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Katie Clark

How I Use Fiverr to Run My Blogging Business

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Running a successful blogging business has a lot of moving parts.

For the vast majority of my blogging career, I thought I had to do it all myself – the content creation, updating, social media promotion, the tech support, the SEO…everything.

However, over the past few years, I’ve discovered that there is value in hiring people to help – especially people who are much smarter than I am at certain topics!

I’ve used college interns successfully for a couple semesters now, which has been a great way to get more content out (especially for my side dish website). However, there are certain things that I just couldn’t have them do (mainly because they were things I’m not sure I could successfully train them in!)

Enter Fiverr. Eralier this year, I invested in Fiverr, and I thought to myself, “Why am I not using Fiverr more?”

Which began my Fiverr obsession. While there have been some misses, I have been extremely impressed thus far with those that I’ve hired – and even more, the price that I’ve paid.

What I use Fivver for as a Blogger

Mobile App

I am in the process of launching a mobile app for my website, The Breastfeeding Mama. I talked with a few people on Fiverr, and I settled on someone who has done a fantastic job. I have been thrilled with his work, and the price was unbeatable.

Here is the seller I am using.

SEO Technical and Content Audit

SEO audits are expensive. I paid $100 for one of these and Fiverr, and I was actually really impressed with the depth of it. The content audit left something to be desired, but I still gleaned some good information. I would definitely say it was in line with some that I’ve seen for A LOT more.

Technical Fixes for Website

The person who did my SEO audit is doing a bunch of technical fixes for me as well. It was affordable, and he’s doing a great job.

Here is who I have used for the audit and technical fixes.

Content Creation

This is a big one. I have launched several new sites – and I have zero desire to write the content. While I use my interns for a lot of content creation, as well as a few others that I have hired, when they aren’t available, I turn to Fiverr.

I have found some excellent writers. You do have to be careful (I’ll talk more about this below), but the prices are, once again, unbeatable. I have found the most success with using someone for Simply Side Dishes, because I have a pretty strict template that is easy to follow.

Logo Design

I got five designs for $20. There was a little bit of back and forth with them, but I was really pleased. These were for some new sites.

Calculator Creation

I got some quotes for creating some calculators for The Breastfeeding Mama from my normal tech guy, but it was way out of my price range. I went on Fiverr, and I was able to get these calculators for way less, and they turned out amazing!

You can see them here:

Free Breastfeeding and Alcohol Calculator

Expressed Breast Milk Bottle Calculator

I also have a few more in the works!

Here is who I used for my calculators.

Facebook and Instagram Ad Management

This is something I am just starting to look into. I have struggled with getting Facebook ads running, and I am talking to a few people that I think will do a great job.

Tips for Successful Fiverr Use

Read Reviews

I never work with someone who doesn’t have reviews. Sometimes they just have a few, but I only use them if I really have had a good conversation.

There are a lot of people with no reviews, and I’m not interested in being a guinea pig. Read the reviews and pick someone who has good ones.

Be Very Clear with Expectations

There can be some communication barriers due to language, though most everyone I’ve worked with speaks English quite well. However, sometimes I have found some miscommunication in what I want and what was delivered – so make sure you are very clear with exactly what you want.

I also find that they are always willing to make changes, so if you aren’t satisfied, don’t be afraid to ask them to fix something!

Negotiation is Always an Option

I don’t always just go and buy a gig straight from the sellers page. I will often ask about bulk discounts, ask if they are willing to take less, etc. Never hurts to negotiate!

Expect Upsells

I am always having the people I work with try and sell me on something else. Sometimes I bite, sometimes I just say, no thank you. It’s just part of how it works. It doesn’t always happen (especially with my content creation people), but I wouldn’t be too put off by it. They are just trying to make some more money!

Double-check

If you are buying content, it is ESSENTIAL to make sure nothing is plagiarized. This is a problem you can run into on Fiverr if you aren’t careful.

I hired someone to write something for a new site, and I ran it through my Grammarly plagiarism checker (I highly recommend using this – as well as for checking their content – and your own – for grammatical errors). I found that there were certain chunks that were phrased the exact same as another article on the web (it was about a different kind of dog, but a similar post).

I asked her about it, and it turns out it was another article she had written – which is what I suspected. She was super nice and said she could rewrite it, but I just made some changes myself. It wasn’t anything major, but you definitely don’t want to get copied content!

You also want to make sure everything makes sense. All of my articles are written well, but sometimes the phrasing of things isn’t really correct. So go through and make edits to make it flow better with your audience.

The Request Feature

I only recently discovered this. You can put out a request for what you are looking for, put the amount that you are wanting to pay, and people will send you offers.

You tend to get a lot of offers – and a lot of them are way more than you have put initially. But you do tend to get some good offers. Just make sure you still read reviews and have a long conversation!

Be Kind

Many of the sellers want to make you happy, and they will go above and beyond to be very polite and do what you want. I would try and be patient and kind too!

So what have you used Fiverr for? Do you have any questions? Comment below!

Tips for Using an Interns for Your Blogging Business

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My interest in blogging professionally started when I took on an internship during my senior year at BYU. At the time, it just seemed like a sweet opportunity to work from home – because I had a baby, and the last thing I wanted to do was leave him!

I am forever grateful for my mentor! I wrote about EHRs and America’s Got Talent – so nothing to do with what I write now. But it helped me realize the opportunities that existed to work from home.

I had never really thought about interns until earlier this year. I was wishing I could all the money in the world to pay people to do all the menial tasks that distract me from doing the things I actually enjoy with blogging. And then I thought, “Hey, why not get an intern?”

I asked about it in a Facebook group and got mixed feelings on it. Someone suggested a course from another blogger that I respected about working with interns on your blog called “The Intern Strategy Course“. It cost me $200, but I am so grateful I took that course. She gave me step by step information on how to get interns, how to set up training, how to making things run smoothly, etc.

I got my first set of interns this summer. It started out promising but soon flopped – and it’s because I didn’t follow her advice to only take on interns that are getting academic credit.

Things didn’t really work out with any of these interns for various reasons. Originally, they had all said they were doing it for academic credit, but shortly before they started, they informed me they weren’t going to do it for credit anymore, but they still wanted to be interns.

Long story short, that didn’t really happen. Some worked longer than others – and I did get some get work during that time, and I am grateful for that. . But eventually they kind of fizzled out. I was frustrated but not willing to give up, because I really felt like having interns could be a game changer. But I made it an absolute rule that they had to be getting academic credit in order to be an intern for me.

So I tried again for the fall semester. There are still a few months left, but it has gone SO much better. All of my interns are committed, very professional, and are doing this it for academic credit. I am in contact with their professors, and it’s gone really smoothly.

It’s been especially really awesome for my Simply Side Dishes website! I have a few paid writers there as well, but they’ve been great for getting out more content, rather than just the twice a week posting we were doing before.

I have a lot of training videos that I had them watch in the beginning, and now I just assign them tasks in Asana every week. They work quickly and I’ve been so impressed.

I have them do all sorts of things for me, including:

  • Writing Posts (especially for my side dish blog and my breastfeeding website)
  • Make and schedule pins
  • Upload printables to my site and optimize for SEO
  • Check for broken links
  • Update Alt text (I had all my images that didn’t have alt text run through a program from The Blog Fixer, but I have to approve or change them all. Big task!)
  • Make videos on JumpRope
  • SEO research
  • Schedule out content via MissingLettr
  • Writing email sequences
  • Making printables
  • Orphan Posts
  • Making eBooks for me
  • Updating old posts
  • Updating/Creating Category Posts
  • Putting descriptions on Pinterest boards
  • Hashtag Research
  • Affiliate outreach and research for my courseFacebook group management 

I know Christina has used interns for video and I think photography, so those are some options as well if they have that specific skill set (if I ever get someone for those, I would plan to reimburse them for ingredients/materials).

I have plenty of work, and they do great. I try to make sure they are doing things that are actually valuable to them, but they’ve been great.

There are certain conditions you have to meet in order to have an unpaid/credit only intern. The course I took actually didn’t have that up to date, and the old rules were a lot more annoying. You can read them here.

