How to Find Blog Sponsors

If you’re an established blogger that already knows everything about blog sponsors, feel free to skip the next couple of sections and move directly to the one titled “How to Get Sponsors for Your Blog”.

The Basics of Blog Monetization

There are many ways in which a blog or website can be monetized. A round up of the usual suspects includes -

1. CPM advertising networks that pay you for displaying banners.

2. CPC advertising such as Google Adsense.

3. Affiliate marketing where you get paid per sale.

4. Direct advertising where you get paid to display a company’s banner, link or run posts about their product.

Note that selling text-links is not mentioned here. Even with direct advertising, you should never offer to sell a link for SEO purposes. Don’t make the mistake of even mentioning your Google Pagerank when making an online media kit, unless you don’t mind being kicked off the Google charts.

Direct Advertising – Your Blog Sponsors

Blog sponsors are those advertisers that you work directly with. With no ad network to mediate, you form a relationship with your sponsor. The best scenario is one where both you and your sponsor benefit from co-branding by being associated with each other.

Of course, the sponsor is also the paying party. Usually, they make a monthly or yearly payment that covers at least a banner or sponsorship message. The idea is to create a long-term campaign where the blogger becomes actively involved with promoting the sponsor’s product. That could mean mentioning the product in posts, comments on other blogs and any other way you can think of.

How to Get Sponsors for Your Blog

I owe you an apology here for what might be considered an ambiguous, not to say misleading, post title. You see, this post isn’t a guide on how to find blog sponsors. Nope. This time, the title is actually a genuine question.

I have been approached by a fellow blogger the other day with this very question, and I figured the best way to find out is by throwing the question out into cyberspace. As I explained to my friend, all the sponsors I have ever worked with approached me. They were looking for advertising opportunities, and I suggested long-term sponsorship which they accepted.

So the question remains open -

How do you go about actively looking for blog sponsors?

Not to leave this post without any tips, here are mine:

Once approached by a potential sponsor, offer a detailed plan which clearly states how you’re going to promote their product or site. This can include things such as -

1. An introductory detailed post.
2. A “sponsored by” statement at the top of  your sidebar.
3. A recurrent mention in your weekly newsletter.
4. Mentioning the sponsor in at least two more posts every month.

These are just examples, of course. Get creative here, and offer as much as you think is right for you and your potential sponsor.

Be prepared to offer information about your blog as well. Sponsors usually look for benefits other than SEO, so while a high pagerank is nice to mention, you should focus on your blog’s contribution to your niche and the number of readers it gets.

So, now that I’ve shared my tips, what are yours? Established bloggers – can you share how you go out looking for sponsors? Does anyone have a good resource on the subject? Please share in the comments section!

Tagged as: advertising, blog sponsors, blogs, money, social marketing