The Value of Bloggers & Why They Should Be Paid Fairly
I'm an ethical fashion & conscious life style blogger and I'm incredibly underpaid for the time and effort I put into The Honest Consumer. I think many bloggers can relate. It's a full time job and there are a lot of brands that want free promotion. I've worked hard building an organically grown community of conscious consumers and that is valuable.
The Value Bloggers Bring to Brands
If I believe in your mission and product, I can put your brand in front of an incredible community with thousands of consumers who take pride in what they purchase.
That is worth something. The work that goes into one blog post for a single brand is a lot.
3 Ways my Blog Posts Benefit Brands
SEO Boost: I’ve taken multiple SEO classes and have over 2000+ posts that rank in the top 50 results of various Google searches in my niche. A high quality write-up written by somebody who knows SEO and has a large website following actually has the ability to boost Google’s trust in your brands website.
Photographs: For brands getting styled photography is huge. Styled photographs help consumers relate to the product and draw in followers, growing the brands community. I spend time styling products and taking high quality lifestyle images with a high quality camera.
Product Review: As an established ethical fashion and sustainable lifestyle blogger if I love your product and give it a good review on the blog, this can increase the trust new customers might have in your brand.
It's Unethical to Ask Bloggers to Do All This Without Compensation
A lot of brands want free promotion...and on occasion I’ve done a pro-bono post or two because I'm passionate about social impact + small business and I want to spread the word. I'm not just in it for the money (if I was I wouldn't have lasted this long).
But blogs are businesses too and I have to keep my business afloat. In a sense, I feel that it is unethical for companies to ask for all these values bloggers bring, for free.
While I do understand that social enterprises and ethical fashion brands typically work on a small budget, if we're advocating for fair wages for those behind the products and positive social impact, I think the ones putting effort into raising awareness of the products should be fairly paid too.
Call me vain, but I think bloggers bring some very valuable assets to the table and deserve to be compensated fairly.
It costs money to run a blog.
As I said blogs are businesses too and it costs money for me to keep my website live, running, and updated. Along with other small business owner expense such as photo editing software, accounting software, social media scheduling programs, and more.
I have to charge enough to cover my costs and be able to pay myself…something I’m still struggling with.
I’ve spent years building my website and social media following.
I have spent years of my life, a lot of time, and energy growing my social media platforms organically and creating quality content. There is value in my following and if you’re hoping to use my following to spread your mission that deserves fair compensation.
Brands Can See Bloggers Work Before Paying for Services
Bloggers have an open portfolio with all their previous work on their blog. Typically brands can tell if their writing, photography, style, and audience is worth paying for because it's all online. If a brand is approaching a blogger, typically that means they've checked out their previous work and see value in it. So the brand should be willing to provide fair compensation for that value.
Some brands inquire about immediate sales as a response to a bloggers post. Sales are a process which is why building long term partnerships between trust worthy brands and bloggers matters. Especially in the conscious and ethical community, I don't think immediate sales are always the result of successful collaboration.
As a blogger I can't promise you immediate sales. And I can't promise you that your product will resonate with everyone in my community. But I can tell you that brand awareness is incredibly valuable in business. This can help build your brands community and eventually lead to dedicated customers and repeated sales down the line.
But Bloggers Get Paid In Product…
Now that's just silly. Product doesn't pay the bills. Product is what essentially creates the bulk of the work. "Product payment" doesn't account for the time I spend on the phone, researching, writing, styling, reviewing, & photographing.
I spend a minimum of three hours per post and that doesn't include general website upkeep. And I post new content regularly. Plus I can’t pay my rent in product.
So what can we do??
As consumers we can help by…
As consumers just value the blog posts. Know that a lot of time went into putting the post together and try not to hate on people's work. Support bloggers by commenting and sharing their posts to show your support!
Brands can help by being more aware.
As a brand reflect on the ethics of asking a blogger to provide styling, photography, social media posting, & a written piece for free and keep that in mind as you go forward in your business.
When a blogger presents their rates be respectful Feel free to respectfully ask about past partnerships to better understand their pricing, but do NOT continue to push for partnerships without compensation.
Consider responding with this is something you’ll consider as your marketing budget continues to grow or ask if the blogger would be willing to workout some kind of payment plan.
As someone who regularly receives A TON of requests wanting me to promote products for free, it’s exhausting, draining, and leaves me feeling undervalued as I have to continue justifying my prices and try to make the brands see the value in what I do.
All brands, but especially ethical brands need to be held accountable for paying those promoting their goods fair wages.