Updated on August 12th, 2024
It can be an exciting opportunity when you reach the point of working with brands as a blogger. You can be sent products to share and review on your blog or be paid to publish a post about the brand. Even though most brands I have worked with over the years have been amazing, there are some downsides to working with brands.
Collaborations Fall Through
A brand reaches out to you, or you reach out to them. You give them your address to be sent a product to review on your blog. You get excited about working with the brand, and then nothing happens. From there, you can follow up by email. They can either never reply or tell you they moved on to a different campaign.
A recent example of a collaboration that fell through was when I was going to be sent a product to share on my blog. I gave them my address and was shortly sent an email from the website stating that it had been shipped. However, the package ended up being returned due to an incorrect address. I gave them my address again based on the shipping format on their website, and they said they would resend it. A month goes by, and I do not get a shipping email or any emails from them, and I follow up again. They stated that the package was returned again, which made no sense. They also said they would look into the problem. Some more time passes, and I do not hear anything else. I sent another email asking if they looked into the problem, and I never heard from them again.
There are also numerous times when a brand has reached out to me, or I reach out to them. I gave them my address, and they replied that they are only working with bloggers in the UK. I state in my social media bio and on the About Me page of my blog that I am living in Denmark, so it is especially disappointing when the brand was the one to reach out to me first, and the collaboration fell through because they assumed I lived in the UK. If you are a blogger who is working with brands, be aware that every potential collaboration might not come to fruition.
Negotiating Pay Rate
When you work with brands on a sponsored post, there comes a point where you will negotiate your pay rate. Some brands accept your pay rate right away, while many brands will try to get you to lower your rate. It can be time-consuming going back and forth in emails to reach a pay rate that is fair and acceptable to you. There was one ridiculous exchange where I told the brand representative my pay rate, and they returned with a low offer. Whenever I returned with a counteroffer, they lowered the price of their initial offer! There are also countless examples of emails I said no thank you to because their final offer was too low. Furthermore, there are times when they were just looking to publish a free post on my blog.
Chasing Payments
With blogging, you are often expected to produce the work before you are paid. If you have published a sponsored post or were paid to publish a post in combination with a gifted product, you most likely have had to chase a payment at some point. Chasing payments happen when you are not paid in a timely manner for the published post. You can go 1 or 2 weeks without payment and send follow-up emails. You will either be unanswered or told the payment will be made soon. By the third or fourth week, you can remove the post because you doubt you will ever be paid.
I have reached the point twice in the past 6 months where I removed the post, and later the brand representative emailed me to republish the post. The worst instance was when I removed the post after not receiving payment for 3 weeks, and I was told before then that the payment would be made soon. Then a whole month passed before they emailed me to republish the post! I requested payment first, and they actually paid me within 4 days! These instances are frustrating because, for most other jobs, you are paid on time for the work you do. However, with blogging, you can be paid the same day or have to chase payment after not being paid for a month.
Meeting Brand Expectations
Some brands understand the time and work it takes to write and edit the post and take photos of the items you were gifted. However, other brands expect the work to happen immediately. I was sent a product to share on my blog, but the delivery date was after the initial deadline they wanted the post published. I explained the situation, and we agreed upon a new date. Also, I told them when the package was delivered and that I would still publish the post by the new date.
I published the post on time and sent them the link. They had changes they wanted me to make to the post, and I made the changes within 2 hours of them emailing me. Then they approved the post and paid me but had the audacity to tell me I was slow to work with. They also said my post was poor quality, which was just the cherry on top of the collaboration.
In comparison, there are brands I have worked with 2-3 times, which is a testament to the quality of collaborations I do. I am currently working with a brand for a second time, and they told me they were happy with how the first collaboration went. I was reliable and punctual, so they wanted to work together again! Most brands have reasonable expectations, but as mentioned above, there can be times when you cannot meet their expectations.
Time Constraints
When you are a hobby blogger or writing a post that is not in collaboration with a brand, you can take your time to work on the post and publish it when it is ready. You may have a specific date you want to publish a post, such as a seasonal-related post before that season, but generally, the time constraint is minimal. However, you are usually put on a time constraint when you work with brands. You may have a specific date or a general deadline, such as the first week of the month. Meeting the deadline can cause extra stress, especially if you have other obligations.
In general, I can publish the post by the deadline. However, there are instances where I cannot meet the deadline because I am waiting for the gifted item to be delivered or I have a lot going on outside of blogging that causes the post to be delayed. Most brand representatives are understanding in these situations. However, others may see you as unreliable if you cannot publish the post on time, which goes along with my previous point of not always being able to meet brand expectations.
Creativity or Lack Thereof
Some brands will leave the post completely up to you, and they will only specify a link they want you to include in the post. This allows you to be creative when it comes to the content of the post. However, it can be both a positive because you can use your creativity and a negative because you can be stuck on what to write. On the other hand, some brands may give you an outline for what to write. They can state what they want the intro and copy to include, as well as subheadings and links. In this instance, your creativity is limited because the post is clearly outlined for you, and you just fill in the blanks.
