That $150 brand deal almost felt fair until my friend did the math with me
I was chatting with a buddy who runs a small Twitch channel, maybe 2k followers, and he showed me this brand email offering $500 for a shoutout. Then he asked me why I keep accepting those $150 posts that take 3 hours of edits. He said, 'You are basically paying them with your time to be underpaid.' That hit weird because I tracked my last 12 deals and the average hourly came out to like $11, which is below minimum wage where I live. Now I check the math first and ask for usage rights, since one company repurposed my clip for a whole ad campaign last fall. Has anyone else added a clause about limited usage or just walked when the pay is too low for the work?
Learning this lesson late is still better than never. The usage thing is huge and most people miss it. I put a line in my rate sheet now that says anything past 30 days or paid ads needs a new fee, and honestly half these brands just say okay because they know they were getting away with something. Your friend did you a solid. Walking away is scary but once you know your hourly number you can't unsee it.