I have been getting asked lately about how to approach companies for advertising or sponsoring contests. Almost all inquiries I can respond to easily with several of the following:
1) You have a super spammy blogspot domain. I doubt any company is going to take you seriously.
2) There is no about or bio page on the site that says anything about what your site is about.
3) You have less then 10 posts on your blog and it looks like the last one was over 7 months ago.
4) You are based outside of the United States. I know its not fair… but its just the way it is. (I have sponsored contests outside of the USA but I doubt most companies will)
5) Your blog is titled “Make Money With firstname lastname”.
6) It looks like nobody ever visits your site but you ? PageRank 0 and Alexa 9,000,000
7) You have no other advertisers advertising on your blog. Just a bunch of “Advertise Here” boxes
8 ) Your email is @hotmail/@gmail/@yahoo and not @yourblog.com or the site your trying to pitch.
9) The whois information about your site is anonymous (or in your case not yours)
10) Just in the email you wrote me I spotted 10 grammatical errors alone.
So I guess I will start with the advertisers one first. Here are my tips for getting advertisers for your blog/website.
Just start with anyone at any price.
Yes that’s right. Nobody wants to advertise on a blog that nobody is advertising on. When I first sell ads on websites most of the time its either trade outs or for very very low money (usually 1/10th of what it should be). You can always raise your rates later and let the market decide if its too high but nobody likes being the first advertiser.
Create a Zone page with demographics and statistics.
You can see my advertising page here. It makes it very easy for people to see what placements are available and where they are located on the page. Take a full screenshot if possible. The Pearl Crescent Page Saver extension works well to take a screenshot of the full page instead of just what you can see.
Also on that page I give out general statistics on traffic the website receives.
Tell the advertiser why they should advertise with you.
Again as you can see on my advertising page I show all the awards and mainstream press mentions the website gets. I also highlight the sites that point out how my site has driven them tons of sales and what a value it was to advertise. Testimonials can also be good.
Well those are the basic tips for how to get advertisers… but as far as getting contest sponsors I will add one more.
Let the company know exactly what they are getting
Don’t try to bs companies… especially if your in the “Making Money Online” space. After spending money with you or sponsoring a contest on your site if the traffic you told them you expected is not there then not only are they not going to spend any more money with you but you can bet they will let other companies know that your website is not a very good return on investment. Usually before I advertise I will ask other or previous advertisers there experience with a website. Its amazing what a small group the advertising space is.
One last tip for both contests and advertising - Hit up people that you already have a business relationship with first. Especially those affiliate companies you are making money for. There is so much bullcrap being written by people who have ZERO experience actually doing what they are talking about that usually companies are happy to put their brand on your site.
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Getting advertisements for your blog is an art. Your “Advertise here” page is actually a salespage, similar to one that you would use if you were to sell any other product. Like any other product, the fact still remains that you website has to have enough statistics to prove that it is worth investing in, if the advertisers are to pay for an advertisement on your website.
Nice tips, Shoe. These tips would certainly help people in preparing themselves to sell their “advertise here” pages.
I wonder how many blogs die on their ass before they even get their first advertiser. Hmmmm….
This is some very basic advice – nevertheless it’s true. But once you get some PR and traffic, they will come.
Just apply basic principles: Make a quality site, update content often. Traffic will happen and advertisers will knock on your door.
real good post, i think i will make some changes on my blog, i still need to do stats page, what about if the blog is new?
LOL. Cool ideas that even work for smaller blogs. Private Banner ads really rock as compared to adsense.
Thanks for the advise. I think it is finally time to start advertising.
Hi, Guys.
Thank you Shoe for those great tips.
I started to think about advertisement in my website and I don’t even know how to begin. My Google page rank when from zero to 3 in about a year, but my traffic is not that good for now, is a going on process. If any of you guys can check it out and give me any tips I would appreciate it.
My web is http://flyawaytrip.com
Thank you.
NEED HELP. I don’t know what else to say. Please take a look at http://www.story and tell me what to fix.
