How Much Do Top Tier Bloggers and Social Media Consultants Get Paid? We Asked Them!
The media world is changing and its jobs are changing too. The rise of the blogger is an often-told story, but are the lucky few bloggers who do it for a living well paid? We did a survey to find out.
We asked 20 top-tier tech bloggers and social media consultants to tell us how much they get paid, by the post, by the hour or by the month - however their rates are set. Half of them told us, on the condition that we wouldn't disclose who they were or where they worked.
The end result is an anecdotal overview of what some of the top tech bloggers and social media consultants are making. These aren't the founders of big blogs, these are their employees and people who get work writing, doing trainings or consulting for tech companies.
There are a handful of people in tech blogging that make even more than this but the vast majority of people who get paid to blog get paid far less. To be honest we have no idea what it's like outside the Web 2.0 world. (Honestly, is it raining?) We hope that no one will be too angry with us if these numbers lead their employees to feel newly shortchanged and protest. These folks are at the top of their field.
Our methodology was to email people we trust to be honest and who trust us to keep their identities secret, and ask them to post anonymously their rates and the rates they can confirm of co-workers or employees they've overseen within the last year. We realized after performing the survey that we should have asked our respondents whether the current US economic downturn was impacting their rates but to be honest, it didn't occur to us to ask. Maybe that tells you something, too.
We were told pay rates for per-post blogging jobs, full-time blog and social media jobs and for hourly consulting.
Payment Per Blog Post
Most people who are paid to blog are paid per post. What kinds of rates are our respondents seeing? The low end of the scale was $10 per post for very short posts. Almost everyone else said they were paid $25 per post. One person said they were paid $80 per post! One respondent said they were paid $200 per item of long-form writing; bloggers often do other kinds of writing as well.
How does this work out long term? Based on our experience working for many different blogs, we believe that most per-post blogging gigs assume you'll write an average of 3 blog posts in 4 hours. It often takes longer than that to write 3 posts but ambitious bloggers, like the ones we surveyed, know that at this stage you put in extra unpaid hours just to get ahead.
Let's say these people are half-time pro-bloggers making $25 per post, writing 3 posts per day. That's $75 per half-day, a little less than $20 per hour, about $1500 to $1750 per month for half time work. Take two of those jobs at once, do it for a year, and you'll make about $40k. Everyone's got different arrangements, though, so it's hard to take these kinds of annual projections too seriously.
The world is full of people who would be insanely jealous of people who make $40k a year blogging, if it was widely known that you could do that for a living. The biggest rewards aren't the money, though, but the thrill of writing and the ability to dedicate time to the subject you love.
The truth is, very few people are able to get jobs like this. A small number of those who are so lucky take the next step, financially, and move into a full time position with a blog or go in-house doing social media work at a marketing agency or software company.
The Wages of the In-house/Full-Time Blogger
Career minded bloggers coming up through the ranks of the per-post writers sometimes land full time jobs writing, managing other part time bloggers and performing other social media activities like events planning, promotion, etc. Sometimes this work is done as an employee, sometimes as an extended "consulting" relationship. Some of them get work at blogs, others do similar work for marketing firms and software companies. The founders of the big tech blogs now spend most of their time running the businesses they started. These second-in-command type social media positions have a wide range of pay rates.
Our respondents reported annual pay rates ranging from $45k and $55k with benefits (!) up to $70k, $80k and $90k with bonuses. We're tempted to say, based on the anonymously submitted but descriptive replies we got, that the closer to pure journalism our respondents were doing the lower their wages were. That's not always the case, but social media management and working for marketing firms were clear indicators of higher end pay rates. That makes sense.
Based on our experience and conversations in the industry, we can say that all of the people doing this work full time are putting in at least 50 to 60 hour work weeks, often longer. That means most are making the equivalent of $20 to $35 dollars per hour. One factor not taken into consideration here is equity, the full time bloggers and in-house social media pros who are working for startups are hoping to get a nice payday in the unlikely event that their company is acquired.
There are certainly a handful of full time bloggers making six figures, as well. Robert Scoble famously noted that even after everything he did to humanize Microsoft, they never paid him $100k annually, so we presume he's making more than that at Fast Company. He's barely a blogger, but Walt Mossberg is rumored to be paid $1 million per year. It's safe to assume that some in the upper echelon of traditional media reporters now blogging for mainstream press are making more than anyone we surveyed as well.
Consulting - The Big Money
Social media consultants, expert practitioners with multiple years of success in the kinds of positions discussed above and in some cases in traditional marketing jobs, are the ones making the most money.
