[FAQ]

Right, so I’ve just had my first proper brand reach out about a sponsored post and I’m a bit lost on what to charge them. It’s exciting, but I honestly have no clue what the going rate is.

I have about 8,000 followers and my engagement is pretty decent. I’ve seen some people mention a ‘£100 per 10,000 followers’ rule, but other people say you should charge based on your engagement rate or the actual work involved in creating the photo or video.

How do you all figure out your pricing? Is there a standard formula you use, or is it just a case of negotiating for each deal? Don’t want to sell myself short but also don’t want to quote something ridiculous.

[Jeff Bullas]

Figuring out your worth is one of the most important steps in professionalising your creator business.

Short Answer: Ditch the outdated ‘per follower’ rule and instead calculate your fee based on a combination of your base reach, your content production costs for the specific image or video, and any usage rights the brand requires.

Treating this like a proper business transaction, where you account for your labour and the value of your various text and video assets, is how you move from being a hobbyist to a professional.

That old rule of one hundred dollars per ten thousand followers is a relic; it completely ignores your engagement rate and the actual work required. A modern pricing model has three parts. First is your base fee, which is tied to your audience metrics like average post reach or video views. Second is your production cost, which is the fee for your actual labour in creating the content; a highly edited video naturally costs more to make than a single static image. The third and most critical component is usage rights. If a brand only wants the content on your feed for a month, that’s one price, but if they want to use that image or video in their own paid advertising campaigns, you must charge a separate, significant fee for those rights. Your final quote to the brand should be a professional package of these three costs combined.

Cheers,

Jeff

[Author]

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