You have decided to work with brands on your blog to create a little income. Congratulations! You’re joining hundreds of thousands of others doing that very thing, and more than likely having a great time doing so. You’ve read all the advice, and you’re keen to get started. Let’s put it all together and get the wheels in motion.
Step One:
Just like we discussed in the post about media kits, get your ducks in a row. So that means knowing what you and your blog stand for, what you’re comfortable monetising, and you’re in the right headspace to do so. It wouldn’t hurt to have a pretty slick About Me page, a page for potential sponsors and advertisers to find information (a “Work With Me” or “Advertise” or “Sponsor” page) and consistent branding across your social media channels. You can get a logo cheap as chips these days, and makes you look just that little bit more professional and ready for action.
Step Two:
Make a list of the brands you love and/or would wholeheartedly recommend to your readers. There will be times when you will be contacted by brands, but until that day comes, be proactive. Reach out to your favourites (remembering to make contact with people in charge of marketing, rather than generic email addresses or social media accounts, if you can) with your pitch and your media kit. You can specify what kinds of collaboration you’re interested in (Nikki discussed those here), or see what they have in mind. It’s always a good idea to go in with a few ideas of your own.
Step Three:
Reach out to brands, small businesses, or other bloggers and let them know you have advertising spaces available. Sweeten the deal with a 10% off if they sign up that month. Offer discounts for advertising packages (say, 15% off if they buy in three-month blocks), and let your newsletter subscribers (if you have them) and your social media followers know that you’re open for business. Maybe think about doing a swap deal with other bloggers so you both have some advertising spaces filled, which is always a good look. Re-read this post about what size ads work well, and where to put them. Have a look too and see if any of those ad networks would be useful to you (I know plenty of Australian bloggers who also use and recommend Passionfruit Ads), or go about installing Google AdSense to get your advertising off the ground.
Step Four:
Keep doing your thing. Write great posts from the heart. Participate in the blogger community. Be kind. Share your posts on your social media outlets. Share others’ posts. Chat to brands, and let them know when you’ve featured them. Get yourself on lists that are open to brands and PR reps looking for bloggers to work with. Enter competitions. Buy ads on other blogs. Stay true to yourself. Be passionate. Learn your craft. Value your reader. Blog like you don’t care about the money. Try not to get too caught up in the monetisation rat race. Remember why you started.
Step Five:
Once you have made the first forays into monetisation, by all means branch out. You might like to have a look at this post Darren wrote recently about how he makes his income (spoiler: it’s many different streams that roll into one river). The possibilities are pretty much endless.
Go! Do!
Yes, everyone wants to make good earning from their blog, but the main point missing is great original content. Content is king and will always be. If there be content other things will follow.
Happy blogging and make good earnings.
Totally agree and talked about that in my post.
Agree with you, Sangesh.
That’s why Step 4 is “Keep doing your thing. Write great posts from the heart.”
Sangesh, that’s actually not true. Everyone DOESN’T want to make a good earning because many, such as myself, never went into blogging to make money out of it.
My blog is not my business so I have never had a need to monetise it and make it a business. Many of us started blogging for fun and to connect with people, although that has changed with people jumping on the “earn money from blogging” bandwagon, there are many of us who still have no want or need to do so, just as there are some who only monetise to make enough to cover their monthly blog expenses.
We don’t all want to make a living out of blogging as many bloggers I follow have grown, or are growing, tired of the grind of it. Many have closed down their blogs and websites in the five and a half years I’ve been online because they are too much to deal with while dealing with daily life, health or family issues, regardless of how big and well known their site was. Their owners are no longer interested in doing it daily, weekly or even monthly and go months or years without posting, so their blogs sit and do nothing.
Many of us still blog and run websites for other reasons, NOT for the money.
Awesome work, especially information that you provided is very interesting and very helpful it will help many others like me.
I need to kick my efforts in this regard into high gear after being in passive mode with my blogs over the last few months … these posts are a much needed kick in the rear!
I’m so pleased they’ve been inspirational to you, Vicki!