We strongly agree, one of our clients followed you guide and to our surprise he was very succefuly
sweet, I guess this post will help me to get a sponsor
argggg .. the about page bio .. does anybody else hate writing those? I dread writing bios about myself.
sponser me please
i want to on own web site please help me
thank you for this site
thanks for the great tips, ill keep them on mind!
donationsbb,a true life story known by everbody in the world is looking for help to make a better story
I am going to use these tips.
Cheers
Thanks shoe, what I got out of that what to be up front with your expectations and what you expect for them to get. Like anything else..if you are just starting out you are going to have to take what you can get and start creating a reputation. As they say….the first million is the hardest to make.
These are some great tips. You must have a professional blog, good blog posts, and good statistics. Show off your statistics like your feed count, pagerank, daily page views/unique visitors, etc. and you’ll interested advertisers. Make sure you put your advertising slots in a visible slot instead of hiding it otherwise advertisers won’t be interested in advertising. You have to make sure you place the ads in the right spots. Don’t clutter your site with ads all over and keep it organized.
I should’ve read this post a long time ago…
Thanks for cool recommendations!
I think it’s a bit rude to dismiss someone for the grammatical errors in an email they sent you when this post has at least 9 major grammar errors in it as well. I don’t think you should expect more quality of someone else than you obviously expect of yourself.
you tell ‘em nancy..
The advertising page is a good idea. I’ve regularly got people contacting me about how to advertise on one of my sites. I don’t even have a stock document that I can send them. Time to fix that.
Hi,
I just saw a Google ad for “tools.shoemoney.com” on this blog and I am a bit confused.
Does it make sense to share revenue with Google for promoting one of your own product on one of your own blog when you can easily create your own banner for the product and link out to it.
Why pay for page saver when you use the free firefox extension “Screengrab!” Just go to the firefox extension search and install it. You can grab the visible portion of the screen, everything in the browser window including non-visible, and selection into a .png file. You can even just copy that and then paste into your paint program.
I always check the who-is information of anyone I intend on doing business with on the web.
Here’s a tip: go to where the advertisers are and drink with ‘em. You know that billions of business deals go down this way!
Great post.
I’m pretty sure most people will read the first 10 things and be like, damn!
Thanks for the advice. I plan to use it soon. p.s. You have some grammar errors too (Sorry for being rude – I’m an editor). I still think you rock though!!!! Thanks so much!
Good points. Thanks shoe. I have to take notes not to forget any of them.
i think i have a good deal going on right now with advertisers.
How many unique visitors a day should your site get before thinking about advertisers and sponsors?
Awesome post. I am thinking about using advertising space on my blog, but I think I will make sure and go by your list before I think about it, and get better traffic.
I would love to have advertiser on my blog, you have showing me a very common reason and good advice
Thanks Shoe
I’v been looking at advertising on some related blogs just recently for some other of my sites, I just wish so much that sites had their “rates” listed on the site somewhere instead of always having to go down the route of emailing. I can understand why sites do it though as they many don’t want to come across as advertising channels to general readers but it woul dmake life easier some times…
Excellent advice. Well played. I’ve known about these things for ages, but it’s amazing how many people still make those mistakes. You’d think they’d lern by now.
Hey Shoe, I’ve actually printed out this article, I hope u dnt mind. These are some great tips and would make for a great guide when drafting my web marketing strategies. Thank you!
You Must give Shoe Royalty
ROFL@ the Shoe hating on someone’s grammatical errors. I love you bro, but you’re never going to win a grammar rodeo!
Hehe that’s what I was thinking. It’s a good post but telling someone not to have grammatical errors in a post that has grammatical errors is really a pot/kettle situation.
Your – possesive; belonging to
You’re – abbreviation of ‘you are’; the apostrophe replaces the ‘a’ … why do people have such a hard time comprehending this?
Good tips though
Thanks!
