I wrote a story related to this, about a company who wanted me to design a landing page for $100.

There's a lot of factors at play in pricing. I ended up declining the offer.

Pricing for services isn't black and white. There's a subtle art to it, but a lot depends on the value your service gives.

Since there's no guide out there that will tell them what's a good price for a writer with such credentials, they'd throw out a figure and start with their best guess.

Who knows, someone might actually grab the bait. Most of them are actually just testing it out, to at least give them an educated guess.

On the other hand, some writers also don't know what's the best rate to ask. And so both sides are having unrealistic expectations.

Companies should think about the value. Writers should negotiate and not assume that the specified rate is final.