When Someone Offers You Exposure

At some point somebody suggests working together for nothing. A shoutout swap, a collaboration, a feature, a bundle with three other people. It is presented as growth rather than work, and it is nearly always presented enthusiastically, which makes it awkward to think about slowly.

Think about it slowly anyway. Start by pricing what you are being asked for. Content takes as long to make whether it is paid or not. A promotional post uses the attention of an audience you spent months building. Your time has a number attached even when nobody is offering one, and if you have never worked out what an hour of yours is worth, that is the thing to do before you answer any of these.

Then ask the useful question, which is not what you might gain. It is what happens if this does absolutely nothing. Some arrangements cost you an afternoon and are fine either way. Others cost you a week, or a piece you could have sold, or a promotion slot you only get to use once a month. Those need to be a good deal rather than a hopeful one.

Look at the sizes honestly. A swap between two people with similar audiences is roughly fair. A swap where one side is much larger is not a swap, and the larger side usually knows it. That does not automatically make it a bad idea, but it does mean you should stop calling it mutual and decide whether you would pay for it, because that is what you are doing.

Be careful about anything that involves handing over content with no agreement about where it ends up or how long it stays there. Free is expensive if it turns into something you cannot take back.

And say no easily. There will be more of these than you can accept, saying no costs you nothing, and the people worth working with will ask again another time.