No one we surveyed named an hourly consulting rate below $150 per hour. $300 per hour was the most common rate named. Some listed monthly rates of $2k to $4k per engagement, which we assume probably means 20 to 40 hours per month.
Social media (or in many cases Search Engine Optimization) consulting is probably making a fair number of people six figures. What are these people doing? They are advising companies on how to set up and run blogs, how to reach out to and relate to bloggers, how to use Twitter (seriously) and how to make advanced use of RSS. The SEO work is probably the most technical, but degrees of technical challenge are all relative. A lot of this work is about communication skills.
It's a new world online and people with experience succeeding in it are widely sought-after by businesses wanting to catch up fast. There's a nearly bottomless need for and a strong demand for high-quality social media consulting - the big challenge is bridging the gap between living a Web 2.0 life and reaching out effectively to people.
We believe there are a fair number of snake-oil salespeople in the social media consulting field as well, but we didn't survey any of those people.
Conclusion - This Part of the Economy Has Been Strong, if Small, So Far
We don't want to claim that there are a lot of people making the kind of money discussed above for blogging or consulting. It's still a very small sector. Between advertising and venture capital, revenues in this sector can't be considered secure during a time of economic down turn.
There are far more people working in social media industries making less money than the people discussed above and the vast majority of participants don't make any money at all in this economy. Making money isn't really the point for most people, but there is an economy around social media and so some people are making money. We believe that this informal survey shows how much money some of the top people in the sector are making. Does this sound crazy to you? Compared to other professions does it seem like too little money? Far too much? Let us know what you think in comments below.
Illustration titled "Blogging Au Plein Air, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot" by Flickr user Mike Licht
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Ok, but that's the top 20. I'd HOPE that the top 20 in any field are making good money. But how far down does this go? Let's say you have a year of experience in a city not in the Valley... what will that get you? What about people starting out?
Also what's the customer profile for these folks? Small local businesses? Larger, but regional companies?
interesting topic - perhaps a short series?
Thanks for this I have often wondered what people could be making blogging full time. Looks like its too much work for too little pay for me.
I'll keep on programming for dollars and blogging for fun.
Thanks for doing this survey--really useful information on the consulting front. It's always been a bit of a feeling out process for Capulet, based on traditional PR rates and, you know, what our clients were willing to pay. Still, it looks like we could raise our rates a bit.
I like this look into an industry that I know little about. I always wondered how compensation was worked within the blogging universe. It looks like a blended approach to earning dollars is the way to go. Consulting can pay off, but you also have to find the hours in the day to be able to do it!
Yes. A series would be nice. Not just on compensation, but other aspects of a top 20 blogger's life. How many conferences do they attend? Do they get opportunities to be on the main-stream media? etc.
Wow. Interesting post. I guess I'll keep my day job. ;-)
It does seem weird that people who are so intelligent, skilled and disciplined could make so little money working such long, hard hours.
On the surface it seems like a lot of work for not much return, however, I would throw out there that in it is joy, otherwise, why bother?
I think if you looked at much of the media, outsiders would be surprised at how little we make. Blogging it seems is no different.
It's also a classic case of supply and demand. There are loads of people who want to blog and there are no real barriers to entry. Unless you're the sort of blogger who can attract large quantities of traffic in a form that can be monetized I'm afraid blogging is going to remain a pastime for pleasure rather than profit.
On the other hand, consultants who can show companies how to interact with employees, customers and potential customers in a profitable way will get the big bucks. It's not so much fun though.
I should also say that some blogging represents the new academic publishing. A well-respected blog is a route to tenure. Who cares if there's no money in it?
When one considers how much traffic the blogs on the Technorati Top 100 get collectively and how much influence the posts can have both politically and commercially - it is not surprising that the creme of the crop bloggers earn so much.
We are talking about blogs that get tens of thousands of visitors daily.
And the blogs at the very top get HUNDREDS of thousands of visitors daily from around the world - besides being read by some of the most powerful politicians, business leaders and techies in the world.
The Bloggers who write for them must be masters at research and have provocative writing styles and visual design styles.
These are rare combinations in just one person.
Eventually, some of them will leave and start their own blogs.
But can you imagine the collective talents of those Bloggers at: Huffintonpost, TechCruch, Lifehacker, Gizmodo, ReadwriteWeb, Mashable etc
Glad the information was collected; it was a job I would desire!
Jesse W.
http://www.churchofcowherd.com
Okay, so how much are the RWW guys making?
How do you know what list you're on?
