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How to use sponsored posts on your blog

How To Use Sponsored Posts On Your BlogBefore talking about how to use sponsored posts on your blog, you have to ask yourself if it’s a path you should take.

That will mostly be determined by your audience.

Will sponsored posts add value to your readers, or distract from your core message as a blogger?

And once you decide that you do want sponsored posts on your blog, how do you get them?

Finally, how do you get sponsors to want to work with you… and to pay you a high premium?

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Do you want to use sponsored posts on your blog?

Sponsored posts are not right for everyone.

If your blog does not feature products and services, then you may not be interested in publishing sponsored posts.

Sponsored posts are specifically designed to help sell products and services from providers of those products and services.

Sponsors pay you to write an article promoting their products or services.

So you only want to be doing that if you’re trying to monetize your blog in that way.

If it fits your business model, the sponsored posts are a great way to monetize your blog

Example…

Let’s say, for instance, that you have a blog that reviews cell phones.

You can talk about different phones, you can talk about different plans, and you can do comparison reviews of both.

But you can also include sponsored posts from specific service providers.

It’s a natural fit.

Don’t let sponsored posts be a distraction

Understand, though, that your readers need to be interested in the sponsored posts.

Otherwise, they’re just distractions.

And annoying distractions, at that.

If your readers are not interested in hearing about Company XYZ’s phone plan, then you can’t publish a sponsored post from XYZ just because they’re paying you for it.

Not only that, but XYZ probably wouldn’t want to pay you to do it if you don’t have a receptive audience.

Or even worse, if their article would be viewed primarily as a distraction in your blog roll.

I believe that sponsored posts are best used on specific micro-niche blogs.

Why should you start a niche blog

More examples…

So, I gave you one example of how this works, above.

But think of any specific niche or micro-niche.

If your blog is about juicers, then sponsored posts would work perfectly.

If you talk about any kinds of physical products…workshop tools, exercise equipment, fish tanks…sponsored posts become a welcome addition to your blog.

That’s because in a micro-niche blog, your audience is looking for the kind of information that a sponsored post would offer.

Will sponsored posts improve or hurt your blog?

Just beware that if your blog does not currently feature specific products and reviews, then you may actually lose some of your readership if suddenly you start adding sponsored posts.

Especially if they are not seen as helpful or problem-solving.

Again, those kinds of posts are viewed as a distraction instead of valuable content.

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But if your blog already does feature regular product reviews and/or sponsored posts, you will only make it stronger by adding more sponsored posts.

And that’s because your audience is comprised of people looking for information related to making a specific type of purchase.

So only you can decide if adding sponsored posts to your blog is the right thing for your business model.

From this point on let’s assume that you think it’s a good idea to have sponsored posts on your blog.

We’ll pick up the conversation from that point.

What types of sponsored posts make sense for your audience?

The types of sponsored posts you would want to offer to your audience are ones that are going to help them solve key problems they have.

Your blog is designed to help people meet a challenge, clear a hurdle, solve a problem or in some way improve their lives.

Sponsored posts should be chosen with those things in consideration.

What sponsored post can you offer on your blog that will actually help your audience solve a key problem?

That depends on your niche.

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Again, as I said before, this is going to work best for your blog if you have a micro-niche blog.

An audience for a micro-niche blog has very specific problems.

There are sponsors out there who have specific solutions to those problems.

So, if you can match the problems that your audience has with solutions that your sponsors offer… then, that’s valuable information.

And it’s information that even though it may be advertising, your audience will be interested in.

Think of yourself.

When you have a problem, don’t you look to advertising to help you solve it?

For instance, if you’re looking for life insurance, don’t you value reading articles and ads about life insurance?

Sponsored posts and ads are only annoying when they’re trying to tell people to buy something that they have no interest in.

Sponsored posts blog profit

But if they’re already looking to buy something in order to solve a particular problem they have, then they’ll welcome your advertising or sponsored post on the topic.

Publishing good sponsored posts that are clearly in line with the needs of your audience can only help to build your blog readership rather than diminish it.

Finding sponsors

When it comes to finding sponsors, then you simply have to find the best matches for your audience.

Which sponsors of which products will best help your audience solve their problems?

And how do you find those sponsors?

The best way to find those sponsors is to publish good content regularly on your blog.

