How to Price Yourself as a Blogger
Happy Friday! This was the biggest question I had when I started taking on paid jobs as a blogger: how much should I charge? What is my monetary value based on my page views, followers and experience? If you’re in the same boat, you’re not alone. Keep reading for tips on how to price yourself as a blogger to successfully book work and get paid what you deserve!
Maintaining a sustainable income as a blogger is a dream for many of us in the business. We’re giddy at the idea of getting paid for a hobby we’d do for free (and have been) anyway and we’re excited for the opportunity to work with really cool companies. For the money to start coming in, setting your prices is one of the first important steps.
For those of you that are here looking for an exact formula on how much you can charge based on your experience, followers and page views, you’re not going to find that here. In fact, you’re probably not going to find that anywhere because that’s just not how it works. There’s no plug-and-play when it comes to quickly pricing yourself as a blogger and immediately having brand opportunities rolling in because of it, regardless if you’ve been in the industry consistently for one day or one year.
To price yourself and your services, begin by collecting data on your page views, followers and engagement levels — whatever helps make you creditable and influential in a brand’s eyes. Be honest and don’t stretch your numbers. Although these stats don’t determine your monetary worth in entirety, this is information the brand would like to see so they can get an understanding of your audience when considering adding you to their marketing budget.
SERVICE + PAYMENT INFORMATION
- Compile a list of your services with a description of each in the form of a media kit (if you need help making one, I offer design services in my creative shop: Bone & Bloom)
- Be open to services other than just sponsored blog posts — get other service ideas here
- You’re selling yourself with your descriptions, so make them accurate and written in pitch-form so they sound too good to pass up
- Provide a price breakdown of each
- Any stats you can provide along side these prices/services are a bonus
- Be fair in your pricing and let them know your rates are somewhat negotiable if you’d like to be flexible
- Provide your PayPal link or other payment methods you accept
- All of my past collaboration payments have been through Paypal, but some brands may be open to sending checks, using Venmo, etc.
PRICING OPTIONS
FLAT RATE
A flat rate is essentially what it sounds like, a set price for each service. If you’re new to blogging and taking on paid work, I feel that it’s better to aim low than high in order to gain experience and get your feet off the ground — then raise your prices once you get your feet off the ground. However, if you’ve been in the game for a while, don’t sell yourself short! To give you a ballpark, in my experience, most established brands are willing to fork out a minimum of $100-200 for a sponsored blog post if you
‘ve been in the business for a bit and have great content. With that being said, every brand is different and you can’t assume they’re all looking for the same things.
HOURLY RATE
Instead of a flat rate, some bloggers choose to charge hourly. This entails calculating the number of hours it will take you to complete the job ahead of time when negotiating pricing. This is my go-to for events, but I stick to flat fees for everything else — but like I said, it’s totally up to you!
PACKAGE OFFERS
Although I haven’t done this myself, I’ve heard of some people providing package deals for brand partnerships. This could be presented in a “Gold, Silver, Bronze” format with prices and services to match. For instance, “gold” could be a sponsored blog post with coordinating social media posts on all platforms, “silver” could be sponsored social media posts on all platforms, and “bronze” could be one sponsored social media post on Instagram.
MILEAGE FEE
If the collaboration includes traveling outside your city, you should include a mileage fee as well. You calculate this by adding up your total number of miles to and from the location with this formula. I’ve done this in the past and the brand understood and was totally okay with it. I know you can feel intimidated or awkward asking for additional fees in the beginning, but this is a fair business standard.
CONTRACT GUIDELINES
Another big part of paid partnerships is contracts. Most collaborations will include a contract of some kind, which should be taken seriously in all business endeavors. A contract prevents anyone from getting the short end of the deal during the partnership, in addition to clearly mapping out all requirements and deadlines.
Some contract specifications often include tagging your social media content as “#ad” or “#sponsored” in order to disclose to the public that you are affiliated with the brand. Similarly, brands will also likely require you to include something like “this post is sponsored by…” within your blog post. Your contract should also map out the timeline of when you’ll get paid, mandatory guidelines and more, so be sure to read that before signing.
If the brand you’re working with doesn’t have a contract set in place, you may want to explore some online contract services that allow you to make your own. I haven’t had to do this yet, but will look into it.
Once your collaboration is complete, some brands will ask you to send them an invoice (typically PayPal) or they’ll send you a document to sign with details on when your payment will be delivered. Establish capabilities to sign online documents ahead of time so you’re all set for future paid work.
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If this post was helpful for you, check out my previous blogging ones here. I love talking about blogging and providing any guidance that I can, so if there’s something else you’d like to see me do a post on, please let me know! Have a great weekend!
