How Much Should You Charge for Sponsored Posts?

Do you struggle with knowing how much to charge for sponsored posts? Read this to help you decide your rates!

Someone wrote in recently and said,

“You’ve given us a lot of great information about sponsored posts, but you haven’t yet specifically explained how to know what to charge. Can you elaborate on that?”

Knowing how much to charge for a sponsored post can be difficult — especially when you’re first starting out!

I touched on this slightly in a recent post, but I wanted to give some more specific details on how to figure out what you should charge.

Here’s what I suggest…

What Is Your Time Worth?

When it comes to sponsored posts, it’s so easy to undercharge because you don’t want to miss out on the opportunity.

But the bottom line is that you should charge what your time is worth.

Do not devalue yourself!

When you’re first starting out with sponsored posts, you’ll definitely have to charge less so that you can get your feet wet and build up your portfolio.

But I’m here to tell you that brands have a LOT of money to spend on sponsored posts.

If you think about how much money brands are spending to advertise on television and in magazines (often millions of dollars!), they most definitely have the money to spend on blog and social media advertising!

So be sure to keep this in mind and charge what you feel your time is worth.

Formula for How Much to Charge

If you’re looking for an exact formula to help you figure out how much to charge, here’s a really great one:

Your Hourly Wage x Time It Will Take
+ Extra Costs Involved
+ Extra Money Just In Case
= HOW MUCH TO CHARGE

So let’s break this down a little further:

Your Hourly Wage — What do you feel like is a fair hourly wage for yourself?

If you’re new to blogging, you should be making at least $10-$20 per hour.
If you’re more experienced, you should be making at least $20-$50 per hour.
If you’re more advanced, you should be making $100-$500 per hour.

*Note: There are many things you’ll be doing where you don’t make this wage as a blogger, but when it comes to sponsored posts, you should be charging this much!

Time It Will Take — How much time will it take to do the sponsored post?

This is NOT the place to underestimate. I know it can be scary to put out there what you want to charge, but only you know what your time is worth!

Think about everything involved.

For example, say a brand has paid you to create a recipe post on your blog. Here’s what you’ll have to do:

Figure out details
Buy ingredients
Do research
Make the recipe (maybe multiple times — depending on light, props, camera, taste, trial and error)
Edit the photos
Pay a virtual assistant to make graphics for you
Possibly create a recipe video if the brand wants that

There are often many pieces involved in a sponsored post, so it’s important to think about everything involved as you think about how much time it will take.

Also, don’t forget about the time it will take to write emails back and forth to nail down details of the partnership. That needs to come into play as well!

Extra Costs — There are often extra costs!

For instance, continuing with the recipe example above, here are just a few extra costs you might have:

Mileage costs involved with driving to the store for ingredients or to purchase props for a photo shoot.
Costs of props for the recipe photo shoot or extra ingredients for the recipe while you’re experimenting with what works.
Costs involved with paying an assistant to help you write, edit, or create graphics for the post.

Keep all of these extra costs in mind so that you know how much you’re actually making when it’s all said and done. You don’t want to end up with a much lower profit margin because you invest more money in the post than what you’re actually making!

Extra Money Just In Case — I always try to charge a little more, just in case.

I’ve found that every 4-7 partnerships will have some sort of extra snag involved — where you end up having extra work to do that you weren’t expecting or it’ll take a lot longer that you anticipated.

Just recently for a sponsored post, I had to go back to the store to get more photos and had to do three photo shoots before the brand was happy with the photos.

So that’s why I think it’s important to plan ahead and charge a little bit extra, just in case an unexpected snag comes up!

A Hypothetical Example

This formula will vary for every person, depending on your niche, how long you’ve been blogging, and how much you value your time.

So let’s look at a hypothetical example to give you an idea of some concrete numbers:

Let’s say you’ve been blogging for about a year and you’re just starting out with sponsored posts.

A brand approaches you and asks you to do a post reviewing one of their products.

First, you’ll ask the following questions:

When does the brand want the post done?
Is the brand sending the product for free so that you can review it? Or will that be an extra out-of-pocket expense for you?
Does the brand want a draft of the post ahead of time? (If so, I recommend charging extra.)
How long will it take you to email back and forth to figure out the details, write the post, take good photos, and do social media promotion?

Once you consider all of these questions, you decide that the post will probably take you about seven hours and you’d like to be making $20/hour for your time.

You round up to provide wiggle room for unexpected work that might be involved, so you decide to quote the company $160 for the post and basic social media promotion.

{And if they aren’t sending you the product for free and you’ll need to purchase it out of pocket, add that cost onto the top of what you charge, as well!}

I’d recommend possibly offering them two package options:

The basic post and social media posts — $175
The basic post and social media posts + an IG Story and a FB Live video — $225

We often give various levels of packages for companies to choose from. Companies love having options and will often choose a more expensive package that they never would have thought to had we not offered it to them.

When You Don’t Feel Like You Can Charge

When you’re first starting out as a beginning blogger, it’s easy to feel like your audience isn’t big enough to actually charge for posts or that brands wouldn’t be interested in partnering with you.

Here’s what I first want you to hear:

Brands aren’t necessarily looking for big numbers; they are looking for loyal followings.

However, if you are just starting out and don’t feel comfortable charging, you could always ask for a free product in exchange for a review. This is a great way to get your feet wet and build up your portfolio of brand partnerships.

Once you’ve gained some experience and have at least a few thousand people who follow you, then you should definitely start charging.

Begin with a very small amount per post — maybe something like $25-$50. As the demand increases and/or your site grows, you can start raising your rates!

{For more info on getting started with sponsored posts as a beginning blogger, be sure to read these posts HERE and HERE.}