Hmm I really didn’t want to do an about page, as I want the site to be more about the people that use it than about me so should I still go ahead and do one anyway? I never really wanted it to be a blog but it seems that’s where it’s at right now.
You don’t have to make it about you personally… you can (should) have an explanation of what the site is all about. Think of it as a mission statement for the site.
how to post blog or advertise in your blog. we will advertise on any blog or forum has good traffic
I never knew that this is negative for your blog: “The whois information about your site is anonymous”
I understand you’r attitude pertaining to @yourblog.com, but I find that I get a ton of spam if I use this address since my current provider does not have a spam filter. A @yahoo/gmail provides the benefit of a spam filter which works great for me. I would much rather use the @yourblog but the latter works better for me.
Jump starting the advertising wheel for a new blog/site can be a bit hard but then it gets easier by time , it’s very important that you start approaching Sponsors only when you are ready or you’ll be blacklisted at least in their minds when you really are ready!
what i’d like to know is when is that perfect time to start you know?
lol
some say right away some say after 6 months, and others say when you get to 100 posts…
The perfect time is when the traffic decides. One needs to understand the fact that all sponsors want their advertisements to be viewed. If there is no traffic on your website, what use is its advertising. So when you get to see that your site has enough visitors and there are stats to prove this, know that it is time that you approach sponsors.
I try to prepare a specific site on a specific advertiser. This is a very effective method.
How old or how many posts do you think you should have on your blog before contacting people for a contest? I have done this with one of my other blogs and had some success but many times people don’t write back. I even offer to write about their blog, website, or business for free in a detailed blog post giving them links back to their site just to get something to write about and still nothing. Who turns down free advertising? My blogs are professional looking and 2 are hosted so I know that isn’t the problem.
As far as showing your statistics, how much traffic/hits do you need before advertisers or potential contest sponsors pay attention to you? I know a niche helps like being a Mom Blogger.
If you are looking for a quick, legitimate way to fill ALL of the ad spots on your site/blog almost immediately, approach other sites, business acquaintances (within your niche if possible), fellow bloggers, etc. and give them a brief intro of your new site. Tell them that you’re just getting started and would be happy to trade ad spots for a link or a mention on their site. If your site LOOKS legit, and you SOUND legit, quite a number of folks are willing to make that trade. You can naturally reserve larger ad spots for the big sites, and let smaller businesses take the sidebar. The result is a site that is fully ad-filled long before you would otherwise consider approaching folks to buy ads. Having a “full” site makes you look established very early in the game – good for future advertisers, but also good for readership as well.
As your site develops traffic and you get your name out, you will eventually have people ask how they can get their ad there as well. At that point (or maybe sooner), have your “advertising” page ready as well as reasonable starting rates. As folks start to pay for spots you can filter off the link-traded ads, or even begin approaching the existing “advertisers” to see if they would like to continue their ad with a payment.
The key is remembering that if you treat them with respect you will likely get respect in return… and end up with an authoritative site sooner as a result.
Just something to consider. It’s worked for me in the past!
Would you be intersted in advertising Fighters.com on my sport website?
Thank you for this very informative post!
very true…
I am trying to get out of the list you mentioned
several good points in there. I think that if you make a decent site and establish traffic the other things just fall into place.
that’s exactly what I am working on Tom. I am carving out a niche audience and working toward establishing consistent traffic. Good post Shoe, thanks for the info.
really good post me too struggling with my joke site which is getting pageviews but no earnings as such fm adsense
Nicely done.
Then it seems, we need to work on getting traffics first…
Then, how to ensure the advertiser will agree to pay if we increase our price?
Well put, you are spot on with that list. And once you get an advertiser, give them awesome customer support to keep them advertising. I don’t accept any CPA/CPC advertising at all and that’s worked out wonderfully.
