HOW TO MONETIZE YOUR BLOG/SOCIAL MEDIA PROFESSIONALLY

For the past 2 or 3 years, a new job field has been created. And that job field would be : THE INFLUENCER. No Bachelor degree required… No qualifications or job application forms needed.. All you need is the internet, a couple of gadgets, and a good attitude (that is if you want to last in this highly competitive job).

Let’s just be frank here. A LOT of people want to have this job because it looks fun. Café hoping, events from morning till night, free clothes and food.. Just take pictures and you’re done right? Well… Let me tell you, looks can be deceiving.

Since the job is not a subject matter in university classes, I find that many influencers tend to end up in the “unmannered” & "confused" zone. If you haven’t read my previous blog post, you should! As I’ve discussed the most common complaints made by advertisers. And this article will help you on how to respond to those complaints politely & professionally.

image credit to @shaycoghrane

HOW MUCH SHOULD I CHARGE?
Based on the average endorsement fees in Indonesia…
These numbers are very general. Always adjust accordingly to your power of influence. Do your research, ask you previous clients how sales & effect did you bring. From there, you can calculate your rates.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A PROFESSIONAL INFLUENCER?
It means that you're required to always write & photograph top notch content AND post on-time regardless what (except if it's a force majeur situation like if your house got flooded... and NO, "my battery died" is not a force majeur situation, take your powerbank/chargers... Thank you ). Be ready if your client requests to re-shoot or rewrite if your work is not up to their standard *told ya being a professional influencer isn't always fun*

PUNCTUALITY & KEEPING UP TO A DEAL is the key.

If you've made the deal (whether on contract or just by email/text), and got your sponsored products, then post it! Don't suddenly run away & hide. Your client won't be happy.. If you think that you're probably not going to like the product, then why accept in the first place?
If you want the endorsement money, then suck it up!

THE ITEM SENT TO ME DIDN’T LOOK LIKE THE ONE IN THE ORIGINAL PICTURE. WHAT SHOULD I DO?
The best way to politely respond is to ask for a return address & say that the product doesn't suit you & that you're sending back the product so that they can make money by selling it to their customers (as long as it's not food or cosmetics here)
Also don’t forget to refund any paid fees if you’re cancelling the deal.

WHAT IF I WANT TO CASUALLY & PROFESIONALLY INFLUENCE?
Good news is that you can ! Bad news ? Well you sort off have to figure this part yourself & work the balance out as it's different for every influencer.

I tend to advice my friends who are doing it for fun to make it a habit to strictly accept endorsements/sponsorships that are relevant to them. But once in awhile, when there is a campaign offer that is relevant & well paid (whether in money/product exchange this is for each individual to decide) , by all means sign the contract ! Just remember to convert yourself to a professional once that signature is written.

CAN I RESELL THE PRODUCTS I DON’T LIKE?
It all comes down to integrity and empathy for this.

I’ve gotten loads of beauty product samples and I must say 80% didn’t work well on my skin. But empathetically, I wouldn’t resell those instead I just gave them to my friends whose skin might benefit from those products.

It’s like.. a friend gave you a present & you said that you love it. But then next week she finds out that you should it someone else.. it’s OUCCCHHH but you can’t really do anything you know?

Your choice to which direction you want your online presence to go to.

WHAT IF THE ADVERTISER IS MAKING ME ANGRY?
Calm down, no need to start email shaming at each other. Reply as calm as you can. Your digital screens are there for you to rephrase as much as you like & not sham your anger directly to the advertiser.

last but not least, one tip I would give : have a sense of confidentiality. Contracts & pricing deals are private between the advertiser and blogger. Don't compare , but instead evaluate your own value as an influencer.
and it's not a race of who posts the best content, but it is a race to push yourself to be a creative professional worker.

Below is only half of the instagram stories I did the other weekend.I didn't think of saving everything up earlier.. so yeahh.... hopefully you guys will still find these posts useful !

check out my previous post on The Deal with Endorsements : From an Influencers View

THE DEAL WITH ENDORSEMENTS, FROM AN INFLUENCERS VIEW

For my foreign followers, in Indonesia, “endorsements” is equal to “paid blog/social media posts”.

There has been a lot of misunderstandings between influencers and brand owners. I’ve been through this blogging & paid sponsorship ordeal since 2009 and for the last 4-5 years, I’ve scoot over into the business/brand owner position. Which makes me able to justify both the influencers’ & brand owners’ perspectives.

This topic will be spread into 2 posts : one from an influencers view & one from a business owners view to avoid confusion.

To make this article easier to read, I will not be writing in my usual paragraphs. I will write in Q&A forms instead.

