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Making Sense of Sponsored Posts
If you are considering working with brands as a blogger in order to boost your blog income, then we suggest reading up on tips to land sponsored blog posts with brands.
Having multiple streams of income for your blog is the key to your success.
Don’t rely on only one area for all your blog income. I highlighted a few places for you to focus on for growing your blog that you can try!
For example, we totally enjoy monetizing our blog using affiliate marketing, creating our own products and eBooks, making money with ads and a few other ways.
Working with brands is another great way of monetizing your blog.
What Is A Sponsored Blog Post?
If your wish is to start working with brands in order to make more money as a blogger, you first need to understand what a sponsored blog post is.
Basically a sponsored blog post is when brands or advertisers pay you to publish posts on your site promoting their businesses.
Keep in mind you can also get paid to post on social media!
But before we get started on how working with brands can increase your blog income, we would love for you to join our growing Facebook group right here! Be sure to follow us on Instagram here.
We also wanted to take the opportunity to let you know that we use Affiliate links on some of our blog posts. This means that we could make a commission if you click on an affiliate link and purchase something. Please check out our full disclaimer and policy page here.
How to Successfully Work With Brands As A Blogger
Working with brands can be intimidating if you are ensure about how to do it properly. And most new bloggers or bloggers with small followings feel that they will not land sponsors as they are too new!
Well there is no such thing! Having a small following should not stop you from working with brands that you love, you just need to be strategic.
I am going to share my tips and strategies of what I do when it comes to working with brands.
You can also jump right in and find out how to land $10, 000 worth of sponsored blog work!
Can you Make Money Working with Brands
Absolute, yes you can.
In fact I make the most money on my blog when I take the time to source out, reach out to brands and form collaboration opportunities. It is one of the easiest ways to make extra money with your blog and I enjoy this.
You can choose who to work with which allows you ensure the brand aligns with your business.
1// Grow Your Blog
I know I mentioned that you do not need to have a huge following to land brand collaborations, but this does not mean you do not need to make an effort.
Growing your blog comes in all sort of forms.
For example: Website traffic and page views are really important to a success of a blogger, but other things count too! Most brands look at engagement when it comes to deciding if they want to work with you or not.
If you can show the brands that your content is highly engaging, they might consider working with you. This can be comments you get on your blog posts after publishing, or comments you get on social media.
Learn how to write a good blog post that is highly engaging and attracts natural comments.
Did you know that having a poor blog name can be damaging for your brand value?
2// Growing your Social Media Accounts
Instagram is huge these days! More and more bloggers are working with brands using this amazing platform. This is where numbers play a huge factor on landing well paid sponsored post collaborations.
I for one, I’m not a huge Instagram person, I know I should be.
But Pinterest is my jam and I typically tell my brands that I have a huge Pinterest following and that this attracts more traffic to their work should we decide to collaborate. This works well and most brands accept this.
But if you can grow your social media following or get real Instagram followers, you will be able to land big sponsor partnerships.
Here is how to get 103K Instagram followers in 60 days!
3// Finding Brands to Collaborate With
They are a few ways to find brands to collaborate with when you are ready to start working with brands:
- You can reach out to them directly
- You can join blogging networks
- And you can set up your blog in such a way to allow brands to reach out to you
What has worked for me?
I have found the most success with bloggers reaching out to me. Once I upgraded my WordPress blog theme to something more professional and elegant, brands were reaching out to me more!
I have also had great success by reaching out to brands directly to see if they would like to collaborate with my blog!
I have used Michelle’s tips from Making Sense of Sponsored Posts to successfully reach out to brands and secure work with those that I love!
Related:
How To Pitch to Brands for Collaborations – Tips for Success
How to Get Paid To Blog And Write Articles from Home
4// Find Blogging Networks to Join
Looking for sponsored posts or work? Working with brands like linqia is the best route for you. This is an example of a network you can join to land sponsored blog post opportunities!
Here are a few networks to consider:
These are just a few our top blogging networks we recommend but they are plenty more out there!
5// Media Kit For Bloggers
Media kits are perfect for bloggers that want to secure sponsors and those that are actively looking for ways to work with brands!
A Media kit will sell you as a blogger and hopefully land you brand work! Media Kit is what you will use to sell yourself as a brand and blogger.
Your Media Kit should include:
- Your Bio
- How you can help the brand
- Your stats – page views, social media following etc.
- Testimonials if you have any
- Previous work sample
You might also like: How to brand your blog and work like Beyonce!
6// Reaching Out To Brands for Collaborations
The best way to reach out to brands that you want to work with is to first connect with them on social media! This includes following them, tagging them in posts and sharing their stuff!
If you mention them on a post, be sure to give them a shout and tag on social media! This way you can also share stats showing how your readers have interacted with the post.