So if you are interested in getting interns, here are a few things I recommend:

  • Consider taking Christina’s Course. It is so, so helpful.
  • Make sure they are doing it for credit or pay them. If they are doing it for credit and you still want to pay, you may attract a bigger crowd. I haven’t done paid, though. Christina hasn’t either. 
  • Come up with a list of EVERYTHING you do and see if it would be worth it to you to have someone an intern do those tasks – and worth your time to prepare them!
  • Contact local colleges or a college you have a relationship with. I have gotten all mine through my alma mater. 
  • Make sure you have a very detailed listing – here is mine.
  • Conduct an actual interview. I had people that looked great on paper and were much less impressive in an interview and vice versa. 
  • Expect it to take some time to get up and running. It took me quite some time to get training modules done, and in the beginning,they seem to have more questions.
  • Have an internship welcome letter that explains the internship,what they’ll be doing, etc. (here is mine)
  • Have a timesheet for them to track their time
  • Be patient and understanding of their time. Make sure they are actually learning something!
  • I have my interns work on a task-based system. I give them tasks at the beginning of the week, and I have them tell me if they need to meet with me. I try to be available via text or email throughout the day to answer questions. Some of my interns have specific hours they work, so I especially try to be available during those times. It is up to them to let me know if they need more tasks or hours, but this hasn’t been a problem so far.
  • Be aware of how many hours they need for their internship before committing
  • Assign tasks that you don’t mind having to train someone new in every semester.
  • Use a task management program like  Asana or Trello
  • Use Lastpass for passwords
  • Have primary and secondary tasks (primary tasks are things typically assigned weekly, secondary they do either every week on a regular basis OR when they need more work)
  • Put in the time to make training modules. I make them really fast using a screen recording software or with my phone’s screen recording. 
  • I find the easiest content to have them do are things that follow a certain template (like my recipes) or are easy to research. I don’t have them do DIY posts or things that require more hands-on knowledge. I also don’t have them do affiliate heavy posts.
  • I found people through the Communications department. Depending on what you need, you could find people through graphic design, video, photography, and business departments as well. 
  • Write a great listing! Be thorough. 

This is not for everyone. It does take some micromanaging. As demonstrated earlier this summer, it doesn’t always go as planned (but there are ways to mitigate this). There is turnover – after the semester is over, they are gone! Factor in the time it takes to interview and train new people. 

You could also just have some do writing for you. I have lots of tasks that I need others to do. But you can make it a lot less complicated than me!

I have people I pay to do other work for me – things I don’t want to have to train over and over again for, or that I just trust the way they do them and don’t care to change. I wouldn’t base your entire business on interns. 

Obviously, I haven’t done this for a long time yet. It’s been a learning process, and I’m finding what things I like them to do, and what things I prefer to do or like to have one of my paid contractors do. But I’m finding it to work well – especially for my newer sites! 

The Basics of Creating a Killer Blog Newsletter

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Are you wanting to learn how to create a blog newsletter…but you aren’t sure where to start? In this post, we’ll discuss everything you need to have a solid framework for your newsletter!

If there is one thing I would tell myself when I first started blogging, it would be this:

Start a newsletter. 

Newsletters can feel overwhelming, but it is one of the few platforms you have true control over.

You have all those emails at your disposal. Sure, you have to battle with spam folders and unengaged followers – but it’s a lot easier than battling with the ever-changing algorithms with social media.

Plus, I think emails are a great way to connect with your readers on a more personal basis and create raving fans.

My email list has helped me launched several successful courses, sell thousands of dollars in products, and generate traffic to my website for new AND old content.

At this point, my email list is segmented out into lots of different categories, and it’s a little bit complicated. However, in this post, I will be going over just the basics to getting started – I’m really big on doing things one step at a time. It really helps avoid getting overwhelmed!

Pick a Provider 

First of all, you need to figure out where you will store your emails and send out your newsletter from.

Unfortunately, you really can’t just collect emails from your website and send them out from your gmail address.

There are many companies that provide these services – some that start out free or very cheap all the way up to ones that cost thousands and thousands of dollars.

For beginners, I usually recommend MailerLite or Mad Mimi.

MailerLite is free for the first 1,000 subscribers, and it has affordable tiers moving up from there.

Mad Mimi starts at $10 a month.

I find both of these companies to be pretty user-friendly, easy to setup, and they are typically pretty compatible with a lot of optin companies.

The cost you will pay – regardless of what company you use – will go up when you get more subscribers.

Personally, I use ConvertKit. It is pricier than some, but it has all the features I need for what I do with my email list. I think it’s a great company, and at some point or another, I do recommend switching to it.

