I’ve said time and time again that freelancers need to brand themselves and find multiple streams of income in their businesses. This is how you can get high-quality clients and also ensure that you’re never dealing with the feast or famine cycle.
I’ve mentioned many of the ways that freelancers can make money in the past, and in this article, I’m going to talk about sponsorship. More specifically, I’m going to talk about how to get sponsors as a freelancer with your own blog.
What is a sponsor?
A sponsor is basically an advertiser on your own website. It can take different forms such as part of a social media campaign or publishing a sponsored post on your own blog.
Why do you want to get sponsors for your blog?
Sponsors are essentially another form of income for your blog. Additionally, if you align yourself with the right sponsors, it can further help you establish yourself as an expert in your niche. This translates into people wanting to hire you for your freelance services.
For example, this year I’ve participated in sponsorship opportunities with Comcast Business and Nationwide Insurance. These companies are a big deal and directly related to my niche as a business and finance writer.
When I tell prospective clients that I’ve collaborated on content with Comcast and Nationwide their ears immediately perk up.
What you need to know about disclosure.
If you want to get sponsors for your blog, you have to know the rules. Mainly, you are bound by law to disclose that the content on your site is a sponsored post or advertisement. This could look like a disclaimer at the beginning of a blog post or the hashtag #ad on your social media channels.
How to get sponsors without alienating your readers.
You’ll also want to keep in mind that you should only focus on aligning yourself with companies that make sense for your brand. You also don’t want to spam your community, so make sure to have plenty of high-quality non-sponsored content on your site as well.
How much can you make with sponsorship deals?
It depends on the company you’re working with and it depends on you. For instance, you already know that large corporations have money to spend. In fact, according to a recent workshop I attended, companies are specifically allocating money in their marketing budget to work with bloggers and social influencers.
You can also set your own rates a lot of the time. After all, it’s your blog and your business. Here is an excellent article about how much money bloggers can make with sponsorship opportunities.
How to find sponsors and make some money.
Although I’d done small sponsorship projects as a blogger in the past, 2016 is the year I decided to kick things up a notch. As a result of doing this, I’ve been able to work with some very cool companies and add a revenue stream to my business.
Here are the top action steps that have been working for me in an effort to get sponsors:
- Increasing social media numbers and engagement. (As soon as I started doing this, opportunities came my way).
- Engaging with companies I’d like to work with on social media.
- Making sure my own blog is SEO optimized for specific search terms in my niche.
- Sign up for services that connect companies with bloggers for sponsorship opportunities. Examples include LinkVehicle and Rakuten Marketing.
- Increasing blog traffic by using Pinterest.
That’s it! Just taking these small actions has led to major opportunities in my inbox over the last few months. If you’d like to start adding sponsorship as a revenue stream in your freelance business, dedicate some time to the actions above and watch the opportunities come rolling in.
