Freelance Pricing: Hourly or Value-Based Pricing?

A budding product designer asks:

“…hourly pricing as opposed to value pricing? What pricing models have worked out best for you and why?”

TLDR: value pricing.

Full story…

A few years back, I got hired by a well-known blogger to build his membership site. At the time, I was charging 75/hour. After the project was complete, I suddenly started getting emails from acolytes of his who wanted me to build them a similar kind of site.

I ended up creating a fixed price project and charging 3K for it.

Dozens of his followers bought the package.

And, I made more off that than anything else I’ve ever done.

Thing was, the projects took me 4-5 hours to complete. My clients didn’t know and didn’t care. And so, I went from making 75/hour to over 500/hour. That’s the benefit of value pricing.

Let me put it another way…

How many hours of work went into making the computer, tablet or phone you’re reading this on? What was the cost to the manufacturer to make it? Do you know? Do you care?

When you make your services look more like products…

People stop caring.

They’re paying for what they get not what it took you to make it.

That’s the sweet spot.

Of course, that doesn’t mean you never charge an hourly rate. There are times and situations where that makes sense. But, your goal should be to have and push people into fixed-price projects as much as possible.

Last thing…

The reason a lot of freelancers DON’T use value pricing is because it takes some work to get right. You can’t just throw up any old package and have it work. You have to figure out your “magic bullet” offer.

The offer that’s like “free ice cream on a blistering hot day”.

To quote the infamous copywriter, Frank Kern.

Good news is there’s a simple, data-driven process to do this. So, you KNOW your offer will be a hit. It’s not rocket surgery. It’s simply a matter of putting in the effort and implementing.

But, if you DO…

I’m confident you’ll create an offer that can bring you in 100, 200, 300 or more per hour… that potential clients will be tripping over themselves to hire you for. Obviously, no guarantees, but I’ve seen it time and time again.

In any case, I show you the process in the first installment of my Freelancing 101 series: What Services to Offer. I show you how to figure out your perfect niche, what services you should offer, how to package your services to look more like products and what to charge.

All based on real-world DATA…

Not guessing and hoping.

It’s not for everybody, that’s for sure. It takes some thinking and some work to get right. But, once you do… watch out!

Anyway, link to enroll in the course for free on Skillshare is here: https://johnmorrisonline.com/niche

Later,

John

P.S. If you want more info on the free Skillshare offer, the full details and how to get free access are here: https://johnmorrisonline.com/skillshare

Join 7,700 Other Freelancers Who've Built Thriving Freelance Businesses

Over 7,700 other freelancers have started thriving freelance businesses using the information on this blog. Are you next? Subscribe below to get notified whenever a new article is posted and create your own success story:

You might also like

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Reddit
Pinterest
John Morris

JOHN MORRIS

I’m a 15-year veteran of freelance web development. I’ve worked with bestselling authors and average Joe’s next door. These days, I focus on helping other freelancers build their freelance business and their lifestyles.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Join 7,700 Other Freelancers Who've Built Thriving Freelance Businesses

Over 7,700 other freelancers have started thriving freelance businesses using the information on this blog. Are you next? Subscribe below to get notified whenever a new article is posted and create your own success story:

Success Stories

Ready to add your name here?

Tim Covello

Tim Covello

75 SEO and website clients now. My income went from sub zero to over 6K just last month. Tracking 10K for next month. Seriously, you changed my life.

Michael Phoenix

Michael Phoenix

By the way, just hit 95K for the year. I can’t thank you enough for everything you’ve taught me. You’ve changed my life. Thank you!

Stephanie Korski

Stephanie Korski

I started this 3 days ago, following John’s suggestions, and I gained the Upwork Rising Talent badge in less than 2 days. I have a call with my first potential client tomorrow. Thanks, John!

Jithin Veedu

Jithin Veedu

John is the man! I followed his steps and I am flooded with interviews in a week. I got into two Talent clouds. The very next day, I got an invitation from the talent specialists from Upwork and a lot more. I wanna shout out, he is the best in this. Thanks John for helping me out!

Divyendra Singh Jadoun

Divyendra Singh Jadoun

After viewing John’s course, I made an Upwork account and it got approved the same day. Amazingly, I got my first job the very same day, I couldn’t believe it, I thought maybe I got it by coincidence. Anyways I completed the job and received my first earnings. Then, after two days, I got another job and within a week I got 3 jobs and completed them successfully. All the things he says seem to be minute but have a very great impact on your freelancing career.

Sarah Mui

Sarah Mui

I’ve been in an existential crisis for the last week about what the heck I’m doing as a business owner. Even though I’ve been a business for about a year, I’m constantly trying to think of how to prune and refine services. This was very personable and enjoyable to watch. Usually, business courses like this are dry and hard to get through…. repeating the same things over and over again. This was a breath of fresh air. THANK YOU.

Waqas Abdul Majeed

Waqas Abdul Majeed

I’ve definitely learnt so much in 2.5 hours than I’d learn watching different videos online on Youtube and reading tons of articles on the web. John has a natural way of teaching, where he is passionately diving in the topics and he makes it very easy to grasp — someone who wants you to really start running your business well by learning about the right tools and implement them in your online business. I will definitely share with many of the people I know who have been struggling for so long, I did find my answers and I’m sure will do too.

Scott Plude

Scott Plude

I have been following John Morris for several years now. His instruction ranges from beginner to advanced, to CEO-level guidance. I have referred friends and clients to John, and have encouraged my own daughter to pay attention to what he says. All of his teachings create wealth for me (and happiness for my clients!) I can’t speak highly enough about John, his name is well known in my home.

Sukh Plaha

John is a fantastic and patient tutor, who is not just able to share knowledge and communicate it very effectively – but able to support one in applying it. However, I believe that John has a very rare ability to go further than just imparting knowledge and showing one how to apply it. He is able to innately provoke one’s curiosity when explaining and demonstrating concepts, to the extent that one can explore and unravel their own learning journey. Thanks very much John!

Mohamed Misrab

Misrab Mohamed

John has been the most important person in my freelance career ever since I started. Without him, I would have taken 10 or 20 years more to reach the position I am at now (Level 2 seller on Fiverr and Top Rated on Upwork).

Join 7,700 Other Freelancers Who've Built Thriving Freelance Businesses

Over 7,700 other freelancers have started thriving freelance businesses using the information on this blog. Are you next? Subscribe below to get notified whenever a new article is posted and create your own success story: