How to set your sponsored content rates | The business of blogging

As a blogger, one of the hardest things to figure out is how much you should be charging for your content. Companies are often unwilling to pay bloggers unless they set their own rates, and in an industry that’s very closed-doors about how much everyone is charging, it can be difficult to figure out where your ballpark should even be (much less the exact figure that you want to aim for).

Earlier this year, I surveyed a number of fashion, beauty, and lifestyle bloggers to anonymously find out how much they were charging. Here are those results.

Average monthly visitors for the blogs surveyed.

Background information

First off, if you missed the rest of my Business of Blogging series, you can view the first few posts here, or at the links below!

Additionally, I wanted to share a bit of information about the bloggers who took this survey before we begin. Most of the respondents were beauty bloggers (84%), and on average, they posted 2-3 times each week.

The number of unique visits and page views that these blogs saw varied greatly, but they averaged 14 000 monthly unique visitors and 29 000 monthly page views. 63% of bloggers mostly waited to be approached by brands, and there was no significant difference noted in the rates secured by bloggers who took the initiative to approach brands.

Sponsored posts

For a single sponsored post, most bloggers are charging about $250. A further breakdown follows:

100 000+ monthly visitors: $1200-$1800 per post. Average $1500.

$1200-$1800 per post. Average $1500. 10 k to 90 k monthly visitors: $60-$500 per post. Average: $280. Instagram: $15-200 per post. Average: $100.

$60-$500 per post. Average: $280. 50 to 9000 monthly visitors: $10-400 per post. Average: $125. Instagram: $24-$150 per post. Average: $45.

$10-400 per post. Average: $125.

Within each of these tiers, much of the discrepancies can be explained by bloggers’ Instagram follower counts. With almost no exceptions, those with over 15k followers on Instagram were the ones commanding the upper range of each spectrum, and those with under 10k followers were charging the lower end of each.

Blog stats aside, here’s how everyone’s Instagram numbers broke down when examined on their own:

Under 3k followers: $15-$100 per post. Average $30.

$15-$100 per post. Average $30. 3k to 50k followers: $25-$400 per post. Average $125. *Note: this category’s data set was all over the place. Outliers aside, most bloggers in this category charge $100 per post.

Sponsored post rates vs. unique monthly visits. Note: outliers were excluded from this scatter plot because frankly, the rest of the data looked like one big lump with them included. For the full range of the survey, please read the textual content of this post.

Blog sponsorships and banner ads

Far fewer bloggers offered blog sponsorships and banner ads than sponsored posts, but there were more than I had expected! 26% of bloggers offered sponsorships and 34% of bloggers offered banner ads, with sponsorship fees being consistently higher than banner ads.

Over 10 000 monthly visitors: Average sponsorships $300/month, ads $50/month.

Average sponsorships $300/month, ads $50/month. Under 10 000 monthly visitors: Average sponsorships $100/month, ads $35/month.

Event coverage

For event coverage, most bloggers either charged nothing or charged around $200.

Because only 20% of respondents included data for this section, I will not be drawing any additional conclusions.

Overall conclusions & tips for getting a better rate

I’m hoping that these averages will help provide you with a starting block for how much you can be charging if a brand requests specific content or coverage from you, but they’re not at all a definitive guide.

One of the things that I learned while going through these rates was that nowadays, sponsored content rates are no longer only set by page views. Social media is a key determining factors in rate-setting, and a while a difference of 10k page views has no impact on a blogger’s rate at all, a difference of 10k Instagram followers can change the rate that they command by hundreds of dollars.

Instagram stats had the most significant impact on how much bloggers were able to charge, and Bloglovin’ stats seemed to have no influence at all. However, there was one big predictor for who saw the most visitors and those who made the most cash: the top five bloggers surveyed all posted daily or multiple times a day.

In conclusion? If you’re looking to make blogging a living, focus on growing your social stats – primarily Instagram and YouTube; not so much Facebook or Twitter. From there, stay honest, and make sure to update your blog daily if possible!

What are your tips for rate-setting and sponsored content? Leave your do’s and don’ts in the comments below!

Image sources: (1) (2)