what’s up?? this post was originally posted on the hollie rogue but i really wanted to share it with you guys here too! plus i have several new followers (hello new friends!) so i wanted to introduce myself and tell you a bit about me! 🙂 xoxo
hey everyone! i’m skye but you can call me rindercella! 🙂 i blog about inspiration, random life stuff, and my love of all things handmade over at neathering our fest and sell my custom upcycled artwork in my shop, thumbprint designs. i live in louisiana with my hubby chris and our two furbabies, rebel and sadie. life is crazy, busy, and hectic for us but at the same time, awesome, beautiful, and full of blessings.
i’m very excited to be here today! andi is such a sweet girl and i’m always inspired by her heart for our Lord. i’ve known about andi’s blog since i started blogging and trading ad spots – she was one of the first girls that traded spots with me! i have recently started purchasing ad spots for my shop on different blogs and when i asked around about where i should invest my money, the hollie rogue was mentioned. over and over. so here i am, very happily sponsoring this little blog that i also happen to enjoy reading every day. it is a win/win for me.
in the same vein of sponsorship, even though i’m very new at this whole gig, i wanted to share a few tips that i think have helped me get more out of sponsoring other blogs. by no means am i an expert but these are things i thought about before deciding where to sponsor and did once i decided.
1. start with swapping
i have been swapping ads with people on my blog for quite some time now. i will continue to swap ads for quite some time as well. swapping ads has helped me learn how much work goes into having ads on your blog. there is information to gather, promoting to do, and another fifty extra emails in your in box every month. because i swap ads myself, i truly understand what goes in to it and all the extra work that comes with it. it makes me really appreciate all the work that the blogs i sponsor do for me. it also helps me see how i actually get my money’s worth out of it!
**check out their sponsor page for stats, testimonials, and prices. i check every blog i visit’s sponsor page because you never know when you will find a great blog to sponsor!**
2. compare prices + perks
there are so so so many blogs and websites and platforms where you can advertise your shop or blog. they range in prices from a few dollars a month to the thousands. clearly – the thousands is out of my range! i set myself a very small but workable budget for each month until i have drummed up enough business to advertise on larger blogs later. so i sat down one day and asked where i should invest my money. i took the list of people i was given and looked at their prices, the perks that came with those prices, and explored their blogs a little to see how actively engaged their readers were. here are a few specific things i looked for:
a >> how many comments were they getting on each post? i know that the number of followers they have doesn’t matter if their readers are actually engaged in the content. the more comments, the more i figure the readers actually read and the more interactive i assume the blogger must be.
b >> how are they currently promoting other advertisers? i scrolled through their tweets and facebook page, looking for links to products and posts.
c >> check out one of their giveaways. how many entries are there? how does the post look? is your product going to be displayed with a nice description? overall – do you just jive with the feel of how they run their giveaways? it is important that they support you and display you in a positive light – after all you are giving them your hard earned money, right?
**these are the perks and prices for andi’s blog (if you didn’t already know them). lots of bloggers offer many different ways to advertise your shop and will be willing to work with any new ideas you might have too!**
3. check out who they sponsor
most bloggers i know invest their sponsorship money into bigger blogs, resulting in more traffic for them which eventually trickles down to me. since i don’t have any sponsor income coming in, i want to make sure i know where blogs i sponsor choose to invest their (my) money! i’m getting double the sponsorship (sometimes triple, depending on where they sponsor) for a fraction of the price. it is definitely worth looking into. and if you can’t tell where they sponsor, do not be afraid to ask. again i say – you are giving them your hard earned money, you deserve to know where it is going, right?
4. engage with their readers.
so many times in the past i have put my button on a blog and then forgotten about it. i check my stats at the end of the month (and only once a month otherwise i drive myself crazy) and i only look at one thing: did i get any hits from blogs i invested money in/swapped with? it took me about three months to realize that the blogs i didn’t interact with produce very little, if any, traffic. but blogs that i advertised on that i commented on their posts, engaged with the owner on twitter and facebook, and took an interest in produced more traffic for me.
if you are actively engaged in a blog, why not sponsor it? in the same frame of mind, if you are sponsoring a blog, why not be actively engaged in it? you will be a somewhat familiar face over there and people will begin to recognize you as “oh that girl with that shop! she seems nice/thoughtful/etc. maybe i should check her out?!”
**shameless plug for the travel tips series i’ve got going on over at my blog!**
5. ask them for help.
do you have a cool series coming up? are you introducing a sweet new item in your shop? maybe there is an awesome giveaway happenin on your blog. do not be afraid to ask for help in spreading the word about these things. you have paid your money to these blogs you are sponsoring, so you are basically hiring them to help market you and your awesomeness, right? the worst they can do is say no and if it is something as simple as sharing a quick link or tweeting about your new product, then i’m pretty sure they will be willing to help you out!
6. provide feedback
(yep – you get a freebie!) once the month is over, email these ladies who have helped you out all month and tell them THANK YOU! if you have done your homework and been active around their blog then you have probably just received the result of a lot of hard work on their part and they deserve it! tell them where you saw increases and when, what worked and what didn’t. if there is one thing bloggers love – that is feedback! we can’t really tell who clicks where and when they do and who uses that discount code as the host sponsor. but you can and that feedback is essential! they can provide better services for bloggers in the future because of what we tell them and we all want better blogs to sponsor, right? 😉
thanks for stopping by today! 🙂 i’m excited to meet you and say hi so leave your blog link in the comments and i will come visit you! i hope you have learned something and if you have something to share i’d love to read about it in the comments! what is your favorite blog to sponsor??
Great tips Skye! I totally agree!
This really is a great post- I love it! Thanks for the tips!