ad // Working with brands is a great part of blogging and a necessary part of blogging, if you’re a full-time blogger. Most brands are brilliant to work with and pay on time but there’s always going to be a few that make you want to pull your hair out in frustration. Getting paid for your work is sometimes the hardest part of the whole process!
Which obviously shouldn’t be the case by any means. I think it’s awful that brands don’t respect bloggers and their hard work enough to actually pay them on time. Or in some instances, pay them at all! Thankfully they’ve been few and far between but I’ve had some work that’s not been paid for and it’s infuriating and makes me incredibly angry.
Invoicing is a big part of the process because most brands will want you to issue them an invoice for your work. This is important that you do because invoices can be needed for tax records; for you AND the brand. And they’re a great way to allow you to keep track of the brands you’ve worked with and whether they’ve paid or not.
In this post, I’m going to be sharing a few quick tips for getting paid by brands and invoicing. These tips are going to be the most useful for those just starting out!
Keep track of your payments
You NEED to do this for tax purposes but obviously this also helps you keep track of who’s paid and who hasn’t. I keep records of my payments for tax but I also have a note on my phone, which I can access super easily, of all the payments and work I’ve done over the month. I code it in a way that makes sense to me, so I know who I need to chase up.
Send professional PDF invoices
When issuing an invoice, there are a few ways to do it. Some might as for a PayPal invoice, which is fine. I send a lot of those. But others might want an actual invoice that you can email to them directly. I typically find the best format for this is PDF.
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Always issue an invoice number and an invoice date
An issue number is helpful for keeping track and an invoice date is also helpful so you can manage the time frame in which the brand is paying. If you can see when you issued the invoice to them, you’ll be able to determine whether they’re late paying or not.
Include all the information they could need on your invoice
One of the most annoying things that some brands do is not give you the information they need. I’ve sent brands invoices before and they’ve come back to me multiple times saying, “we need you to include x,y,z”. Why didn’t you just tell me that in the first place? Include everything; your name, address, email, invoice number, invoice date, the brands email, your bank details / PayPal ID, post links – EVERYTHING.
Include your terms and conditions on your invoice
Terms and conditions can include things like late fees and payment timeframes. Just make sure these are clear and consistent across your invoices. I usually find that if a brand isn’t paying by issuing them with late fees or even just threatening to do so, it typically makes them cough up the cash!
Do you have any tips to add for getting paid by brands or invoicing? Let me know!
Like this post? You might also enjoy:
[…] I should have also had another £70 from someone who I hosted a guest post for but after I published their post, their ghosted me and haven’t paid me. So I’ve removed their post but it’s super annoying when this happens. Nobody should have to deal with this when getting paid by brands. […]