Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.
Blogger Danielle Bernstein let Harper's Bazaar in on the financials behind her Instagram account's sponsored posts, with the proviso that she be the only blogger featured in the piece. "It's super important who I associate myself with in this industry," she told Harper's Bazaar's Kayleen Schaefer. "It's not that I don't like other people, but there are some other bloggers that it's random seeming to associate myself with."
With that out of the way, Bernstein said that a single Instagram post can net her $5,000 to $15,000. She's on her way to 1 million followers though, and once bloggers cross the million mark, the rates go way up. Schaefer writes, "On average, if you have hundreds of thousands of followers you can make anywhere from $500 to $5,000 a post, but if you have upwards of 6 million followers, your fee can be $20,000 to $100,000 a shot." According to Harper's Bazaar, industry experts say that brands are spending more than a $1 billion a year on sponsored Instagram posts. With cash like that on the table, no wonder some Instagrammers resort to buying followers.