Influencer

From sunrise to sunset I am forever grateful to be your wife and your mother

add these two together, and that is how much you should charge. You can take a look at this handy, dandy chart that will provide you with a healthy range for each tier.

you’re writing a blog post, self-producing a photo/video shoot, or working on set, those things take time and time is money. If you’re just beginning, you might start at $25 an hour and increase your hourly rate as you have more experience and campaigns under your belt. Activities under this hourly rate will differ depending on the campaign, but should include:

• Negotiating with the casting agent (1 hour)

• Reading the brief and researching the advertiser (2 hours)

• Scouting and securing a location (2 hours)

• Creating a mood board of the shoot (2 hours)

• Shooting the content (up to 10 hours)

the content. This number includes all costs associated with the campaign and your hourly rate. To figure out a basic minimum budget, calculate the cost of:

• Your photographer/photo editor

• The space where you’ll be shooting (hotel room, Airbnb, etc.)

• Any props you’ll need to purchase (food, candles, flowers, balloons)

• Any clothing you’ll need to buy (Sometimes a campaign will cause you to shoot off-season—a winter fashion spread in the summer—and you’ll need to buy new clothes so the content looks fresh when you post it months later.)

Then you need to factor in your hourly rate. Whether

I LOOOOOVE XYZ INFLUENCER.” That’s a win for them and a BIG win for you. Similarly, if you’re an amazing dancer, or make the best-looking cakes, they’re also paying for access to your skills—which you have probably spent years honing—to make this piece of content really stand out. Skills = Time, and Time = Money.

5. Demographics. This is when it definitely pays to have a niche. If a brand is looking for college students who live in a particular city and would die to have their new eye palette, and that’s your audience, you’re instantly much more valuable to a brand than another influencer who only speaks to one of those target demos.

Your talent fee is how much it actually costs you to create

. Quality of Content. If brands are contacting you, your content is good, but how good is it? I’ve worked on campaigns where the content was so good, it was dropped right onto a billboard, into a magazine, or turned into a television commercial. This is your goal, not only because it solidifies your status as a true content creator, but also because that kind of usage is premium and you can make more money!

4. Name/Facial Recognition/Skills. More often than not, brands will share your content on their social channels, and it’s usually received very well by their audience. But if the influencer has a recognizable name/face, when the brands share, the comments turn from “great shot” to “OMG

have.

2. Engagement. Of all your followers, what percentage of people liked/commented on your content in the past month? How do you know you’ve made it? When your engagement on branded content posts is as high, or even higher, than your organic content. If this is true for you, like it is for @effortlyss, shout it from the hilltops. This tells me you are making wise decisions with the money brands give you, investing in production quality (e.g., renting a unique space for the backdrop, hiring a professional videographer, etc.) to make sure the content performs. These are the sorts of things that make me happy, and when I am happy I give you more money!

Distribution Fee + Talent Fee = What You Should Charge

Let’s start by understanding the difference between your distribution fee and your talent fee.

Your distribution fee is how much it costs to be featured on your channel/blog. Keep in mind this price can vary greatly based on five factors:

1. Follower Count. This is simply how many followers you

pages can be the difference between getting hired and getting passed over.

Before you start putting yourself out there for everyone to see, you’ll need to make sure your digital house is in order. Whenever you reach out to someone, or if your name comes across their inbox, the first thing they will do is google you. As I said in Chapter 1, one of your first search results should be your website, and it’s really important that your site is top-notch. When someone is casting for a campaign, the pages of your site are where they are going to find all the information that makes them want to hire you. Three simple