Being a blogger and working with them: what I learned

Today I reveal you one of my biggest secrets. Before being a blogger, I am mostly a blogger hunter! Indeed, one of my biggest professional mission is to hunt blogger and create collaborations with them, to put forward the brand I work for. Today, I tell you everything that I learned working with bloggers while being one of them.

Every work has a price

As soon as I started my blog, I have been offered free collaborations that I blindly accepted. I was happy a brand would offer me clothes, but I didn’t realize my value, nor the time that I would spend to create content for the brand.

Working for a brand and collaborating with bloggers, that were sometimes negotiating the prices hard, I realize I had been fooled many times, and I then learned to refuse some offers. From now on, I know I’m worth much more than $40 of cheap outfits for 2 blog posts and social media photos that could take me until 4h to do. However, if I became more aware of my value, I also learned to say yes to small brands that don’t have a lot to give, but deserve to be known.

My job also taught me that a great work hides behind a sponsored blog post. even if I work with a limited budget, I always try to negotiate the best price when I’m asked for a remuneration, to pay the blogger’s work at her fair value.

Write a human email and you’ll get more answers

If you already received an email like this, raise your hand!

• An email written in English from a brand that doesn’t even quote your name or blog, and that seems to have been sent to an entire list of bloggers
• An email that almost dictates you how to collaborate in details, when for $40 of products, you have to write 5 articles of 1500 words each, and post 40 photos of high quality
• An email where there is very few information, that offers you a “PayPal paiement” but where you have no clue what the brand or the collaboration is about
• An email asking you to test something that has nothing to do with your blog (no, I am not a mom blogger!)

You got it, but in 5 years of blogging, I received many emails that didn’t make me wanna reply nor collaborate. For my actual job, it taught me to write very clear and warm first emails, that are personalized according to the blogger and that proove them I have looked at their blog. Emails that I would crave to receive!

Don’t mix professional and personal life

If I can take advantage everyday a my knowledge of bloggers and blogging, I try not to mix my blog and my profession. It may have happened that I contacted bloggers I follow personnelle, but I always tried to keep my blogging identity secret. If the collaboration goes doesn’t go as wanted, it could impact me professionnelle and personally. I also try to keep it secret not to find myself in a tricky situation where the blogger I know personally ask me for a collaboration that my brand won’t agree to. Sure, it happened that some bloggers realized I was the one who contacted them after a collaboration… but so far, everything went well 😉

It’s not about the popularity, it’s about the quality

Honestly, micro lifestyle bloggers with whom I collaborated have made sometimes way better content than “bigger”bloggers. Most of the small blogs would answer positively to my collaboration requests, girls are enthusiast and will do their best to create good content, when I had many disdainful answers or refusal from “big” bloggers. Of course, I don’t put everyone in the same basket, but my job and my blogger status taught me to see value in between micro and medium bloggers, that can be much more valuable for a brand. There are good blogs everywhere, even in the least known ones!

So, surprised by those revelations ? I am waiting for your comments!