Content writing as you know is one of the best freelancing work options nowadays. Work from home or anywhere is possible in this profession.
Do you want to consider becoming a freelance content writer? Are you wanting to work as a content writer? Have you started earning as a content writer?
If all these questions have the same answer, that is “yes”, then you might want to know how much a content writer can earn. Any content writer’s salary is based on certain factors. The salary of any content writer depends on
- Years of experience- quality and quantity
- The talent and skillset
- Exposure to different kinds of content writing
- Clients you work with over the years
- Quality of work
- Projects you take-up
- Managing different kinds of content
We will now dive right into content writing types and salaries for each kind. This information can guide beginners and aspirant content writers.
What Is The Salary Of A Content Writer? What Will Be A Content Writer’s Salary As A Beginner?
Content Writers as you know work as various kinds of writers. The content writing salary also depends on what kind of content writing is one into.
The average salary of a content writer according to Payscale is approximately ₹2,80,000 or more per year.
Hourly Rates Of A Content Writer
According to their data freelance writers on an hourly basis as a beginner earn ₹494 per hour. If a content writer has more experience like around two- to three years earns ₹510 per hour.
A technical writer in India earns ₹275 per hour and it can increase based on experience.
An average hourly rate of a medical writer is ₹365. Hence, profession wise the hourly rates vary. Also, experience in different professions counts and adds up to more value to the salary.
Let’s look at different kinds of content writing, and salaries that they get based on experience and skills.
Freelance Writer
The best thing about freelancing is that you can choose the work you want to do. You can take up projects and select clients. You can showcase the best of your work and get the projects that interest you.
A Freelancer can be a freelance technical writer, copywriter, ghostwriter, etc. The person if has the necessary skill set can do freelancing in any kind of content writing.
A freelancer who is a beginner earns around ₹16,500 according to Indeed. This means that annually, a beginner in the freelancing profession can earn up to ₹1,98,000-₹2,00,000 per year.
The average salary of a freelancer according to them is around ₹17,000. The freelance content writers also get salaries depending on the location. In Maharashtra places like Mumbai, Navi Mumbai offer ₹18,000-₹20,000 to a freelancer.
Hyderabad, Noida, Mohali offer nearly ₹17,500 to a freelance content writer is what Indeed studies on the salary scale of content writers show.
A freelancer with good expertise in content writing skills can earn up to ₹20,000 to ₹60,000 per month.
Technical Writer
Technical writers are in huge demand. In every industry, a technical writer’s position is an important one. Making manuals, user docs, informing the technical aspects of a product to the audience in simple language are some of the many job responsibilities that a technical writer holds.
Based on the salary details of many technical writers, Glassdoor tells about the pay of a technical writer.
A technical writer earns around ₹5,60,000 per year. This is the average salary of a technical writer.
UpGrad states that a technical writer’s pay ranges from ₹2.29 lakhs to ₹10 lakhs per year. It includes all the bonuses that a technical writer earns year-round.
Medical Writer
A medical writer has to work closely with the doctors, senior medical officers, scientists. The information they provide in their content demands a lot of credibility and precision. The documents they prepare require efficiency too.
Extensive research is important in the field of medical writing. Providing correct information about medical product usage is crucial to medical writers.
According to Linked In, a senior medical writer earns up to ₹8,00,000 annually. Payscale states the average salary of a medical writer to be around ₹4,20,000 per year.
SEO Content Writer
SEO content writers as the name suggests, deal with making the content SEO friendly. There are several SEO components, the writer optimizes to make the content rank in the top SERP.
According to Payscale, the average SEO content writer’s salary is around ₹2,45,000 per year for a beginner. The more responsibilities and experience, the higher the salary can go.
Web Content Writer
Web content writers cater to any kind of web page content. It can be blogs, articles, web pages, landing pages. etc.
According to Glassdoor, the average salary of a web content writer is ₹20,400 per month. Hence, per year a minimum experience of one to two years in web content writing can pay you around ₹2,44,800. The salary can go up to ₹35,000 per month.
Copywriter
A copywriter’s work is to create eye-catching content for the target audience. A copywriter has to approach their work with creativity and focus on the marketing needs of the company.
