Why you should never work for free - AMBITIOUS DESERT QUEEN

How to get paid by brands on social media?

Today I decided to write a little about the ugly side of working and being a Blogger and Content creator. I feel like nowadays people are starting to share more about the good and bad which I find is very good information for people to know and find out, just so you know what you are potentially getting yourself into. More positively, what you potentially can expect, and how to have the confidence to renegotiate and make a living on the valuable content that YOU provide.

So here is the Tea!?

SO even though brands and content creators are a relatively newer way to inform and sale to people about the brands product and/or services they may have. SOME brands, (because I will not say all because that would be a false statement) WILL definitely try to run over you , and get what ever they can out of you for either a SUPER low rate, or product gifting, and/ or try to offer you a little code to share to your audience. ALL for 2-3 post, a blog post, exclusivity (I will touch on this later), and MORE! Does that sound familiar? They want YOU to provide all the content to make their lives and company budgets easier, but leave your company and bank accounts empty?

What is sad, is some content creators that do not know any better. But as we are gaining more traction and having get together like sharing experiences on apps like Clubhouse, things are starting to get a little better, and many of us are starting to realize our worth.

CLICK HERE to find out HOW TO GET BRAND COLLABORATIONS

What your resume should show as a content creator

Once I go over what all you potentially do as a BUSINESS owner, content creator, blogger It will kind of blow your mind because I myself didn’t fully realize that I was doing all of these tasks until I sat down with one of my friends who is in same industry as a a content creator and we talked about it. So with out further ado let me show you what our job entails daily..

1) We are Writers and Editors: If you blog or they ask you to write a blog post or a review about them

2) We are Planners: We have to plan outfits, shop, plan and search locations, while even some of us still working a full time job.

3) we are Student’s of our craft: Meaning we have to constantly learn and stay informed on our specific niches.

4) We are Lawyers: We write contracts, work with lawyers, negotiate pay, deliverables, read over brands mutual contracts

5) We are Photographers: Some of us hire photographers so we have to pay them, but majority of us are our OWN photographers, and editors of photos and videos.

6) We our Analyst: we have to analyze daily data to see what post did well versus what content did not, and improve

7) We are Models: We model clothes, jewelry, and more.

8) We are Administrators: We are answering DM’s, emails, scheduling work, meetings, and more

9) We are the Face of our company: We speak to our audiences, we test out the products/ services just so we can verify if a certain brands align with us, and as well as align with our blogs, and social media platforms.

And honesty l could keep going on and ON with this list. It is a lot sometimes for those of us who do this completely fulltime , and I could only imagine alot for us in this industy who still work full time jobs ON TOP of working our businesses.

So everything WE do with our business in this industy should NOT be taken for granted by any other company/brand, because guess what??!!

YOU are a Brand

and

YOU are YOUR company.

Why you should charge for your content

If all the reasons I stated that you can add to your resume were not enough! 😉

You should realize you bring VALUE. Companies have reached out to you for a reason. Do not forget that!!

Also, realize that companies are already getting a major discount for hiring us as content creators as a whole because they are getting everything they would normally have to pay multiple teams for, all within one company, or one person, which is YOU. A company would typically be paying thousands of dollars just for what they are asking of you.. but some companies will literally try to get everything they would pay an average of $5-10K for normally when hiring an advertisement\marketing team, models, photographer, editors, plus regular salaries of all the normal employees. and they try to make you work for FREE or for FREE product, or FREE exposure, or whatever they say.. Do you see why this is not okay,and why they are taking advantage of content creators, and bloggers?

A website to find an rough estimate of what you should be charging CLICK HERE

Why you should charge extra for your work

1) Charge for Duration of products: So if a company reaches out and states they want you to work and/ or provide a certain amount of content for more than 1 months. Guess what? You can charge extra for that.

2) Charge for exclusivity and usage rights: This is sometimes hidden with in contracts and you NEED to catch this and never accept this, UNLESS they are paying you for your work. What this means is lets say a company states they want to work with you exclusively is, the company is typically taking your rights away from working with ANY other similar brand during the agreed duration of working together.

So for example, lets say you got an offer to work with COMPANY A, but they state in contract that they are only giving your product payment, and they have stated exclusivity from working with others brands for 3 months.

What this means is, IF during these 3 months you agreed to work with COMPANY A.. COMPANY B comes along while you are still in your contract with COMPANY A. COMPANY B states hey we love your work, we will pay you $5K for producing content for 3 months… YOU will not be able to take that offer, and you will loose out on $5K all because you chose a FREE exclusivity and/ or didn’t read your contract.

3) Usage rights: Anytime a company tries to get your work for free PLEASE turn this down.. Usage rights are another hidden term that you will see in contracts. What this means is, once you provide photos, videos, blog post, etc to a company. This content is NOT yours anymore, so you can not get paid further from it. A reason why you should never give your usage rights away is:

it’s your work
A company could make millions and have your content forever while you do not get anything in return

3) Tight deadlines: You can charge extra if a company is requesting a tight deadline for you to provide all deliverables

Stating this, you should ALWAYS charge for your work, no matter what because you bring value whether you want to realize it or not. You should also always REMEMBER that you can charge extra from exclusivity, usage rights, and more. It is very important you stay educated on legal, and do not be afraid to have a lawyer look over contracts as well.