A good middle option is when brands have a general guideline to follow. For example, they will state what they want the post to be about, but you can still be creative with the content. Depending on the brand you work with and their expectations for the post, it will determine how creative you can be when writing the post.
You have a lot of experience working with brands, congrats! Having brands never reply to your emails sounds quite annoying.
Thanks! For the most part, I’ve enjoyed working with brands, but it is annoying when brands never reply to you especially when you’re trying to get paid!
I totally hate chasing payment especially when it takes a long time to keep asking for it. These are on-spot points.
It is so frustrating having to chase payments because you already did the work and published the post, but you have to keep following up to get paid.
These are all the downsides I think of when working with brands, especially negotiating a price. It’s like I don’t want to be cheeky to ask for a good amount, but I don’t want to work for a pittance either! x
Lucy | http://www.lucymary.co.uk
I get that! Lately, I have been starting with a higher amount, so if I do need to negotiate, I can go down to the pay rate that I would ideally want.
These are useful details. Time constraint when blogging for brands could really cause a lot of stress and needs a structured plan.
Yes having a plan is useful when working with brands, but even the best of plans will not help when things out of your control go awry such as a delay in delivery of a gifted item that causes the post to delayed.
The trials and tribulations of blogging collabs! Hopefully it gets easier as we learn to spot the telltale signs.
Yes it does become easier to spot brands that just want to take advantage of bloggers or would not be a good fit for a collaboration. However, you can have a brand that is punctual when replying to emails, but once it comes time to pay, they go AWOL!
Yes there can be pitfalls when working as a contract person. I love how in depth you went with this article. You can also experience similar things as a freelancer. I also did not paid at all for a publisher they tried to get out of paying me I had to start taking about taking legal action and they responded. Pretty awful.
Allie of
http://www.allienyc.com
Thank you! I’m sorry to hear that you had to chase payment before, but it’s good that they finally responded! I’m a freelance writer for a B2B website, but luckily they have a set date each month that they make payouts, so I have never had to chase payments from them. However, I had to chase payments twice in the past several months for my blog.
I don’t tend to work with brands or do sponsored posts etc mainly due to the fact that it’s outside my niche but also all the downsides you have mentioned are what put me off working with brands … in particular the lack of creativity.
Some niches do make it harder to work with brands. As a lifestyle blogger, I have been able to work on gifted and sponsored posts with all different brands.
I have only had one brand send me an outline for a sponsored post, but it does depend on the brand how creative you can be.
It is so frustrating when collaborations fall through! I often find brands emailing and asking me to add a link for free or ask to collaborate and then never email again 🙁
Thanks for sharing your experience! It is really annoying when brands ask for a free link, then they try to convince me that it’s mutually beneficial, and it’s just like how?! Also, it is disappointing when they reach out to collaborate and then never get back to you.
I found that when you work with a brand you like and know it would make it easier to do a brand post.
Yes, it is easier when you are already familiar with the brand and regularly use their products, but that may not always be the case!
Meeting brand’s expectations is always challenging for me. I always ask for my relatives and friends help every time I collaborate with a brand.
It can be challenging to meet brand expectations, especially when you think you’re doing everything right (following up with them during the process, publishing the post on time, including the link they specified, etc.), but then they can still come back with criticisms. I ask my partner for help too and sometimes my daughter!
Like most things in life, there is the good and the bad. It’s a shame that some companies make it difficult to work with them, (like not getting product sent in time, but has the nerve to complain about your service).
I have done a few product reviews in the past, but would love to do some sponsored posts.
Thanks for sharing your experiences.
Yes, there is definitely both the good and the bad when it comes to working with brands! Most of the time, it is good, but there are times where when you have to chase payments or have to deal with impossible expectations. I hope you will have the opportunity to work on sponsored posts soon!
This is a useful breakdown of the ups and downs of working with brands. I don’t currently do sponsored posts or product reviews, etc. but I did do some quite a number of years ago. Generally, I found exactly what you outlined here, and it was very frustrating at times!
It’s good to hear your input from when you worked with brands. Yes it can be frustrating at times, but the collaborations that go well are great!
So far no, even though I have been blogging for decades. But at the same time I write mostly about politics, so there isn’t much for me to advertise. Based on some of your experiences, that may be a good thing. But I am sure the upside is that you do sometimes get paid something and that would be a nice augment to the tiny amounts actually produced by our blogs themselves.
The niche of your blog does matter, and I can see how writing about politics limits the brands who would work with you. Yes it is great getting paid to write a post. I have a lifestyle blog so I’ve been sent a variety of items to include in posts from beauty, books, home, food, and fashion.