Last week, I wrote about how to make money on your blog without ads. You saw that I do a lot of sponsored posts. Many times, I will get a sponsored post from Social Spark or Sverve that I debate taking. They don’t exactly “fit” my niche, but I know that it would be foolish of me to pass up the extra income (raising a family of six, on one full-time income, is no easy task). So, I normally try to figure out a way that I can work-it into my blog. (If that post paid for our boys to play soccer this season, I can certainly find a way to make it work!)
Yes, I have had to turn down a few. If they deal with something that I am not comfortable writing about (I have had several that have dealt with the dating life of singles or how to date after a divorce, but I don’t take those ones because I just can’t relate. I’m married to my high-school sweetheart, so I can’t even offer up advice for either of those things. I want my readers to trust what I tell them, so if I really can’t back it up at all, I just won’t write about it.)
The best ones are, of course, are the ones that fit my niche. I have taken some for cleaning products and I will just blog about tips to keep the house clean. I have taken ones for kids products, but that’s easy, too.
Fashion ones are a bit harder for me because I am not really a “fashionista”, so to say. (My husband says that my style is “cute mom of four little kids” – hey, at least he threw in the word cute, right? haha!!)
The best advice that I can give for trying to make a sponsored post work for you is to try to make it as personal as you can, even if it has to be about a friend or family member (I wrote about how my husband has allergies for an allergy post).
When I can’t make it work, because I don’t agree with what they are pitching, but still want to try to make it work, I will completely forgo the instructions & write up a post that I want to write and submit it for review. I have never been turned down on what I’ve written.
So, for example, Netflix asked me to write about a show that I have never seen before (& didn’t sound like one that I would watch), so instead of writing about that show, I just went on to talk about how much I loved Netflix & I still shared the recipe that was inspired by the show.
They liked the review & approved it. I still made the income but I didn’t have to sacrifice anything on my blog. It was a win on both sides of the field.
Sometimes, it just takes a little creativity to think outside of the box. I normally don’t even ask them if it is Ok if I change it up a bit, I just do and then I offer it for approval. If I know that their main goal is to drive sales or drive people to like them on Facebook, I can do that in a way that I know my readers can relate to. I think that most sponsors trust us with that, too. If I submit something different and a sponsor would want me to change it before posting, I would either reconsider or pass on the offer.
Most subjects can somehow relate to you (our own Paula just wrote about bridesmaids dresses & talked about her sister’s upcoming wedding. She probably hadn’t planned on writing about the wedding, but when the opportunity presented itself, she just related it back to her. I wrote a money-saving website & just tied it into Cyber Monday. )
Your turn. Leave a link to your most off-the-wall and out-of-the-ordinary sponsored post!! 🙂