Monetising Your Blog: How Do You Set Blog Rates?

The excitement of finally being ready to monetise can often be stalled at the first hurdle- what do you charge?! Whether its banner ads, sponsored posts or full brand campaigns there is very little out there to guide bloggers on what they should be charging.

First off you need to work out what you’d like to offer. Banner ads will be easier to price as the format is pretty standard. Sponsored posts however will be a little trickier due to the fact sponsored posts can take various forms. In some cases you’ll be provided with product or an invitation to an event, and in some cases not.

No simple answer

The answer to really understanding what you should be charging is unfortunately trial and error! Especially when you’re starting out you are going to have to feel your way around the market and work out what people are willing to pay. We would however recommend never going below around £30 per sponsored post! If you find people are consistently unwilling to pay you this than unfortunately you might not be as ready as you thought to start charging.

What do you want from the brand?

If you’re struggling to work out what to charge, is to take a good look at the brand that have approached you. Are they a brand you’d like to build a relationship with over time? If so perhaps negotiate prices a little and don’t go too high. Instead ask to discuss how they might see the relationship developing over time. Will there be any future benefits? Do you care about being associated and working with this brand? If the answer to these questions is yes weight up the various opportunities that could come your way and consider being a little lenient with your prices! However on the flipside, if it’s clear this is a one off and neither the brand nor you have any interest in moving forward consider raising your prices accordingly!

Time is money

If you’re considering a sponsored post, the very first thing you should do is work out exactly how much time you’ll be spending on it. If you’re expected to write the post take in consideration how long you plan to spend on this. Feed this information back to the brand and let them know your rates. If you need to travel to an event to review something, again take the time into consideration. If you’re getting a free meal or product the travel might be worth it. If not factor this into what you plan to charge.

It all comes down to page views

When getting down to the nitty-gritty of exact numbers, it often comes down to how many page views you get, especially with banner ads. A simple way of working this out is to charge around £1 per 1000 monthly views. So a blogger with 50’000 monthly views might charge about £50 a month for an ad. This is a fairly common way for bloggers to work out there ad rates, and is often what brands and advertisers will themselves suggest. If you’re looking to build on this you could always offer to add in extra social coverage for a fee!

If you have any additional questions about blog rates feel free to get in touch with with any questions!