What are the breaking points for A-List bloggers?
B-List, C, D, etc.?
I think that someone should do a little chart with things like Alexa score, Technorati rank, Subscriber numbers and so on.
It would be good argument fodder any way.
Very interesting to see how you peel back the curtain and be able to compare what blogging jobs should pay. Instead of getting down that others make more it's motivation to be better and charge more up to industry standard rates.
Much easier to justify a rate increase when there's solid market data to back it up. The old "just because" justification for a rate increase rarely gets the job done.
As always, people forget that what's an OK salary for someone in the US is a great salary for someone offshore. And even in the US, 40-50K is nothing in the big metros, but is a fine money if you're in the middle of the country.
No one asked us, but those figures seemed a little low to me - although, I run my own blog. I do six figures anually. For those that put in effort, hitting $40k shouldn't be that difficult, depending on the audience they are trying to serve.
Thank you, Marshall. It is a great piece of information for us.
As for some commenters who think the income for bloggers, as Marshall has highlighted in his post: "The biggest rewards aren't the money, though, but the thrill of writing and the ability to dedicate time to the subject you love."
Those bloggers just love this job. And it explains everything I guess.
cheers,
Yihong
I am not in your "top 20" but probably one of the top 50 social media consultants.
I thought I would share anonymously some details of what I make. I am based out of San Francisco/Bay Area and have 6 years+ top tier industry experience.
For long term engagements (eg one current client likes me to work 3 to 4 days a week) I charge $250hr + expenses. I perform a social media function within a specialist niche and this client is a top tier brand/company that everyone will have heard of.
Additionally, I work with several startups, where I charge $800 a day plus a minimum of 0.5% of the company.
I have helped companies and I guess you might call "significant individuals"/celebrities with blog strategy but I do not write blog posts specifically (unless it's to help a client launch their blog) - mainly because the money is in strategy and exec-level consulting, not blog writing.
I posted revenues above $400k last year, although after tax and expenses (conference trips are the biggest spend) I probably pocketed $200k. That sounds like a lot, and compared to the national wage average it is, but here in the Bay Area that doesn't go as far as other parts of America.
It's also worth remembering that unlike an employee I have to cover my full medical insurance and deal with the uncertainty of being out of work if there is no work around. I have definitely seen a sudden drop off of interest in my services in the past few months as consulting is the first budget to go at big companies. I've actually got not new leads currently and so if my current engagements dry up then I am without income.
My advice to anyone thinking of getting into this industry is a) be really sure you have the biz dev leads, esp in this current climate, and b) try to get up the food chain as quickly as possible as writing blog posts for $25 a pop is a hard way to make BIG money.
I have been paying bloggers $40 per post on my blog. Having said that maybe I should rethink this? :(
The other thing that should be mentioned is if the blogger spends a good chunk of time formatting their post for readability, adding pictures and properly citing sources, this adds significantly to the actual writing process.
Of course consultants make more money. Its why journalists become PR people, because most writers can't live or support a family on a writer's salary. Now, a copywriter is different, and can make rates as high as some of those consulting rates as well.
As is typical in writing, people at the very top -- in this case, I would guess the top .5% -- make good money, others, not so much.
Of course consultants make more money. Its why journalists become PR people, because most can't live or support a family on a writer's salary. Now, a copywriter is different, and can make rates as high as some of those consulting rates as well.
As is typical in writing, people at the very top -- in this case, I would guess the top .5% -- make good money, others, not so much.
Great make up of data-
I am VERY curious to see the EPM (earnings per 1000 impression) numbers from RWW and other blogs cross-industries.
I am sure some of it can be reverse engineered by looking at the Fed Media rates on some blogs and then calculating via readership, however I guess those would come out un-naturally high as some of those rates seem off the charts.
you don't have to tell us which is for which blog, but an anonymous survey sent to see how much the actual blog is making would be eye-opening for all of us.
This is a great exercise you did. It would be interesting to check in with these same bloggers and see how they do over time.
Whoever is paying them seems to be getting quite a deal (I can't talk my nephew into mowing my lawn for $10) but I guess it's hard to really assess without knowing more about viewership and what is asked of them.
We could to track these bloggers performance on Traackr.com over time so that you can match $ to performance and so could they.
Of course, it should be pointed out that most of the well-known bloggers posting at Huffington Post are doing it ... for nothing. Nada. Zip.
Oh, right. Visibility.
earn money from blogging is a dream for me
I wish in the future, I can earn money from blogging
Nice survey but the sample segment isnt very big is it?
