One of the major challenges new bloggers encounter is how to monetize their blogs. Today, with browsers having ad blockers, it is becoming increasingly difficult to earn money from ads placed on your blog.
Readers have also developed “banner blindness”, where they simply block out banners even when they are glaring at them on your blog page.
One credible solution is to create sponsored posts on your blog, where a company allows you to write about their products or services for a fee.
However, this is a goal that you have to work towards and this article will show you how to go about earning money from sponsored blog posts.
What on earth are sponsored posts?
Sponsored blog posts are articles that a brand, company, or business pays a blogger to write about as long as the content is in keeping with the main niche of the blog.
A sports shoe manufacturer cannot sponsor a post on a blog that deals with motor vehicle spare parts.
The sponsor may ask you to write the post, or they may opt to write the post themselves and host it on your blog especially if you have a high volume of targeted traffic.
There are a wide variety of sponsored posts that you can create on your blogs. These include reviews, infographics product roundups or lists, product announcements, and a lot more.
Why do brands need YOU to write sponsored content for them?
In the past, brands used to put their ads on television, magazines, and newspapers; later they started using billboards and areas where there is a high volume of foot traffic such as malls.
Although this kind of advertising was somewhat effective, they could not measure it as accurately as they can when using digital media such as sponsored blog posts.
Sponsored posts offer brands a way to be able to know which influencers can bring them a high volume of targeted visitors, and also track each click.
YouTube and Social Media enable content creators to share statistics easily when they are looking for companies to sponsor. On blogs, Google Analytics allows you to share the same data with these companies.
This has made it very easy for sponsored blog posts to send traffic and highly motivated customers to sales pages and posts hosted by the sponsoring client.
Let say that a company known as “Mr. Puppy” wants to place an ad in the traditional way, they would place ads in dog magazines, around pets stores, and have a few commercials on TV.
They would obviously increase their sales from this endeavor, but they would not have any way of tracking which of these is the most effective so they can concentrate their efforts on that particular outlet.
In other words, they would have no inkling as to where the sales are coming from.
This is where you come in.
If you have a blog that shows people how to give their pets a healthier life, Mr. Puppy would be able to approach you to write a sponsored post for them.
They would also target another vlogger who creates videos about, “how teenagers can have a healthy relationship with their priced pets”, and posts them on YouTube or Facebook.
With the ability to track traffic data on the internet, the company will know which channel is more effective and they will concentrate on it.
If you make $1,000 in sales after they sponsor a post at a cost of $100, while another does not generate any sales, then they will concentrate on giving you more sponsored post gigs.
Spending on sponsored content hits over $60 billion a year and you should use your writing skills to get a piece of that pie.
Sponsored content has been tried and tested and has proven to be successful, scalable, and trackable.
Now that you know why brands need you to write sponsored blog posts for them, continue and find out just how you should go about it.
How do you find companies willing to pay for a sponsored post?
To start off your sponsored post venture, target small local and national brands that are willing to part with a small fee for a sponsored post. This will build your experience as a sponsored post writer and also make your blog suitable for bigger companies at a later date.
Creating a portfolio as a paid post writer means that you may have to look for other deals apart from cash. This is where you offer a small business a sponsored post in exchange for a small barter reward.
For example, you may ask to use a service for free and then write a sponsored post for them.
Once you have created an impressive portfolio, you may now exclusively deal with sponsored posts that are paid for in cash.
Marketing and PR firms are also good sources for sponsored content for your blog. They have a portfolio of clients looking for exposure.
You may also join networks that give out opportunities for writing sponsored blog posts.
Cooperatize, Tomoson, and PayPerPost are favorable places to look for these opportunities.
These networks act as middlemen, where they look for sponsored posts opportunities for you, leaving you free to concentrate on your writing.
They will also give you tutorials and other tips that will help you maximize income from this venture.
When you join up with these networks, make sure that you fill out your profile fully. The networks use the profile to assign your sponsored post gigs.
Networks like IZEA will assign you more work if you have fully filled out your profile. This information is critical for the networks to match you with businesses looking for sponsored post opportunities.
