What’s the best practice for compensating technical writers on a contract?

Monthly?
Hourly?
Per word?
Per page?
Per …?

Just content


You looking for a gig? 😂

Depends on if you’re paying them for just the content or their brand/publishing platform

Have you considered offering a severance procedure to your best workers to get maximal value out of their time at work?

In my consulting business we tend to charge by the hour -  not bc it’s the best proxy for value, but because it’s the simplest way to get started. As long as the contractor is creating value, and the client is happy, no one seems to mind using hours for billing. And we just make sure to keep checking in to make sure our client is getting value. 

What I find, more or less, is that the market is the market and it evens out. One person may choose to charge by the hour, another by the page, one might work faster and the other slower- but for similar quality output the overall amount charged will be similar. And the best reward for a job well done is more work.  When working with a new contractor, start small and grow together, but if they aren’t great, move on to someone else quickly