(This archived newsletter on the hidden cost of quick projects was originally sent to subscribers on October 21, 2025.)
In any freelance writing career, you’ll eventually get to a point where raising rates isn’t enough, or where doing so can make you uncompetitive.
Even beyond turning to advanced fee strategies, there are things you can do to increase earnings that don’t involve raising rates.
For example…
You can increase minimum engagement levels.
This comes down to eliminating most, if not all, “quick” projects. You know the ones… a client wants a single blog post or other small project. But it costs you more than other gigs.
How?
You have to invest more time into getting to know the client, their business, their market, and their expectations. And you do it for a one-off project that might not lead anywhere beyond that.
By costing you extra time, this costs you money.
Increasing your minimum engagements can weed out these one-off buyers, or at least compensate you for the added time you’re investing with no cumulative, long-term benefit.
Minimum Engagement Examples
What might new minimum engagement requirements look like? Here are some examples:
- A minimum monthly retainer amount
- A minimum hourly billing policy (such as billing for no fewer than a full hour, or several hours, for any consulting add-ons)
- A bundle model where you only contract for orders of 5, 10, or however many blog posts in a set timeframe
These can be adapted to any freelance writing projects you take on.
Exceptions to Minimum Engagement Rules
As with any new rule, there are exceptions to consider.
For example, I write a lot of press releases.
Unless I’m contracting with a middleman to write releases for multiple clients of theirs, these are generally one-off projects by their very nature of being tied to a specific newsworthy story.
I charge enough to make that worth my while.
Another possible exception would be first-time clients.
Go back to the blog post example.
If you have a minimum engagement of 10 blog posts per order, that risks turning away potential long-term clients who want to get a feel for your work first-hand.
While it’s never OK for a client to ask for unpaid custom samples, offering to pay for a one-off piece to see how your style suits their brand or audience is not unreasonable.
If you go that route, just make it clear this is a one-time thing to evaluate your potential working relationship with each other.
Otherwise, focus on those minimum engagement rules.
You’ll complete projects faster, earning more per hour spent, when you deeply know your long-term clients and their markets.
Plus, you’ll spend less time “starting over” with new ones only there for a one-off piece.
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