Blogging can completely transform your life. You can start living your dream life.
From blogging, you can build a fun and flexible career that give you the freedom to work from anywhere and anytime. You became your own boss. Becoming a blogger is one of the best decisions I have made in my life. It has allowed me to be in a position to work from home, spend time with family, hang out with my fur babies and I get to make money while doing so.
For a while now, we have been focusing on different ways bloggers make money blogging and today we go into details on how to make money with sponsored posts.
The ultimate guide to making money from sponsored posts as a blogger.
Sponsored posts is one of the most lucrative way to make money with your blog and yet the least utilized by bloggers.
Most fear diving into sponsored reviews because they don’t know where to start, where to get sponsored gigs from and how much to charge for a sponsored posts.
To get started on making money with sponsored posts you don’t need to have a million page views or followers. If you have a decent amount of page views you are good to go. 5000 loyal followers are more valuable than 100,000 followers who never engage in any post.
As long as you have you have been blogging consistently for a minimum of 6 months and you have an active social media account you use for your blog then you are set.
Today we will cover:
- What is a sponsored post
- How to prep your blog
- Different types of sponsored posts
- Where to find sponsored gigs
- What should you charge for a sponsored post?
- How to pitch to a client
Related post: The ultimate guide to working with brands
What Is A Sponsored Post
For beginners, sponsored posts are articles that a blogger is paid to post on their website. This can be by companies, business or brands. The articles can be written by the blogger herself or the brand sends in an already written post.
If you are receiving a pre-written post you need to make sure that it is in line with your content. Of course, if you are writing the post from scratch means you will charge more compared to just posting an already written post.
Sponsored posts come in different formats depending on the requirement. They can be reviews, roundups, giveaways, sale announcements, product announcements, and videos.
First things first
Before you start thinking and coming up with a strategy on how to make money with sponsored posts you need to have a professional theme.
Your theme needs to be clean, professional and easily accessible both on the phone and the laptop. My website is from Pipdig in case you want you to want to change yours. Make sure that your website is loading at a good speed, there is nothing more annoying than a slow website.
- Set up work with me page
You simply state why brands should consider working with you. You can include your statics like your social numbers, email list subscribers, monthly impressions and visits. You need to show the best of your website to include all the strong points.
- Have a logo
Make sure your logo is eye-catching, unique and original
- Keep your blog update
Brands want to see that your website is active. This doesn’t mean you have to post new content daily but at least once a month.
Related posts: How to get your blog ready to working with brands as a blogger
Different types of Sponsored Posts
There are 2 different types of sponsored posts. The first one is where the advertiser only wants a link on your website and the second one is where the advertiser wants access to your audience.
For the first type, as long as the link blends naturally in the content the advertiser may not really care what the post is about. They are more interested in your domain authority. The higher your DA is the better. You will obviously get more sponsored opportunities if your DA is above 30.
The latter type, the advertiser wants to a connection with your audience. They will want you to promote their products or services to your audience and will also want to see your influence.
Where To Find Sponsored Gigs
This is a part that brings a lot of confusion to bloggers because most don’t know where to start. There are different ways you can go about this.
That is you can reach out to brands or companies yourself, the brands can reach out to you or you can go through influencer network companies which is the most common method. The influencer network companies act a middleman because they connect the blogger with a brand.
Each method has its own pros and cons. Read more on the three different ways here
It’s good way to start with smaller companies and brands because they are likely to respond to your pitch email faster compared to bigger companies. It also helps you to create a portfolio. Visit some local business in your niche and ask them if you can collaborate. That will be an advantage because some brands always ask if you have worked with any brands prior, and if that happens then you have something to show them.
How much should you charge for a sponsored post?
There is no standard amount for sponsored posts because all websites are different. The amount depends on your website metrics. Things like traffic numbers, your audience, posts engagements, social platform followers and email list subscribers.
Some of the things you need to consider before setting your rate:
- The amount of time spent.
You need to ask yourself how much your time is worth. Put into consideration the time spent coming up with the article, negotiating the price, making any amendments and much more.
I always put the prices slightly higher to allow room for negotiation.
- Extra costs like photography incurred if any.
The type of content.
You have two options, either you write the post yourself or you receive a pre-written post. Writing your own article may take a long time but its better because you write with your tone and the risk of getting into trouble with Google is very minimal.
Depending on the amount of work that goes behind having each post ready, you can be able to evaluate the amount to charge.
- How many sponsored posts you need to publish.
Do you need to post on social platforms like Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook.
- Your domain authority. As mentioned earlier the higher your domain authority the better because you will charge more.
How to pitch to a client
Most bloggers over analysis a pitch email and end up giving up. It’s not complicated because once you know what the client wants then you can easily address it in your pitch email. Clearly show how the brand will benefit from this collaboration, remember it’s 50/50.
Your email pitch should be strong, short and simple. Don’t start giving your blog history. In your pitch you can include things like; what your blog is about, why it’s unique, what it offers to your audience and how the brand will benefit from the collaboration.
The more brands you pitch to, the more chances you stand of landing a sponsored post. For example can make a list of 15 companies you want to work with, come up with a pitch email and email them. Simply do this over and over again.
Related post: How to write the perfect email pitch and land multiple sponsored gigs
Follow up
Sometimes brands might take long to respond, it’s ok to send a follow-up email after a week.
Caution: You need to be careful when writing a sponsored post not get in trouble with Google. When a brand pays you for a mention and you don’t the link as unfollow you can get into trouble.
Always accept advertisers related to your niche. Your sponsored post needs to help your audience otherwise you risk losing your loyal readers and the posts won’t get good engagement meaning the brand won’t be willing to work with you again. The product or the service should add value to your readers.
Cleary disclose your audience that the post is sponsored.
There you have it, a detailed guide on how to make money with sponsored posts. Hope you have this article helpful and if you have any questions let me know in the comment sections.
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