So just to use life insurance as an example again, let’s say that’s the topic of your blog.

You’ll have good information articles about why life insurance is important, what different types of life insurance people can buy, and so forth.

But you also have sponsored posts written by good sponsors.

They add to the information that you offer, but also give a direct solution with their particular insurance product.

So they prompt your reader to buy their product.

They offer good information in exchange for an opportunity to promote their solution to your readers’ problems.

Once you’ve had some sponsors publish articles on your blog, others will come to you.

If they don’t, then you need to reach out to them.

Write your blog in a way that will help people solve their problems.

Then do your own search for companies that can specifically help further, with their own products and services.

Reach out to those companies.

Let them know that you invite sponsored posts on your blog.

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Of course, they won’t be too interested in working with you until they see that you have good content, and that it is a good fit for their offer.

And they’ll also want to see that you have favorable demographics.

So you’ll need to show them that you get a good amount of traffic from an engaged audience.

In that way, they will be assured that your readers would be interested in reading about their service.

From there, your effort creates a snowball effect.

Each sponsored post should bring new opportunities from new sponsors, as well as from repeat sponsors.

Creating value for your sponsored posts

If you really want sponsored posts to become a major part of your blog, then you’ll need to create even more value for your sponsor.

You can do this by getting a bigger audience for your blog.

identify your target audience online

And that will happen especially if you connect your blog strategically with specific social media outlets.

Instagram is one of the most popular for these.

Each time you write a blog post, whether it’s a sponsored blog post or not, then you can link to it on your Instagram account.

Develop an Instagram presence that is specific to your niche.

And make it something that sponsors will want to connect with.

You can do Instagram stories for some quick appeal, or Instagram posts for a longer-lasting effect on the market.

Sponsors love to work with bloggers who also have a social media following.

So, the more you build up your Instagram following, sponsors will be likely to want to pay you… and pay you at a higher rate.

In fact, the size and engagement of your social media following may be more valuable than the amount of your blog readership.

So you want to build both at the same time.

Keep in mind, too, that I only use Instagram as an example.

That’s because I think it works best for sponsored posts.

But you can also use this concept on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and others to do the same kind of audience building.

All of these things will help you find more and more sponsors who will pay you increasingly higher rates.

Top Tier Coaching

How to use sponsored posts on your blog

So what do you think?

Do you think this is the right way for you to go?

Have I given you a better idea of how to use sponsored posts on your blog?

Please leave me a comment in the section below.

-Donna

PS: I’d love it you would share this article on your favorite social sites, too.

Thanks 🙂

Donna Merrill
Donna is a well known blogger and creator of "Blogging Magic" - an intensive guide to blogging. "Blogging Magic" is for beginners who are trying to figure out how to bring their blogs to life with tons of visits, comments and social media interaction. It's even for advanced bloggers looking to reach new levels of authority and engagement with their audience.

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10 Responses to How to use sponsored posts on your blog

  1. Enstine Muki
    Twitter:
    February 19, 2020 at 2:24 am #

    Hey Donna,
    My latest post before I stepped here was about how to get sponsored post opportunities and I also raised some critical issues related to the business.

    My general advice (as you have pointed out) is to focus on what your audience wants. If this is well done, it may even help get more readers especially from search engines. If your sponsored articles get to rank well, searchers may find your blog and stick around.

    But the money from the advertisers shouldn’t make us go crazy. Don’t follow it and lose your audience.

    Thanks for the wonderful post
    Enstine Muki recently posted..3 ways to get sponsored posts for your blog [ Guaranteed ]My Profile

  2. Aadarsh Roy
    Twitter:
    February 18, 2020 at 5:36 am #

    Hey Donna mam ,

    Excellent post as usual. You have shared really an effective tips to use sponsored posts on blog.

    Sponsored posts have become one of a great source to generate good income from blogs, whereas focusing on content quality and relevancy are also crucial. The post that we are creating must be relevant to audience expectations,as we know that relevancy is a great key.

    Truly helpful post and thanks for sharing such an informative post.

