The Money Indexers Make How much money can an indexer actually make?
Your income as an indexer depends on two details, really. First, are you just indexing, or are you doing other things, like training and consulting? As a trainer and consultant you often charge more money per hour; instead of doing the work, you’re helping or teaching people to do the work themselves. But if you’re doing the indexing work, then the second detail is how many hours you have in your working day. If you can work at a decent hourly wage for many, many hours, you can make more money. It’s that simple. So, that said, an indexer who works 30 hours per week (on average) and can index 10 pages per hour at, say, $3 per page should be making $30*10*3=$900 per week, or around $45K per year before taxes and expenses. This makes sense; that number was the median annual income for respondents to a 2000 survey by the American Society of Indexers. For many projects, however, $3 per page is low. And for some lifestyles, 30 hours a week is too many. The question is, can you make more than