-Scott
If you have a PR5+, Alexa sub100,000 site, the advertisers will knock your door even if you don’t do much promotion.
dats too long way to go
it will take hell lot of time to go upto that level just ask shoemoney
Where’s my comment? Disappeared!?
normally when I dont have advertisers yet I test my site with affiliate banners. If Im making $20 a month with a certain lets say pepperjam banner and im selling direct ads for $10, then maybe I would just continue using affiliates and/or increase my price…
Why would location matter for prizes? Can’t the sponsor send it out to the winner directly?
I thnk the fact of international thing is true but again advertisers will look for US and Canada traffic so I guess you can always flaunt your analytics stat and you can give them more reason to sponsor…
You’d be surprised how many advertisers don’t even accept Canada traffic. It’s mainly just USA.
Thank you – I am bookmarking this now – very helpful to blogger with no advertisers.
Jeremy, spoken like a wise blogger and marketer. All of my blogs save one are on blogspot. AAARRGGHHHHH !
I’m moving the one with the most traffic off of blogspot, using the wordpress software that does this, and on to my own domain.
I understand that I can create sub-folders for my other blogs under this domain and move my other six blogs to individual sites there?
I finally had my first CPA, Market Leverage sent me an email, a whopping $8.00 for a debt solution. Even better, it was a text-ad in the content of my blog that the reader clicked through! Now my wife believes that money can be made on the internet.
Just imagine the traffic I can generate once I get my real domain chugging along. Thank you for the solid, and very timely information!
Respectfully,
Nicholas Chase – http://donotreadthisblogunless.blogspot.com/
blogger blog gave me the first income on net bt now i am trying to develop sites
Gary Vaynerchuk, the wine library tv guy, has thing he says that “anything is better than zero.” Meaning get that first sale for anything because it’s better than nothing, which is true. After you get some cred and some sales, you can increase the prices. Until then, companies aren’t going to shell out for an unknown quantity unless you show something.
Great tips, having an advertise page is essential with the screenshot.
I completely agree with your points made in this point. Most bloggers think they can just go out and get advertising without building some authority for their site. It’s sad.
Solid post, I’ve written a couple about this. The trick is to be professional, you’d be surprised how many people will give you stuff if you just lay it out for them plain and simple!
Jeremy,
I’ve tried like hell to get real money sponsorships. Even went as far as snail mailing companies. Nothing.
Rex
i feel your pain man…
Although most of what’s here should be common sense, I get the feeling that it’s not, based on the proposals I’ve seen from some bloggers. I take care of the marketing for Vat19.com, and while we’re always looking for new bloggers to work with, it’s tough to find sites that have worthwhile content and decent traffic.
The “No BS” advice is especially solid. I don’t know if some bloggers assume that everyone who works at a company is in the dark, but I’ve heard things like “Your Google rankings will skyrocket when you buy a placement in my site’s directory” or “I am sure you’ll sell hundreds of xxx when you advertise on my site.” Even if your site was okay up until that point, the fact that you’d say something like that when it’s clearly not true is enough to kill any trust I might have had.
If you’re serious about marketing your site to advertisers, try to learn a bit about it on your own. Stick in some affiliate products and track your conversions – then you’ll know what does well and what your advertisers might realistically expect. It will also give you a better idea of who to target, since the companies that are in a position to get the best results will generally be willing to pay more than those that are less relevant.
I like your level headed advice. How do I find out find out more on what you are doing? ~ Curby
I wonder how many people read these ideas and then realize that they have been doing some of the things that you recommend not to do…
Good information. Sure is something to think about.
Seems like almost common sense
How does one search for sponsors for their blog?
Find people advertising in your niche…and contact them.
Gain enough traffic so they contact you.
OR
Use a third party to do so.
Great tips! Unfortunately my blog meets all of that criteria but still has trouble getting sponsors!
maybe because no one wants to advertise on a competitor…
Did you crawl into my computer and look at what I was researching over the weekend? Very timely (for me) and good advice from somebody who obviously knows what they’re talking about.
And I really like the Screengrab! plugin for Firefox for taking a full-sized screenshot of a site. It’s free and has several options of what it can do.
