving. I mean, a dollar for a 500-word article? $2 for 600-700-word article? It won’t even pay for the electricity I will consume to use my computer to research and come up with a good article. I guess these clients have the gall to impose low wages because they are confident that there are freelancers who are willing to put up with such a rate. I’m just thankful Google Panda is becoming stricter in their sifting of good websites. This way, writers who really make an effort to produce quality content will become valuable.
Nice article and I definitely agree Stephanie though I think it’s hard for a lot of freelancers here. I’ve seen how it works on oDesk and the people hiring mostly go there to find over cheap (not to say abusive) rates. And on the other sides, most the providers are really in need of money, so of course they find agreements.
Hi, Mathias. Good point, and I agree that it is and will continue to be difficult so long as there are freelancers willing to work at these cheap rates for the entirety of their careers on oDesk. It’s okay to start out a little cheaper than your ideal freelance hourly rate, but we shouldn’t stick to it throughout the contract. The client will then get too comfortable with it.
My grandmother used to say that she’s not wealthy enough to buy cheap products, the point being that the cheap product will not work so well, won’t last long and will ultimately have to be replaced.
Cheap projects can be bad for both the employer and the contractor and they are only good for getting a few positive reviews in the beginning. I say, raise the prices when you are getting more work than you can handle, otherwise improve your portfolio and quality of the service.
Hi Stef,
I enjoyed your post, but it goes both ways. I am one of the so called “cheapskates” that you refer to in your article. I am currently running a U.S. based business but I can not afford to pay anyone in the U.S. for what I need done. The minimum wage in the U.S. is $7 p. hour. If we are paying, $7 p. hour, it makes more sense for someone in the States to hire local people.
But with that said, I am a believer in paying for talent. I just would like to strike a balance between a fair rate and productivity as I spend a lot of time training people. I’m currently paying anywhere from $3.5 – $5 USD per hour for talented researchers. I usually start out at a lower rate of $3 USD p. hour and work my way to $4 when they are established and know what they are doing. However, I find that there are some people who are trying to log hours with me while working on someone else’s job at the same time. This seems to be fairly common, so providers get burnt too.
Anyway, just wondering what you seem to think is fair for this sort of work?
Jerry,
Thanks for taking the time to read the post and to share your thoughts.
I understand that coming from the client’s perspective, the reason why you’re outsourcing is you want to cut costs. Unfortunately for most people, $3/hour as a stagnant rate isn’t fulfilling and it isn’t enough to pay the bills. That’s why you have freelancers complaining about clients who hire with price as their number one priority. Or you have freelancers using your billable time for other jobs. If we feel that we are not compensated for all the work we put in—yes, that includes research work—we will not be as productive as you expect us to be.
To answer your question, a client who approaches online work with an open mind towards rates is already a good first step towards fairness. By considering the freelancer’s proposed rates, talking about it, and negotiating with mutual respect and consideration is already great progress.
At the end of the day, the same principle comes in: you get what you pay for. If you want good quality work, you must be willing to pay for it. If you end up with bad quality work, that’s a cost on your part as well. If both you and the contractor are satisfied with the rate agreed upon, then that’s your success and nothing can be done about it.
My question to you now is, do you ask your roster of contractors at the interview stage what their ideal rates are? Do you allow negotiations to take place, or do you insist on your own rates?
I do discuss rates with them. Some will say that they are willing to work for the $3 p. hour, but after getting hired and working well for 30 days or so, the quality of work will begin to deteriorate.
I feel I am a good employer, and I do give raises frequently to my employees if they complete training and do good work. It is a frustrating thing to see so many employees who don’t have any loyalty.
Hi Jerry,
Wow, if only all employers were like you.
Right now I’m working for a n employer on oDesk who only has me on $2.25/hr and expects me to lead his team of data entry specialists. *sigh*
Sometimes it’s just a matter of finding the right employer/employee — like the dating scene, you have to kiss a LOT of frogs before you meet your prince.
Maybe I can come work for you?
For a leadership role, that’s pretty low.
Have you tried negotiating?
Unfortunately “that’s the only budget [they] have right now for outsourced agents.”, to quote the job poster.
Only way I make up for it is by meeting the 30 hour quota they set so it doesn’t hurt so much, then I plan on taking another sideline job once I manage the hours with them.
Since I just started out, I’m willing to work with them on this budget but I plan on talking to them in a couple of months to see if they can raise it due to performance.
If not, then…let’s see.
They’re at an advantage since I need to build up my oDesk hours so I can get hired for more jobs.
True, I would demand 30-50$/hr
I sort of gave up on Odesk. A lot of the clients I encounter are shockingly surprised whenever I quote them with what I believe is a fair price. After several futile attempts to find reasonably priced projects, I didn’t bother. Elance has been more enoyable.
Had rates as low as 4$ at the start, but slowly raised the hourly rate as i gained work experience. I’m a 17 year old Web Developer from Romania. Now i don’t accept anything less than 20$ / hour (I write code fast and re-use alot), i have had employers from third world countries approach me and as for 4$ a hour. That’s just inhumane! I don’t permit any employer treat me like that. Stick to your guns and put the price you think you deserve. Maybe one day they’ll learn not to exploit workers.