This is sometimes a sensitive subject as some people prefer not to chat about money. But in the blogging world, we think it’s important to be more transparent as we navigate this new industry that has minimal boundaries. We’re only as strong as our weakest link and the more information out there about pricing yourself and knowing how to quantify your work is key. The more we unify in charging for our work, and utilizing our platforms and time, the more we can legitimatize the industry. And this is YOUR reminder that YOUR work, time, and platform are valuable. No matter the size.
The hot topic of how to price yourself comes up often and today we want to share our guidelines to find what’s right to charge for you and your influencer business. This is not always the rate you should be charging, but simply a guide to show you how to generally find a rate that works for you. And how to find the range you feel comfortable with to start negotiations with a brand. There will always be exceptions to the rule, outliers, and unique situations. But overall, we find this tends to be pretty accurate across the board when we’ve asked our peers and experts in the industry.
How To Price Yourself As A Blogger
Blog Post Rate
A standard blog post includes one blog post with one round of social media (i.e. posting on your top social platforms: Instagram, TikTok, and/or Facebook). But first, let’s break down just the blog post.
A general rule to finding what you should charge just for a blog post (no social) is anywhere from $200-$400 for every 10,000 pageviews your blog receives. We recommend using Google Analytics (learn how to read your Google Analytics here) to find this and use the average of the last 3 months. If you roughly receive 50k pageviews per month, we recommend charging around $1,000 to $2,000 for a blog post. Again this is JUST a guide and JUST a blog post. Nothing else! Other things will go into your overall rates like social media, image rights, props, the scope of work, and timeline. But knowing you’re at around $500 for this you can then increase based on these variables. You can read our full blog post on how to price JUST a blog post here.
Social Media Rate
For every 10,000 followers you have on Instagram, you should charge anywhere from $750 to $1,000. If you have 30,000 Instagram followers, you’ll want to try to get around $2,250 to $3,000 or so for your sponsored posts. Other variables may come into play here that affect your rate so always keep that in mind. If you have super high engagement, you can always charge more.
Blog Post With One Round Of Social
To figure out your one blog post with one round of supporting social rate, which we find to be the most common blogging campaign, you’ll want to combine everything together. See below for an example.
Take the below blogger stats as an example:
- 50k Monthly Pageviews ($2,000)
- 30k Instagram Followers ($3,000)
This would mean you should be starting your negotiations at $5,000 before you add in anything else. There are several things that may factor into the pricing from whitelisting, exclusivity, number of images, turnaround time, and more. Add these to your rate and start from there when you provide your rate.
Other Factors
As we mentioned, there are many other factors and variables that may go into finding your rate. From the client needing image rights to having you travel somewhere to a speedy turnaround or exclusivity.
A few things that can definitely increase your rate to negotiate with include:
- Adding Instastories with swipe up
- Inclusion in your newsletter
- Adding a Reel – this is an entirely different post type, new content and may be posted to your feed, price similarly to a separate Instagram post
- Exclusivity
- Image rights
- Timeline
Plus, if you have really incredible engagement rates, or conversion rates and can quantify that to clients, include that as well and increase accordingly. A few examples to note that can be great negotiating factors are:
- High engagement rates on social media
- High click-through rates and conversions – we recommend providing percentages to showcase your value
- Monthly impressions on social media (we love that Pinterest now shows this to the public)
- Large newsletter subscribers
It’s possible you may be adding in tons of extra things and you end up with a rate of $15,000. Don’t be alarmed by this! Again, your work, your platform, and your time are ALL valuable. When negotiating, list everything out and include pricing for each. This will make it easier for a brand to see your worth and allow them to scale back what they want to make it work for their budget or vice versa.
We hope this guide on how to price yourself as a blogger helps you navigate pricing yourself and your business. Never be afraid to ask for what your time, platform, and influence are worth.
