Why online creators need to understand that they're worth more

When it comes to commercial collaborations between online creators and companies, it often sounds like they're “asking for a lot of money”. If you ask me, that's wrong: they usually ask just too little money. Here's why — and at the end, I'll also give you tips on how to make conversations about budgets less awkward for yourself.

When I was 18, I was first contacted to write a blog post for a company. Getting paid for something I loved to do was a great honor, but it also involved a difficult issue: how much do you charge for such an assignment? I was thrilled that the company in question agreed to my proposed 50 euro — more than what my parents gave me for a week as a student.

When I told that to a marketer that same night, the pride I was talking about quickly disappeared. I had asked too little, and my argument “that I was so young” did not work for her either. “It's not about your age, it's about the output” she said. It was an epiphany that I remember often.

Three times value

More than ten years later, I myself became the person who used to me at the time chat gave. After all, I see a lot of online creatives — bloggers, podcasters, YouTubers, people with a wide reach on Instagram or TikTok... — still doing commercial jobs for far too little money. By communicating openly about budgets, we become stronger together. This is because several factors play a role in calculating a correct price.

The work

Creating a video, podcast or blog post takes time. Sometimes the brand you're working with expects you to just mention it, but even more often, you have to create something new from scratch. When a company hires someone for that, they should also pay that person or team. For example, to make a simple two-minute video, the invoice would look like this:

Creative concept — 510 euro
Cameraman - half day - 340 euro
Actor — half day — 340 euro
Material — 200 euro
Assembly — half a day — 340 euro
Project management, 20% of the budget — 346 euro

Total price: over 2000 euro. Of course, this is a lot of money — more on that later — but in reality, it will be even more. Four hours of editing will probably not get you there, and chances are that a second actor or extras will be in the picture. When you write a blog post or create TikTok for a company, it takes time. You want to come up with an original approach, write or film, rework or edit... And that time is worth money. As a creative person, it is not uncommon to charge 75 to 90 euros per hour, so that is already a first aspect to take into account. Age does not always play a role here. A young mechanic like Matthias Vollon probably knows better how to edit a video to work on TikTok or Instagram Reels than a fifty-something who has been editing videos and movies for decades. Online communication is a profession in itself — just ask Gen Zers who are strangely surprised by the millennial pause that pops up when people in their thirties have to say something into a camera.

The reach and your target group

Companies don't just contact you because you're good at writing, have a nice voice, or know how to speak smoothly into a camera lens. They see you, in a nutshell, like an advertising panel. The post you create for them is part of their “marketing mix.” They want to get the word out about a new product or service and are thinking about how they do it.

Part of their budget may go to street advertising (one panel costs a few hundred euros a week), via Google (a few euros per thousand people who see the message), or in newspapers (thousands of euros for a one-off publication). In the fight to reach as many people as possible, your post on TikTok — even regardless of the work involved in making a video — is worth a lot of money.

How much that is depends on various factors. After all, one medium is not the other. For example, a thousand podcast listeners are worth more than a thousand viewers on a TikTok video, because the former is much more focused than just scrolling through your For You page. There are figures about every medium, but they don't tell everything either.

Another factor is your target audience. Some groups are more difficult to reach because they no longer watch television and certainly don't read newspapers (young people), or are very interesting for specific reasons. You can also see that in traditional media: those who want to go on a double page once in the weekend publicizing in De Tijd and L'Echo pays 119,010 euros excluding VAT for this, while the paper newspaper has a reach of “only” 84,217 readers. According to the newspaper's sales department, those readers do own 43% of Belgian financial assets. Advertising to that target group is therefore very attractive — and therefore more expensive. You can also do that online.

An ad in our tech podcast Computer Club costs a lot more than that in other podcasts, according to figures you'd find online. It states that a sponsorship read by a host would cost between 25 and 40 dollars per 1,000 listeners — we're at 500 because we reach a target group of IT people.

The more you know about your target group, the better. That's why a more homogeneous group works better than a larger, more heterogeneous group because people know very well who they can reach by working with you.

Your image

By collaborating with a brand, your image also reflects theirs. Please note that you cannot enter into collaborations on a regular basis, or you will burn out and be considered too commercial. At Computer Club, for example, we only do this for special episodes (50, 100, 150...) and all money goes back to merchandise that we raffle for free among listeners.

Nine tips for talking about budgets as a creative

Few mating dances are as awkward as those between two people who have to negotiate a budget. Nevertheless, it is a conversation where everyone wins: the first wants what the second can make, the second wants to be paid correctly by the first.

There is no exact science for presenting a correct budget to a customer. I remember well how, when we first started Hartstikke, someone on the phone asked for our daily price. I was going to say 450 euro but heard myself 'uh, 500 euro! ' say, then, to my surprise, the person on the other end of the line agreed. Four years later, I realize why that went so smoothly: even that daily rate was too low. Aim high and see what is achievable. As an online creative, calculate a price based on your time, your target group and your image, and ask “if it's in line with what the customer had foreseen”. It doesn't hurt to raise your price once in a while and gauging reactions.

If you are too expensive, you can look for a solution together. Don't give a discount immediately by lowering your price, but be more creative. Maybe you can make two Instagram posts instead of three within the budget they had foreseen. This way, you won't detract from what you're worth.

You can only do that if you shows how a budget is structured. So many hours go into creation, so many hours into project management, so many hours into concept... The more you know about your target group, the better. Afterwards, also prepare a brief report. How many times has what you made been watched or listened to? How many posts did you post about it?

You can also feel free to ask for a target budget — because it's to everyone's advantage if the expectations are right from the start. Just like an architect will quickly ask you what your budget is so he knows if he can build a bungalow or a castle, you can ask the same for your work. How many hours can you spend on finishing? If you then give people the choice between an option for a cheap budget and a more expensive budget, you're off for a good partnership.

Realize that business money is not the same as personal money. When you're just starting out, the amounts you're asking someone seem high. The 50 euro that I 'dared' ask as a student to write a blog post is like a piece of cake for a company. Personally, I'm unsure about buying 50 euro; if I have to buy multiple of them for Hartstikke, I'll transfer it between soup and fries. Chances are, the person you're negotiating with doesn't even own the company. In that case, he or she even has no personal relationship with the budget at all, but sees it as a game of money that should be spent smartly on the one hand, but also on the other hand. upon must. That person is simply weighing similar alternatives.