If you’ve tried your hand at freelancing, chances are that you’ve pondered what the best pricing strategies for freelancers, especially beginners, should be. Learning how to determine freelance pay, effectively negotiating the same, and demarcating increasing costs for projects involving more time (for instance, distinguishing between freelance day rates and hourly rates) are some of the main concerns that freelancers have today. Setting appropriate pricing levels is crucial for you to both attract clients and be paid in a way that is commensurate with your time. Here are some pricing strategies for freelancers that you can follow to price yourself effectively:

Check hourly rates for your skills on Fiverr and Upwork

Fiver and Upwork are some of the most frequented freelance-service aggregators in the world. Numerous professionals in various fields, such as designing, researching, video editing, and so forth, use websites to attract clients. Regardless of whether you intend to use them for your own freelancing endeavors, they will provide you with a wealth of information when it comes to pricing strategies for freelancers. 

On the sites, check the rates that are being charged by individuals for the services that you intend to offer—say, video editing, for example. First, focus on video-editing gigs that are successful, and have good reviews. Then check the reviews to see if people have commented on the pricing for the gig. If people are satisfied with the rates being charged, and if there have been a significant number of individuals who have availed of the services of the professional in question, you can be certain that the rate in question is appropriate.

After this, check the highest prices that gigs have been charging for the service in question. See how many people are availing of such expensive gigs—remember, lower numbers in this category are not bad; in fact, they are natural, as you would be able to make similar amounts of money with less work if your reputation justifies a higher price. After the above research, you will have a range of prices that you would be able to charge for your services–with the lowest and highest-priced successful gigs serving as indicators of sorts. Depending on how much volume you would like to attract, you can decide where to price your gig within this range of pricing strategies for freelancers.

When digital marketing comes into play....

If you’re using digital marketing tools, like Google’s AdSense or Facebook’s Facebook for Business, to market your services across various platforms – you can price your products according to the prevailing range for the countries that you will be targeting. For this, you should first try to determine the range by following the steps in the first point above. Additionally, you can also conduct a general Google search for a rough idea of the prevailing rates and pricing strategies for freelancers in the countries or localities in question. 

Decide between hourly and project-based pricing

Most importantly, you would need to reflect seriously on whether hourly pricing or project-based pricing would be the most appropriate pricing strategies for freelancers for the activity that you are undertaking. In some cases, the activity in question might not require a lot of time to finish, especially if you’re already a skilled professional operating in the said area. As an example, you can consider logo designing. However, the work product that you end up delivering might be incredibly valuable (for instance, you should reflect on how most fashion brands garner money simply by embossing their logos on their products). In light of this, project-based pricing would be more appropriate in cases where the work product might be worth considerably more than what hourly rates would be able to capture.

Similarly, note that pricing strategies for freelancers can also tilt towards hourly billing in various instances, especially when the projects might be long-drawn. To take an example outside of what’s usually considered freelance work, you can look at law firms. Most law firms charge clients on an hourly basis. This is because projects can stretch for many months, if not years. 

Thus, hourly billing ensures that the firm makes money depending on the requirements of its clients in a deliverable-specific manner. In light of this, remember that hourly billing ensures, in cases involving long-term projects, that you don’t end up undercharging by quoting a project-based rate.