Knowledge Bank
3 min read
The rate card, and the add-ons creators give away
Price each deliverable separately, and charge for usage rights and exclusivity instead of granting them silently.
Not sure where your workflow leaks? The free 3-minute workflow audit will tell you.
Most creators quote one number for every sponsorship and then feel vaguely cheated afterwards. A rate card fixes that by pricing each deliverable separately, so a dedicated video and a link in the description stop costing the same thing. This builds one from your typical views, your niche, and what the brand is actually asking for.
Use your median, and be strict about it
The views field wants the median of your last ten uploads. Using your best video is the single most common way a rate card becomes a document nobody signs.
The median is also the honest number for the video they are buying, because that is roughly what the sponsored one will do.
What each deliverable is worth
| Deliverable | Multiplier |
|---|---|
| Dedicated video, the whole thing about the sponsor | 3x base |
| Integration, 60 to 90 seconds mid-roll | 1x base, and this is the baseline |
| Pre-roll mention, around 30 seconds | 0.5x base |
| Sponsored Short, one vertical video | 0.35x base |
| Community post | 0.15x base |
| Description link for 30 days | 0.1x base |
The standard mid-roll integration is the unit everything else is priced against. Once you have that number, the rest of the card is arithmetic, and you can answer an unexpected request on the spot instead of asking for a day to think about it.
If your Shorts views are wildly different from your long-form views, change the views figure before pricing a Short. The multiplier assumes the two are in the same neighbourhood.
The add-ons are the money most creators give away
Two lines carry a premium, and both are things brands ask for casually.
Usage rights add 30%. That is the brand running your clip as their own paid advertising for 30 days, which means your face and your voice selling their product to audiences you have never met. It is a genuinely different product from a mention in your video, and it is routinely requested as though it were a formality.
Category exclusivity adds 25%. You are agreeing to turn down every competitor in that category for a month, and the cost of that is every deal you cannot take while it runs.
Neither is unreasonable to grant. Granting them silently is what costs you.
Build the card before anyone asks
The real value here is having the numbers ready. Negotiations go badly when the first figure comes out of your mouth under pressure, and they go well when you can send a card.
Build it once, save it, and revisit when your median moves. A creator who answers a sponsor enquiry within an hour with a clear rate card looks like a business, and that impression is worth something on its own.
This one sits outside the 47
Nothing in the checklist prices a sponsorship, because the 47 covers getting a video from idea to promoted. Brand deals are a channel-level job.
Keep reading
The wider picture is in sponsorships for small channels, and the document you send alongside the numbers is covered by the media kit. For what your audience is worth on ads instead, the earnings calculator is the other half.