Use PR Newswire, the brand website and social media to find contact to reach out to brands for collaborations.
Pro Blogger tip: Apply for blogging networks for chances of landing sponsored blog posts. The more you are part of, the more opportunity to make money much faster as a blogger.
7// Email Pitch To Brands
Working with brands is much easier when you can pitch them directly. I have do about 10-15 Pitches a month and the rest, the brands reach out to me directly!
Making sense of sponsored blog post has really helped me with exactly what to say and now I have template that works.
Pitching to the right person is way better than sending it out to someone that is not in charge of the company PR. This is basically what I include in my email pitch to brands:
- Short bio of myself and my business
- Why I love the brand or get detailed about the product I love
- How I can help them as a blog to get more exposure – this could mean my target audience aligns perfectly
- Include your media kit – optional
8// How Much To Charge For Sponsored Blog Posts
How much to charge for sponsored blog posts will really depend on a lot of factors. But as a general rule, even if you are a new blogger, I would start out at $250 as your base. Obviously higher if you are more established.
My base is around the $450 mark and goes up each year by $100.00! From here you can increase based on the value you will be offering, for example:
- Number of blog posts
- Number of social media mentions
- Amount of time it will take you to complete the project
- Will you be using ads to promote the post
- Also keep in mind how engaged people will be with your brand
- Will be taking photos, creating style shoots to showcase the brand product? Do you need to hire outside influence for this?
You can go as high as you feel comfortable. As long as you are proving value for your work and what the brands are requesting.
Feel free to use a site like Socialbook to determine exactly how you can charge for sponsored blog post opportunities.
9// Working with Brands That Match Your Niche
You are allowed to say no to some brands that do not fit your niche. Don’t work with a brand just because you need the money. This will turn your readers off.
You want to be authentic as possible and continue bringing value to your readers every time.
10// Create Long Term Partnerships with Brands
Try to find a way to create long-term partnerships with brands you secure. Don’t only do one posts or one Instagram posting.
If you can secure a deal that has you promoting their brand on Instagram once a month for the year and maybe 2 Blog Posts for $10,000, then run with it.
And this opens up conversation for re-evaluation for the following year.
11// Don’t Stop Networking
If you want to continue working with brands and even land major sponsored posts, you need to get out there!
Connect with brands, other businesses and other bloggers on and off social media! For example, twitter has a hashtags created for brands looking to work with bloggers:
- #Journorequests
- #PRrequests
- #bloggerswanted
- #bloggersrequired
Join the conversation and continue to network. Very soon, more brands will be knocking down your doors want to work with you.
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT WORKING WITH BRANDS AS A BLOGGER AND LANDING SPONSORED BLOG WORK, WE HIGHLY RECOMMEND MAKING SENSE OF SPONSORED BLOG POSTS!
Find more amazing Blogging and Entrepreneurship tips here!
If you enjoyed our blog we would like to have you join our email list and receive weekly money-making tips, you can join now! Don’t forget to join our Private Facebook page. The page is created to share your work, pitch your services and learn from other experienced bloggers!
***We would like to note that this post and most posts on our blog may contain affiliate links. This means that if you purchase something that has an affiliate link, we will get a commission from it. Not all items recommended on our site are affiliate links. We only recommend items that we have used and tried. These items have brought us much success and we highly recommend them to you in order to be successful. Thank you for your trust!
Thank you very much,
I am also learning optimization for my website.
Hhhhhmmmmm….thank you for the tips, Marie!
I am glad, as a blogger I really enjoy working with brands and hopefully these tips will help you.
This is what I need to know. I just got a sponsored post from one company and I rejected it because they pay only $10 saying my blog is new and my DA is low. I just said No, whatever it is, my blog will grow. Thank you so much for this post, I found all the answers I need.
Absolutely! What are you going to do with $10.00. I get this all the time.
As long as you know your worth, you will be fine. Say NO to those not willing to pay for your worth and continue producing amazing content!
This is a lot of helpful information. I am still working on growing my blog, but may look to joining some groups to see what this is all about.
Absolutely, working with brands as a blogger is the best way of monetizing your blog faster.
This is actually useful, thanks.
Thank you. I hope your enjoy working with brands and that this post helps you get there!
nice information thanks.
Thank you.
It’s really a great and useful piece of information. I am glad that you shared this useful info with us. Please stay us up to date like this. Thank you for sharing.
No problem, I hope you find working with brands to be successful.
Great info! What a helpful post.
Thank you Tara!
As many posts as I’ve read on finding sponsored post opportunities and I have never heard of Mavens or Massive Way! Oh I’m excited. Thanks for sharing.
Oh they are amazing to work with!
Awesome tips! I’m always looking for more ways to make money with my blog!
I am glad you landed on my blog!