A blogger’s life is not always rainbows and butterflies – they have to fight for attention and continuously grow to interact with their audience. However, bloggers have a real chance – and it is bigger and more accessible than ever before – for monetizing their efforts and making money out of something they were supposed to do only for fun or passion. Bloggers become increasingly more interested in this kind of generating extra, or even main, income, and brands or agencies are willing to pay for some sort of sponsored content. To help both sides out, advertising networks come to the rescue and give possibilities to make the cooperation work.
First of all, let’s identify who really can make money out of blogging.
The truth is, this opportunity is not limited to anyone and everyone who is happy to blog can be happy to earn money, too. However, to ensure the best results, it is better if a particular blogger is well-prepared to get some money and offer an added value out of it.
What kind of blogger is most likely to generate revenue quickly?
An influential blogger is a person or organization leading their communication via blogs, vlogs or other, often written-based, medium. This kind of bloggers gathers huge and loyal communities around them as they provide value and credibility. Influential bloggers often don’t limit themselves to just one platform: they build their audiences through social media (the most popular social media platforms for them are Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter, however, we can observe the boom of new platforms such as Tik Tok) or external content as well.
The most important factor is that they have enough power and trust to impact on essential decisions made by their followers or even larger social movements (very often leading to CSR activities)
What makes a blogger influential?
– their reach – this is one of the most important factors when it comes to finding, verifying and finally selecting the blogger for cooperation, no matter if it is done through any of available platforms or directly. The reach matters when a brand is keen on reaching huge audiences. With niche ones, reach is not always what matters the most.
– their audiences – bloggers’ need to verify what kind of audience they have, and based on these details they need to pitch right brands with the right message. If the audience is not engaged, and they don’t want to interact (or, what is worse, they are forced to interact), then the following base is nothing but useless for brands, who take care of their reputation and building awareness among target groups.
– social media platforms – even if for many brands it is still the number on unique users that matters the most, social media profiles should not be neglected. Rather than that, social media presence should be the unique extension of bloggers’ reach, worked out on their main channels. Brands increasingly more often are taking into consideration the fact of social media reach.
– offline reach – a lot of bloggers are involved in offline activities, CSR actions, and other initiatives out of the world of online marketing. For many publishers, the real impact of a particular blogger will matter as well.
How do bloggers make money?
Bloggers are in progress of developing new methods of getting an extra income, but so far, one of the most recognized ways of making money out of blogging are:
- sponsored posts – brands are willing to pay bloggers for publishing some materials about the brand itself, their services, products or initiatives. The blogger can publish it on one platform or using the whole range of platforms they offer, also the way of publishing can vary: sometimes, brands deliver materials, in other cases, it is the blogger who prepares an article from conception to completion. It all depends on a sort of agreement and there is no unique format that would work both for a publisher – a blogger and an advertiser – a brand.
- product placement materials – bloggers can either make a separate, dedicated post or decide on unboxing shown on Instagram Stories, Facebook Stories or as a social media post. It often plays a role of a review that is great both for brand’s recognition and bloggers’ trust.
- brand’s ambassadorship – this stage often comes straight after a few series of posts produced by a blogger for a particular brand. The successful cooperation becomes so obvious and beneficial for both sides that they decide on the collaboration based on being a brand’s ambassador. It means that the blogger is able to represent the brand also out of sponsored posts or social media publishing.
- own digital products – cooperating with brands is useful and many bloggers don’t want to resign from it completely, however, they often want to develop their own businesses. They may start with e-books or webinars, but it is no longer a surprise that they own fashion, clothing, accessories, perfumes, cosmetics’ brands, or publish books in print.
- affiliate marketing – bloggers can be great ambassadors! Publishers tend to offer them a few ways of cooperation – sponsored posts’ publishing, barter (a post in exchange for goods, this is what brands do when they, for instance, have no budget for influencer marketing) or, instead of a fee (or along with it): commission from every purchase. If the blogger is really influential and knows his huge impact on the business decisions of his followers, he doesn’t have to think twice of taking that offer. They provide their audiences with a promotional link which generates them traffic and money. The followers don’t pay more than they would pay entering the website form a direct link, but they help bloggers make money. This type of promotion and collaboration between advertisers and publishers is still one of the most popular methods.
Finding a very first project to collaborate on can be troublesome for bloggers. Not only they have to be spotlessly prepared, but also they need to know where to look for offers. One of the most effective ways is to find an advertising network for bloggers.
What are the advertising networks?
Advertising networks combine interests of advertisers: brands, agencies, organizations, and individuals, with publishers: bloggers. The network gives an opportunity for a successful collaboration between bloggers and brands, with a certainty of professional terms and conditions as well as payment on time.
Networks offer the possibility of browsing, selecting, verifying and sealing the deal for advertisers looking for spots for a campaign. Advertisers – in our case bloggers – can offer their services and highlight the pricing. This ensures that both sides have transparent, clear and concise rules of managing that co-working.
What are the best advertising networks?
Bloggers should aim for networks that are reliable, trustworthy and of high reputation. Getting involved in platforms that have nothing to offer and can be even a bit dodgy, is a waste of time for both sides. It makes no sense for bloggers to create posts for some pocket money, only – they should be paid well for their efforts and reach.
Below, you will find a list of a few high-paying and trusted networks to join:
BlogVertise – bloggers will find a variety of offers here, mainly based on sponsored articles and other content marketing activities. They can choose if they want to take part in just one campaign or be considered for longer collabs with brands. BlogVertise can only help a brand or manage the whole campaign for them, but this doesn’t affect a blogger.
Whitepress.net – a unique and well-developed platform for bloggers and advertisers. Whitepress provides advanced features for making offers both by brands and publishers, and thanks to a detailed statistics and pieces of information, both sides of the transaction – a blogger and advertisers – are fully aware what the collaboration is going to bring. Also, the database of blog influencers is still growing, giving the full potential to advertisers.
Indahash is another platform worth noticing, even if it seems to be useful only for social media influencers. We shouldn’t forget, though, that social media influencers often offer services out of their social media profiles as well, treating the blog as another channel for monetization. Bloggers can join big global campaigns and make their input, as it was done for over two thousand campaigns so far.
With the platform called Linkhouse.co, advertisers can browse through a lot of criteria for finding a perfect blogger, or just a website, for their campaigns. Bloggers can add their offer for free to gain some reach among advertisers and potentially jump into an interesting collaboration. Both advertisers and publishers can provide with a lot of information, keywords, links, statistics (they are also acquired automatically) or, what is important for collaboration, the price.
Advertising networks don’t have to be the only way to go, though. Bloggers can use other ways such as groups on Facebook and LinkedIn, recommendations or even some cold mailing activities (of course, appropriately personalized and not against the law!) to reach brands they would be interested to collaborate with.
It is essential for a blogger not to underestimate their value and know their pricing from the very beginning. Bloggers should take a few factors into consideration: not only what they can expect or get from a brand, but also what they can give them. The added value is the most important factor for brands and this is something they will always seek for. It doesn’t matter if a particular blogger’s services are cheap if they don’t deliver.
Advertising networks for bloggers can help a lot, but they don’t have to work on behalf of a blogger. Bloggers themselves have to work on their reach, statistics, and engagement rates constantly to be sure they can offer the best for each and every brand, but also for their loyal followers. This is the only way to be successful – good luck!