If you are one of those people who doesn’t want to change after a few months or a year, you can definitely start out with it.

For most people, though? I don’t recommend switching to ConvertKit until you are able to make money through your list – my goal is to at least make back what I pay for the service each month (some months I make more, some months I make less, but overall, I make a lot more in a year than I pay to ConvertKit through my email, so it’s 100% worth it).

There are tons of email providers out there, so feel free to read reviews – be aware that many of those reviews are fueled by affiliate links 🙂 I am using mine above, but these are companies I have used myself and can endorse. I use MailerLite for quite some time until I switched to ConvertKit. They have added a lot of new features as of late, as well.

Once you’ve selected your provider, go through their signup process so you can get ready to roll!

Find an Optin 

Now that you have your email provider all set up, you need a way to collect emails.

If you are using WordPress and a Genesis-powered theme, at the most simple level, you can use something called Genesis eNews Extended.

It’s a simple box that you can just connect to your email provider and place at different places on your website.

When you are just getting started, I think it’s important just to have SOMETHING setup so you don’t miss out on subscribers.

With that said, I do recommend getting a more robust optin service on your website. There are tons out there, which can be a little overwhelming.

Believe me, I’ve tried many of them 🙂

Personally, I have used Thrive Leads from Thrive Themes- it’s very inexpensive for a lifetime subscription, which is something I always like. I’ve also used Thrive Themes Quiz Builder, which has been really awesome for building my email list as well.

I will say it can be a bit glitchy at times, and I can’t always get it to work the way I want. But it’s been good to me over the years, and it has tons of optins you can use.

One of my my websites, I use Bloom from Elegant Themes. It’s a pretty simple to setup, and I like the optins it has available. It connects with most major email providers.

I have also used HelloBar in the past. I really like the bar at the top of the page, and I find that it converts pretty well. They have a free plan, but they recently updated some of their paid plans to be way out of my budget (over $100 a month for me!), so I’ve stopped using it. It’s great for people with less impressions on their site, though.

One of the fastest ways I’ve grown my email list is through my Facebook groups, but that’s a post for another day.

Setup an RSS

Having a newsletter is more than just sending out an RSS of every post – but I think it’s a good place to start.

It can easily be the basis of a great newsletter – and in my opinion, if it helps you get your newsletter out, then great!

For some of my segments, I have ConvertKit autocreate an RSS. I don’t have it autosend it, but it’s nice to have the bones for the email be there.

I do this with my food newsletter. Every time I have a new recipe go up, I can just jump into ConvertKit, find that the email has been created, and then I can easily change parts of it.

I’ll add a little more personality, maybe some tips, and occasionally I’ll throw in an affiliate link or promotion that is relevant.

I have also set up an RSS for all my blog posts. Although I only send one email a month to my entire list, I have a “General List” that I send an email to about once a week with posts from the previous week. ConvertKit pulls in my posts from the previous week, creates an email, and then I go in and add some more content in.

This just helps make the process a little bit easier for me.

Decide your Purpose

What is your purpose for sending out an email? Who do you want to signup for it?

Create your “ideal” reader and create your email around them. Chances are, if your blog is like mine with a variety of content, you may have more than one ideal reader.

But when you first start out, just start simple and have one “raving fan” in mind as you create it.

Not all newsletters are going to be the same – some just want to get more traffic to their sites. Others might want to sell their course. Some may want to increase their affiliate links.

And if you are like me…you’ll do a little bit of all those things.

But start by deciding what your main purpose is and build your strategy around that.

Create Your Hook 

It’s easy to just throw up a subscription box that says, “Signup for our weekly newsletter.”

But honestly…it’s not very enticing.

You need to come up with a good reason for people to signup for your newsletter.

The biggest “hooks” that I see people using are:

  • Free Printables
  • Free eBooks
  • Mini Courses

Personally, I have used printables, eBooks, mini courses, roundups of resources (for instance, 70+ Instant Pot recipes – which includes links to different recipes – or 100+ Cricut Project ideas for beginners) – all with varying success.

I have found that my mini courses have brought me the most success, because it puts me in my new subscribers email box consistently for a week, and it’s usually very targeted.

Courses can be easily created from exisiting content on your website. For instance, for my Cricut subscribers, I just created a five day “intro to Cricut” course. I took five of my popular Cricut blog posts, wrote a brief synopsis of it in an email, and it goes out to everyone who signs up.

