I Don’t Work for Free (And Neither Should You)

I don’t work for free.

Exposure doesn’t pay my bills. I can’t buy groceries with free sex toys. I don’t care if you’re a company that’s just starting out, or doesn’t have the budget, or doesn’t pay bloggers. I put time, energy, and hard work into my reviews and posts. I care about my social media presence and have cultivated it carefully. I don’t spam my followers with deals I don’t believe in or products I don’t endorse.

When you pay me, you’re saying, “Your time is valuable, your work is appreciated, and I see you.” When you want me to work for free, it comes across as something less ideal: “I want this done because I recognize the value but you’re not valuable enough for me to actually pay you.”

If you don’t have the budget to pay me for my writing, editing, reviewing, or social media services, then don’t bother me. If you’ve just started a business and don’t have the budget for marketing services, then don’t bother me.

Don’t tell me you could get someone else to do it cheaper. That’s fine, get out of my inbox and into theirs. I set my prices the way I set them, and you can either pay them or not. Don’t tell me that your kid/nephew/intern could do this work. That’s fine, get them to do it then and get out of my inbox. I’m exhausted from trying to tell companies that my expertise is worth it. You get what you pay for.

Bloggers, we deserve to be paid for our work. How many hours do we put into our reviews, our social media, our websites? How much of our work around sexuality is under-appreciated, if it’s seen at all? We do important work and we deserve to be paid as much.

Don’t ask bloggers to work for free. It’s devaluing to our work, and quite frankly, makes you look like a cheap company. Exposure is nothing. Free toys mean nothing if I can’t pay my rent. Pay bloggers for our time, our expertise, our effort.

I don’t work for free.