A friend recently asked me this question about my blog:

“Can you elaborate as to the paid/unpaid nature of work you do in a weekly diary like this? How you decide to do work for exposure, relationship-building, etc?”

This is the question I’ve wrestled with for years- leave it to Rebecca to ask such an insightful question! Honestly, I don’t have an equation I use when deciding how much to ask to be paid for an event, but here are a few of the questions I usually ponder:

1. How much are my peers getting paid for this work?

2. How much time is involved?

3. Is the gig during a peak time of day when I can make lots of money (weekends and weeknights), or can it be done during a downtime (mornings or late nights)?

4. How much does the budget have in it to pay me? (I always ask)

5. How much value do I bring to the project?

6. How much value do I receive from the project?

7. How much “fun” is the project?

8. How much stress is involved in the project?

9. What will this keep me from doing?

10. Who will I be working with during the project?

One note: I very rarely play for free any more, since I believe that if you truly value something, you’ll pay for it even if what you’re paying is only a token amount.

How do you decide what to charge for your services? Leave a comment below.