Pricing Your Services as a Kenyan Copywriter

Being too expensive might scare off potential clients, na ukiwa too cheap utakua underpaid ama ufanye clients wafikirie you aren’t any good.

So how do you find the middle ground, where you’re not overcharging or working for peanuts?

Here’s how to do it:

The first thing you need to do is rate your skill level. Nimekuundia scorecard to make things easier. Check it out:

It’s almost impossible to come up with fair rates without a rough idea of what your peers are charging. After all, markets hudictate price ya goods and services in every industry, and the creative one you’re in is no exception.

It’s the going rate for copywriting services, na inaeza kua in the form of per-word ama hourly basis. Upwork estimates zinashow the median hourly rates za copywriters ukua between $19/hr and $45/hr, depending on skill level, experience, and job success.

Obviously, kuna wasee wanacharge more than $45/hr. For example, the two guys in the screenshot below charge upwards of $60/hr. But if you take a close look at their profiles, you’ll notice that they’ve got 100% job success and a lot of experience. Needless to say, these are outliers.

Kuna copywriters wanacharge lower than the $19/hr-$45/hr range pia. In fact, most copywriters, especially kutoka Africa and Asia, ucharge less than $19/hr.

Per-word rates uvary pia. Upwork estimates show that copywriters charge anywhere from $0.05 to $1.50 per word, depending on experience, skill, and oftentimes, location.

But in my experience, the actual lower end of that range ukua $0.03, not $0.05. This is particularly true for clients who list jobs targeting writers from Africa and some parts of Asia.

This lot expects us to charge less– sometimes justifiably so; other times for reasons I can’t begin to wrap my head around (a discussion for another day, perhaps?).

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Also, keep in mind that kuna clients ukua na fixed project budgets. This is common on bidding platforms like Upwork.

The way this works is fairly simple: the client lists a fixed fee budget for a project and then freelancers who are fine with the client’s offer place their bids.

So far, unajua where you stand skill-wise, na uko na rough idea of the median hourly and per-word rates.

Now what you need to do is use that information to arrive at your own rates.

Tunajua $19 - $45 per hour is the median range. Here’s how to use that benchmark to come up with a rate that reflects your skill and experience level:

If you’re a beginner, set your rates on the lower end of the $19-$25/hour range. I’d even go lower than $19/hr. It’s not unheard of – my first hourly gig paid $13/hr!

Just don’t go below $10/hr.

The only time inaeza make sense kuaccept anything lower than $10/hr ni the first 2-3 months of your career. In this period, primary goal ukua kuadd samples to your portfolio so that it’s not entirely made of spec pieces.

Think of this as time uko attacho. To make the most of it, make sure the client agrees to let you use the work in your portfolio. Better yet, ask them for a testimonial. And most importantly, don’t work for “attacho” rates for more than 3 months. Utakua unajiwaste.

As an intermediate, unafaa kua unaim for a rate between $25-$35/hr. Ii ni decent rate for someone with some measurable results and a good (not necessarily excellent) portfolio, which you should have if you view yourself as an intermediate copywriter.

Advanced copywriters wanaeza command rates above $35/hr. At this stage, utakua umejenga CV na porfolio ingine mwenda, possibly with a strong niche presence and additional skills beyond just writing under your belt.

Utakua in a position to choose who to work with, and clients who understand what you bring to the table will be more than happy to pay what you’re worth.

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Per word rates ukua easier kuset when you know what your peers are charging (which we know from the market rates). Now, I know Upwork estimates zinapeana range ya 0.05 to $1.50 per word, but like I said, the lower limit of that range is actually $0.03 per word.

With that minor adjustment in mind, here’s how you should set your rates according to your skill level.

Ka we ni beginner anza na $0.03 to $0.05 per word. Again, unaeza accept lower than $0.03 when you’re just starting out and primarily focused on learning and building your portfolio.

Personally, nilianza na $0.02 as a junior writer pale Wewriteblogposts. I was such a newbie ata sikua na spec pieces – had to take a test to get hired.

Soon after, walinipromote to editing. That was my first hourly gig, which as I mentioned earlier, paid 13/hr. Were those peanut rates? Yes. But did I learn a lot of stuff I wouldn’t have learned without hands-on experience? Absolutely! Cheki 12 Legit Ways to Make....

Ukifika level ya intermediate, the lowest you should accept is $0.06 per word. Ideally, rate yako inafaa kua close to $0.10 per word, especially if you’ve built significant social proof in the form of measurable results, testimonials, and publications on reputable platforms.

Advanced copywriters are perhaps the only people who can command anything close to the upper range of Upwork’s estimates. Ka uko ii level, your rates should be at least $0.1 per word. There’s no upper limit to what you can charge. That is, of course, if your deliverables justify what you’re charging. Cheki 12 Profitable Hustles Meshe...

Tiered pricing packages ukua poa for those large, ongoing projects. They’re a great way ya kuaccomodate different client content needs and budgets.

And depending on how you set yours up, having pricing packages can encourage clients to offer you more work. Here’s an example of a pricing package that does that:

As you can see, the cost per 1000 words decreases as clients place larger orders. Also, notice that deliverables ziko same for all packages.

It’s a setup that many agencies use to bag larger projects, and I think you should borrow that trick.

Understand that the numbers in the table above are just for illustration purposes. You can play around with the word count limit and per-word rate to get a pricing system that works for you.

It’s also worth noting that pricing systems ka izi uwork best for writers who charge per word. Ni ngumu kuset up system ka ii when you bill clients hourly. Cheki Best Side Hustles In ....

That wraps up today’s discussion. I hope you’ve walked away with some valuable pointers about pricing your services as a Kenyan copywriter.

Najua sijakupea exact figure for what to charge, and there’s a reason for that: we’re all different, and how we price our services should always be pegged on what we can do and our track record.

But if you follow the steps I’ve outlined above, I’m pretty sure utasettle on a rate.

Remember, you can always revisit your prices, so it’s not the end of the world if you don’t get it right the first time.

If you’ve got any thoughts about this topic, let them rip in the comment section. Cheers!