The Feona blog
Practical advice on rates, contracts, and working with brands.
UGC is a production service and a sponsored post is media access. Why they price so differently, and how quoting one when the brand means the other costs you.
July 22, 2026 · 5 min read
Joel Pagan
Brand conversations usually die for boring internal reasons that have nothing to do with you. What actually happens, and a follow-up cadence with an end point.
July 15, 2026 · 5 min read
A rate without a scope is a guess, and the side that guesses first loses. What brands should send instead, and the exact reply creators should give back.
July 9, 2026 · 3 min read
The follower-count CPM survives because it is easy to compute, not because it is right. What a sponsorship actually sells, argued from first principles.
July 2, 2026 · 4 min read
Raising your rate with a brand that already books you: when you have earned it, how much to move at once, what to say, and what to do if the answer is no.
July 1, 2026 · 5 min read
Free product is fine right up until a deliverable gets attached: then it is a job paying retail price. When gifting is a fair trade, and how to make it paid.
June 25, 2026 · 6 min read
The tells that give away a scam sponsorship offer, and a two-minute routine of checks that settles whether the money is real before you reply to anything.
June 18, 2026 · 6 min read