Anyone who says there’s no money in starting your own blog clearly hasn’t heard about sponsored content. Not only does this type of online content help bloggers or website owners earn money, but the sponsors themselves also reap rewards. Evidently, creating sponsored blog posts is a mutually beneficial endeavor.
What’s the Deal with Sponsored Posts?
If you’re a blogger who’s consistently posting relevant content, there’s a high probability that you’ve gained a considerable following from loyal readers. As your number of subscribers steadily grows, you may attract companies or brands that wish to work with you in creating sponsored content.
Sponsored blog posts are articles that companies pay bloggers or website owners to write and publish. Often, companies who are willing to sponsor posts have products or services related to the blogger’s niche. This type of content can either be reviews, recipes, list posts, or any other format that promotes the sponsor’s brand.
You might be wondering why it’s needed in the first place. There are, quite literally, hundreds of ways to promote a brand online, so why sponsored content?
It’s because of a thing called banner blindness. Simply putting up banner ads on different online sites don’t work anymore. When users are browsing a page, they don’t like to be interrupted. Ads do exactly that—they block a part of a webpage, annoying users who would immediately close the ads.
Banner ads are so annoying that in 2015, Business2Community reported that almost 200 million users installed ad blockers, costing publishers 41.4 billion in lost revenue in 2016. So, brands started turning to a sponsored blog posting instead.
With sponsored blog posts, a site’s audience isn’t being bombarded with flashy banners and bold claims. Instead, the audience is reading about how an online person, whose opinions they trust, is using a product that works for them while maintaining relevance and producing content that has value.
The Benefit to Both Sides
The creation of sponsored blog posts is beneficial to both the author and the brand. First, bloggers can monetize their site by posting content that brands pay for. Depending on the domain authority of your blog, you can charge accordingly. Having a blog with a high domain authority means your site is more likely to show up on Google searches. This means that the sponsor is more likely to gain significant exposure from your post.
This is where they benefit from you. Sure, they’re paying you a sum of money to write about their products or services. But, it’s not wasted money. Instead, you’re an investment. It’s because you write content that would increase their visibility, link to their site, and add authority to their brand.
Editorial Integrity
Some bloggers, especially smaller creators, are sometimes afraid of agreeing to create sponsored blog posts. They worry about their editorial integrity, that once they start posting sponsored content, their audience wouldn’t deem their opinions trustworthy since, now, there’s money involved.
However, the integrity of your site is still up to you. As a publisher of sponsored content, it is in your best interest not to mislead your audience or to work with a brand that does.
Sponsored content can be a significant income generator for bloggers, as long as they’re created properly. By being smart and committing to transparency with your readers, you can continue writing about your interests while getting paid for it.
