Companies and businesses spend billions of dollars on advertising every year. It’s everywhere – from local business ads on the window of your favourite bakery to the in-app advertisements on the games you play while waiting for your doctor. We’re bombarded with them all the time. Sometimes you cannot even tell what they are about.
Eventually, when it seems that everything you do and watch is interrupted by ads, you just start to tune them out, making them less effective. That is why companies are finding more creative ways to reach people.
Now, the best part. If you want to make money advertising for the companies you love, you can do this! Use your blog, social media accounts or your writing skills and get paid for it!
How much can you make?
Well, the amount of cash you’ll get may vary. It really depends on many different things – your experience, the company in itself, or the length of your contract. One can earn $100 in the first month, while other people get paid up to $1000.
Still, it’s your extra money. It’s always nice to get some, after all.
Blog about it
If you run your blog, you’ve got so many ways to get paid to advertise for companies! Check out the list of the most popular, high-earning methods down below.
First, think about writing sponsored blog posts. They have to include all the information about the company and its product/service that it wants to advertise. You’ll probably get a free product in exchange for a blog post with a mention about the brand. Remember that crafting the text, taking the pics and actually using the product/service take your time. You should get paid for that time, too.
Next, affiliate links. These are links to a product or service that you can place in your blog posts. You can earn a commission when people click on your link to purchase.
Another method is perfect for fashion bloggers. It’s called affiliate marketing. Just use affiliate links in your posts that drive traffic to a company’s product or service. You get paid for your help as the company makes more sales thanks to your ads.
Last but not least, try earning money from actual advertisements on your blog. You can choose from tons of blog advertising networks (check Google Adsense – it’s the most popular one). Bloggers put ads in the sidebar, sometimes at the top of the website, some of them put them throughout blog posts. Google Adsense allows you to create ad blocks that fit your blog so you can place them wherever you want.
Even though it seems to be the easiest way to get paid, most bloggers don’t earn thousands of dollars from advertisements alone. It’s just a part of their income every month.
Make use of your social media accounts
Social media play a huge role in the advertisement industry. If you’re not yet on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, you probably miss out a lot of potential leads as social media is one of the best ways for brands to advertise their products/services. There’s always a chance that your content will go „viral”. It means sharing, likes, comments and people saying they love your brand, or that they hate it (unfortunately it happens, too).
They say – the more followers you have, the better. That is why brands are likely to choose celebs to promote their makeup and skincare products, the latest weight loss fads, and clothing from new designer lines. Why companies always want to choose the biggest ones? Celebs have huge followings, which means more people have their eyes on the product/service, so it is more possible for the brand that they’ll get new leads.
But do not worry! You don’t have to be another Kanye West to get paid for advertising, though. Engagement is way more important these days, actually. Followers are just a number, and some brands share this opinion. Care about the number of likes, comments and shares, not the number of followers.
Always tag your favourite companies when sharing some stuff you love. This is your power. Brand managers like the fact that people naturally share how much people love their stuff. What’s more, you can reach out to companies you love to see if they’d be willing to sponsor some social media. You’ve got nothing to lose.
There’s also something new on the market – SharePop network that matches social media influencers with companies. If only your engagement rate is high enough, you might just score a deal. You should have at least 10 000 followers on your social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr, Snapchat, Pinterest). It sounds pretty amazing, doesn’t it?
Test products and write about it
Another way to earn extra money is to write product reviews at home. Companies usually offer to test their products in exchange for a blog review or just mention on social media. Why is that? For them, it’s basically free advertising because the only cost they have to make is the price of the product. But you might get paid for that, too. The prices start might from $50 for a photo of the product on your social media channels. For writing up a blog review you might get for example $100.
How to find these testing opportunities? Look at the influencer networks, contacting companies directly, or signing up for product testing websites, like Tomoson.
Some companies may simply want nothing more than for you to share your results with the product or service to people you talk to in person, like family members and friends. Other companies might want you to complete a follow-up survey and will pay you when you complete that survey. You can even find some of those types of gigs on survey panels, like Toluna.
Write product and service reviews
Writing reviews on your own blog isn’t the only way to get paid. There’s a possibility for you to test products at home in exchange for advertising for the brand, either on the company’s or another retailer’s website. The only thing you need to do is to test new products you get from brands and write up a helpful review based on your experiences.
Try not to lie and don’t say a product was amazing if it wasn’t at all. Legitimate companies care about honest reviews, and that’s what they pay you for. Keep calm and be honest. If you don’t have much experience in reviewing products for money, you might need to write some reviews of the products you have on-hand for free to build up your content. It’s the easiest way to provide some proof to companies about your writing and review skills. It’s more likely that brands will choose you to collaborate with them on reviews.
Just think about it as a brand – wouldn’t you want to spend the cost of the product plus $100 or so for a review instead of hundreds of thousands of dollars on a marketing campaign? This method of advertising is quite popular. Bloggers with tons of followers can usually get just as much, if not more, attention from their reviews than marketing campaigns.
Do you need a plan? Here you are. Build up your social media and blog audiences. Then, create a couple reviews of the product you already own and love. This way you get samples you can use in the future as your portfolio.
Not only the reviews
Are you looking for an opportunity to market brands you love? Become a freelance writer for companies. There are so many types of content you might help with – content for websites, press releases, white papers, blog posts, articles, and other pieces that help the company spread its messaging.
Many of the avenues focus on the advertising aspect of a business.
There are so many avenues to go as a freelance writer, but many of them focus on the advertising aspect of a business. And even though you’re just a blog writer, you must have faced some marketing through that blog.
One more important thing is using SEO techniques. The point of writing up content for business is to traffic leads to the brand’s website and sell more and more products. Usually, it’s toward making a purchase or signing up for an offer or for more information.
If you have some marketing and advertising skills, you can make it! It’s possible to start making money by freelance advertising, and it’s an excellent way to work with the brands you love. Be reliable, open-minded and try. You may not always win, but you never lose.
How to reach out to the companies directly to offer your services looking for freelance writers? Check out the job search sites or social media (e.g. Facebook groups), or use freelance marketplaces to find interesting deals.
You can win if you want
I hope you liked the tips mentioned above. There are many unique ways to spread the word about great companies. Advertising isn’t for everyone, but if you think that you might be good at it, go for it. Life is too short to give up before even giving it a try.
The most crucial part of every method is an idea. This is your superpower that your favourite brand may fall in love within a heartbeat. If you don’t feel like writing online is your thing, visit local businesses and see if they’d be interested in a non-traditional way of advertising. Be creative and eventually you’ll find your dream job advertising companies.
Sometimes it’s just the enthusiasm what’s needed to win the game. Good luck!
