How to price your audience as a creator

Most creators price by follower count because it is the number everyone can
see. It is also close to the least informative number available. Here is a more useful way to
think about it.

Work out what your audience is actually worth to a specific advertiser

The question is not “how many people follow me”. It is “how much would it cost this brand to
reach these people another way”. A audience of four thousand who all care intensely about one
subject is worth more to the right advertiser than forty thousand who share nothing in
common.

Know your engaged share

Concurrent viewers, average watch time and return rate tell a brand more than total followers.
If you can say that a given proportion of your audience returns weekly, that is a far stronger
claim than a total, and it is one a brand can act on.

Price the work, not just the placement

An integration you script, rehearse and produce is a different product from an overlay that
runs while you do what you were doing anyway. Price them differently, and say which you are
quoting for.

Set a floor and hold it

Decide the rate below which the work is not worth your time, including the administrative
cost of invoicing and chasing payment. That last part is real and creators routinely omit it. An
hour spent chasing a small invoice is an hour not spent making anything.

Get the terms in writing before you start

• What exactly is being delivered, and how many times.
• What the rate is, as a number, not a share of something you cannot see.
• When payment is due, from which date, and what triggers it.
• Whether usage extends beyond your own channel, and for how long.

If a counterparty will not state a rate before the work, that is information. A share of an
unknown total is not a price.