A freelance writer who made $92K in 2025 working 5 - 10 hours per week

Rachel here! Welcome to The Rate Sheet, a new monthly Superpath series where experienced freelancers dish (anonymously) on the pricing and rates behind their businesses.

Each issue, we dig into one freelancer's real numbers: what they charge, how that's changed over time, and what made it possible.

If you have questions, reactions, or your own numbers to share, send them my way!

The Rate Sheet is one of three rotating Thursday series. You can manage which ones you get here.

WHERE SHE STARTED (~2023)

Before freelancing, Sara spent time as a Head of Content for a now-public S&P 500 software company, and a VP of Marketing for a seed stage startup. She learned quickly that the splashy experience at a company people knew gave her a leg up starting her freelance career.

When she began freelancing, Sara found early work with three clients. Each package was a little different.

TODAY (FALL 2026)

After the first several projects, Sara raised her rates, settling on $1,250 as her flat rate for deliverables (up to 1,500 words), plus a $150 hourly rate. She's steadily increased that since, and now charges $1,600 per deliverable and $200 an hour.

Having a decade of experience at a big-name company gave Sara a lot of ground to stand on when freelancing. She had the network, the name, the experience — and all of those things came with baked-in trust.

Once she had the proof of concept with the first few clients, she was able to demand a more significant premium.

“People in my space know the company where I was Head of Content and trust the brand name. I also get a lot of warm intros from former colleagues who know and trust me because I did good work for them in the past.”

It's worth noting that even with premium rates and a lot of brand-name recognition and warm intros, her rates vary based on company, demand, and interest. She has two clients — both agencies — that pay less than her standard rate:

About the first agency, she said: "I continue to work with them because I like the work and I appreciate the exposure to a wide range of companies and content strategies. But candidly, they will be the first on the chopping block if I need to prioritize. They are unable to increase my rates much further (I already make nearly 2x what their other editors make)."

INCOME OVER TIME

Premium rates don't always mean that the most money possible is the end goal. Charging more for work can also free up time and mental energy for other projects and pursuits.

That's why up-and-to-the-right annual income charts don't tell the whole story. Sara’s income actually went down from 2024 to 2025, but that was by choice: she intentionally stepped back.

Here at the end of 2026 she’s ramping back up again and expects to invoice $20k+ a month for October, November, and December.

LEARNINGS & TAKEAWAYS

Sara has a diverse client roster, but most importantly, it's a client roster that's generally ready to pay more for content they can trust.

Physical AI, observability, payments, enterprise B2B tech — these are all highly-regulated, generally-enterprise tech companies that are going to have more budget.

Here's her client breakdown:

When it comes to raising rates, she suggests following the supply and demand principle (raise your rates when you have more work than you can do), and start with new clients first.

“I find it much easier to introduce higher rates with new clients. I also have better luck pitching higher rates to venture-funded companies (in general those are the only types of clients I'm taking on now, plus select agencies that can afford my top rates without a discount).”

Obviously, not everyone has this.

Sara told us, "I am fortunate to be in a very comfortable financial position thanks to having gone through an IPO a few years back, and thanks to my husband's business. So I have some flexibility in terms of the type of work I take on and how much."

More flexibility = the ability to hold out for higher paying work = more flexibility: it's a virtuous cycle, but it also won't work for everyone. This is definitely worth keeping in mind next time you're comparing yourself to someone else's "freelance finance breakdown" on LinkedIn. We often see the big numbers, but we don't often see everything that goes into that.

Sara told us that a lot of her new clients come from warm intros from former colleagues. After she does good work, her network tends to pass along referrals and warm intros to similar companies: primarily, venture-funded companies that can afford premium rates.

But she also said that she’s been regularly encouraged to charge more by gut-checking with my WhatsApp group of former colleagues who freelance. “We all have the same brand name on our resume and similar skillsets."

If she spent a ton of time looking at "freelance averages," she might've assumed she'd already hit her ceiling. Instead, hearing from other freelancers who work specifically within her niche, she's continued to increase her rates.

- Rachel

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