Most courses on this subject stop at the good part. This one does not, for a practical reason rather than a noble one: people who go in expecting free gear and no obligations quit at the first difficulty, and the ones who quit never reach the point where sponsorship actually pays.
So here is what it costs.
It takes the resource you have least of
Finding sponsors is research and correspondence, and both are slow. Building a list of a hundred companies, finding the right person at each, writing to them, following up, tracking who replied. That is real work, done before anyone has given you anything.
You also have to become organised in a way you may not currently be. A spreadsheet is not optional once you are past a dozen companies; you will lose track, email someone twice, or miss the one brand that was interested. A later lesson gives you the tracker we use.
Expect this to feel unrewarded for a while. In our own campaigns the first reply took three weeks, and the deal it came from took five months to close.
It is not a one-way street
No company gives away resources without getting something back. You already know that from the last lesson. Knowing it and living it are different.
In practice it means that somewhere in the middle of a hard day, you will need to get the gear out, clean it, photograph it properly, and write something about it. The trip and the documenting of the trip are not the same activity, and the second one competes with the first. Thinking about the next post for a sponsor while you are trying to enjoy where you are is a genuine cost, and it is the one people underestimate most.
You have to keep your word
This is the one that matters.
Falling short on your own plans is between you and yourself. Falling short on a commitment to a sponsor is different: you lose that sponsor, and because this is a small world, you make the next one harder to get. The reverse is also true, which is the whole subject of the final part of this course: delivering well is what turns one deal into an income.
If you promise five posts in three months, deliver eight. If the trip changes and you cannot deliver, say so early. Brands are reasonable about changed plans and unforgiving about silence.
They may want you to change things
A sponsor might ask you to alter your route, your setup, your timings, or how you present something. Sometimes that is fine. Sometimes it creates a problem with your audience, or with another sponsor, or with the trip itself.
Which brings up a conflict worth anticipating: sponsors in the same category do not like each other. Accepting a small deal from one brand can close the door on a better one from its competitor. Early on, take what you can get. Once you have options, think before you sign.
You may not be getting what you are worth
The least discussed cost. It is entirely possible to end up doing a great deal of work for a modest amount of product, because you were grateful rather than commercial.
This is not an argument for refusing small deals. Early on, a small deal is how you stop being an unknown. It is an argument for knowing what you are giving, which is why the previous lesson exists, and for revisiting an arrangement once you have delivered on it. A sponsor who has had a year of good work from you will rarely object to a conversation about what comes next.
The honest summary
Sponsorship is worth it, and it is work. The gear is free; earning it is not.
None of that is a reason to stop. It is there to set your expectations correctly, because the single biggest predictor of whether this works for someone is whether they are still sending emails in week six.
The rest of this course is about making that work count.