Dear Bloggers/Influencers/Content Creators – however you like to address yourself, in this post, I will help guide you on how to make the best of the upcoming U.A.E influencer license.

First of all, I’m completely in favor of this license. I feel that the influencer/blogger/content creator industry in the U.A.E is a ginormous one, and it should be regulated. There is a very real exchange of value and money that takes place at the helm of this industry, and it should be counted in the GDP of the U.A.E economy. So yes, I am Team U.A.E Influencer License, all for it.

Lots of bloggers (which is how I shall henceforth address all divas influencers and content creators), are extremely skeptical towards this license, whether they should invest in it, and whether or not it will end up making the industry practices more regulated and unified, or whether it will be counter productive and hard to implement. I can’t address those concerns confidently, but what I can do, is give my suggestions on how best to start getting more value out of your blog (both monetary and otherwise).

Disclaimer: I may or may not channel my inner economics junkie which may or may not make you roll your eyes.

1. Suit Up. Polish your professionalism. You will now be the owner of an actual, registered business, so you must treat it like one. Start with building a media kit. Your media kit should talk about what your blog is about, the demographic breakdown of your audience, share some insights into your current and past collaborations, and shed some light onto the quality of work you can provide. You can find some media kit templates on creativemarket.com.
2. Value yourself. If you don’t, no one else will. Be confident. Know your worth, and be ready to walk away when someone tries to deny it. Don’t ever worry about your competition snagging low-paying projects if you don’t settle. Don’t be a Nine West (who just filed for bankruptcy, by the way), be a Chanel. For extrinsic evaluation of what price you should be charging, you can sign up at fohrcard.com. They’ll tell you the range you should be charging within, based on the social and influential value of your content. For an intrinsic evaluation of your efforts, and how much you WANT to charge for a service, you should take into account the following factors:
   1. What is the value you are providing to a client? For instance, it’s not just a picture that you’re publishing, and the number of impressions it will make. You’re committing a certain amount of time to do the research, styling, commuting to and fro a restaurant, recipe development (if applicable), modeling (if applicable), editing etc. etc. Is that image then also going to be handed over to the client for internal or external usage? All these factors should be taken into consideration, because the amount of time you put into creating that image/video/blog/vlog, is also the amount of time the client saved.
   2. What is the value the client is providing to you? What is the marginal utility of the meal/experience/brand affiliation a client is providing you with? Do you really need that experience or that client’s logo on your portfolio? Do you really want that free meal? Do you really want to spend your afternoon developing content for a free basket of eggs? Or will it be a much better use of your time to watch some youtube videos and hone your skills so that you can more confidently charge a higher price for future projects? Food for thought, which brings us to our next point:
   3. What are your opportunity costs? What could you be doing with your time if you weren’t working on this project and how beneficial would that alternative option have been to you? Could you have been working in an office, making x$ per month? Could you have been engaging in enhancing your personal skills and growth? Or could you have been achieving self-actualization by doing something completely unrelated but deeper, like spending quality time with friends and family, traveling or just relaxing? Opportunity costs should be measured in terms of what your short and long term goals are, and the value you could have derived from working on that something else, whether or not the value is monetary.
   4. Scarcity of Time. Time is money. Value time.

Ok, enough digressing and channeling my inner, deprived economist. Let’s skip the concept of market equilibrium, but let me tell you how clients think:

Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free? Yes, I too am insulted by the proposition of being equated to a cow, but no other metaphor said it better. Back to valuing yourself. If you keep settling for a free pizza, you will establish yourself in the clients’ books as the blogger-who-will settle-for-a-free-pizza. Sure, if you really, REALLY want that pizza, go ahead. But I think if you’re a real blogger with a real following, you deserve better than that.

Now, lets assume your price to be at AED 1000 per post. In order to convince the client that your post is really worth AED 1000, talk numbers, statistics, demographics. Prove to them that their money isn’t being thrown into the Bermuda Triangle and they will get ROI (Return on Investment) by working with you. Again, FohrCard.com is a great place to start.

What should you do if a client says they’d prefer to work on barter? Again, compare the worth of what they’re offering you vs. what you’re offering them. Let’s assume a client wants to offer you free groceries instead of money. “I could always use groceries!”, you might think to yourself. You are most certainly correct, but is that little basket of groceries worth committing your whole afternoon/week to? Or could you have used your afternoon in a more productive, enriching, possibly even more business-efficient way?

In cases where you’re tempted to accept a barter deal, revisit my demand and supply sermon above. If your post is worth 1000 AED, request a barter deal in which the value of products/store credit you’re being given is at least 1000 AED retail price. It will still cost the client less than paying you 1000 AED cash (retail prices always have profit margins factored in), and you’ll be getting something almost equivalent to cash, especially if it’s something you would end up spending on anyway (cue groceries).

How to increase the value of your brand/website? Integrity, quality of work, and a very clear brand positioning are all key. I want you to think of which social media profiles or websites you are most influenced by. I can bet that they all have mostly to do with consistency, clear brand positioning, and a blogger/influencer who isn’t a complete and utter sell-out. Put your stamp of approval and lend your name only to brands you truly believe in. Also, try to get running collaborations with the brands the brands you’re working with/believe in. Reduce your price per post/content/month if you must, but try to get a deal that lasts for at least 3-6 months. This is better for the brand as it reinforces your endorsement, and it’s better for you because it won’t cast a shadow of doubt on your word, as it would if you were bouncing from one competing brand to another every week.

Make an Income Statement. Keep an excel sheet, logging in all your income, expenses, and intrinsic value of freebies you get (only the ones you would have bought anyway) over the year, in separate columns. This will help you evaluate if the U.A.E influencer license was worth it for you or not. If, at the very least, you’re breaking even, and you really enjoy blogging, then it’s worth it.

If you read through this entire document, congratulations, you’re already taking the U.A.E influencer license seriously and are halfway ready to take the leap! I hope this helps you decide on whether or not you want to continue blogging in the U.A.E.

Leave a comment below if you have any questions and I’ll try my best to answer.