Hello my fellow bloggers! Ah, I’m back to being a good girl and today I want us to share with each other. I don’t have all the answers, just sharing my opinion. I was asked a few days ago “How much should bloggers charge for ads”? and frankly that was not the first time I was being asked that question but before I give my own opinion on how much bloggers should charge I would like to answer other questions:
WHY SHOULD BLOGGERS CHARGE?
You see, over time I have received requests from brands, persons, businesses who would like me to share some of their products/services on my blog at for free. In the past I used to but not anymore…(lol this is NOT about the Range Rover). I’ll tell you why.
I remember a few months ago I got an email from someone with a “growing business” and “no budget“ for advertising who wanted to showcase on my platform, I said Ok, and I did. Two days later after I did I found the ad of this brand on other bigger blogs since I had a relationship with those blogs I asked if the brand paid and they said “Of course”…ah! So I was the “mumu”? I did think it was really unfair.
Why should you charge as a blogger:
- Blogging takes up a lot of my time, at least 4 hours of my day every day. I blog an average of 5 days a week.
- The brands will get value for being on my platform.
- Personal blogging demands energy, creativity to make it work.
- I have to eat and make a living. We all have to eat.
- PHCN, Internet, Editing Tools, etc cost a lot.
- Time na money.
The ministry needs to move.
HOW MUCH SHOULD BLOGGERS CHARGE?
Even I am still learning and working on this; this is a grey area because blogging is still pretty new in Nigeria and prices are not set in stone as there’s no industry standard yet. However, it all boils down to the value you are giving and the level of engagement your blog creates. How many unique page views do you have per post/day? How many comments per post on average? How popular is your blog? The more you offer the higher you can command.
I will not say xxx is exactly how much you should charge for your ads but I will give you pointers on how to define your rates:
– One tip I used was to get the blog rates for some blogs in my niche and compare to what I was charging. I also compared their popularity and metrics to mine and that helped to define my rates.
– You can also choose to charge per hour, so maybe 5000 naira for every hour you spend writing a sponsored post. That would not work for a blog banner; social media mentions etc… but could help you attach value to time spent.
– A formula I used also to determine my blog post ad is this : “daily unique visitor count, multiplied by ten, as a base fee per ad” i.e 1000 views per day = 10k per blog post, 2000 views per day = 20k and I built the rest of my rates from there.
– You can also try the random pricing which I did, set a fee for yourself even if it’s 1 million naira and see how many people patronize you on the rates you charge. You might find that you’re charging way too high if you get no response. Adjust accordingly.
P.s You can also custom charge, provide different rates and packages so that no matter how small or big a brand/business is they can always find a rate that would be suitable.
Lets move the ministry!
WHAT SHOULD BLOGGERS CHARGE FOR?
GIVEAWAYS: Depending on the value of what is being given away the charge might vary. Why do I charge a fee for giveaways? The reader gets it free, but my platform is not free because the brand gets a certain level of engagement on the giveaway posts. So I would typically charge a small standard fee as admin charges because I need to write the post, take photos, share on social media…that’s work isn’t it?
REVIEWS: I would charge nothing if I voluntarily picked a product to review but if I was contacted by a company to review a product (which ordinarily is not in my plan to review) there will be a charge because these brands would like their products to be showcased in a type of way, regardless my review will be objective. However, if the value of the item for review is considered as high, there would be no charges. I would review a G-Wagon for free 😀
VIDEOS: Making a video is hard work: concept, filming, editing, and publishing takes a lot of time and effort. How many wedding videographers will film for free? Because I do believe I have a skill in this I request for payment if I have to showcase a product/tutorial.
SOCIAL MEDIA SHARES: The more engagement you have on these platforms the more you can charge. If you have 100,000k twitter followers (bought or real) and you hardly get mentions or RT’s, then that’s not engagement. You can charge as low as 1k per day for a certain number of tweets depending on how much engagement you have.
EVENTS: Yes ke. If your presence at an event is going to give more value to it then you should get paid. The only instance where payment will be forfeited is if the brand advertises on your platform…so you see, either ways you get paid. Also if you’re invited to take photos of the event and share on your blog I believe you should get compensated as well.
Please share with me how you came up with your ad rates and what you think bloggers should charge for so we can all learn from one another. *now hold hands lets sing Kumbaya as we all move the ministry to the permanent site*
