How much to charge for a sponsored post? That is the question all bloggers struggle with, even lose sleep over. No one wants to be shortchanged or work for free. I know I don’t but how much to charge for a sponsored post is a hard question to answer.
I could ask you to first ask yourself, what do you think your talent is worth? How about your time? Time away from your family? Your social media influence? Your community?
Are you a wordsmith whose words cast a magical spell over your readers? Are you a humorist who can make people laugh at and enjoy reading about absolutely any topic? Do your words tug at heartstrings and illicit empathy and understanding, camaraderie? Are you a salesman who can weave a web of silk and turn any piece of shit into shinola with your turn of phrase? Or are you a press release regurgitator? It’s no matter; there is a place for all of us.
I read an article last week by Cecily Kellogg on MomCrunch that enlightened me and shed some light on the age old question, how much to charge for a sponsored post?
This is the simple formula that she came up with. I say simple because when I read it I thought to myself, wow that makes sense. But not simple in the fact that I would have ever figured it out had it not been for Cecily’s generosity in posting the piece.
Here it is.
How much to charge for a sponsored post:
Algorithm Example
Number of total Monthly page views 100,000
(Add to that) Your total Number of Twitter Followers 10,000 = 110,000
(Divide that total by)Your Google Page Rank 3 = 37,778
(Multiply that total by .01) 37,778 * .01 = 378
Divide the entire total by 2 378/2
= How much to charge for a sponsored post $189.00
**If your Google page rank is higher than 5, this algorithm will not work out in your favor. I personally decided that when calculating my rate of how much to charge for a sponsored post, I would skip the multiply by .01 step. If this were the case in the example, the pay for the blogger would be about $380 per sponsored post rather than the $189. I think if you have 100,000 page views per month and 10,000 Twitter followers, you would charge somewhere around of $200- $300 per post. The more influential the blogger, the more you can charge for a sponsored post.
In my case, I now charge between $100-$300 per sponsored post. Add to that another $50-$100 for a widget in the sidebar, per month. My rates of how much to charge for a sponsored post have recently gone up. Of course, this all depends on my relationship with the brand. These are all things to consider when deciding whether or not to even take a sponsored post.
I can’t tell you what I would charge for text links because I simply refuse to do them. I feel it will litter my blog and make it a commercial. I hate commercials. That is my philosophy for my own blog.
I also don’t let companies post press releases on my blog for pay. I can’t be a billboard or I would probably lose my readers. I can’t take that gamble. I’ve been building my reputation and this blog for almost 3 years; I can’t just give away my relationship with my community. It’s priceless.
Never ever work with a brand that you don’t genuinely support. If you are a vegetarian, don’t take a sponsored post from the National Pork board. Your readers will figure out that you are selling them a product that you, yourself, would not use and you will lose any and all integrity that you had. You will lose your authenticity. You cannot get that back. Keep that in mind.
Something else, in my opinion, that all bloggers absolutely need to be equipped with is a media kit. If you ever want to justify your rates, solicit sponsorships, or just demonstrate to brands why they should work with you over any of a million other bloggers, you need a media kit. It lists your stats and a quick blog bio in a handy easy to access format. Your media kit is your online business card and resume.
Start by making sure that you have a Google Analytics account and, my personal recommendation, a statcounter.com account. This was a piece of invaluable piece of advice given to me by blogging diva, Jessica Gottlieb and she should know.I listened. I’m glad I did. I suggest that you do the same. Armed with your stats, you can make an awesome media kit to wow even the most selective brands. I have compiled a very comprehensive how to write a media kit for your blog post that I urge you to take advantage of now.
- Katie (Sluiter Nation): Not My Business, Baby (why you do NOT want to monetize your blog)
- Devan (Accustomed Chaos): Monetizing Your Blog: Why’s & How’s of Making Money (why you do monetize and how you do it)
- Kristin (What She Said): Getting Paid to Blog: So Many Questions, So Little Time. (newbie in the monetizing world)
- Tina (Life Without Pink): Tips For Building Successful Relationships With Brands and Scoring Paying Opportunities (pitching brands, sponsored events, ambassadorships)
- Gigi (Kludgy Mom): So You Want To Be A Freelancer? What You Need To Know. (freelance work)
- Natalie (Mommy of a Monster): So You Wanna Make Money Blogging? How To Get Sponsored Posts (sponsored posts)
- Alex (Late Enough) “ Writers Teach, Why Can’t Bloggers?“
Check these amazing posts out. This is a great group of generous bloggers, who have learned a lot along the way. We just want to help other bloggers learn to navigate the monetization of their blog and demystify some of the biggest secrets of blogging. Hope this post helps you know how much to charge for a sponsored post and how to write a media kit.