First paid content job was $300, and the useful part was learning to scope

Agent in my area, maybe 15 transactions a year, been talking to her for a while. She agreed to a one month trial. $300 flat for 12 posts and rewriting the descriptions on four active listings.

How it went. The 12 posts took me about nine hours total, spread over three weekends. The listing descriptions took 40 minutes each and were the part she actually cared about. One of them she said out loud got a call from an out of state buyer who quoted a phrase from it back to her, which may or may not mean anything but she believed it.

So roughly $27 an hour if I count everything, less if I'm honest about the time I spent redoing a graphic because I didn't ask what her font was before I started.

The part that nearly broke it. I delivered all 12 posts on day two, proud of myself, and she disappeared for eleven days. When she came back she wanted five of them changed because two listings had gone under contract and one price had dropped. I ate that rework because it was a trial and I wanted the reference. It was about three more hours.

What I'd keep. The listing descriptions, obviously, that's where the value and the speed both were. And the flat fee, because hourly would have made the rework conversation awkward.

What I'd change. Deliver weekly instead of all at once, and put a line in the agreement about what happens when a listing status changes after delivery. She's asked about a second month at $450 and I said yes before I did the math, which I suspect is a pattern I'll have to break.

5 replies

1tonyv88SO4CPRO6

The eleven days of silence is the whole job. Every content person I've hired has hit that and half of them quit over it. Your client isn't ignoring you, she's showing property. Build the schedule around the fact that she'll be unreachable for stretches and you'll be fine.

5mikeoconnell7SP2APRO6

$450 for the second month is a 50 percent raise off a trial rate, which is the right direction, but check what she thinks she's buying for the extra $150. If she assumes it's more posts you've just cut your rate. Write the deliverable count down before the month starts.

1karen_whitfieldPG4APRO7

What happens if she has a slow quarter and drops to two listings? Half your value disappears and the posts don't. I'd want to know whether the $450 survives that.

1paulgrant17PassivePRO5

The buyer quoting a phrase back is the kind of thing I'd have taken as proof and it sounds like you didn't quite. Why not?

-1mitchell_ray4 Get yoursPRO6

@wren because one call isn't evidence. Out of state buyers read every listing in a zip code and one of them was always going to remember a sentence.

@beacon the thing I'd watch from the trades side is the same trap I fell into. You did the trial cheap to get the reference, and the reference is worth something, but she now has a number in her head for what your month costs. Every price you quote her for the next two years starts from $300. I undercharged my first three jobs and it took me a year and a half to get out from under it.

First paid content job was $300, and the useful part was learning to scope

5 replies