    Aadarsh Roy recently posted.. 101 Experts Share their Top Link Building Techniques

  3. Moss Clement
    Twitter:
    February 17, 2020 at 5:05 pm #

    Hi Donna,

    Publishing sponsored posts is one of the best ways bloggers make money from their blogs. However, publishing content that does not connect with your ideal readers will negatively impact your blog, so you should say NO to it. For example, I received an email last week from a potential client about publishing a sponsored post on my blog. I have worked with him earlier, but this time his post is way out of my league-one that will not help my readers. So I declined the material. The point is that if the sponsored post you intend does not add any value, DON’T publish it

    Moss Clement recently posted.. How to Boost Website Engagement with Interactive content

  4. Gaurav Kumar
    Twitter:
    February 7, 2020 at 1:23 am #

    Hi Donna,

    Sponsored posts make hug difference in earning of a blog. But, the big thing that one should focus on when considering sponsored posts is to make sure that the sponsored posts that you accept are relevant for your audience. As long as your content complements the emotions of your readers, it is good for you.

    thanks!

    Gaurav Kumar recently posted.. 11 Proven Pinterest Tips That Will Have Followers Flocking to You

  5. Vishwajeet Kumar
    Twitter:
    February 6, 2020 at 7:59 pm #

    Hello Donna,

    Sponsored posting is a great way to make money from your blog. But as you have already said in this post that we need to take care of the quality and relevancy of the post. I will not accept any sponsored posting until it is relevant to my blog audience. Preferably I write all posts myself for sponsored posting that I get. It helps me to provide quality content as well. Thanks for sharing these brilliant and helpful tips here.

    Regards,
    Vishwajeet Kumar
    Vishwajeet Kumar recently posted..9 Steps to Secure Your WordPress WebsiteMy Profile

    • Donna Merrill February 11, 2020 at 4:22 pm #

      Hi Vishwajeet

      You’re handling it exactly as you should.

      Write or edit to your liking, always thinking of your audience, and always thinking in terms of offering solutions to their problems.

      Sponsored posts can certainly do that if you handle them properly and professionally, as you clearly are doing 🙂

      -Donna
      Donna Merrill recently posted..Can blogging replace your job?My Profile

  6. Lisa Sicard
    Twitter:
    February 6, 2020 at 2:38 pm #

    Hi Donna, I’ve used them on my blog from time to time. I’m more pickier today than ever before as I’d like the topics to be related to what my blog is about and what my audience wants to know more about.

    I’ve found some of the sponsored blogs submitted in the past were too short, not meaty enough or not on the correct topic so I’ve passed on many ever since that. One I found was duplicate content and I had to re-write the entire piece. 🙁

    So I don’t live by them anymore, that’s for sure. They can be a nice source of income but you must thing LONG term and not short term about your blog and your business. If it makes relevant sense then yes, go for it, otherwise it could hurt you.

    I hope your eye is doing better Donna. Headed past your way next week 🙂
    Lisa Sicard recently posted..Do Linkless Social Media Posts Create More Engagement?My Profile

    • Donna Merrill February 11, 2020 at 4:19 pm #

      Hi Lisa

      You are SO right in everything you point out.

      At the end of the day, it’s YOUR blog, and sponsors can only have you publish the content YOU determine will be valuable to your readers.

      Take control, and you can make your blog more interesting to your readers because of your sponsored posts.

      -Donna
      Donna Merrill recently posted..Blogging trends in 2020My Profile

  7. Shamsudeen Adeshokan
    Twitter:
    February 5, 2020 at 12:03 am #

    Hi Donna,

    One of the downsides I see with sponsored posts is not focusing on writing in-depth and quality articles.

    Most sponsored posts are focused on product features, brand awareness, sales, etc. Although, these are some of the primary reasons for it.

    I haven’t had any on my blog but would like to try it out and welcome sponsors if the opportunity arrives. Hopefully, it will be something relevant and of value to my blog community.

    Thanks, Donna, nice read.
    Shamsudeen Adeshokan recently posted..How to Write The Perfect Blog Post In 2020My Profile

    • Donna Merrill February 11, 2020 at 4:15 pm #

      Hi Shamsudeen

      It’s true that sponsored posts tend to be limited and sales-driven.

      But that’s your role as the editor of your blog… you set the standards for the sponsored article, and stick to it.

      Also, you can insist on writing the article yourself, or editing the submission to your liking.

      -Donna
      Donna Merrill recently posted..3 essential characteristics of successful bloggersMy Profile

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