Comments on: Beyond the Call of Duty

By: Bob Younce at the Writing Journey

Bob Younce at the Writing Journey — Tue, 06 May 2008 03:14:52 +0000

You’re right on target here, Michael. In my experience, the value-add can really boost your business in general, and increase your repeat business in particular.

By: Stefanie

Stefanie — Fri, 02 May 2008 22:02:40 +0000

I’ve definitely had this happen, and the clients are almost never up front about it. It makes you think, “Wow, if you really thought it wasn’t a big deal, why didn’t you mention it when I was creating the quote??”

I append a note that additional services will be billed at my standard hourly rate, and that if there are any concerns about that, they should provide details up front so those services can be more accurately estimated in advance. It has definitely made my life easier (and my paychecks bigger).

By: paulette

paulette — Fri, 02 May 2008 14:34:23 +0000

Freelancing is an exciting job:) It really is because it challenges one’s ability. What i learned from it is that it taught me to learn and explore new things. Possibilities are infinite especially on the web:)

By: Michael Yurechko

Michael Yurechko — Thu, 01 May 2008 22:27:22 +0000

I read ‘Call of Duty’ in the title, so I thought we were talking about gaming.. sorry, carry on

On topic: I write for a variety of smaller tech sites, and am responsible for logging into the CMS, uploading images, choosing categories, adding tags, etc.etc. Its actually very time consuming and I get paid very little for what I do.

By: Damien Riley

Damien Riley — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:50:11 +0000

Nice advice! In the end, the service that throws in the most perks … wins!

On my blog, ads cost $10 a month. But that’s not all they get. I stumble their articles (the good ones of course), do a monthly article on their service, and inline link their site in many of my posts. I think these make advertising on my blog well worth the price.

By: RT Cunningham

RT Cunningham — Thu, 01 May 2008 19:13:54 +0000

Well, I didn’t do that at first because I didn’t know it was going to happen. After that, I gave 2 rates to clients before starting, one for basic services and one for basic + added services. That’s when it became much more manageable. Of course, I didn’t have to deal with it much after e-filing became available, although there were some people who still preferred snail mail.

My last year of doing it was 2005, the year before I moved away from the U.S. I can’t say I miss it.

By: Michael Kwan

Michael Kwan — Thu, 01 May 2008 19:01:30 +0000

There was a post on Men with Pens a short while back that talked about how freelancers should charge one flat hourly rate, regardless of what task they are doing. Let’s say, for example, that someone charges $50 an hour. That $50 can go toward writing a magazine-type article or it can go toward sharpening pencils; the task doesn’t matter, because that’s how much the freelancer’s time is worth to him.

So, if your client wants to you print out the tax forms, stuff it in an envelope, and mail it away for them, you have every right to charge them (at your regular rate) for the extra time involved.

By: RT Cunningham

RT Cunningham — Thu, 01 May 2008 18:56:44 +0000

I know too well the pitfalls of computer-related freelancing. I used to do tax preparation for a lot of clients. They expected me to do everything, down to the mailing of the tax forms (before e-filing became available). Of course, the cost of the postage was added in.

It’s the extra steps that make freelancing such a pain in the butt, even though it can pay extremely well.