New Blogger Series: Blog Sponsorship

Many of you have contacted me asking for a post regarding both sponsoring blogs and accepting sponsorship on your blog.  This one is going to cover sponsoring other blogs, and the next lesson will cover accepting sponsorship on your blog.

So if you're relatively new to the blogging world, you might be wondering why you should sponsor other blogs.  Truth is, you should only do it if it is something you feel would benefit you.  If you are blogging simply for yourself and the a few friends here and there and have no desires of gaining a larger audience, you probably wont want to worry about sponsoring anyone else.

However if you want your blog to grow in readership, or you have any hope of monetizing or making a profit from your blog, sponsoring is a fantastic way to build readership and make new friends.  Not only do you get eyes on your little advertisement (whether it's in their sidebar, footer, or elsewhere) but a lot of blogs offer lots of other opportunities with their sponsorship.

If you've decided you'd like to get your blog out there to be seen by more blog readers, you may be concerned about how to find blogs to sponsor. 

1. Check out blogs you're already following.  If you love it, why not support it?
2. Check out blogs of people who comment on your blog.  If they're commenting, they're probably great at communicating and promoting what they love!
3. Follow ads from other blogs. Most people who sponsor blogs, offer sponsoring themselves; follow the ads on another blog's sidebar to check out new places to sponsor.
4. The Passionfruit Ads Marketplace.  This is a huge directory of bloggers who accept sponsorship!  You can even see information about them before visiting or purchasing.

Once you have found blogs you might be interested in sponsoring, here are some things to consider:

• How much does it cost?  We all have budgets, so you'll want to make sure you are able to sponsor within that budget.  
• How much traffic does this blog get? Most bloggers will list their traffic/follower/subscriber info right on their sponsor page or in their Media Kit.   It's not just about followers-but pageviews.  You want your ad to be seen as much as possible. Consider the cost vs. features.  If they're a small blog with low traffic, but they offer a lot of features and sharing, you may still get more attention and eyes on you than a larger blog who only offers the ad space without additional perks.
• What is being offered? What perks come with the ad space you're thinking of purchasing?  Do they offer to share you on social media?  Pin your posts on Pinterest?  Write about you on their blog?
• Are there Giveaway opportunities?  Giveaways are honestly one of the best ways to get your name out there, and a lot of people will offer you the chance to do an individual giveaway, group giveaway, or both on their blogs.  You offer a prize (or contribute to a group prize) in return for more attention-including your info in the giveaway post and/or your links as entries into the giveaway. 
• Does the blog reach your target audience? A lot of blogs are going to have a very wide range of audience-so most in general are going to reach people who will want to see your stuff-however some are going to be a lot more specific.  For example, if you are a blog all about cooking and recipes, you may want to choose to advertise on a food blog-that way people who specifically are looking for food-related stuff will be more likely to follow your add back to your blog.  If your shop sells children's clothing, you'll probably want to advertise on a Mommy blog or a blog related to children so that the right audience is seeing what you have to offer them.
• Does the blog go along with your ideals?  Easy enough-is this a blog you can openly support?  If you're openly religious you may not want to advertise on someone's blog who is anti-what you stand for or who writes about things you wouldn't support.  This isn't always an issue, many bloggers support each other even if there are differences in belief, however there are extremes on any side you will want to consider.

A lot is going to be trial and error.  You may decide to sponsor a blog and then never renew with them because they didn't live up to what you expected.  Or, you may love them and choose to renew many times-and a lot of the time a blogger will offer you the chance to renew at a reduced rate.

When sponsoring another blog, you'll want to use an ad that is both catchy and accurate in portraying what your blog/shop is about.  Photo ads tend to look the most professional (unless you have a high-style design with matching ads/buttons) and are some of the easiest to create or have created.  You can start with a photo you've taken, or had taken, that is related to your blog-and add text to it to make it eye-grabbing and to also show what people will find if they click on it.

You can create your button yourself in programs like Photoshop or The Gimp (which is what I use), an online tool like PicMonkey,  or you can hire someone to create them for you.  Some bloggers who offer sponsoring will create one for you for an additional fee, or you can order some from a designer.  (I offer them in my shop)

Here are some examples of some ads I love:

These examples look professional and show the personality of the blog/shop they lead to!

This section is entirely related to my personal preference, and not everyone is looking for the same things I am-however I wanted to share with you my criteria for choosing blogs to sponsor.

• Traffic & Followers: Since my blog has grown it has become important to me to sponsor people with similar or greater traffic and follower count than me.  However, I often do go lower (I try not to go too far lower) for really good blogs and/or lower costs.  I also will sponsor smaller blogs if I simply love them and want to promote them further.
• Giveaways.  Giveaways are important to me when sponsoring-because honestly they feel like the best way to get eyes on my blog or my product.  
• Feature/Guest Post:  I like blogs which offer some kind of feature, group feature, or guest post along with the other options.  That way at least somewhere they'll be talking about me, even if it's included with the giveaway.
• Communication.  I wont renew if I feel I didn't get any kind of communication.  The person should reach out to me at least once, and then hopefully mention me in social media, comment on my blog, etc.  
• Blog Design.  I really only sponsor blogs that are visually appealing to me.  
• Cost.  I can be cheap-I get this.  I'm more likely to sponsor someone if I'm offered or find a discount code-and I just can't bring myself to pay $100 for an ad space for a month just because it's a larger blog-especially not if they don't offer me anything else with the ad.

Lesson 1: Blogger Lingo

Lesson 2: Finding Your Niche

Lesson 3: Social Media

Lesson 4: Start a Conversation

Lesson 5: Blog Design Tips

Lesson 6: Blog Sponsorship

Lesson 7: Accepting Sponsors

Lesson 8: Running a Giveaway

Lesson 9: Hosting Linky Parties
Lesson 10: Back Up Your Blog