Sadly, even some major media outlets pay $10-20 per post. Of course, there are various things that can be said about that. Like: You get what you pay for. And: Without investment, your venture will never grow or become better.
Although this stuff is not absolutely true, because of the glut of writers. But the outlets that pay higher rates are more successful for it. I laughed at the editors that offered me the "standard" rates you're reporting.
I'm all for sharing information when it can be mutually beneficial. But I'm afraid I don't think I'd let anyone know specifically how much I earn from journalism, PR and blogging, at least not in a public forum. It varies from year to year quite widely anyway, but suffice to say, we get by. Of course, I'm not a top 20 blogger and you probably couldn't care less.
One thing i like is the comment for Anonymous Coward social media consultant and i really like and blogged about it...and as for as Earning is concern only few manage to make decent income from Blogging...and it takes time and Focus to be one of the top in your niche
Oh wow top 20 just getting $25 and the low grade bloggers get higher?
I know bloggers who are being paid higher than this, but are not well known all over.
Interesting topic! Thanks for the information.
I've been wondering where the jobs are for blogging personalities and what they'd get paid. Sooner or later companies are going to realize that they can have someone represent them on their corporate blog as a personable easy to reach human manifestation of all the company stands for.
Sort of like television news hosts. There's no real talent except the talent to present. Seems like for something like this there would be decent money. I've looked. I can't find anything like this out there. At the present companies are searching for talented bloggers. Guys and gals that can create a written story. What about a video blogger that presents what a team has already created?
Seems like there's a lot more that can be done with blogs -and this is one direction I haven't seen yet. Maybe I'm missing it - the blogosphere is quite large!
As a budding blogger, I'm finding this information extremely helpful. I teach full time and blog part time to supplement my income. I'm nowhere near the money that these cats are talking about, but I see the potential if you're able to optimize search engines and drive traffic to your site.
Thanks for the post!
thepoorteacher.com
Thank you for the fleeting false sense of hope.. i need a job. do i write so good enough to make you happy long time on computer?
In another countries it´s very difficul win some money. About $50 to $150 per month for half time work in Spain and other countries
Nice article, it's always interesting trying to gain metrics on new technology jobs. This is a survey of US demographic right?
As for blogging as a job, it's always impressive when someone can turn their passion into profit -- the utlimate goal of anyone.
I'll be rollin' in tha cheddar when they finall turn
FilthyRichmond.com into a major motion picture.
"The biggest rewards aren't the money, though, but the thrill of writing and the ability to dedicate time to the subject you love."
lol you actually believe that? Also I think the amount they get is understated, that's not your fault - it's just that they don't want to reveal that information because they're also concerned about what you'll think of them.
Open up digg, go through the first 5 pages - write down all the names of the submitters. Then go to reddit, go through the first 3 pages, write down the names. Now go to stumbleupon's most popular, write down the top 25 names.
Look through each list and see what names seem to be popping up across all 3, for added fun look up those names on twitter. Notice anything weird? Yea that's right, same people are hawking the same sites, sites they not only submit but have a share in be it their own blog / site, or ones they stand to financially gain from.
A few diggers also have very large sites because of their ability to rebound a whole whack of submissions. here's just a small list of sites paying or faking there way to the front::
*funnyordie.com
*mashable.com
*pcworld.com + computerworld.com + networkworld.com
*traileraddict.com
*appleinsider.com + macinsider.com
*Gawker Media (lifehacker + kotaku + io9)
*huffingtonpost.com
Marshall, thanks for putting the data together.
As part of the equation, there is the area of demand and offering in the market. If I offer something nobody else can, I can charge higher. If everybody has my skills, well then I might have to find something different.
I for one, prefer retainer based work as it takes away the "but you only talked to me for 10 min" and encourages them to draw on my expertise. Like every professional knows - the answers you can deliver to some people even when you are not awake would take them ages to get somewhere else. This is something they have to pay, because it took you money to get to this point too.
Plus if the client as a results makes big bucks with it or it is worth bigs bucks to them, I see no reason why my expertise should be pay with a minimum wage. Charging a premium if it enables you to make a premium is only fair deal.
Last but not least, from the other side:
Having expertise in an area the client needs is important. I find often that many do not understa
Marshall, Great post
We should survey these folks next: Community managers and social media strategists that have full time roles at corporations
http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2008/06/20/list-of-social-computing-strategists-and-community-managers-for-large-corporations-2008/
I'll bet the range significantly more at 80k-150k
You know how to reach me
I started at a mid-sized (400 people), fast growing, national company two years ago as a writer/editor for their magazine (they offer online services as well.) I have a B.A. in Telecom and a M.S. in New Media, but no journalism degree.
