I remember the first year of my blogging journey working like crazy, like any creative, I get occasionally asked a few times per month to work for free/exposure. It’s a nice feeling when you get an email for a new product, project or campaign. And then the common line is: “Sorry, but we don’t have any budget…”. I have this rule: if the client is making money with my work, then so should I. Furthermore, I see other influencer getting paid for promoting the same campaign. I have the rule that I only work for free when I have enough projects to pay my bills. Otherwise: no free work. Like any other human being I have bills to pay. It’s not like creative people don’t need housing or food.
Before I get started, let me make one thing clear. I’m not against working for free or exposure. I still work on free projects depending how it’s presented. But you have to be smart about it and understand the strategy of working for free or else, you’ll wind up being burnt out and being taken advantage of. The creative industry is the fastest growing sector in the US. As of late, people are striving for a better work and life balance. They want to spend their working hours on projects they love, something they’re intensely passionate about.
Dress – A New Day (Target) | Heels – Berskha
A thing to keep in mind, when you are working for free, is that you’re creating something without anything in return. As soon as you expect to get something in return even exposure you might get disappointed. Does the thought of getting nothing in return makes you feel like crap? Then don’t even start with the project.
I was living by the rules of most struggling creatives which is:
Work for free no matter what. I couldn’t understand why I am feeling burned out and down. I soon realized that although, I had been working my butt off, I wasn’t working smart. Most times working for Instagram exposure, other times in hopes to get put on, and sometimes even giving friends discounts because I was too nice.
Listen, exposure and clout doesn’t help pay your bills.
And although in some cases, you’ll hear success stories by creatives of how working for free catapulted their career but there’s many others, like me in the beginning and currently who receive little to nothing in return.
6 Things To Consider Before Working For Free/Exposure
- You can gain experience and still get paid just like some paid internships
- Know your why As a creative know why you are taking on a free or paid project If you don’t know your why then you don’t need to partner with anyone. Is it because you want exposure? If so, do they even have the right type of audience you need? Do they have a huge network that you can access?
- Getting exposure Have you met them yet? The people that offer you exposure. It means you create a particular thing and they will mention you when the work gets published. Fingers crossed you get new campaigns out of it! The idea of paying in exposure is a bit strange: a creative is at all times allowed to put their name on the work they produced. So, it’s not like the client is handing you a gift when they offer you to put your name on the work.
- Is exposure working though? Firstly, you have to know what you would like to get out of it. In most cases this will be ‘clients that do want to pay, so you can earn back the time you invested in the exposure-assignment. In general, we can state that mainly the target group of your exposure-client is looking at the work you did. Is this where you will find your new clients? Alrighty then, it might be worth it. But aren’t they amongst this target group, it’s basically a waste of time (thus money)?
- Repeated exposure People only will remember your name if it’s repeated time after time after time. Being mentioned once or twice just doesn’t do it. A human being needs the same input time and time again before it remembers it. This is one of the reasons you get to see the same commercials over and over again on TV and YouTube.
- Working for free to create a portfolio
If you’re just starting out, you can get tempted to do work for free just for the sake of having something to show for in your portfolio. The big downside of this is that once you have worked for free, it’s a tough thing to ask money next time. There are other ways to fill a portfolio and get the projects that suit you as a creative: create your own project-jobs. We all have to start somewhere but if your work offers great quality and return on investments you should have a rate for your clients.
Be aware of people who just need free work for the time being and really don’t want to actually form a true business relationship with you. Value yourself and your work just a little more in the beginning.
What is your take about creatives working for free/exposure?
With Love Always,
Ife
