Sponsored Blog Posts
OK I need to vent or rant a bit.
I am coming across a lot of other bloggers posting in social groups and even creating blog posts telling them what to charge for a sponsored post.
The phrase that really sends me over the edge is sentences like: It's based on pageviews, not what your time is worth.
Or it's based on your niche, or what your blog is about.
Uhhh, seriously? When did it become the norm, to let others tell you what you deserve for a job?
So I come across a blogger who says they are "big time", they get high page views, blah blah etc... "famous" or popular and he/she tells me that they charge based on their page views and the company who is asking for the sponsored post.
Really? So if I pull into my grocery store driving a brand new Escalade worth 85K, do they get to raise their prices just for me because I can afford it?
and my neighbor drives up in a 2007 Saturn Vue, do they get charged less?
If that happened, people would be outraged and file a lawsuit! Others may say well you're supposed to help them sell their product, they need a high return on their investment. Investment, yeah. $50 bucks for a sponsored post to a company is an investment in their future?
Pass!
If their budget is only fifty dollars, I think they'd be better off selling their company ad on the internet.
I do sponsored posts. But do I charge based on what other bloggers tell me to charge? No. Did I walk into a Construction Firm years ago and let them tell me what I am going to be paid, no.
I negotiated! Did I settle for minimum wage and no benefits when working outside the home? That would be a big fat no.
I educated myself. I made my job skills valuable. I didn't spend my time hanging out at the water cooler gossiping either. I was the b*tch who everyone disliked, because work and home were separate. I let my friendships with people evolve over time. It wasn't a case of start a new job and add 15 new BFF's that I could chit chat with while at work. I did my job first. That's why they hired me.
Another example - Your niche says what you can charge for a sponsored post. I say bull! So if you are a fashion blogger and do a post for Macy's.
I do a sponsored post for (let's say) Miracle Gro
Because you're a fashion blog, you deserve $150 per post, but I don't?
Why would I let people on the internet, who don't put their feet under my dining room table, tell me what to charge?
So as bloggers let's start setting a standard OK? Because we haven't even discussed getting that sponsored post out on Social Media!
A sponsored post for me takes me about 4 to 5 hours to write, research and get published. If I charged $50 for one sponsored post, that's about ten dollars an hour, for my time.
I made a lot more then that per hour, ten years ago, so I'll pass, thank you very much.
Ten dollars an hour
Think about it...
no health benefits with that, no 401K to retire on.
Is it worth it? To you? If it is, then go for it. But for me, it's not. If my situation changed here at home, and I needed income to pay my bills, I damn sure would be going back to my skill set. Not something like blogging where my income would be based on pageviews. I mean my pageviews are really good, even decent compared to other bloggers.
But still
Page views that can tank at any time, even if I have followed all the rules of SEO? Google, IE & Firefox go a different route with their algorithms (again), so my page views go down. Does that mean my salary should too?
Set the standard bloggers.
You're worth it!
XO,
