Business How-To: Paying Professional Bloggers

Bonnie Harris writes for the Wax Marketing blog on marketing and PR. The following is one of her posts.

“Thank you to professional writer and blogger Beth Graddon-Hodgson for giving us the insider info on how pro bloggers work…and how to pay them. Check out her website or follow Beth on Twitter

As many companies jump on the blogging bandwagon, they’re faced with one major dilemma as they wonder “what the heck do we pay these people?” The problem is that there are companies and independent writers who have set standards that go to two extremes – those who accept bottom dollar rates just to get the business, and those who gouge their clients for all that they’re worth. With this in mind, most companies have the wrong idea about reasonable payment.

There is no right and wrong when it comes to paying bloggers. Industry standards are dictated over pricing trends from the past few years since professional blogging services are a relatively new offering. Blogging is also a very vague term that is used to describe the writing and posting to a blog; but depending upon what’s going up there varying levels of effort can be required.

There might be no distinct figure about what you should pay your blogger, but here are some things to keep in mind when you’re looking to hire someone and when you’re negotiating rates.

• Make sure your needs and wants are defined – what will your blogger be responsible for posting on your blog? Will they simply be including short, informative pieces with one or two online resources required? Will they be doing longer investigative pieces where they require original sources? Will they be responsible for interviewing industry professionals and compiling information? Will there be more extensive SEO techniques applied and in-depth keyword research required? If only one style of post will be used; one standard rate should be reflective of that. Otherwise, expect your blogger to set a rate or rate range for each style.
• Expect a flat rate – most bloggers will quote you a flat rate per post versus an hourly or monthly rate. This makes it easy to track and sets clear guidelines. Once you’ve agreed upon the posting schedule this will help you to budget accordingly.
• Determine how reasonable rates are by looking at it on an hourly basis – I believe in setting middle of the road rates that are affordable to my clients regardless of the size of their business, but also those that are reasonable for me and my writers taking on the project. I find the best way to look at it is to break down the rates on an hourly basis. If you’re doing a series of short 250 word posts, estimate how long you expect it to take. If it’s possible to do within a half an hour, $20 or $30 per post might not sound like much; but the blogger will be happy because that could break down to $40-$60+ an hour. Plus, those are rates that you can fit into your own budget as a business.

If you do the math and rates seem too low, you might feel like you’re getting a good deal but then you’ve got to consider who you’re working with. There’s a big difference between bloggers who know they’ve got to set affordable rates when dealing with businesses or all sizes and revenue levels, and those who are just desperate to rake in the work because of lack of experience.

The care and feeding of your blogger is essential, because once you’ve found the right one the benefits to your business are extensive! Don’t be afraid to ask questions and understand why their rates are what they are. Remember, the rules to blogging payment are being written as we go along since it has a short history as a professional service and true industry standards have yet to be set.

Beth Graddon-Hodgson is the founder of WriteSourcing..  They offer a range of professional writing and editing services, with a focus upon blogging and SEO usage to increase the online presence of businesses big and small.”

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