Within months, I transferred over to setting up and producing the company podcast and setting up and managing a company blog, which has 15 regular company contributors. I still contribute to the magazine as well.
So I can say I'm a full-time blogger and podcaster, with benefits and some other duties on the side. I make less than $40k/year, but I generally enjoy what I do, and the fact that I'm in a large midwestern city makes life much more affordable on that salary than if I were on a coast.
Though the podcast and blog don't have anywhere near the popularity we'd hoped, this job has opened up a whole new opportunity for me at a local non-profit organization I strongly believe in, where I'll soon be developing their communications plan and managing all aspects of their media, PR and marketing, with a heavy, heavy dose of social media. I have very little in the way of a PR/marketing background, but the fact that I succesfully launched a podcast and blog for a fast-growing company will be key to my success in the future.
My point is that bloggers need to take advantage of any opportunities they can find, and make full use of those opportunities and their applicable skills. And if they're an expert in a field, or skilled writers, they'll be able to parlay that into cash or a job they love somehow, in spite of the way the economy's going.
I've seen this passed along and mentioned on various sites online, and often without much context--that's unfortunate.
To me this is like asking a few Pro Athletes what they make. Nevermind that hundreds of thousands of people will never be Pro Athletes, including most people here (myself included).
Getting results from 10 of the "top tier" (i.e., successful and recognizable) in any field, when that field has tens if not hundreds of thousands of people is not representative. It's not informative as to how most of the industry is doing or what most people should look forward to. (However, it is really interesting, so I am glad you wrote this :-)
Many people likely aren't worth half of these rates. Granted, higher level consulting obviously demands more wages (I didn't need to read an article to know that), but how many people will/should be charging this for social media advice? Just because one can get a few thousand readers to their site doesn't mean they can do that (or hopefully much better) for others, and charge an arm & a leg for it. Blogging is just one piece of strategy, and a blogger is not automatically a PR or Marketing person.
Just food for thought. I'd love to see a much larger sample, since we'd all like to be Pros but most of us will simply never be there.
Thanks for the information, a fun sample might be to ask 100 people in the Technorati 200-300 and then 800-900, or something like that.
Cheers.
I have been doing some paid posting on my blogs and I am being paid the maximum of $13 for several times. However of course, that is not everyday and sometimes no offers are coming in.
But at least, I know that my work is not worthless considering that I am thousand miles away from being on the top list.
Now, I am re-writing my older articles in trying to sell them everywhere.
But come to think of it, isn't 20 bloggers are only a small part although they belong to the top ones?
Just my thoughts, though.
Marshall, thanks for the research involved in this article too — I enjoyed reading it this morning. Like Jared above and some other voices I've heard, more context, and a larger sample would be a great followup.
Specific topics of what's being blogged — the whole thing of putting a face to these numbers — would be wonderful. I know there are those who'd rather keep it private and that's fine, but there are also those who do want to share, who I suspect haven't stepped forward yet.
Related, there's this recent Slate article which purports various blogger moneys (yes, plural): http://www.slate.com/id/2201325/
I think the reason that bloggers are paid so little is because so many people are willing to blog for free, "for fun."
I get asked at least once a week to blog for so-and-so's site.
When I ask, "What's your payment per post?" I'm told, "I'm sorry, we don't have the funds--"
(And I'm thinking, "Would you ask me to scrub your toilet for free, just for fun?" No! I'd probably get paid $100/day)
So, they move onto the next guy, who will do it for free.
The other interesting financial question is how much revenue do some of the major tech blogs make from non-blogging activity such as conferences, research, consulting, etc. GigaOm, for example, is moving into the conference and white paper business (both smart moves as a way to diversify income)
Wow, that's interesting. I've always wondered about this.
This post is right on, I've been doing this for years and lately work has just been skyrocketing. Don't forget the residual income from this line of work, it can be very satisfying.
Don't worry about people under-cutting and or offering services for free, thats just what they think there worth.
Someone will also pay for results, if you can produce results then Preach it, let people know who you are, toot your own horn and skills cause know-one else is going to.
Ryan
Shoot, with all of the booming writing and opportunities out there, how come a z-list writer like myself can't even get a nibble of writing work. Really stinks to not be in with the snobbish writing crowd.
I do occasional paid post on my personal blog, and I don't take less than $250 a post. Companies pay for crap, because bloggers are willing to take crap. Start demanding more, and you will get paid the rate you deserve.
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