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The 5 Minutes, 2 Step Solutions for the Best Content Sponsorship

Back in the early days of the web, or at least, when it was first monetized, display advertising was a lot more lucrative. First of all, ad-blockers were a thing of the future and you could easily fall victim to a display ad if you didn’t know any better. Nowadays we’re more web-savvy; we know where to look for ads, or more accurately, where we can look if we don’t want to see them. It’s not that display adverts are particularly dangerous, because they can certainly yield results on a trustworthy website, but we do seem to have learned to subconsciously avoid them.

Sponsored content (sometimes known as sponsored posts, but different to advertorials, on the other hand, is a type of native advertising that’s designed to weave into the webpage almost unnoticed, and better yet, it doesn’t embezzle valuable screen real estate that can otherwise be used for optimizing the user experience. Let’s take a deeper look at sponsored content.

Sponsored content isn’t the only kind of native advertising, but what they all have in common is that the user comes first; the user experience isn’t hindered by the advert in any way, despite the fact that native ads appear in the users’ direct line-of-sight, whereas banner ads appear within the users’ peripheral vision.

Sponsored content should always be fully disclaimed, at the top before the reader has chosen to invest time in reading. Best practices also dictate that the content is developed by editorial staff or (in the case of solo blogs, etc.) yourself, with the client advising and approving but not unduly influencing the process. This provides sponsored content with genuine utility to the reader, and makes it a form of advertising with a great deal of integrity — unlike the advertorials of the past.

Are you one of the many bloggers out there who wish they could get blog sponsorship but don’t know where to start? Are you looking to monetize your blog, but don’t want to fill your blog up with Google ads? Well, here are some tips about blog sponsorship and a few leads to get you started.

Sponsorship is very different to affiliate adverts: Sponsors will pay bloggers simply to have their message on your blog, whereas affiliates will only pay for clicks or purchases. There are also a great variety of sponsorships available: monthly contracts; event contracts; sponsorship of regular posts; one-off sponsorships coordinated by a third party. What you choose is up to you.

a.      Finding Sponsorship Quickly through Websites That Pays

There are ways to get blog sponsorship through websites which connect bloggers with companies wishing to gain exposure. When you sign up to these sites, you can often choose which products you are happy to write about. This way, you can write honest reviews of products you can stand behind. Most importantly, all of these sites will pay you a nominated fee for your endorsement rather than offering pay-per-click affiliate schemes. All of the following sites have their own guidelines regarding which blogs will be accepted.

Sponsored Reviews (sponsoredreviews.com)

Depending on the size of your readership, you could earn $5-$1,000 for writing a sponsored review on your blog. Sponsored Reviews connects you with an advertiser, and then makes payments to your Paypal account after your review is approved. Sponsored Reviews lets you search for advertisers or advertisers can search for you.

Social Spark (socialspark.com)

Social Spark connects advertisers and bloggers, allowing bloggers to write short reviews for a fee or to host adverts as an affiliate. All payments are made by Paypal. Social spark also owns PayPerPost, another online website offering content creators a way of making cool cash from their content.

Review Me (reviewme.com)

Review Me lets bloggers write reviews of promoter products for $20-$200 per review. Bloggers are limited by their blog’s rating to only publish a certain number of reviews per month. Payments are by Paypal, American cheque or their own Mastercard. Check out this List Of 21 Get Paid To Blog Websites by  Anil Agarwal

b.      Through Personal Sponsorship

Do You Want A Personal Sponsor?

Tip #1 – Keep It Real

Stay true to yourself and keep your readers’ best interests in mind. Don’t promote things you don’t wholly endorse. Maintain your integrity and be upfront about your sponsorship in an introductory blog post.

Tip #2 – Write a Professional Sponsorship Document

Write a little bit about yourself and your blog, including all your contact details. Tell your readers why they might want to work with you. Why is your exposure good for the sponsor? Determine your niche market, readership demographics, the keywords your blog is ranked highly for and how frequently you post.

Decide exactly what you can offer any given sponsor and how much you expect to receive for your efforts. Do you want monthly sponsorship, giveaways or do you want sponsorship for a conference? Always make sure you can follow through or over-deliver on your promises. Ensure your terms are clear and stipulate that you will not write more than is declared in the sponsorship agreement.

Make this document professional and ready to send to any prospective sponsor, but remember to tailor it somewhat to each company you approach.

An example of sponsorship tier system:

Gold Sponsorship $300: 7 Dofollow links from multiple domains (for six months). Logo Exposure. Blog post recommending sponsor.

Silver Sponsorship $150: 3 Dofollow links from multiple domains (for six months).

Bronze Sponsorship Products/Services: 1 Do follow link (for six months).

Tip #3 – Promote Your Search for Sponsorship

Marketers looking to sponsor bloggers are time poor.  You can bet that they will occasionally search for bloggers who want sponsorship in their niche area. If you don’t have a page or post on your site declaring that you want sponsorship then they’ll never find you. Add as much or as little of your sponsorship rates as you wish - just make sure that you add enough information to get found by them when they’re looking!

Tweeting a message about your drive for sponsors might work, but it’s an unfocused effort. You will find better results in researching good sponsorship matches yourself and approaching them directly. Also, consider asking local businesses for sponsorship - you never know who will be interested.

Sponsorships are all about relationships, so it often does come down to who you know and deal with already.

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