There is one aspect of blog sponsorship that isn’t quite as nice to talk about, but is still important to discuss. What do you do when the sponsorship relationship just isn’t working out?
As The Sponsor
I have actually dabbled a little in being a blog sponsor myself back when I sold fabric on Etsy. Both times, the blogger approached me and we trialled it for a month. For one blog, I had about 5 click-throughs over the whole month, which was not a good enough return for my investment. When the blogger emailed about the next month, I sent a polite email explaining that I had not received enough traffic to warrant continuing sponsorship and that I must regretfully pull out. She replied kindly, and we went our separate ways happily. The second time, I had a bit more of a response, and so continued for a couple more months until I realised that long-term, the return for my investment was not going to be worth it. So again, I sent a polite email and we amicably went our separate ways.
As The Blogger
Over the time in which I have had blog sponsorship, I have experienced both having a sponsor pull out and ending a sponsorship myself.
I have had two sponsors pull out from sponsorship. One business was no longer sponsoring any blog anymore, and the other was because they weren’t getting the traffic to warrant the sponsorship. In both cases, it wasn’t personal, it was business. And in both cases, polite emails were exchanged and I still have a good relationship on a personal level with the ladies involved!
I have previously had a sponsor that was difficult to communicate with. Emails were not answered, a few giveaway prizes were late, and my invoices were always paid 2-3 weeks after sending them. After a few months, I started to have questions in my mind, and after a couple of months of no payment at all, I knew it was time. I cancelled the invoices and sent one final email explaining, again, politely, that due to a lack of communication and payment, I was unfortunately going to have to end the sponsorship. I’ll be honest, I was pretty nervous doing this! I am usually a person who avoids conflict if I can, and a year or two ago, I probably would have just struggled on, getting more and more frustrated. But now? I value myself as a blogger. I value my time, and I know my time is better spent elsewhere than chasing up emails and payments. I value my blog and my integrity, and late prizes reflects poorly on me too.
Important Lessons
The important thing to remember through all of this is that it’s not personal, it’s business. Businesses are paying us to promote their businesses, and if they don’t see the return for their investment, they will pull out their investment. It’s not good business to continue paying for a service you aren’t getting just because you don’t want to be mean!
It’s also vitally important to make sure that you are a good match with the business. If you do not have a good reason within yourself to engage and promote their business, if you can’t relate to the business for whatever reason like if they don’t really sell the kinds of fabrics that fit with your blog (maybe they sell a lot of novelty fabrics, and that’s just not what you tend to use), don’t take them on as a blog sponsor. This was the case with that second sponsor that pulled out – we just weren’t a good match in terms of style of product, so I didn’t really have any meaningful way of promoting their business.
In all of your sponsorship dealings, maintain your integrity. This continues on from my last point – the blog sponsors you have must be businesses that you like, respect, use and/or interact with comfortably. Otherwise you run the high risk of your blog becoming or sounding like one big commercial.
Your Questions
And for the part of the show, where Alyce comes out and sings a silly song… Er, answers some questions I’ve been getting over the course of this series!
How many blog hits or comments do you need to be getting on your blog in order for sponsors to consider sponsoring you?
This was one aspect of blog sponsorship I purposely have avoided because there is no standard answer! I have seen big blogs with no sponsors, and small blogs with sponsors. I personally believe that when you believe in yourself and the value of your blog, that is when you should consider approaching sponsors; there is no magic number! For me, I began approaching sponsors when I had 10 000 pageviews per month, as that was some kind of mental milestone for me personally. Side note – if you are interested in blog sponsorship and have not installed Google Analytics yet, do so now as that is the most accurate measurement of blog traffic.
A comment on comments – Bloggers across the board have reported a sharp drop in blog comments over the past year or two. This definitely can be blamed on the sharp increase of use of smart phones and tablets to read blogs, whether on your site or via a reader, and the trickiness of trying to comment on a blog using such a device! It can also be attributed to the super easiness of using Instagram to share, connect and comment. So blog comments is definitely not a good measure of a successful blog anymore, but rather social media engagement across the board.
How do you develop a media kit?
That’s a whole ‘nother blog post or series in itself! But essentially, you need to include a short blurb or paragraph about yourself and your blog – help the business understand a bit about who you are and why you quilt and what your blog is about. You need to include your stats – unique visits, visitors and pageviews for the past month. You need to include your rates and what services you offer for that money – size of sidebar ad, how often you’ll share links to their site and in what format (share sales, weekly posts, etc). You might also like to include any publications you’ve been published in, online or off, as well as any other kinds of collaborations you’re open to doing – ie. blog hops. A photo of yourself and your blog logo is always nice, and of course don’t forget your contact information – name, email, all your social media links!
The Blog Maven has a very good guide of what to include in a media kit, plus a wide range of examples of actual bloggers’ media kits.
Further Information
If you have any further questions, leave them in the comments and I’ll respond to them there!
I have loads of great information about all sorts of blogging tips and tricks on my Blogging Pinterest board. Or join the Quilty Bloggers and Instagrammers Support Group on Facebook to “talk business” with others in our niche!
Other posts in the series:
– Valuing Yourself As A Blogger
– My personal experience with blog sponsorship and what I’ve learned along the way
– What Blog Sponsors Are Really Looking For
– Blog Sponsorship: Your Stories and Thoughts
Susie says
Another great post Alyce but thought my I would put in my two cents worth of feedback. I admit to not commenting on half the blogs I used to. The primary reason being I most read blogs via bloglovin on the ‘five member shared ipad’. Usually around 30-60 minutes of time during a seven day week. To comment in bloglovin I need to open the blog after reading it in its own browser and then it takes longer to load. I’ve also found recently I will locate the ‘leave a comment’ link, press the button but the page hasn’t loaded properly and takes me to previous posts as the link position moves again. Hope this makes sense.
Alyce says
Yeah, I just don’t even bother trying unless it’s a WordPress blog because Blogger does NOT play nicely for me unless I’m on a computer!!And even then, I must really want to comment to sit and poke away at the little keyboard. I do sometimes try to “Heart” them to go back later when I’m on the computer and comment, but that usually happens about a week later, lol.
Anita says
Thank you for this series Alyce. It’s very helpful. Especially for those of us just starting down this road. Also, as an aside, I have ordered the fabric to sew the Star quilt in the Make Modern Magazine that you have blocks for in each issue. So thank you for that too! 🙂
Nadine H says
Can we hear the silly song? 😛
DeborahGun says
Really helpful Alyce – thanks so much for sharing all of this.
Lisa C says
I am commenting on your “click through” comment about not receiving enough business through the blog. I completely understand what you mean but I’ve not given it much though. I frequently buy from the same online fabric stores and I generally go directly to their site after reading about them on a blog. I guess this hurts the blogger. On the other hand, some of the fabric stores I’ve been frequently for the entire three years I’ve been quilting and I want to be loyal to them. At this point, I assume I should continue to do what I’ve been doing but I should “click through” for new sites.