How much should you charge for a sponsored post?

The number one question that bloggers new to monetization ask is: “How much should I charge for sponsored posts?”

And for good reason. I remember when I was starting out with monetizing through brand partnerships and sponsored post I walked a tricky line trying to strike a balance between valuing the work that I put into my posts and not scaring brands off with my prices.

Ultimately I ended up undervaluing myself for far too long and sold myself short for months. It is in a brand’s prerogative to get the most bang for their buck, so by undercharging yourself for sponsored posts you’re not only selling yourself short, but you’re also setting a precedent for that brand and in the future they’ll only want to work with bloggers that have a small price tag.

WHY BLOGGERS NEED TO CHARGE FOR SPONSORED POSTS.

The biggest mistake new bloggers make is accepting product as payment. First things first, we are going to examine the financial side of accepting product without taking payment:

So as a blogger you need to report your income come tax time. Income includes anything of monetary value whether that be cold hard cash or product.

So if you accept $100 worth of clothing here, and another $100 worth of make up there, that product is your income. And that income is something that you’re going to have to pay taxes on. If you’re not making money blogging, those taxes are coming straight from your pocket. If you are charging to write these posts you can very easily set aside money each month for taxes and you’ll be golden.

PROMOTION DOESN’T PAY THE BILLS.

If I had a dollar for every time a brand asked me to write a post for them in exchange for a shout out on their social media, I might have enough dollars to consider writing posts in exchange for shout outs on social media.

Unfortunately no one is paying me for those emails so I need to continue charging in order to pay the bills.

I do think that brands have good intentions when they are offering this, but the brands who think it’s acceptable to pay with promotion are the ones who don’t understand how the blogging industry works, and they are the ones that are going to be the biggest pains in the booty to work with. (Trust me on this one.)

I’ve been there, I’ve been promoted on Facebook pages with over 100,000 followers, and tweeted out to almost half a million. In both cases I got less than 100 visitors from those promotions, and nearly all of them bounced fairly quickly.

Social media promotion is nothing compared to actual payment.

OK MORGAN, HOW MUCH SHOULD I CHARGE THEN?

So here is where it gets tricky. There are so many blog posts with formulas for you to plug your stats into and that’s what I used for a long time – but eventually that just didn’t feel right.

Those formulas are a great starting point, but there is just so much that goes into blogging that neat little formulas aren’t going to be able to factor in. I wish I were able to give you a cut and dry answer to how much you should charge, but instead here are just some nifty guidelines for you to consider before I start talking numbers:

• How many pageviews do you get?
  • Ok, so this is the main factor a lot of bloggers use when deciding how much to charge, but after a certain point it begins not to matter. I charge more now that I’m getting around 200,000 views than I did during my viral months of 500,000 views due to some things I’ll be listing below.
• What does your engagement look like?
  • If you have 100,000 monthly pageviews but rarely get comments then those pageviews really don’t matter much. Recently more and more brands I’ve collabed with have been far more interested in engagement than they have been in page views and followers.
    • With that said – don’t fall for the comment trains on Facebook, it’s easy to tell when your engagement isn’t authentic!
• What about your social media?
  • Lately a lot of campaigns focus has shifted towards social media rather than blog posts and I don’t see this trend dying anytime soon. If you don’t have a ton of pageviews but you’ve got a huge, engaged Instagram audience then you can still charge premium pricing.
• How long are your posts?
  • When I write a post I go all out. Most of my posts are at least 1000 words, and you definitely won’t find any less than 500. With that said I will charge significantly more than a blogger who only writes 300 word posts.
• Do you use a photographer?
  • Or are you a photographer? If you’re having your photos taken by a professional or you are talented behind the camera that’s another thing to consider. Great photography goes a long way and definitely gives you an extra bargaining chip when it comes to pricing yourself!

SO LET’S TALK DOLLARS.

Ok, now that you’ve got all of those factors in your head we can start talking numbers. One thing I want to get across now, though is: EQUAL NUMBERS DOESN’T NECESSARILY MEAN EQUAL PAY.

With that said we can dive into things. For the purpose of discussion I am going to talk about pricing for sponsored posts with one tout of social media promotion, as this is pretty standard.

If you’re new around here you might not know that I’m pretty open when it comes to talking about money, so I’ll just come out and say what I charge for that classic package: $400, though I’ll be bumping up to $500 in March.

And to really drive the point home I want to say that there are bloggers who get 200,000 views like I do and they charge well over $1000 for their sponsored posts. But they have bigger social media followings, professional photogs, and more that I’m still working at. Numbers aren’t everything!

The baseline: I recommend that every blogger (no matter size, experience, etc.) charge at least $100 to cover the time and effort that you’re putting into your post. If a brand is reaching out to work with you then they have already acknowledged that you are valuable and they should be willing to pay you.

From there I baseline social media shares at at least five dollars (but significantly more if you’ve got a following!)

If you are paying for a professional photographer to shoot photos for your sponsored posts you should include what they charge as well as the time you’re going to spend corresponding with them and hammering out details, and if you’re shooting with a DSLR you can tack on an extra charge, too.

LEAVE ANY QUESTIONS IN THE COMMENTS!

If you have any questions about sponsored posts feel free to leave them below! I’ll be happy to answer or give advice!