Profiling the micro-influencers of Australia: Sonali Ghosh

Name: Sonali Ghosh Instagram: @sugaretal Followers: 80.8k

How did you start your journey on Instagram?

I started my blog (www.sugaretal.com) when I moved to Australia. I was working at a bank before that. After I moved here, I had twin boys, so I was waiting for the right time to get back to work. I was passionate about baking and photography, so in that time I started posting recipes.

Then I realised that you can’t only make something delicious, but it also has to look good if you want people to come to your blog. So I started working on my photography skills and styling.

I had people coming to me for articles and then eventually editors. In this way I have become a contributor for magazines (Styling Magazine in Australia and Spoonful Mag in USA) and Photocuisine (a photo agency).

I never imagined that it would turn into a career.

Initially, Instagram was an extension of my blog. I had no idea that you could gain so many followers or monetise your presence. I only saw the potential to do that about a year ago. I thought, ‘Okay, people are liking what I am doing.’ It was motivating.

With an increasing amount of followers, did you feel like you had to give your Instagram page more time?

When I started the account a couple of years ago, I wasn’t very frequent with my posts. I would post something about once a month when I was posting on the blog. Now, I post something every day at about the same time. Sometimes, I create something just for Instagram. [Laughs]

How do you decide how much you should charge a brand for a post?

I have worked with a few talent agencies in the past, so they would usually decide the rates for each post. I was happy with that because I was going to create something any way, so getting paid for it was great.

Now, I am in a place where I can see that this is the amount of time I am putting in for one brand, whereas for another it’s a five-minute job for me – so based on that I can decide on the price [I charge per post].