WHY ARE ENDORSEMENTS EXPENSIVE? IT'S FREE TO TAKE PICTURES RIGHT?
No. It’s not free.. iPhone costs a lot, a camera costs even more, but it’s time that can’t be bought. The time we need to take & edit pictures , the time it took for us to get a couple thousand followers. Influencers work hard to get to where they are now.

Believe us, we've put a lot of thought into our 'pricelists' (well, at least the sane influencers have, even though I'm a blogger myself, I won't lie that there are insane bloggers too).

THE POOL

this is my very first time posting an outfit in which I'm wearing a bathing suit. I loved swimming as a kid but the older I got, the lazier I got when it comes to washing & drying my hair from those nasty chlorine water. anyway, these photos make me miss my old assistant very much ! I'm planning on having a relaxing long weekend since I had to work my butt during this half week even when I lost my voice..

HELLO KITTY x LEOPARD

Before graphic tee/sweater was a trend, my printed tshirts were pretty much reserved for my lazy shorts and any-top-will-do look. But ever since that tiger Kenzo sweater (click here if you're wondering which) and other simple tees has been showing up everywhere, I guess that it's time to make better use of my shirt collection. First one up on the blog is this Hello Kitty shirt I bought in Hong Kong years ago. I kept the whole black and white going for the whole look but added some leopard clutch and cat-eye tortoise sunglasses for a bit of a twist..

COINS

As a blackberry user, one of the things I have a love/hate relationship is the broadcast message function. Hate because they keep firing up on my conversation list and eventually clogging up the system. Love because I never know when I'll get great messages like this phase below. I thought I'd share it with my readers...

COME RAIN OR COME SHINE

last week when I shot these photos for Stitch&Co, I got just about every weather available in tropics. Rain poured, sun shined, blue skies, gray skies, and not to mention the wild wind which gave me headache the next day. Nevertheless, bearing the climate changes was all worth it. I came home with these photos and I'm sharing my favorites for today.

TAKE YOUR CHANCES

Now, we all have dreams don't we? Perhaps they might not be as big as Winston Churchill's of creating peace within the European nations back during the World War, but we do dream of being that 'special someone' right? The other night, I was reading through the Bible and I came to this phrase in Luke 14:18 (KJV). It said : 
"And they all with one consent began to make excuse..."
Before you start thinking that this is post is some-sort of bible-related-christians-only-thing, it's NOT. In fact, I think anyone including atheists could apply this to their lives.

Goodbye Summer

it has been one of the best summers so far.. I may not have anymore proper school summer holidays, but I still feel the joy specially when most of my friends fly back to jakarta at this time of year.. i am sad that most of them have flown back to wherever they're studying though. Here's a post to all of the random summer fun I had. and because it's summer, it equals to FOOODDDDDD. if I had a smaller camera that goes with me wherever I go, there would be at least 3x more food photos than the ones uploaded here.

Rewinding : Paris and Venice

I don't even know how should I begin today's post. So I'll start wherever my brain takes me to at this wee hour - it was 2am when I wrote this. And here it goes... As most of you know, I have a boyfriend. But, I rarely mention him let alone feature him throughout my blogging life. However for today, I thought that I'd dedicate my Sunday post to this specific "thing".

2011 has been one hell of a year. A lot of downs with a great deal of "ups" sneaking in between my dark moments. One of my "ups" took place in May. 3 months ago, I went for a three week vacation to Europe. Going from the top (London) right down to Venice, and a stopover at Dubai before heading back to Jakarta. Yes, it was a holiday filled with shopping, smiles, and culinary tours, but more importantly, the reason I actually went there was to have my pre-wedding pictures taken. There I said it. If you're thinking "did I read that correctly?", you bet you did. I've never got the chance to announce it and here it is... Four years of love and we decided to make it official.

Voiceless

one of the best fridays in 2011 in 14 pictures. I spent about 5 hours with michelle h, carrisa, and fhenny while carol was with me for 12 hours. we started off at social house and had desserts at Magnum cafe. When the other have gone home, me and carol head off to Ocha and Bella to meet up with my guy's uni-friends. The next I think I knew was that my throat had started to act up from the non-stop talking. luckily my foot wasn't in pain at all or else a sore throat + blistered feet wouldn't be a good way to begin my weekend. I hope you all have had an awesome weekend !


this lovely chiffon top was from WE ARE RUBBISH. last time they sent me velvet leggings, and this time I opted for a more feminine piece. paired it with my fave red jeans from Denim by Victoria Beckham, YSL heart-printed purse, and my trusty beatrix ong nude pumps. They go with just about everything in my wardrobe and they're very comfy for long walks.