A junior copywriter earns around ₹29,000 per month when reported by Linked In. So, a junior copywriter earns nearly ₹3,48,000 per year.
The minimum salary of a copywriter is around ₹11,000 according to Salaryexplorer. Like many other content writing types, a copywriter’s salary also varies according to location and the company.
With years of experience, the senior copywriter gets a pay of around ₹6,17,000 or more.
Creative Writer
A creative writer can write short stories, newspaper columns, frame creative web content for clients or companies.
The creative writer can earn up to ₹4,50,000 per year on an average according to Talent.
The beginners in creative writing earn up to ₹3,00,000. The experienced ones earn up to ₹14,59,500 per year.
Social Media Content Writer
Social media content writers create social media content for various platforms. This kind of marketing and writing has boost digital marketing in several ways. Some writers create content for Facebook, Instagram, Linked In, etc. They also are known as social media managers. Providing engaging content to viewers, editing, and hooking up the viewers to the content is their main work profile.
327A glassdoor survey suggests that social media content writer’s average salary is around ₹35,000 per month. The minimum salary of a social media content writer can be up to ₹23,000 per month.
That means yearly, a social media writer on anprofessionsUpgradeaverage earns around ₹4,20,000 per year. With more years of experience, the salary goes up to ₹51,000 per month.
Ghostwriter
A ghostwriter writes content under the name of someone else. They create web content, write non-fiction books, or any kind of writing content. Many clients offer ghostwriting jobs. They can be related to business writing, marketing, blogs but the name of the real author does not appear in the content.
According to Salaryexpert, the average salary of a ghostwriter per year is around ₹6,80,187. The per-hour rate of ghostwriters according to them is around ₹327.
A beginner in the field of ghostwriting according to their survey gets ₹4,97,472 per year with one to three years of experience.
A ghostwriter with around more than eight years of experience in the field gets around ₹8,50,902 per year.
Blogger
A blogger creates blog posts, articles, long blogs, etc as a part of web content. Blogging is one of the very basic types of content writing.
Indeed survey suggests that the average salary of a blogger, as a content writer is ₹19,795 per month.
Glassdoor survey suggests that with a good amount of experience in blogging, the salary goes up to ₹30,000 per month. This means that the average salary of a blogger with experience is around ₹3,60,000.
There are many kinds of bloggers. Some specifically write on fashion, travel, food, etc. Glassdoor survey also suggests that the salary of women bloggers in India are around ₹30,000 per month.
Salaries of bloggers also vary based on different locations. Pune, Chennai pays bloggers around ₹22,900 per month. In Noida, the salary of bloggers is around ₹29,357.
Did You Know That Freelance Content Writers Can Also Charge Per Word?
Yes. It is true. Initial or the lowest per word charge can go up to 15 paise per word. But, it is advisable, not to stoop beyond that. The rates for a 2000 word blog can go from ₹1 per word to ₹8 per word. It depends on what kind of work you get, how much research goes into it. It also depends on the deadlines given by clients.
Hence, nourishing your writing skills is also important. The more you upgrade them by practice or work, the more you will get to earn.
For making your content writing skills better you can
- Take up a content writing course
- Attend workshops or webinars on content writing to update yourself
- Start your website, where you can publish your writings
- Consider guest blogging for getting quality backlinks
- Branch out into social media to distribute your content and interact
- Accept good projects and complete them on deadlines
- Read books on content writing, content marketing and brush up on your knowledge
- Create a “hire me” portfolio to mention your projects
- Create an account on freelancing websites like Upwork, Freelancer, Fiverr, etc
- Observe various kinds of web content, blogs, creative ideas and try to create a style of your own
- Know your self-worth and let your hard work pay
Conclusion
If you have a flair for writing, you should not delay and start content writing. Hope this overview on content writing salary guides you on how the content writing industry works. If you want to develop and upgrade your skills in content writing, do not delay. Keep writing and try to improve the way you write. You can get projects even from international clients who pay in dollars. Gain experience and try to earn more through freelancing jobs from anywhere in the world.