The trust between bloggers and PR’s has never ceased to fascinate me. I, like a lot of other Bloggers do sponsored work for money and all of this is completly done on trust. Trust that you will be paid. There of course is no guarantee that they may. The only proof we have as bloggers is a faceless PR via email that has agreed to pay £x for you doing the work.
As a self- employed painter and decorator for about 20 years, I have a system of acquiring work which starts with looking at the job in question. Some smaller jobs I can work out the price instantly, but the bigger and more complicated jobs mean that I usually have to go away and work out costings and return with a written quote.
The quote is then signed as the accepted price for the work to be carried out by both parties. This is a form of a contract. Once the work is commenced. I then ask for a percentage of the cost, usually about a third towards the materials required and I will continue to collect monies while the job is in progress leaving usually a balance of 25% of the total cost to be paid on completion. So all the time both parties know exactly where they are.
This is obviously not legally binding because if somebody doesn’t pay I would have to go to the small claims court. Thankfully I have never failed to be paid.
The interesting point for me is that anytime they want, the PR company could just stop all contact and this is where it gets difficult because after all you have trusted that they pay you once the article is live on your blog.
My own personal experience is only on one occasion did I have issues getting paid although I was eventually paid, but I often read bloggers saying they have not been paid by a PR company and it’s something that I find fascinating. How long do you go on trying to get paid and eventually do you give up because it’s not worth the hassle?
I often hear people say take the post down. Really? Is that solving it? No! You have done the work! You may have written it or copied and pasted it, but it’s your time. The PR company has had exposure for their client and it was free so why give up trying to get paid?
The amount of money that is flying around between PR companies and bloggers is huge, and it amazes me that everybody gets paid as they should be. Blogging is a growing industry and consequently with more money floating around this leaves the industry open to people who will try to make a fast buck. I have found nowadays it’s worth just checking out people before agreeing to work them.
My wife Emily from Twin Mummmy and Daddy never gives up. She will ring the company and tweet or message them on Facebook. After all does it matter at this point that you have lost all trust you? I mean you will never work with them again so get a line of communication going whatever way you can to ensure payment is made.
I guess it’s in us all to trust, I believe it’s human nature. We take things at face value and don’t doubt what you read and if somebody says they are going to pay you, you believe they will. Of course on the other side of the coin PR’s have to trust that bloggers to do the work. Of course their only loss will be the timeframe for the post going live. They will not have lost any money.
Nowadays when I am approached to work with a PR company I always lay down the ground rules which are how much are you paying? When will I be paid, and when do you want post live by.
I would love to hear of your experiances with PR’s. Have you had any problems? Or has it always been ok and have you have been paid without hassle.
8 Comments
David
January 24, 2017 at 11:21 am
Nice post, Nige. I’ve only had one approach so far (small steps), but not for money. But this is a very helpful post. The three prerequisite questions are now ingrained in my mind for any approaches in the future.
Sarah Howe @runjumpscrap
January 25, 2017 at 8:59 am
I don’t do too many paid posts as rarely do follow links but I have had issues getting paid once. Got it in the end but you are so right – there is a lot of trust. I guess if you build relationships with the PRs this can really help. Emily sounds great getting it sorted!! Thanks for sharing with #bestandworst xx
Cherry – The Newby Tribe
January 25, 2017 at 9:35 am
I have only been approached by one PR company so far and decided not to go along with it as it wasn’t a good fit for my blog. I do wonder what I will do if I end up not getting paid one day! #bestandworst
Lisa Deller
January 25, 2017 at 11:12 am
I found this really interesting Nige and I will be sure to take a leaf out of your book as and when I go down this route. At the moment my hands are too full to cope with sponsored posts #BestandWorst x
Selena, The Rambler
January 25, 2017 at 3:54 pm
I haven’t done a paid post yet and this hadn’t crossed my mind until I read this. I worked full time for a restaurant and handled our special events and the part which wasn’t my favorite was chasing clients to secure their deposit. It’s a shame isn’t it? Even when deadlines for payments were agreed upon and signed for, we are still chasing. I’m relating this to your post of course, just in the fact that all parties agree on an arrangement and only 1 side holds their end of the bargain.
Wonderful post! #bestandworst
jeremy@thirstydaddy
January 27, 2017 at 3:35 pm
So far all the sponsored work that I have done has been through third parties that paired me with the brands, so I was never worried about it. My biggest problem is when a brand has so many points that they want you to fit in, it’s hard to personalize the post and have it not sound like a commercial ( even if that’s really what it is ) #bestandworst
Helena
January 27, 2017 at 11:24 pm
I think that you’ve struck the nail on the head. There certainly is a lot of trust going on. #bestandworst
Emma MacDonald
July 13, 2018 at 9:35 am
I find that threatening to take the post down usually encourages them to pay. On a few occasions I have actually taken the post down, then when they have paid I’ve put it back up.
I had one occasion of a pr who owed me £300 disappearing off the face of the earth. There was no trace, no way of getting hold of her, no company name, so I took both posts down because I knew I’d never see the money. I was annoyed because I’d done the work but I wasn’t going to let her have it for free. Leaving it up would have meant she got paid and I didn’t. Hopefully by taking it down she didn’t get paid either!