Monetizing Your Blog: Part 4 – Sponsored Posts
As a part of our ongoing series about making money from your blog we have so far covered Advertising, Affiliate Marketing, and Selling Your Own Product. In this next installment, we’ll go over how you can directly use the posts on your blog to bring in some revenue through sponsored posts.
Sponsored Posts – You Write The Content
One common way to use your posts as a source of income is to get them sponsored. For instance, let’s say you write a blog about beauty products. A company approaches you, asking if you would write a review of one of their latest products. Then, in exchange either for monetary compensation or a free product, you would create a post about this new product. At the end you would put a disclaimer, saying you were compensated for the review you provided.
Here are some things you should consider before having sponsored blog posts:
- Is it a good investment of your time? If writing a sponsored posts takes you a long time, and this time could be spent earning money in another way, sponsored posts may not be right for you.
- Consider who your ideal readers are, and if they have an interest in sponsored posts. You don’t want to alienate your reader base, but some readers may like hearing about new products on the market that they might not have heard of.
- Make sure that you enjoy writing sponsored posts. You don’t want blogging to become something you no longer enjoy.
- Learn how to set your sponsored posts rates before agreeing to any contract. You can learn more about setting your sponsored posts rates here.
- Sponsored posts can be a great way to partner with another company, and either get yourself some revenue or some free stuff. Just be sure you let your readers know you are being paid for the content you’re writing, or you could lose credibility.
Sell Your Posting Space – They Write The Content
Another option is to allow other companies to post on your blog, in exchange for monetary compensation. This is essentially the same as a sponsored post, but with the company providing their own copy, rather than you writing it. If a company is looking to market their business, one strategy they could be employing is having other websites link back to their own. If your website is in good standing – and rates highly on Google – you could charge other companies for the ability to post their own content on your website.
Before you get into this arrangement, be sure you maintain editorial control over the content that goes onto your site. You don’t want to sell your posting space to everyone, and to lose control over the quality of the content. Doing so will harm your blog’s reputation, and could lower you in the search rankings.
Things To Keep In Mind
If you are going to go with sponsored posts, there are a few things you should keep in mind:
- Don’t let quality suffer. Just because you are writing about a product, or letting another company post on your site, doesn’t mean the quality should dip. Treat this content just as you would anything else, with a focus on providing value to your readers.
- Always be upfront. If you’re promoting a product or letting another company post on your website, you should let your readers know. Most readers won’t mind if you are talking about another company’s product, as long as you let them know.
- Don’t overdo it. Finally, your entire blog should not become posts from other people, or dedicated to product reviews. Your blog still needs to provide value to your readers, with revenue from sponsored posts only as a secondary concern. Keep these types of posts to a minimum, and find other sources of revenue to supplement your income.
A few sponsored posts is a good way to generate revenue on a blog that provides good value. More often than not companies will reach out to you about these opportunities. However, if there is a company you would like to work with, it doesn’t hurt to contact them. Another option is having an area on your website where people can contact you about these opportunities. This page from Entrepreneurs-Journey has some good information on finding sponsors.
Do you have any experience with selling your posting space? Or do you have any questions about how this works? Either way, leave us your comments below and let us know!