There are four primary ways to make money from your blog:
- Ad networks
- Affiliate marketing
- Private advertising
- Selling your own product or service
One option for private advertising on your blog is to write and publish sponsored posts. A sponsored post is a post you publish on your own blog (or on social media) that a brand pays you for. Many bloggers love sponsored posts because they can use them to make a large amount of money in a short amount of time.
Your sponsored post could be a product review where you receive the product for free in return for your honest review. It could be an informational post about the company and what they have to offer that would benefit your readers. It could also be a normal post where the brand is mentioned in the post with a link to the brand’s site because it is related to the content your are writing.
Working with bloggers is a great way for brands to spread their message. Bloggers are great at sharing information with their readers in a natural and authentic way. They have to be in order to build and keep the trust of their readers.
Where Do You Find Sponsored Posts?
There are lots of places where you can find opportunities to make money by posting on your blog and on social media. Some sites are easy to join. Others have stricter requirements. Some have online dashboards where you can see what opportunities are available for your blog. Others will email you with options based on information you provided when you signed up.
I have put these sites into categories to make it easier to find a few to try. If you know of other great places to find sponsored posts, be sure to share them in the comments!
Easy to Join Sites
These sites have minimal requirements to join and approval is quick.
Izea – Easy to join and begin using immediately. Offers sponsored posts and sponsored social media updates. You can usually find lots of opportunities. Social Spark and Sponsored Tweets use the exact same Izea platform so you only need to sign up for one of those sites.
Moms Affiliate – Approved within 48 hours. Offers sponsored posts, sponsored social media updates and affiliate opportunities. Mom’s Affiliate has a dashboard of opportunities you can choose from. Brittany personally likes and uses with her own blog. Many sponsored blog posts want you to have at least 30,000 monthly page views.
Cooperatize – Easy to join and begin using immediately. Can connect Google Analytics to make it easier to get sponsored post offers. Opportunities that match blog profile will show up in your dashboard.
Blog Meets Brand – You fill out your profile and get matched with a campaign if your blog meets an advertiser’s criteria. You can choose whether or not to accept the campaign. Once accepted you submit all blog and social media share links into the campaign dashboard to meet the requirements of the campaign. You can log in any time to update your profile to have a better chance of being matched with a campaign that you can successfully promote. I have personally used Blog Meets Brand for sponsored posts and found them easy to work with.
Tap Influence – Can connect Google Analytics and other social media accounts making it easier to get sponsored post offers. Programs that match your criteria will show up in your dashboard.
Massive Sway – This network is a partnership between The SITS Girls and Sway Group. Offers sponsored posts and sponsored social media updates. Log in to the dashboard to see current opportunities.
Bloggy Moms – Requires approval to join. Members get opportunities for brand campaigns and product reviews.
Exclusive Sites
These sites are more exclusive and require a minimum number of page views or other minimum requirements to be accepted into their programs.
Linqia – Requires 2,500+ unique monthly visitors. Niches include lifestyle, fashion, beauty, weddings, pets, parenting and home & garden. Audience must be primarily U.S. and Canadian based.
Weave Made Media – Part of Pollinate Media but aimed at smaller bloggers. Must be U.S. based blogger, have 7,500+ monthly page views, been blogging at least 3 months, be active on 3 social media platforms. Male bloggers have slightly different requirements. Can take 2-3 weeks for approval.
Clever Girls – Must be blogging for a minimum of 6 months and have 10,000+ visits (Google Analytics sessions) per month. Must also have Facebook and Twitter accounts for promoting posts.
Pollinate Media – Must be blogging for a minimum of 6 months and have 20,000+ monthly page views.
Social Fabric Collective Bias – Requires 5,000+ combined social media followers and 25,000+ page views.
Markerly – Need 100,000+ page views or an average of 10+ comments per post to be part of the Markerly Choice program. However, if your blog does not meet this criteria, they do say you can still apply and have a chance to work for select campaigns.
BlogHer – This is an ad network that also offers sponsored posts to its members. This network requires top ad placement and is fairly selective.
Don’t Call Us. We’ll Call You!
You can fill out an online information form for these sites to be added to their email list. They will email you opportunities that would be a good fit for your blog. These sites do not offer an online dashboard of opportunities you can review yourself.
Earn Rewards for Posting on Social Media
These sites don’t have sponsored blog post opportunities, but they do offer rewards for sharing on social media.
Influenster – On this site you can use your social media influence to earn discounts and free, full-sized products to try and review.
Keeping it Legal
Please note: According to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines, you must disclose in your blog post that it is a sponsored post so readers know you were compensated for the information you provided, whether you received money or a product. For sponsored social media updates, it is generally acceptable to include #ad at the beginning of the post to meet this requirement.
Furthermore, all money, gifts cards and products received for sponsored posts are considered compensation and must be reported as income when you file your income taxes.
Have you use sponsored posts as a way to generate income from your blog? What is your favorite source?
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