Are Bloggers and Podcasters Selling Themselves Short?
How to know the right price? There is no guide for bloggers and/or podcasters to follow as the industry we are in is so new. A month ego a blogger/podcaster exchange a day of advertising to any company that send him an iPhone, and he certainly got not only one but more than one. We are not going to discuss whether this approach is good or bad, but the implication of selling time and space for advertising on your blog. Immediately some other bloggers/podcasters criticized him for taking this position stating that he was selling himself short.
I’m not going into names because the main point that I want to bring is to how you value your time, effort, blog, etc. Let’s say that you are selling your business and let’s imagine that you are a business owner that for health reasons you have to sell your business. It is you and only you the one that can determine the value of your business and this is a very important part of business decision.
You need gather a basic amount of information to determine if you are really selling yourself short or not. First of, find out how your industry is dealing with similar issues, it will be harder to get some input from guys like Leo Laporte from Twit, but other smaller entities in this medium may be able to share some thoughts with you. Find out what your base of costumers is, how loyal they are to you and your brand.
This is why keeping good metrics for your site is very important, knowing your visitors and every other stat that you can get will be useful to make important decisions. I would recommend that you use an external service for your stats count, metrics tools from your own site are often not as credible as those from external sources. Find out how to use tools like Feedburner, Google Analytics, among others to keep your numbers straight.
What have you put into your business? In the business world the assets of a company accounts for what the business is worth, by taking into consideration what you have put into your business will help in part to know what to charge for advertising. At the time of selling a business, a good and accurate asset count fills out the gap of knowing what your hardware and brand are worth. Other than thinking on the possibility of selling your business, knowing what your equipment cost helps you setting up prices for your ads or services by calculating the cost of replacing your equipment over time.
The last piece of advice has to do with income, how much income you need to survive doing just what you’re doing. If you have a day job and blog as a hobby then this is not as important as it sounds, but if you are thinking of blogging as a career then you should be aware of every aspect of income needed to survive. Having multiple sources of income is very important also, as it helps you make up for lost income from over venues.
You should do a simple exercise, add all your bills in one single month, then add some overhead for emergencies and savings. Multiply the result by twelve (representing the twelve months in a year) and divide the result by 2,080. The figure you see is your hourly rate if you where to charge by the hour to any client, of course this is a minimum number, you should always aim to double the figure.
For advertising the rule changes a little, calculate the total amount of advertising you do then split the figure taking into consideration space and time. The longer a single add runs the more expensive will be, also the bigger the size is the more you should charge. Another way of charging for space is by specifying whether multiple advertisers will share the space or it will have its own dedicated spot on your site.
Never make important decisions like starting your own business without consulting someone, talk to your spouse, parents, friends, or an accountant before making big decision that can affect your finances. Ultimately, you are the owner of your time and if you think that exchanging a product for advertising is the way to go, then go ahead and do so. After all, you could claim and what you did was just part of a test related to the industry you are talking about in your blog or podcast.
I’m passionate about technology, I love to talk about tech without boundaries. However, my background is in accounting, feel free to ask as many questions you like about the subject. Leave your comments or questions on this post or send me a direct message using the form provided in the Drop-a-line tab of my website. Thanks for reading.
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