Best method to charge a client for indefinite number of articles?

[#1]

Hi,

I found a client who is willing to allocate a random number of assignments for drafting articles per week, with a fixed payment of 15$ per article.

What would be the most convenient way to set up a job offer for the both of us?

I'm not sure if an hourly contract works as I will be paid by article and not the number of hours.

A fixed payment is also out of the question as the number of articles per week will be random thus it is impossible to calculate an escrow.

My suggestion was to create a job offer with an indefinite deadline for a single article, and pay for all subsequent articles produced through a bonus payment.

Do you think this is a convenient way or is there something that I am missing here?

Thank you in advance,

George

[#2]

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George T wrote:

Hi,

I found a client who is willing to allocate a random number of assignments for drafting articles per week, with a fixed payment of 15$ per article.

What would be the most convenient way to set up a job offer for the both of us?

I'm not sure if an hourly contract works as I will be paid by article and not the number of hours.

A fixed payment is also out of the question as the number of articles per week will be random thus it is impossible to calculate an escrow.

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I'm not sure why a fixed price contract would be out of the question; the client can just set up and fund one milestone at a time. So if they want you to write three articles one week and seven articles the following week, all they need to do is set up that particular milestone - they don't need to fund the whole project in advance. 

Bonus payments would work too, as long as you're fine with having no payment protection. I don't take any chances unless I know and trust the client.

[#3 · Accepted solution]

Why not just set it up as milestones of 5 or 10 at a time if it is ongoing work?

[#4]

Thanks for the swift replies!

I guess milestones don't really work as it is an ongoing job that may strech for several months and include the writing of over hundreds of articles. It would thus be insanely difficult to make a milestone per each individual article.

Or am I wrong here and it is possible to just keep adding on milestones per individual article? I have just noticed that I can request adding new milestones to an existing contract. I assume that would work as long as there is no ceiling limit on the number of milestones added.

[#5]

Set up milestones for batches of articles. Presumably, the client knows approximately how many articles he'll need for the following week. Milestone #1 = 15 articles/$225. You write and submit 15, he pays that milestone, then sets up and funds a new one for the same amounts. That week, he winds up only needing 11 articles. You write them and request payment for $165. He approves it and the remaining $60 can roll to the next milestone, which he sets up and funds.

This could be paced in weekly or bi-weekly batches, or whatever works for you and the client.

[#6]

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George T wrote:

. I assume that would work as long as there is no ceiling limit on the number of milestones added.

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There is a limit of 100 milestones, but then you can just do a new contract if wanted or needed.

But in general you can just keep adding milestones and I really think batches of x articles would work best.