Several years ago, if you could receive thousands of visitors each month, you could make decent money thanks to your on-page ads. But, people have become blind to the ads.
It’s more difficult to monetize a site with the use of advertising. So, it’s time to start looking at alternative ways to make money from your internet traffic.
At the same time, adopting a new approach for monetization can help increase the user experience provided by your website and your overall influence.
The approach that you should think about using is the use of sponsored posts.
What are Sponsored Posts?
Sponsored posts are blog articles that businesses pay you to publish on your website. This includes articles that you write or that they submit. They can also cover any format, including reviews, informative posts, and videos.
The main idea is that these posts help the business obtain backlinks and increase their online presence. Meanwhile, you benefit by getting paid to add more content to your site.
But, in order to get paid for these posts, you first need to find businesses that are willing to pay for this service.
Finding Businesses That Need Sponsored Posts
Reach out to businesses related to your niche market. Send them an email with your pitch. You should mention that you’re opening up the chance for businesses to have their articles published on your website. Include the fee that you charge for publication.
Obviously, some businesses will turn you down. Though, as with anything, you’ll get a few bites.
Once you start publishing these sponsored posts, you’ll be able to track the stats related to each published post. Keep track of the number of visitors that the article receives and the number of social media shares that it gets.
You can then use these details in future pitches to other businesses. Basically, the more of these posts you publish, the easier it will become to find new businesses.
Make Sure That the Sponsored Posts Match Your Brand
You shouldn’t publish any posts that don’t correlate with the brand image that you’re trying to promote. While you can disclose that you don’t necessarily agree with the views or opinions of the author, you’re publishing their post on your website.
So, any negative response that the post receives will also be directed to your website.
When you start publishing sponsored posts, you’ll need to create a standard agreement for your customer to sign. This should include a stipulation that all articles must receive final approval before publishing and that you can choose to deny and refund any post that you don’t want to publish.
Don’t Forget to Continue Releasing Your Own Content
You can’t fill your website with sponsored content. After a while, your regular readers will stop showing up. You should use this sponsored content as a source of additional income and supplement your own content.
Using a calendar can help you avoid publishing too many sponsored posts. For example, if you stick to a blogging schedule of one new blog each week, you could take on one sponsored post each month.
Sticking to around 75% original content and 25% sponsored content should be sufficient to keep your readers happy.
If you’re careful with the use of sponsored posts, this can also help increase your influence. Your site can become a go-to source of beneficial information related to your niche. You just need to be a little selective with the quality of the content that you publish.
Sponsored posts provide a simple alternative to ad placement for monetizing your site. If you’d like even more marketing tips and suggestions and a way to generate high-converting traffic, have a look at my book below
Books by Michael Ezeanaka
Michael Ezeanaka 