Once you have found an opportunity to pitch for a sponsored post opportunity, you must be clear about the benefits that you will provide to your client.
This means opening up about the number of readers you have, how they respond to your CTAs, etc. This information may be proprietary to your blog, but it also gives the client more confidence in giving you the opportunity.
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What will you charge for writing a sponsored post?
This is a very common question among people venturing into this business model in their blogging careers.
The rates for sponsored posts vary widely by niche and business size.
The question remains about how you should measure up your writing and leverage it for a payout.
The amount of traffic that you get and the kind of audience that follows you will determine how much you should ask for a sponsored post.
There are other algorithms that give your blog a PageRank which you can use to set up your fees.
You can rely on your blog analytics when you are negotiating a price with a potential client.
Start by creating a media kit for your blog. Include the relevant blog analytics that shows how many people read your blog and the conversion rate that it attains.
Finally, get an idea as to how much other bloggers charge for sponsored posts. A search for the top 25 sponsored blog writers will enable you to see what they charge and then you can adjust your rate accordingly.
Should you disclose the nature of your post?
Legally, you are required to disclose that the blog post you are writing is a sponsored post.
However, this varies from one geographic region to another. Some countries do not require you to disclose that you are writing a sponsored post.
In the United States, you are required to disclose this fact. Failure to do so may lead to legal action being taken against you and the company sponsoring the post.
When you disclose that the post is sponsored, you should pace the notice at the start of your post. Some bloggers place the disclosure at the bottom of the post and this borders on tiptoeing along the edge of the law.
You can be creative about the wording of the disclosure, but make sure that it serves its purpose so you do not open up yourself to legal action.
Whether you are in a region that enforces this requirement or does not mean that you should omit it.
Understand that your content is read all over the world, and people living in areas where the disclosure is required will lose trust in your content if you omit it.
What are the best practices when it comes to creating sponsored blog posts?
There are certain practices that you should follow if you want to establish yourself as a credible and effective sponsored post writer.
- Add a rel=”nofollow” tag on your sponsored posts – This is a practice that many SEO experts will tell you NOT to do.
However, it gives you the pion of charging more money from your sponsor given that this may affect the overall ranking of your website.
- Timing – Create an editorial calendar that will enhance more readership. When you release sponsored posts too close to one another, then readers might lose interest quickly.
Sponsored posts are supposed to talk about meeting the readers’ needs using particular products, but you must let them understand that their need really exists and this is the only product that can help them.
Releasing sponsored posts rapidly will water down your effectiveness at convincing readers to opt for one product; they will get confused by all the sponsored posts you release.
- Usefulness – you must tie the benefits of the product or service that you are writing about to the needs of the readers. You must make it clear how the product or service will make their lives better.
If a company asks you to write a paid post that is of no use to your regular readers, then you should turn it down.
- Choice of clients – Take time to choose the prospective clients for your sponsored post. Make sure that you are creating content that is in keeping with your niche.
Some businesses may want to use your high volume of readers to promote a product or service that is not in keeping with your niche. Kindly turn them down.
- Use high-quality images – the kind of images that you use on sponsored posts will add value to the product. If you have a blurry image of the product, then people will not be compelled to purchase it.
Adding personal images could also be great. If the sponsor offers you a free trial of the product or service, add an image of yourself looking mighty pleased with the product or service.
- Be natural in your content – you are asking the reader to trust the sponsor’s product or service. However, the way you do this will impact how effective you will be.
It is not enough to write about the specs of the product or service. You should have a conversation with your reader and make them understand what it is about these specs that make it a wonderful choice for THEM!
Takeaway
Today, monetizing a blog is not as easy as it was way back when. However, sponsored blog posts are still a necessity for brands and this offers you the perfect opportunity to make money on your blog.
Be smart when it comes to creating a blog for this purpose. Follow the right process as laid out above and then commit to being truthful to your readers about the nature of the blog post you are writing.
You will earn your readers’ trust when you do so, and they will be willing to follow your advice and purchase the products and services that you write about.
Learn how to make your posts appealing using fantastic images or videos and your audience will respond well to the sponsored post.
Let us know if you have any questions arising from the content written in this article in the comments below and e will address them promptly.
