How to Price Your Work
With Confidence
Pricing your work as a creator can feel confusing. There’s no single rulebook, and advice online often conflicts.
This guide explains the key factors that influence creator rates and helps you understand why certain prices make sense, especially within African markets.
What Affects Creator Rates?
Creator rates aren’t random. Brands usually look at a few core things when deciding budgets.
1. Platform and Content Type
Different platforms create different value. A short-form video, a long-form YouTube video, or a blog post all require different levels of effort and deliver different results.
Video content generally commands higher rates because of production time and performance potential.
2. Audience Size and Engagement
Follower count matters, but it’s not everything. Brands care about how engaged your audience is and whether your followers actually pay attention to your content. A smaller, active audience can be more valuable than a large but inactive one.
3. Audience Location
Where your audience is based affects pricing. Local brands often have different budgets compared to global brands. At the same time, creators with strong local influence can be extremely valuable to brands targeting specific markets.
This is why rates in Nigeria, Kenya, or Ghana can differ from rates in Europe or the US, even with similar follower numbers.
Why Usage Rights Matter
Usage rights are one of the most common reasons creators undercharge. When a brand pays for a post, they’re paying for content and how they can use it. Organic posting on your page is very different from running the content as ads, using it on their website, or keeping it long-term.
The more a brand wants to use your content, the higher the value of that content.
Common Usage Scenarios
- ✓ Organic use only on your page
- ✓ Paid ads or whitelisting
- ✓ Website or social media reuse
- ✓ Long-term or unlimited usage
Each of these should affect pricing.
Why Local Markets Differ
Creator pricing is not one-size-fits-all. Local markets have different brand budgets, consumer behaviour, and campaign goals. A rate that works in one country may not translate directly to another.
That’s why understanding your market and audience is more useful than copying numbers from creators in different regions.
Why Undercharging Hurts Long-Term
Undercharging may feel like a short-term win, but it creates long-term problems. It makes it harder to raise your rates later, can attract brands that don’t value your work, and often leads to burnout. It also affects how brands see creators in general.
Fair pricing helps protect your time, your energy, and your growth.
How to Use This Guide
This guide is not meant to set fixed prices. It’s meant to help you understand the reasoning behind creator rates so you can make informed decisions.
If you want a starting point based on your details and market, the Rate Calculator can help estimate a fair range you can work from.
Your work has value.
Your audience has value.
Your time has value.
Understanding pricing is not about being expensive. It’s about being fair and confident.