In this article, I’ll share my best tips on how to get sponsored posts for your blog, even with a small blog.
I started earning from blog sponsorships a long time ago, and have been making $1,000-$3,000 per month ever since. You can do the same by preparing your blog for brands and then finding sponsors and contacting them.
There are other ways to make money blogging too. But earning from sponsored posts has always been my favorite.
You get to publish content on your blog but you also get paid for it. You form relationships with brands and can find new ones in the same niche. You can double your prices whenever you feel like and can thus increase your income every next month. You can grow your blog and let brands find you.
If you haven’t started a blog yet, check out my free course on how to launch it in just 1 day.
Let’s see how to get started with sponsored blog posts with a small blog or if you haven’t made any money blogging yet.
How to Get Sponsored Posts for Your Blog
1. Make your blog attractive to sponsors.
The very first thing you should do before landing a sponsored post even with a small blog is to prepare your site.
Your blog is more than just that, it’s your brand and business and you should treat it like that.
This means using:
- a good WordPress theme with clean code that makes your site load fast (I use this one on Let’s Reach Success)
- a reliable web host (I recommend WPX Hosting – the fastest WordPress host)
- making the platform mobile-friendly (use the free plugin WPtouch)
- using quality images (find royalty-free ones on sites like Pexels and Pixabay)
- writing great content
- having a beautiful homepage
- sharing your story on your About page
- and publishing the other important pages such as Contact, Terms of Service, Disclaimer, and Privacy Policy.
Also, make sure you have some initial traffic, your blog has been active for at least 3-6 months and you have a consistent blogging schedule before you expect to work with brands and get paid the big bucks for sponsored posts.
2. Join blogger networks.
There are many sites that offer paid opportunities for bloggers. Once you check if you meet the requirements, create a profile and add your blog and some information about it (categories, stats, social media channels), you can browse campaigns or get notified by email if a brand wants to work with you.
Most importantly, you put your blog in front of companies that want to work with micro-influencers like you and you never know where you next sponsored post opportunity can come from.
Some blogger networks connecting publishers and advertisers include:
- ValuedVoice
- BlogHer
- SeedingUp
- Blog Dash
- IZEA
- Massive Sway
- Global Influence Network
- Aspire IQ
3. Start pitching brands.
Brands might be coming to you one day when your blog is popular and you’ve built relationships in your niche, but for now, you’ll have to do the work.
The answer to how to get sponsored posts for your blog is this: Find brands that resonate with your audience, the ones you’re already a fan of or just those that have partnered with other bloggers in your niche.
That requires research. Once you get their names, head to the website and find their contact information.
Write an email to each brand and say why you’d be a good fit for their campaign. Keep it short and include a paragraph about you, your blog and its reach, and how you can help the company get exposure for their brand with your content.
4. Stand your ground.
Confidence is key in making money from blog sponsorships.
Know that brands love working with micro-influences and small bloggers with a dedicated audience can be making hundreds of dollars for as little as writing and publishing one sponsored article.
But don’t sell yourself short. Most bloggers earn much less than they deserve because they are scared not to lose an opportunity. It’s much better to be confident as a blogger and work only with brands you’re comfortable with and who have a budget for that.
Read also: How I Earned $250 from One Sponsored Post on My Blog
5. Have a page for advertisers.
You need to have a place on your website saying that you accept sponsorships. That’s a page dedicated to advertisers and it’s a must for anyone looking to start earning from this blog monetization method.
Publish a new page on your site and share a bit about yourself and why you started the blog, include information about your niche and audience, stats from Google Analytics, numbers of social media followers and email subscribers, and maybe your prices.
Add contact information too so anyone interested can contact you directly. This page can be included in your footer.
Here’s mine, which plays a big role in the way I get sponsored posts for Let’s Reach Success.
6. Create your media kit.
Another key element you should prepare before contacting brands is a media kit.
That’s a file which contains information about you and your blog, together with its reach, details about your niche and audience, prices you work with, payment method you accept and any other requirements you might want to share with a company before collaborating.
Use a free tool like Canva to create a stunning media kit. Then, send it whenever a brand reaches out and wants to know more about the blog, or when you are contacting potential sponsors.
A well-designed media kit saves time but also shows brands you’re taking your brand and blog seriously. It’s yet another big step in learning how to get sponsored posts for your blog.
7. Increase your traffic numbers.
Growing your blog traffic should always be one of the goals you’re working on as it’s directly related to increasing your monthly income as a blogger too.
More traffic means more clicks on your ads (if you have these on your site) and affiliate links but also more brands starting to notice you and contacting you for partnerships.
Boosting your traffic happens by getting to know your readers better and giving them the content they want, optimizing your articles for search engines, leveraging social media, earning backlinks by writing amazing content and doing guest posting, and more.
Final Words
These are 7 of the things I did over the past few years to start earning around $3,000 per month from sponsored blog posts (as you can see from my annual income report). That’s currently my main income stream although I’m also earning from ads, freelance writing, and selling my products.
There’s so much more to say about how to get sponsored posts for your blog as it’s an industry not many bloggers out there discuss openly. That’s why I created The Blog Sponsorship Boss.
The Blog Sponsorship Boss is your one-stop shop for anything related to making money with sponsored content as a blogger (from making your site irresistible to brands and joining marketplaces that offer sponsored opportunities, to reaching out to brands yourself, negotiating your rates, and turning this into a regular income).
This course is a result of years of experience in the sponsored blogging niche and makings tens of thousands of dollars from sponsorships with just 1 blog. If I can do it, you can do it too.
Inside the program, you’ll learn:
- How blog sponsorships work
- Where to find brands to partner with
- What rates to choose
- How to write sponsored content
- What marketplaces to join
- How to create a page for sponsors + media kit
- How to reach out to brands
- How to negotiate prices
- How to immediately spot bad clients
- How to turn a one-time client into a long-term collaboration
- How to get paid hundreds of dollars for a sponsored post while staying true to yourself and your audience
- How to double your income by offering packages
- How to always get paid