It’s scary isn’t it?
The thought of telling your current freelance writing job you want a raise.
They could end up never emailing you again.
Ghosted for good.
Or, they could drop the scope of your project from four posts a month to one post a month.
They can even publicly oust you on social media….well, I doubt that would actually happen. But, that’s not to say this thought won’t go through your mind when you decide to ask for a raise.
For me, the fear was losing a writing gig.
I have a wide range of online jobs, but I’m trying to build my credibility in the digital marketing niche. This job has been pivotal in helping me with building my portfolio.
So, suffice it to say, I was at a crossroads.
This freelance writing job was providing me with consistent work, but I had originally underestimated the amount of time it would take to provide flagship style content.
I wanted to keep the job – because their content looks good in my portfolio – but I just wasn’t earning what I should have been earning.
So, I made the decision to let them know my new proposed rate and asked for a raise.
If you are in the same situation – wanting to earn more money with a current job – then here are the steps to help you out.
How to Ask for a Raise With Your Current Job
1. Set the Bar High
I’ve talked extensively about the idea of wowing your clients.
If you landed a client in your intended niche, the best thing you can do is make their lives easier and ultimately help them make more money.
I’m all for going the extra mile for freelance writing clients I want to collaborate with and those that I know can help me get to the next level in my freelance writing business.
So, go ahead and impress them with your job.
For example, instead of writing a post on the steps it takes to ditch your 9-5 job and go freelance, why not include first hand accounts from actual solopreneurs?
Instead of turning in a post about ways to increase your subscriber rate, why not provide annotated screenshots of specific ways the client’s readers could implement?
When you do this, you’ll get emails like this:
Other ways to impress a client with your job:
- Always exceed your deadlines
- Provide your author bio in HTML
- Source and optimize your images correctly
- Format your post correctly
- Upload your post into their CMS
By setting this expectation, the talk of asking for a raise and negotiating a rate won’t come off as a complete surprise to the client.
They may think they are getting a steal, so when you let them know you’ll be negotiating your rate, your above-and-beyond efforts can increase your chance that the client will agree to your new rate.
2. Remind Your Freelance Writing Client How Well Your Content is Doing
I’m a freelance blogger and copywriter. So, the bulk of my writing jobs are blog content or content marketing.
My role is to help increase subscribers, engagement, profits, downloads etc…
So, when you get the confidence to send off that rate increase email and ask for a raise, it’s probably a good idea to remind them how well your post is doing.
Your client may even provide this information for you!
3. Give the Reason When You Ask for a Raise
It isn’t fair to the job to just blatantly tell the client that your rates are higher because it’s been x months since you’ve bene working with them.
To increase the chance of having them accept your new price rate, give them a valid reason why they are higher. Be honest with them.
In my situation with this online job, the amount of time it took me to research, write, edit and optimize images did not reflect what I was earning from this freelance client.
You might have a different situation.
Maybe you are paring down your jobs and dropping any jobs below your threshold.
So, telling your freelance clients how you’re making room for your top tier clients can spur this client to take action, or not.
In either case, providing a solid reason why you are asking for a raise will help convince your client that what you are proposing is justified and makes sense.
4. Tell Your Client Your New Higher Rate
I’m sure you heard from other entrepreneurs or freelancers that when discussing your rate, whether for landing clients or increasing your rate, to always aim high.
The other day, a business contacted me for a business-related post.
Since I’m swamped this month and don’t really have room for many more new writing projects, I inflated my rate by 100% and they accepted it!
So, when you ask for a raise, aim high.
In this particular case I mentioned a 50% increase, which is a lot, but not astronomical. If I got 50% or 25% I would be happy since that would cover my time writing for this job.
5. Offer Your Freelance Writing Client a Choice
An additional thing you can do for the client is give them some options like:
- Keep the same old pay, but lessen the scope of the project (less words, less case studies, less outbound links, less amount of posts per month)
- Agree to the pay increase and keep the high level of in-depth content you provide
I used this approach and it worked in my favor, so it could for you too!
6. Remind Your Freelance Client of Your Collaboration
Okay. The hard part is over. You asked for a raise and now all that’s left is to remind them of your true value.
Remember, as a freelance writer you don’t work for your client, you work with your client.
Tell your client how much you enjoy writing for them and how much you enjoy working together. Leave a good impression in your email.
Is It Time to Ask for a Raise?
If you’re new to freelance writing, you may not even fathom trying to ask for a raise with current jobs. But, if you’ve been at this for a while and want to move up from the $25 posts to better and higher-paying content jobs, asking for a raise with current jobs can help you do this.
Especially if you have freelance clients that you enjoy writing for.
So, what are you waiting for? If you asked for a raiase with a client, tell me about it. How did you do it?
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