People LOVE it.

With printables, it has really just depended. I offer a free editable Birthday Calendar for subscribers, but the people who subscribe are terrible. They don’t open anything beyond the initial email.

However, I have also offered printables for people who are members of my church, and it’s become one of my engaged lists. I believe that printables are helpful when you are going to be able to create consistent content for that group of people related to what they signed up for.

So take a good, long look at the type of people who are visiting your site and decide what you think they’d love the most.

I have tons of different “hooks” across my website, so you can definitely add more as you go. I do recommend just starting with one that will appeal to your most popular content first and go from there.

Make Them Love You

Easier said than done, I know.

But a huge part of having a successful email list is gaining the trust of your readers.

You don’t want them to groan every time they see an email come through – or, even worse, have them get in the habit of just deleting the email every time it comes through.

You want your readers to look forward to seeing what you have to share.

And this can take time.

I don’t recommend just sending salesy emails all the time. This is the quickest way to make your subscribers really dislike you.

Always add value to the emails you send – you want them to feel like they are getting something from your emails.

It doesn’t have to be something crazy insightful or amazing.

Short and to the point is usually the best way to go!

Launch it 

As with most things with your blog, the best thing is just to get started now!

While you are sitting around twiddling your thumbs trying to make things perfect, someone else is winning over their subscribers that could be learning to love YOU.

It doesn’t have to be perfect – it just has to be functional.

So stop reading this post and GO start your newsletter.

My Newsletter Strategy

I always find it helpful to see what others do, so I thought I’d send out what my strategy is (roughly). It’s not perfect – and please, don’t let it overwhelm you, because mine is far more complicated than most need to be.

But it might give you some ideas.

Currently, these are my main optins (this will show up on different pages)

  • Cricut for Beginners eCourse
  • Prenatal Crash eCourse (I get the most signups for this through my “Online Pregnancy Test” quiz I built).
  • Breastfeeding eCourse
  • Dollar Tree eBook
  • Meal Planning Printables
  • Various printables for different pages (My printables for my church are most popular. I have other printables for lots of seasonal topics).
  • Free mini eCookbook
  • 70+ Instant Pot Ideas
  • Printable instructions for popular DIY projects

As far as what I email out, this is the general schedule:

  • At the beginning of the month, I send one BIG email to my entire list – regardless of their segment. It just has an overview of the past month’s posts, any special deals I want to promote, etc.
  • Each week, I send an email with the previous week’s posts to my general list. I usually try to include an affiliate product.
  • Any time

Additional Resources:

This post just touches on the basics, but I think it will give you a good place to start.

I really struggled with my newsletter for a long time – and honestly, sometimes I still do. However, I took two classes that I feel helped push me in the right direction.

Building an Effective Email List – I took this one over a year ago. There were parts I didn’t love, and it made me start feeling like I had to do ALL.THE.PRINTABLES., which, for my site, wasn’t the best idea. But overall, it’s a decent price, and she gives you a good framework for long-term growth and success.

I really like that she is a blogger who doesn’t just blog about blogging…which seems to be the trend with a lot of courses.

Heather runs a very successful family-oriented blog, and she’s been successful with her newsletter that is marketed toward moms/families, which is what initially attracted me to her course. It’s very detailed, and I think it’s a good one to take.

Email on Autopilot – This is a course I was able to take for free. The price is going up, and honestly, I’m not a huge fan of the new price.

But then again, I think most courses cost way too much 🙂

With that said, this course really changed my perspective on my newsletters, and it gave me a kick in the pants I needed to finish a couple of welcome sequences that have been extremely successful for me.

I’ve launched a few courses since I created those, and I credit this email course for giving me the foundation for a successful launch. It really just broke down growing your newsletter with a captivating welcome series in a way that really resonated with me.

And there you have it! Feel free to ask any questions below, and make sure you join our blogging Facebook group.

What To Discuss Before Starting a Sponsored Post

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What To Discuss Before Starting a Sponsored Post

Working with brands

Over the years, I have done a lot of sponsored posts.

Some of the experiences have been amazing, and I look forward to working with those companies again.

Others? Well, let’s just say there are a handful of companies I would rather eat dirt than work with again.

