by Elizabeth, Delightfully Tacky
The question of why to have sponsors is an important one to deal with. There are definitely pros and cons. The important thing is to decide for yourself which ones are more influential on you, the pros or the cons.
As I said in the previous session, my initial reasoning behind having sponsors on my blog was to save money for the Brave trip, and to be able to support myself while on the road, as well as having a way to offset the costs of running my blog. Since I started the Brave journey I quit my job at home in Alaska and essentially was blogging full time, living off of my blog income and savings. Now that I'm in Tacoma, I have a part time barista job, I work for Freckled Nest doing blog design, and I blog. Blogging has become a large portion of my income (though I still wouldn't be able to live off of my blog income), and has been instrumental in being able to pay my rent! I'm so thankful that I can make an income doing what I love to do! I don't make a lot of money, by any stretch of the imagination, and unless you have tons and tons of advertisers you probably won't be able to live off of your sponsor income alone. For myself, I live on a combination of PT barista income + tips, sponsors, and blog designing. It's kind of a risky way to live, since I don't have a guaranteed income each month, but I'm really happy! If you want to take the plunge into having sponsors, here are some important things to consider:
Benefits of having sponsors:
1. Income- Let's not beat around the bush, having your blog be a source of income is a huge reason most people consider it as an option. Whether it's just a supplement to your income, a way to bolster your savings account, or if it ends up becoming your main source of income, the cash flow is a big incentive!
2. Working with great companies- All of the companies I've partnered with have been really awesome to work with. They are fun, enjoy my blog, and are excited about supporting my blog and reaching out to my readers.
3: Supporting new and independent businesses- This is something I love about having sponsors. Smaller shops and businesses often can't afford to advertise on big sites like American Apparel or Urban Outfitters can, so sponsoring blogs is a great way for them to reach out and get more people coming in to their shops. Plus, with blogs, they can tailor fit their shop to a blog with a demographic of readers that are sure to enjoy their products! There are tons of blogs out there with all different focuses and readerships, so it's great for smaller businesses to really focus their advertising on a specific group of people who will like their products!
4. Giveaways- Giveaways are really fun to do, and you can still do them if you don't have sponsors, I did a few giveaways before I ever had sponsors. Giveaways are a great way to reward your readers with a fun prize, increase your readership, and send traffic to your sponsors!
5. Incentive to make your blog better!- When you have someone paying to advertise on your site you start to realize how valuable your little corner of the internet is! You want to work a bit harder to bring great content to your readers so they return for more, you want to make your layout look nicer, you want to learn how to take better photographs, and so on. All of this is great for your blog!
6. Working with companies can lead you to other opportunities- I know that a lot of bloggers have cultivated great relationships with companies which have resulted in more opportunities with that company. Erin from Calivintage was sponsored by ModCloth for quite a bit and now she works for the company as a blogger on the ModCloth Blog! One example from my own experience: I got to work with Market Publique on a lookbook after having them as a sponsor for a bit!
Detrimental Effects sponsors can potentially have:
1. Contrived content- Sometimes when people start accepting sponsors, they start blogging for their sponsors instead of for themselves. This results in posts that are obviously just a veiled advertisement for a product. If any of you watch the show Bones, you've probably noticed a couple episodes where in the middle of the episode the characters will be driving from one place to another and randomly one of them will comment on a feature of the car their driving in. The other character will respond something like, "oh yeah, isn't this feature awesome? It does blah blah blah".... that kind of product placement is very similar to how contrived content on blogs is detrimental. It breaks up the natural flow of the blog, and readers, who are very keen, can totally pick up on that stuff.
2. Taking up too much of your time- I think this is something people don't realize when they decide to take on sponsors (I didn't!). Dealing with sponsors takes up a lot of time. You have to be emailing back and forth, putting up ads, managing your account, invoicing, posting ads and keeping track of everything. It's time consuming! But it's an important part of keeping up a good relationship with sponsors.
3. Monopolizing your wardrobe- I've found that this is a complaint that sponsored bloggers can get if they tend to wear a certain sponsor's clothing too often. Readers will notice when you wear "courtesy of" items all the time, and it can make it start to seem like you only wear those clothes because your sponsor told you to, or that the sponsor is actually styling you! Most of the time this isn't true, but even so, if you wear sponsored clothes all the time, that's a pitfall that can definitely crop up. I like to always mix my courtesy items with things I've gotten from other sources, to keep things fresh and avoid looking like a walking advertisement for a single company (even though that's why the company sent you the item in the first place- they believe that people seeing the clothes on you will make them want to buy it. This is how advertising works).
4. Sponsored posts- sponsored posts are not always a bad thing, especially if the post you're writing is genuine and you really believe what you're writing. However, you have to be careful to keep from posting too many sponsored posts. If your blog starts to get clogged with promotions for companies you sponsor, you lose space for your own posts, or your own posts get drowned out by all the promotional stuff. I rarely do sponsored posts because I mostly like to be able to write about whatever I want to. I definitely advise keeping them to a minimum.
