I remember the day that I got an assignment for a story paying $1 per word. I thought I had hit the big time. I even went out to dinner to celebrate. And called my mom to share the news. All my freelance life, I had heard that you should only take work paying over $1 per word. But now I honestly think that using $1 per word as a standard is one of the worst pieces of advice given to freelance writers, especially content marketing writers.

I often hear from journalists who are taken aback by content marketing rates because on the surface the pay appears to be significantly less. But that isn’t typically true. Yes, there are low rates in content marketing, just like in journalism. But I think that a lot of journalists overlook well-paying jobs because they are using $1 per word as a benchmark.

The reason using the same barometer doesn’t work is that the writer is usually responsible for significantly less work on a content marketing project than on an article for a consumer or trade publication. If there is less work involved, then it takes you less time and you end up making a higher hourly rate per project. This is the reason I always recommend using project rates for content marketing.

Here are five reasons why you should not compare content marketing and journalism rates directly:

1. Most content marketing gigs are ongoing. Agencies and businesses typically are not looking for writers to do one-off projects. They want writers to join their team for the long term so that the writers can really understand the brand, brand voice and audience. This means that you often do not have to market yourself repeatedly to new clients, which not only saves time but reduces downtime between clients.

2. With content marketing, the client typically assigns the story. Even if you get a recurring gig with a consumer publication or newspaper, you typically still have to pitch ideas. Most of the time, my content marketing clients send me an assignment with the story topic. This saves considerable time, because I do not have to spend hours finding ideas, developing pitches and seeking out markets like you do with traditional journalism. Even in the rare case that my clients ask for pitches, I am already on the team for the project and typically just have to jot out a quick description.

3. Sources are often provided by the client. Finding sources can be extremely time-consuming. Many of my content marketing gigs do not require sources because the clients want me to produce thought leadership. And when they do want sources, they often find the sources and even schedule the interviews for me. This reduces the time (and frustration) involved in a project as well.

4. Clients often handle the time-consuming back-and-forth. When you work with an agency, they take a lot of communication with the client off your plate – ranging from assignments, scope of story, sources, and deadlines. They handle all of this with the client and often you simply get to write the story. Even when you work with a business, often you have one contact with the company who handles this with the internal client. When writing for a publication, on the other hand, you are the one who has to track down this information and the answers.

5. Outlines and transcripts are sometimes provided. So, this doesn’t always happen. But when it does, it really helps reduce your time spent and increase your hourly rate. Some of my clients will pay to have my interviews transcribed, which is a huge help. Other clients even go as far as creating outlines for me. Not only does this decrease the time required to get a draft, but it also increases my hourly rate even more because I know exactly what the clients want, which reduces revisions.

So next time you are offered a content marketing gig, ask questions beyond simply “What is the rate?” to find out how that will translate into your hourly rate. It really comes down to how much work is involved in the project, and I have found that in content marketing writing, this can vary widely.

Have you found that the amount of work required by content marketing and journalism stories differs? What do you look for when comparing rates?