Loved your theme this week, fabulous to have all this information in one spot. It always surprises me how folk think that brands are rushing to connect with bloggers, actually there is a lot of work required from a blogger before that happens. Just getting “all that is fantastic” to the forefront of your blog, and some folk are naturally better at that than others, requires a fair bit of effort!!!
Ah yes, I totally agree!
Hi Sangesh !!
As simple as the points you have stated here is , it is very educative and one can hardly imagine how this step could be of help.. Content is always the key to blog and success it also increases credibility !!!!!!
Regards,
DOK Simon
Very insightful information! Partnering with brands is a powerful marketing strategy that can be used with blogging and this guide outlines how to get started.
Hi Stacey,
Loving this series.
4 is so big. More people stand out by being themselves, and kindly promoting others, than through any strategies. The outreach part becomes so much easier if you speak with your own writing voice, get noticed, and continually help out fellow bloggers by:
* tweeting their posts
* commenting on their blogs
* Facebook Sharing or G Plus sharing their posts
* emailing them to chat, and to build bonds
Honest to goodness, if you get #4 down pat the other steps require some work but become infinitely easier to follow because you’ll be memorable, popular, and loved by many friends, and that love will open all types of branding and monetization channels for you.
Friends will hook you up, help you out, mention potential partnerships and in some cases, your good friends will wind up working for the brand, or maybe, will BE the very brand, you wish to connect with.
Persistence is the difference maker. I’ve scored more neat partnerships by creating and connecting on a daily basis, for years, then through any other channel. It’s simply sowing and reaping at work. Give freely for a sustained period of time and you’ll receive easily in the long run.
Being passionate and not caring about the money are 2 peas in the blogging pod. If you’re struggling financially do stuff outside of blogging to pad your savings, so you can blog detached, intelligently, and from a kind, giving space that lets you follow these steps effortlessly.
Brave Darren and Stacey. Work well done as always.
Tweeting to my 28 K followers.
Thanks,
Ryan
Thanks, Ryan! I agree, organic connections with other bloggers is the best way to get your name out there.
Although I’ve only been blogging 10 months I’ve started to make great inroads with brands. One of the things I’ve done to give myself more credibility is to push for press coverage. Whether in a magazine, newspaper or radio; any opportunity to appear on these mediums I’ve taken. It’s really helped raised the profile of my blog in a very short timeframe. I must add that I’ve also been able to secure two regular columns, one in a local newspaper and the other in a national magazine. I’m not a trained writer or journo but I’m persistent and take those chances.
There are so many opportunities for bloggers whatever country or niche you are in. You’ve just got to go for it!
That’s wonderful! I have to admit, it’s never worked for me. I’ve had plenty of traditional media coverage, but found it never translated into online readers. So glad it has been beneficial to you!
Hi,
I’m new to blogging just created a site and it’s performing well in the search result, now i am thinking to expand it with branding, For doing that properly this guideline will help me a lot in this businesses. Thanks
I have this great blog for a little over a year, get lots of compliments and the blog is being read all over the world but I have not earn a penny with it. It is a lot of work that I have to do to write it.
Could someone look at it and tell me what Am I doing wrong? Really appreciate the help.
Marcia
Of course, blog is a way to promoting site for business for someone,but blog is also the way to express someone’s thoughts and about his experience. Normally, we can say that the blog is expression about any event. Above content is helpful for him who want to work with brands on his blog to create little income or traffic on his blog.
I really liked the suggestions you have made here. They are great and infact I am going to implement some of them on my own blog and see what happens. It is a real eye opener as one would never have thought that one’s blog could be taken that seriously. Thanks for bringing your journalism perspective to bear on all of this. I would also like to congratulate you on your own successes!
Regards
Vinton.
Great infos,there is a lot of steps but with persistence i am sure it can work.i am going to try it for my blog.Thank you.
I have a site that has a ton of traffic (200k+ in the last month), the readers are engaged, and we’re active on Twitter and Facebook. This is time sensitive because this traffic will only last for a couple more months; I want to take advantage of the opportunity while I can but I don’t have a clue which brands to approach about advertising/sponsorships. Any advice on figuring out who to target for a niche site?