Any good blogger eventually notices many benefits that originate from posting relevant content on a regular basis. It often becomes tempting to make good use of your influence, as well as to monetize your blog. In this case, accepting ads and signing up with affiliates is rather easy, but it doesn’t bring a lot of income – especially at the very beginning. Sponsored blog posts, on the other hand, are just a tiny bit more difficult to implement in your blog monetization strategy, but can actually make a difference in your budget.
The only problem is that many bloggers don’t know how to look for sponsored blog post opportunities. But, actually, it may be easier to attract such opportunities yourself, instead of researching them thoroughly. No matter what strategy you choose, here’s how and where to find sponsored posts for your blog.
Let’s start from the beginning, though.
What are sponsored blog posts?
Sponsored blog posts are usually appointed by a company, which pays you to write and publish a post on your blog. Brands often choose this form of advertising, since it’s an increasingly popular and interesting option to promote a certain product or service.
Nonetheless, this solution is not only beneficial for the advertisers. What’s in it for you? Apart from monetary perks, you often get engaging content for your blog, which is especially relevant when you first start blogging. If you want to keep it that way, though, you should choose the companies to cooperate with wisely. Quality of the content is important not only for your readers but also search engines and future advertisers.
Interestingly enough, blog sponsorship can take on various forms so you will never run out of ideas when getting approached by the companies or reaching out to them yourself. You can be asked to review a product (and get it for free or get paid for the review), simply promote it within your channels, or publish a dedicated post written by the advertiser. There are many ways to make such a collaboration work, and its specific terms will always depend on the agreement you make. Still, if sponsored blog posts seem like a good idea for your blog, here’s how to make that happen.
How to get sponsored posts for your blog?
In order to work with an advertiser, you can either research companies yourself (which may turn out quite time-consuming in the end), join sponsored post networks or find dedicated platforms that serve as middle-man between bloggers and advertisers. At this stage, going alone will definitely be more difficult if you don’t know where (and what) to look at. Tools, platforms, and networks, on the contrary, can be a great place to start your adventure with sponsored posts for your blog. There’s also another advantage to it. You have all offers in one place, and you can easily compare the rates and terms of cooperation. In some cases, you will be paid depending on your reach and influence, which is even better news if you aim to keep posting and developing your blog.
On the other hand, reaching out to companies yourself can be slightly more satisfying – especially if you negotiate a deal with a company that you really want to work with. Provided that you won’t get rejected by every single brand you get in touch with, that is. In any case, working directly with a company can also be more lucrative in the end, in terms of income and terms of cooperation as well, since there’s more room for negotiation.
In order to have more bargaining power, though, it helps to be more recognizable as a blogger and include certain information on your blog, that will indicate that you’re open to collaboration with brands. You can even divide a separate section on your blog with possible options for sponsorship, and list of companies that you cooperate with.
Technically, the more popular you are, the easier it will get to attract advertisers. What else can you do in order to facilitate that? Creating a dedicated media kit, that would serve as a “portfolio”. Companies are often interested in seeing what you’ve done so far and what are the results. Any links, statistics, and bullet points are useful, but even more so if they are presented in a nice, well-designed form.
What to watch out for when you actually start getting direct pitches?
In some cases, it might take a while to start getting pitches, especially worthwhile ones. You may be able to attract random companies that will ask for backlinks and publishing a lot of sponsored content on your blog. It’s great news that your blog is getting noticed, but the quality of published content should always be high, no matter how much will you get paid for it. Of course, many companies that will reach out to you will be legitimate and up for proper cooperation – but sadly, not all of them will act this way.
How to tell them apart, then? Pay attention to the pitches you receive. If the company is using vague terms and their email genuinely seems like a generic message – think twice before you even get excited about the pitch. Also, be careful if there are going to be any links in the article included, and always specify whether they should be dofollow or nofollow. Dofollow links may hurt your site in the long run, which means that the company is only interested in building whatever links they might get, instead of investing in quality content and long-term cooperation. Besides, random text links all over your blog will simply look misleading and unprofessional.
Also, you should be careful if the product or service that you are supposed to feature on your blog or even promote further is shady or worthless. As a blogger, you are responsible for curating the content for your readers. Especially if you build a loyal community around your blog. They might stop following you if you start posting about dubious companies all of a sudden. But, speaking of questionable product and services – watch out for unethical companies as well. Work only with those who establish clear terms of cooperation, including payment and deliverables, which you can actually benefit from. Basic contracts will also protect you (and the company) if some parts of the agreement are not meant in the end. Just remember to read and understand every contract you sign, so you don’t ever lose your rights or miss out on some monetary compensation.
If you’re struggling with attracting the advertisers (or you simply don’t think it’s worth the hassle), don’t worry. Just consider joining the networks dedicated to bloggers or take advantage of platforms and tools for sponsored content.
Finding paid opportunities – networks and platforms for sponsored articles and blog posts
Finding the right opportunities to monetize your blog is not always easy, but will definitely be worth it in the end. Below is a fairly comprehensive list of companies that connect bloggers and website owners with companies and advertisers, so you don’t have to look for them yourself:
Whitepress.net
Blogsvertise.com
Bloggernetwork.Bestbuy.com
TheBloggerProgramme.com
BloggersRequired.com
TheBrandConnection.com
GlobalInfluenceNetwork.com
TalentedTalkers.com
TapInfluence.com
One2OneNetwork.com
Influence-Network.com
Markerly.com
SocialFabric.us
Cooperatize.com
BlogMeetsBrand
BrandBacker.com
MediaLeaders.com
Influenster.com
Try.Activate.Social
BlogDash.com
All of them work similarly and can make it much easier for you to start getting some sponsored posts for your blog.
What to look at when you want to find sponsored posts for your blog?
If you are browsing paid opportunities to accept an article or a blog post on your blog, always pay attention to the companies that look for such a possibility.
There are a few questions you can ask yourself before you proceed:
- How popular is the company? (You can check the numbers on social media or see how high it ranks in Search Engine Results Page, for example),
- What does it sell exactly?
- How long will the blog post/article be?
- What topic will it cover?
- How much time do you have to publish it on your site?
- What is the monetary compensation?
- Are there any other benefits?
Whenever you browse paid opportunities, it’s always recommended to check at least a few sources that offer such a possibility first and see what works best for you. In comparison to researching all companies and brands out there, browsing dedicated platforms is much easier. Just take advantage of the list above and take the research from there. Don’t forget to get a clear overview of the cooperation terms, though.
And last but definitely not the least…
How much sponsored content should you actually accept?
If you want to monetize your blog, you probably should accept a lot of sponsored content, right? Not necessarily. Once you start posting paid posts and articles, you have to remember that they won’t be written by yourself, which means that your visitors may not like it as much as they used to.
It may also count for the companies that would like to work with you – if there’s a high ratio of sponsored posts, they may be hesitant to cooperate. And the main reason behind it is that they won’t stand out on your blog as much. Still, retaining the followers you already have and steadily attracting new ones is a bit more important at this stage, especially if you want to grow. Always keep your audience in mind and do what works for them best – whether is a sponsored post once a week, once a month or every now and then. There’s no specific rule when it comes to cooperating with brands and publishing sponsored content unless it provides some value to your readers.
Final note: keep the content on your blog high-quality and coherent. Posting sponsored content is a great way to make some money out of your blog, but in the end, you don’t want to turn it into an ATM. After all, you’re the person behind your content and thus, you’re responsible for what your readers will see. Make sure you’re authentic and you don’t publish anything you don’t believe in, and both your blog and your wallet will be just fine.
