If you’ve been reading my weekly blog tip posts, then you know by now I am a huge advocate of collaborating/guest posting in order to grow your audience and get brands to pay you. But how on earth do you get noticed by people you want to collaborate with? There is no secret sauce…
The answer is simple and grueling: you cold e-mail a ton of bloggers or publishers, and you offer to blog for free…a lot.
Until one day, your freelance blog experience is “worthy” enough to charge for.
Even when you can start charging, things can get sticky when the situation of money comes up and you finally get a brand to want to pay you for your skills. Brands want to save money and you want to make money so it’s a tug of war. Questions like, ‘When can I start charging, how much do I charge, and what do I base my rate on?’ will flash in your mind.
You want to choose a price that doesn’t scare brands away, but also doesn’t undercut your worth. Here are 3 tips that will absolutely show you how to get brands to pay you to blog for them:
Use the 100 rule
I recently read about the 100 rule, which reveals your worth based on your experience. If you’ve written 100 blog posts, given 100 speeches, or spent 100 hours training people, you can deem yourself an expert. (Does this mean Zanita is, like, the grandmother of experts? Hmm…love you Z!)
You can also use the rule of 100 as a negotiating mechanism. More experience = more money. Don’t settle for the first offer, explain what rate you want (a typical blogger charges based on experience, time it will take, and audience reach) and why you want it (because of your 300+ blog posts and 7,000 unique visitors).
Prepare a media kit
Media kits are the modern day resume with a twist. Because blogging is a results-driven and traffic heavy industry, media kits are the bomb.com. (We even have one for Zanita Studio!) They show your organic reach, social media following, returning blog visitors, e-mail list subscribers, etc. all right there. How convenient is that?
Media kits also show your social reach, meaning how many people will see your posts. The brand’s goal is to have bloggers get the brand collaboration in front of as many eyes as possible because it creates “brand awareness”.
Once you have this prepared, you’re able to negotiate your rate by showing you’ve done X, Y, Z and your social reach is growing at a rate of X percent. (If you’re confused, comment below and I’ll help!)
Blog tip: If your following isn’t that great, make a media kit anyway and instead of adding exact numbers use “growing Instagram” or “growing YouTube” to describe your audience.
Add in bonuses
Because you’re not the only blogger trying to get paid, you’re going to need to offer something no one else is offering: bonuses. As a blogger, it’s your job to produce really, really, really outstanding content. You want to offer undeniable value and talent that brands will instantly recognize. Remember blogging is a job, so to give a good impression, you want to go above and beyond.
Try offering brands a great blog post and…
+ SEO packed article
+ images you sourced yourself (i.e. you own them)
+ delivery time in less than 24 hours (depending on the project)
+ relevant internal/external linking
+ analytics report
+ social media posts
Like anything else in life, if you want to get paid doing what you love, you’re going to have to work really hard and smart until you get it.
What are your best negotiation tips? Tell us in the comments below.
xx Britt
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Don’t forget to check out our latest courses: Chloe Morello: Building Your Audience on YouTube | Zanita Studio: Content Strategy for Bloggers | Ben Orkin: Food Styling & Photography Basics
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