sour love

One of the most common questions I get from interviews is "what got you into blogging?". Well, firstly, I was inspired. I have been reading blogs for about 5years until now and I still remember those days when I open Style Bubble every night despite the dumb dial-up connection I had (sounds stone-age-ish right?). Fast forward 3 years later, I discovered local blogs. One of them belonged to this long-legged lady aka Caroline. Back then, she had a blog called "The Sour Cherry". I remember that she had this really short haircut that I would never ever cut my tresses into. Not because it's ugly, but I wouldn't have the guts for it. After starring at her blog everyday, I finally decide that maybe I should give blogging a go. "The Sour Cherry" may no longer exist, but I'm quite happy with the fact that Carol has decided to start blogging again!! welcome back to blogger dear :) and thank you for inspiring me to be a part of this wonderful blogging world..



and yesss.... i finally got to meet up with her ! we took turns taking each other's photos.. ate vietnamese food for dinner (got to hungry that I forgot to take food photos).. later on we found that we love sour food, which is uncommon amongst my friends.. anything with lemon/mango is good for us..







have a great weekend everyone !
and dont forget to enter the giveaway with ALLURA ! win necklaces & headpieces. click here for details.

The Tourist

this post will be a bit personal :) I finally have the time to actually write properly during this long weekend. For the past 5 posts I did on my holiday, I never actually did have a chance to actually tell you guys my adventures. So I owe you this long worded post (feel free to skip if you're bored by my words - no offense will be taken ;).
I don't want to ramble all the way from London. If I do I think I'll have some sort of extended essay here on my blog. So I'll write about Venice since that's what this post is about. By the time I finally reached the Venice parking port at Trochetto after a stressing morning of trying to fit the baggage into the car, I felt happy and sad at the same time. Happy that I finally made it to Venice along with the other 8 people I was traveling together with and also happy that I managed to get there when the GPS device decided to black out in the middle of the highway. Why sad you may ask? Well, Venice was my last destination in Europe. My last 3 nights in that continent. Well, I had another four nights in Dubai, but still, I love Europe way more ;)
Alot of you might associate Venice with the famous movie, The Tourist. Well to be honest, Venice isn't exactly like what you see in the movie. Like what the film is titled, the city was bombarded with travelers from all around the globe. We even had "human traffic" because there were too many people in a small alley so we have to take turns walking. Anyway, despite that, the city is simply unique and pretty. My favorite part would be the little gourmet shop near my hotel where the guy grabs parma ham for midnight hunger pangs and I would buy cheese.


My second day there was pretty much walking and strolling randomly. I know you might be sick seeing me in these beige repetto flats, but the truth is that they're the comfiest shoes ever made. I can imagine myself changing the flats with a pair of lace up boots instead. My lunch and dinner in Italy ALWAYS consisted of spaghetti vongole (or aglio olio). and at about 3pm, I buy any gelato I encounter on the street. I was relieved that I actually lost weight instead of gaining some when I returned back *teehee*


this gold necklace was from accessarie . check out their site for great & affordable jewelry ..

LONDON

first and second day photo diary at london. more photos coming soon :) stayed 4 nights in london, and another 4 nights in paris without internet (worst situation for a blogger I guess.. lol) currently at monaco now, having my breakfast while quickly typing up this post. I'm gonna be driving around coastline with my guy for the whole day :) hope I can post something new really soon ! missed blogging and all of you so much !


one of the best gelatos !

weeee ! reunited with hana ! my skin was flaking really badly at UK..


dinner at Carlucio's

my feathery headpiece for my photoshoot by Shill



topshop candies

ELLE Style Awards

I'm still filled with joy as I'm writing this post on a cloudy Saturday. Last night I went to the ELLE Style Awards the Citadines Quartier. As some of you might have known from my twitter, I received the title as "Blogger of the Year". Yes.. blogger of the year (sorry if I'm boasting too much).. That was the good news that I was talking about in my recent post. I was excited when I saw the email from Anggita in my JUNK folder (another reason why you should clean all email folders once in a while!).. The whole night was fun although I had to leave earlier due to some things. But overally, I had a great time, and I loved the clean white rooms at Citadines :) Plus they have a nice mini kitchen as well..




one of my wishlist shoes from Louis Vuitton.. I personally prefer the Giraffe ones

Kak Dita's makeup pouch and knick knacks



Pond's products


Anggita, and Yoland Handoko



before I close off this post, I'd like to thank every single one of you for making me what I am today ! I wouldn't have won this award if it weren't for you guys ! So big thankssss for being a follower of Glisters and Blisters !! God bless you all :)