Yes he did.. didn’t you see that’s one of the new Shoemoney Tools…
Terrifying!
One other tip could be if you land them to your advertising page and it has broken links – just like yours shoemoney
check the ” top 10 money making blogs of 2007″ link
Some really great tips thanks shoe will def use them for my blogs
Great tips, and as I have always told my clients I build sites for that you do not build the site around advertising you have to build around content. Content has to come first, if you don’t have good content to start off with it’s never going to happen.
Same old addage, if you build it they will come. That goes for users and advertisers.
I hate those @yahoo and @hotmail e-mail addresses. It costs MAYBE $9 to get a domain name and setup a real e-mail account.
Not even $9 when you use coupons
Good tips, but you know it sucks when you are outside US and can’t get sponsored by a company, there is no good opportunities for bloggers outside USA!
I write down these notes. Very important tips for a good adv campaign!
Yet another awesome advice. I was thinking about running a contest a few days ago, so this really helped. Thanks Shoe!
Excellant advice and tips. Thanks Shoemoney!
haha, wow iam doing alot of those “do not”’s I guess I need to shape up.
Excellent tips. Thanks for the info.
Why does it matter where I’m based, as long as I have an English blog with US readers?
And love the “Click my ads!” post on the advertising page
When it comes down to getting your wire transfer (real businesses don’t use PayPal) you will see why.
I’d beg to differ. There are plenty of very real businesses that use PayPal because it’s convenient and offers privacy for customers. I do the marketing for a “real” company (with a 50,000+ square foot “real” building) based in St. Louis, MO, and we happily use PayPal for a variety of purposes. You’d be surprised at the number of customers who love that their billing information isn’t shared, or the number of factories that use PayPal as a payment method.
We like to think of it as being with the times – and we certainly don’t complain about good bloggers with English-speaking audiences, regardless of where they’re located. What matters to us is the traffic.
4) those companies are quite short-sighted not paying outside usa.
Well done to your com Stefanie and Shoe
But I’ve had wire transfers made to my country and there were no problems.
i guess it shouldn’t matter, but some people seem to think it does…
Shoemoney! Those are some excellent posts! I’ll be sure to incorporate them into my blog. Thanks again and have a nice day!
I never try too hard to sell advertising. My thought is if people aren’t coming to u trying to buy advertising you are doing something wrong.
If you don’t push it… how will they know?
They will know because you push it at first, then let word of mouth marketing bring you all you need, he he
I’m not saying I don’t have an advertising page, but it’s a small link in the footer. My point was, if someone wants to buy advertising on your site you don’t have to push them. The site pushes itself.
I agree with Tyler. It just seems like common sense that if you advertise a need for advertising, someone will want to get in before another guy. If there isnt a big deal about advertising, there wont be that big of an interest.
yep. in the end, you’ve got to ask for the date to get the girl you know?!
i have an advertising page, and i mention it on my contact us and about page too.
Awesome tips, I’m going to work more on the about sections of my sites.. that’s for the great info this is print worthy to hang by my desk and read to make sure I’m following them
Yeah, those are the obvious tips. Normally I don’t search for advertisers, but instead they find and contact me.
Some great tips Jeremy.
A quick question though about your advertising page. Is there any reason why you don’t have the prices listed for spots?
Sure – we want people to contact us about it.
It’s interesting you say this because I know John Chow thinks the prices should always be up front. I’ve seen it work both ways though.
Well that means Shoe can negotiate better rates
Any particular reason why, Shoe?
i think shoe’s reasons are for the value in the relationships you form from communication. that is something that can’t be gained by a quoted price…
Whoa.. I’m outside US …
But i think darren rowse maybe not agree about it..
These are really great things that we shouldn’t be doing if we want advertisers or sponsors for our web site. I myself come across these kinds of blogs and web sites and it is absolutely ridiculous that they think they should deserve sponsors of any kind.
