Brand Deals and Sponsorships: What to Charge and What to Turn Down

A brand finally slides into your DMs with an actual offer instead of a product to review "for exposure." That moment feels like proof the work is paying off, and it can be, but the first deal is also where most people either underprice themselves out of nerves or say yes to something that quietly costs them the trust that got them the offer in the first place. Here's how to price it, what to decline, and the one rule that is not optional.

Know what you're actually selling before you quote a number

A brand is not paying you for your personality. They are paying for access to people who already listen to you, and the deliverable decides the price, not your gut feeling about how big you've gotten. Before you quote anything, get specific about three things: what exactly they want (one post, a series, a story, a dedicated video), how long they want exclusivity or usage rights, and whether they're buying one placement or an ongoing relationship.

Someone asking for a single post that disappears in a day is buying something very different from someone asking to reuse your content in their own ads for a year. Treat those as different products with different prices, because they are.

Price the deliverable, not a guess

You don't need a formula borrowed from an influencer course. You need your real, current numbers and a little arithmetic.

1. Pull your actual engagement, not your follower count. A brand that's done this before already knows a big audience that never comments or clicks is worth less than a small one that does. Have your media kit ready with honest figures so you're not scrambling to find them mid-negotiation.
2. Quote a flat rate for the base ask, a single post or video, built from what your time and reach are actually worth to you, not what sounds impressive to say out loud.
3. Charge extra, separately, for anything beyond the base ask. Usage rights, exclusivity against a competitor, a longer campaign, or edits on their timeline instead of yours all cost more. Naming these as line items instead of folding them into one number keeps you from quietly giving away the expensive parts for free.
4. Never price off someone else's screenshot. What another creator reportedly got paid tells you nothing reliable about your audience, your niche, or that brand's budget. Price your own numbers, every time.

If a brand pushes back on your number, that's a negotiation, not a rejection. If they ghost the second you name a real price, that tells you what the "exposure" was actually worth.

The disclosure rule that isn't optional

Every paid partnership, cash, free product, a discount code with your name on it, has to be disclosed clearly enough that someone glances at your post and knows it's paid without clicking anything or reading between the lines. The FTC spells this out in its endorsement guidelines, and the short version is: say "paid partnership" or "#ad" where it's actually seen, not buried at the end of a hashtag pile nobody scrolls to.

This is not just a legal box to check. This audience has been burned by enough quiet, undisclosed pitches dressed up as advice that they notice the ones who hide it, and they remember. A clean "paid partnership" tag in the first line costs you nothing and buys you the credibility to keep doing this.

Disclose it like you'd want it disclosed to you, because that's exactly who's reading.

What to turn down even if the check is real

Not every offer deserves a yes, and the ones you decline protect every yes you've already given.

• Anything you haven't personally used. If you can't vouch for it from your own experience, don't recommend it, full stop. This is the fastest way to lose the trust your content has been built on.
• Anything outside your actual lane. A supplement brand, a crypto play, a product that has nothing to do with why people follow you is a mismatch your audience will clock immediately, even if the payout looks good on paper.
• Exclusivity terms that lock up your whole niche. A brand asking you to never mention a competitor for a year, in exchange for one post's worth of pay, is asking for more than they're offering. Read every contract line before you sign, not just the number at the top.
• "Exposure only" past your first few deals. Free product can be a fair trade while you're new and building proof points. It stops being fair once you have real numbers and they still want you working for nothing.

Saying no doesn't have to close the door. Thank the brand by name, say specifically why it's not a fit this time, and if it's close, offer a smaller version of the ask instead of a flat no. People who turn things down cleanly get asked again. People who go quiet or overpromise and underdeliver don't.

Build toward this instead of chasing it

None of this matters yet if you're still early. A sponsorship pitch for an audience of forty people isn't the bottleneck, consistent content that builds real trust and a plan for turning that audience into income come first. But know the rules before the first real offer lands, because you won't have time to learn disclosure law in the twenty minutes before you have to reply.

If you're building the whole system, the audience, the offer, the pricing instincts, from the ground up, Line of Departure walks through it with pricing by rank. And before you sign anything, drop the offer in the community. Plenty of veterans there have already turned down a bad one, and they'll tell you in ten minutes what took them a hard lesson to learn the first time.

Do it before the next DM lands

Write down your real numbers today: audience size, typical engagement, and a flat rate you'd actually charge for one post. Decide now, before any money is on the table, which three kinds of offers are an automatic no. The next time a brand reaches out, you won't be improvising a price or a boundary under pressure. You'll already know both.