What are sponsored posts and how do they work?

Before I even start this post I want to premise it by saying that 100% of this post is *MY* real life experience.  Not every blogger feels the same way about sponsored posts and their experiences may be very different from mine.  But since this is MY blog, I am of course going to share MY thoughts and opinions.. the good, the bad and the ugly.  This post is not passing judgement of any other specific blogger and/or their sponsored posts..  nor is it a ‘call to action’ for other bloggers to change the way they write their sponsored content.  Every blogger must make their own decisions when it comes to working with brands.  I feel very strongly about the way I handle sponsored posts on my blog and this post solely reflects those feelings towards my own content.

As any long term reader may have noticed, in the past year or so my blog has become peppered with sponsored content. I have always monetized my blog with display ads, but beginning in March of 2014 I started writing sponsored content as another revenue stream.  (For my rationale see number 5.)  

What happens behind the scenes of a sponsored post

I recently wrote about my experiences with sponsored posts and why I think it is so important to make sure that the content within them is always worth reading.  I was actually surprised by how much traffic (and feedback) that post received.  Based on the majority of the responses to that piece (both on the post itself and on social media) I am clearly not the only one who feels that way.

It isn’t that I believe most bloggers set out with the goal of “write crappy sponsored posts and annoy my readers,” but sometimes that just happens.  Creating high quality sponsored posts usually means a lot more work than just regurgitating the sales pitch you are told to give.  Even with the best intentions, not every post will be a winner. Sometimes posts just don’t turn out like you envisioned. I admit that I have had that happen to me.

Good posts (sponsored or otherwise) are hard work..  and LOTS OF IT.  Most bloggers are already keenly aware of this, but a non-blogger may not realize what it actually takes get a post written and published. So today (and since I am tapped out of new projects to share.. #KeepingItReal) I am going to show you what it takes for me to create a post.

No Follow Vs. Do Follow Links: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

If you have been blogging for any length of time, especially if you have done any sort of sponsored content or affiliate marketing, you probably have heard of “No Follow Links.”   You may even have a pretty good understanding of what they are and how they work, but there are still probably a few things about follow and no follow links you may not have heard about, especially when it comes to the long term SEO impact they have on your site.

And even if you are using no follow links whenever brands and networks ask you to, and anywhere you are earning revenue, you still may not realize just how frequently you should be using no follow links when it comes to other content.  There are many many many black hat SEO companies out there who rely on site owners not realizing when and where they should be using no follow links.  They are able to sneak backlinks onto hundreds (if not thousands) of sites in order to suck up Google juice from naive bloggers the way a hungry leach sucks blood from unsuspecting hosts.

What Does It Really Cost To Run A Blog?

I am constantly asked about what types of resources I use when I blog.  My blog is a little unusual because I am self-hosted on Google and thus my blogging expenses are vastly different from many other mid-sized bloggers who are self-hosted on Wordpress. So for fun I thought I would create a quick guide to all my favorite blogging tools and how much I spend on them every month.

This post will include my ENTIRE OVERHEAD (other than supplies I use in the posts themselves) for my blog. Hopefully this will give non-bloggers (and even fellow bloggers) and idea of what it costs to run a successful blog.   And in case you are wondering, right now my blog gets between 250,000 and 300,000 page views a month.   That is about 300% more than it was a year ago, when I was averaging only 100,000.

I know for sure that investing in the resources I will talk about below is one of the reasons I have seen that growth.   It wasn’t until I started really INVESTING in my blog and treating it as a business did I earn a full time income, since now my monthly revenue is significantly more than these expenses.

Why Do I Write Sponsored Posts?

Before I even start this post I want to premise it by saying that 100% of this post is *MY* real life experience.  Not every blogger feels the same way about sponsored posts and their experiences may be very different from mine.  But since this is MY blog, I am of course going to share MY thoughts and opinions.. the good, the bad and the ugly.  This post is not passing judgement of any other specific blogger and/or their sponsored posts..  nor is it a ‘call to action’ for other bloggers to change the way they write their sponsored content.  Every blogger must make their own decisions when it comes to working with brands.  I feel very strongly about the way I handle sponsored posts on my blog and this post solely reflects those feelings towards my own content.

As any long term reader may have noticed, in the past year or so my blog has become peppered with sponsored content. I have always monetized my blog with display ads, but beginning in March of 2014 I started writing sponsored content as another revenue stream.  (For my rationale see number 5.)  

This post about a stacked pot planter was my first EVER sponsored post.  
As a blog reader, I admit, I never really liked sponsored content. Blogs I had read for a long time, were suddenly filled with posts that began with “this post brought to you by..” or EVEN WORSE bloggers I trusted would post projects full of stuff they clearly received for free, but they hid their disclosures somewhere out of the way, so when I had finally read to the end I realized it was just a pitch for some product all along.  I felt like I was being TRICKED.   And I hated it.  

What Does It Take To Write A Blog Post?

I recently wrote about my experiences with sponsored posts and why I think it is so important to make sure that the content within them is always worth reading.  I was actually surprised by how much traffic (and feedback) that post received.  Based on the majority of the responses to that piece (both on the post itself and on social media) I am clearly not the only one who feels that way.

It isn’t that I believe most bloggers set out with the goal of “write crappy sponsored posts and annoy my readers,” but sometimes that just happens.  Creating high quality sponsored posts usually means a lot more work than just regurgitating the sales pitch you are told to give.  Even with the best intentions, not every post will be a winner. Sometimes posts just don’t turn out like you envisioned. I admit that I have had that happen to me.

Good posts (sponsored or otherwise) are hard work..  and LOTS OF IT.  Most bloggers are already keenly aware of this, but a non-blogger may not realize what it actually takes get a post written and published. So today (and since I am tapped out of new projects to share.. #KeepingItReal) I am going to show you what it takes for me to create a post.