For the most part, I’ve been able to figure out the best way to weed out potential disasters before they start, and thankfully, most of my working relationships nowadays go pretty smoothly.

Today, I wanted to share a few things to consider when you are going forward with sponsored content. These are things you should always discuss before you agree to anything.

Pay

You should come to an agreement on how much you will be paid for your services rendered. I generally don’t recommend listing your prices on your website or right off the bat, as I feel it removes all room for negotiations. Also, this may vary considerably depending on what you are doing (for instance, one of my 5,000 word articles is going to cost more than a 500 word recipe).

Things to keep in mind when it comes to pay:

  • How many posts (I occasionally will give a discount for multiple posts booked)
  • How many social amplifications do they want?
  • Do they provide a budget for boosting a post?
  • Who retains the rights to the pictures and content?
  • Does the brand want to repurpose the content?
  • How fast of a turn around do they want for the post?
  • How many pictures are required?
  • Are videos required?

It can be helpful to break out your pricing for everything they want (so show them that a sponsored post is $800, a Facebook share is $200, an Instagram Story series is $300, etc.). This can be helpful in case they want to cut down on costs, so they can know which things they won’t required.

You should also discuss grounds for additional payment. For instance, I was recently working with a brand who hadn’t contacted me for over a month, and all of the sudden they were requesting a full post AND social media posts written in just two days. This situation was very frustrating for me, because I typically require at least a week’s notice for a post, but because we hadn’t discussed this, I hadn’t put a rush clause into our contract. Rest assured, this is something I will always include in the future.

Payment Terms

I am getting to the point where I ask for half payment up front. Unfortunately, not all companies are honest, and they can take their sweet time to send you your check. I’ve had companies in the past that stopped responding to my emails and never paid me, or brands that paid me, but only after I reminded them months later.

Make sure you talk with the brand about when you will receive final payment, how the payment will be sent, and, if there are any fees involved (which can happen when you use PayPal), make sure they are going to cover those fees.

Rights

Make sure you retain the rights to your work. There’s a lot of legal mumbo jumbo when it comes to who has what rights – but make sure you read your contracts careful and consult with an attorney on anything you are unsure about.

If a company wants the rights to repurpose your content, use in their advertisement, etc., make sure you are being paid fairly! I know people use Getty Images to determine how much to charge per image.

Be aware that many sponsored post companies often have a lot of rights given to them, and the brands they work with. I don’t feel that many of these appropriate (you basically sign all rights over to them to allow them to do whatever they want).

Timeline

Know up front what the timeline for your posts and social media amplifications will be. I find it extremely helpful when a brand sends me a content calendar.

For example, I recently worked with Staples on multiple posts and social media shares. They were awesome! They were very clear in what was expected, when drafts were due, and when posts and social media was supposed to go up. I really appreciated them knowing exactly what they wanted, and I think it made it a lot easier for all of us.

Make sure you know when drafts are due before you sign the contract. It’s not very fun to get a contract, sign it, and then have them tell you your post is due in two days.

Grounds for additional payment

Build into your contract what grounds for additional payment are. Here are a few things that I would ask for more payment:

  • Extra social shares that were not initially agreed on
  • Rush fees for post drafts required with less than a week’s notice
  • Any kind of training that is required (this is mainly relevant with in person events, but I have known bloggers who randomly had to take some kind of training before writing a sponsored post)
  • Writing additional blog posts or creating videos
  • Phone calls (beyond initial on boarding)

Post Expectations

Discuss the length of a post, what angle the company would like you to for, how many images/videos should be included, etc. You should discuss any specific links or content they want included, if you are allowed to take your own photos (or if you are allowed to use stock photography that you have the rights to), and if/when a draft is required.

If a draft is required (which is typically due to legal reasons), make sure you know what types of legal parameters are in place.

Editing Expectations

I’ve had a few unfortunate expectations where I have gotten a draft of a post back where there was more red on the post than black.

The last time that happened, I realized I needed to let the company know right away what types of edits were allowed. For me, I tell companies that I have the last edit. They are welcome to make factual or legal changes, as well as correct grammar or spelling, but they cannot change how I wrote things, the focus of the post, or make it sound like an ad.

Legal and Contract

Always, always have a contract. This will protect you and the company, and it really keeps things professional.

