Why Bloggers Can Charge for Sponsored Posts

When reaching out to bloggers you may think to yourself, “why do bloggers charge, it’s not like they are USA Today for god’s sakes! They get to lounge all day in their bathrobes taking pretty pictures with their Canon 70Ds while I have to rot away in this office working a 9 to 5 everyday! Now, that I think about it, maybe I should be a blogger.” Hold on there cowboy, despite what you may think bloggers are not sitting by the television eating Trader Joe’s Speculoos Cookie Butter by the spoonful, lovin life, while their blog magically maintains itself with perfectly curated content. That is not how it works. Blogging is HARD work.

Think about all of the time and effort it takes for a blogger to write a post. There is research involved, preparation at times, photographs to take, editing, materials to buy, and then of course, the post to write. Not to mention, most bloggers have taken years to build up their audience. Sponsored posts are NOT just a little sidebar ad, they are posts carefully and thoughtfully created to showcase your brand directly. A report by Zig Marketing states two thirds of bloggers claim that sponsored branded content is the revenue generator that is the most profitable! 60% of bloggers charge fees to work with a brand to cultivate a sponsored post. As they should! Time is money, after all. Fees can range for brand marketing activities based on how large their platforms are. Obviously, the larger the platform the more dinero you are going to have to shell out for a post.

Clearly, Bloggers can be extremely influential. This article by Fast Company reveals how many top style bloggers are banking in at a million a year! For example, 32 year old Bryan Grey-Yambao also known as Bryanboy last year was paid $40,000 just to show up at Bangkok’s Siam Center for a ribbon cutting ceremony. CRAZYPANTS!

In many ways, bloggers have become celebrities. You have your D rated stars, your A listers, and everything in between. Based on the amount of influence they have, you will pay accordingly for a post. Now, many bloggers use the formula (time spent X hourly rate) + (page views/1000) X Advertising rate = price per post. This seems perfectly reasonable and fair. You are essentially paying for the amount of views you get on your post, labor, and prime blog real-estate.

If the above hasn’t convinced you that you should be paying for a sponsored post, maybe we can make it even a little bit clearer. If you ain’t payin, you probably are not going to get a sponsored post. Projects that are paid take priority (obviously). Because there are many brands that are willing to pay a blogger for a post, you will end up getting the short end of the stick (well in this case, no stick), if you refuse to part with your precious dollar bills. While blogging isn’t your typical 9 to 5, it is a lot of work, and deserves to be treated as such.