Good tips. I guess that explains why I never received any responses to my requests for companies to sponsor contests. I sent the requests out while I had 7 posts on my blog, and it was only a month old. I didn’t even have a page rank yet (now it’s a big fat 0 which isn’t much better).
Guess it pays to have a good amount of content and traffic to the site before you start courting advertisers.
Useful tips. I won’t totally agree with the number 4 – whereas it’s sure more difficult to find advertisers when you’re not in the US, it’s not impossible – thanks to PayPal (I am based in Europe). Furthermore, if you happen to find European advertisers, they pay in euros, which is a nice bonus
Of course, if you live in a country not supported by PayPal, it might get tricky.
I would also like to add one little piece of advice – you can create a .pdf document with statistics, demographics, description of your site, ad zones, etc. and send it out to advertisers at request. Looks quite professional and all the information is in one place (can be printed out, too).
These are some great tips. All of our contests are with businesses we’ve already established relationships with. It makes things so much easier in asking for contest materials. It also reassures the business that people will enter the contest because we have a proven track record of having success on all the contests we posts. I guess eventually other businesses might offer up contests too, especially if they see how popular your site is?
these are must do things before thinking of approaching a potential advertiser
I can’t even get google on board due to my site’s content.
Some good advice again cheers shoe.
You have already written this on your blog before. Please, get some original ideas or take a break from blogging. Things are getting a little tired around here.
Then don’t read it?
It is still difficult to get the advertisers to your site though.
I’m curious about this one: 9) The whois information about your site is anonymous (or in your case not yours)
Why is that a no-no? Does this make you seem shady?
I believe so. The advertiser might think that you have something to hide.
I don’t think this is a huge no-no if you are established, but when you are new, and there isn’t anything to prove you are who you say you are, then the whois is the only (mildly) verifiable form of identity.
I disagree with this point in the post. I’ve seen home
addresses on Whois and I don’t think that’s particularly
safe. Many bloggers are home based and that’s okay.
You could always ask for a letter/email from your hosting
service.
exactly. i agree with you on this one too. whois should never be left public.
Hmm. I’ve never thought about it that much before. Thanks for the post.
Being in the UK certainly does suck! come on UK advertisers – get in the game
UK advertisers are in the game. I’m from the UK.
Contary to what you’d think, being in the UK, Canada, US, and Australia is actually much better than the other 99% of the world.
nice post, easy to get the point. I am doing a little contest too.
It’s hard to get that first advertiser… Free 125×125 spots here!
3500 Entrecard credits here!
Is that being offered on the site your name is linked too?
Excellent advice. I’ve approached a few companies with a definitive plan for them along with examples of past campaigns and have met with decent success. I appreciate those top 10 issues there and saw a couple I need to take care of like my e-mail address. I never thought of that before.
actually in my experience approaching a company isn’t really a hard thing as what many people think and its maybe because they are always receptive…
I would agree with that – I think a lot of people are afraid to approach others when they’re starting out. Confidence goes a long way in those situations. Shooting them a good deal and taking the time to work for their best interest should get you the rest of the way.
I think these are very good tips. Most of the hit home on my first blog and I like to think that I took care of most of them.
I liked the spots about not owning your own domain and nobody visiting the site but you. Nice.
I dont think email thing @yahoo/msn is a necessary criteria
Others are definitely well explained.
You must be kidding. Having a professional email account is a must. You will be taken far more seriously this way.
I agree and disagree. If you are a startup blog on a free setup and don’t have your own domain yet per se, I don’t think having a gmail or yahoo account will necessarily hurt you. If you have your own domain, you need to have an @yourdomain address for anyone to take you seriously.
I ran a blogspot blog for about a year before I ever stepped into owning my own domain. Owning your own domain is one of the key ingredients to getting advertisers.
Also I took your advice about “Just Start With Anyone at Any Price” because my blog is getting about 3,000 uniques a month and I am selling advertising for dirt cheap at $2 a pop….I might put it up soon though
3k uniques isn’t loads but it should be selling for more then $2/month.