If the company provides you with a contract, always make sure you read through it carefully. You don’t want to sign your rights away or agree to never work with a competing company ever again.

If they don’t have a contract, you can provide your own. I highly recommend getting a template from Blogger Legal for contracts!

Social Media Shares

Always check and see how many social shares are required – this needs to be in writing. I worked with a company in the past that expected far above the number of shares I normally include (which is four), and they weren’t willing to pay extra. Because I had already written the post, I didn’t feel like I could negotiate any longer, so I had to do a lot more shares than I initially planned on.

Make sure they know what kind of shares they want as well and what the purpose is. Different social shares call for different pricing structure. For instance, you will likely charge a lot more for a Facebook Live than you would for just a normal Facebook post.

I would also ask them if they are interested in providing an additional budget for boosting a post on social networks. This can be a really great way to expand the reach of your post, and many brands are willing to put a little bit of money to boost it.

What is their end goal? 

Be sure to discuss why the company wants to work with you and what they want the results to be.

I’ve found that knowing what the company wants in the end from the start almost always pays off in the end. I’m better able to format my post and social shares to promote that goal.

For instance, if a company is all about the clicks, I will participate in Twitter retweet groups, perhaps add it to my HelloBar at the top of my site, and I will make sure to put a direct link to their site in my weekly newsletter.

It can be frustrating for companies and bloggers alike if a campaign doesn’t go in the direction the brand was anticipating – especially if they didn’t give you that expectation up front.

Competitors

Know who they consider competitors and how long they expect you to be exclusive.

Typically, I will give a company 30 days of exclusivity following the campaign. For anything longer than that, I do require additional payment (especially if it’s a very wide exclusivity…for instance, a major food brand versus a subgroup of that food brand).

FTC, NoFollow, and Beyond

There are a lot of technical and legal items to keep in mind when you are working with a company.

If they are asking for a Do Follow link, run the other way. This is not appropriate per Google’s terms. If you are unsure what these are, basically, if a link is tagged “nofollow”, it is telling Google not to give extra weight to that backlink for a site. Google specifically has said that paid links have to be nofollow (this is to prevent any one company from paying a ton of sites from help aritifically boost their search ranking positions).

Be on the same page as far as the FTC regulations go. I’ve found companies that try and be a little sneaky about it – and I’ve found companies that go way overboard. I highly recommend reading the FTC guidelines so you can know for sure what is required, what is not, and how to keep both you and the company safe (without totally ruining the SEO for a post!) This is an awesome article from the FTC answering common questions for influencers.

Finally, keep up with social media rules. For instance, on Facebook, if you are doing a paid post, you have to use the Branded Content tool. A lot of companies aren’t really sure what this is, and they may be confused when you bring it up. Some of these companies may require you to be added to a list of pre-approved bloggers in order to tag them, so make sure this is taken care of right away.

Make No Promises

It’s important to do your best when promoting a sponsored post. I don’t recommend just writing a post and burying it in your archives without any promotion (why would you want something like this on your site anyways?!)

However, it’s important to not make promises to the companies you work with. Don’t guarantee them x amount of comments, thousands of dollars in sales, or hundreds of thousands of clicks to their site – because at the end of the day, you don’t have a ton of control over that.

Be upfront about how you plan to promote the product/service, do your best, but don’t guarantee things.

How to Update Old Blog Posts and Increase Traffic

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How to Update a Blog Post for Better Traffic, Money, and Email Subscribers

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Do you have hundreds of posts on your site that don't get any traffic? Don't delete old blog posts – update them for even better traffic!

On Clarks Condensed, we have nearly 2000 published posts.

However, the majority of our traffic definitely is driven to probably about 20 posts.

I mean, I get traffic to a lot of my other posts, but sometimes I think, "It would be nice if I got this same traffic to even 20 more posts!"

Over the past few months, I've spent a of time updating my older posts.

Some of them are posts that are already doing well, while others are ones that I think have potential to do well.

I've come up with a strategy that I feel really does help these old posts perform better, so I thought I'd share how to update old blog posts to (hopefully) increase traffic).

Affiliate links are used in this post, and I receive a small commission for purchases made from them. They are provided for your convenience. 

Editing Old Blog Posts: What to Do

Deciding Which Post

How I decided to update a post depends on a few different factors:

  • Season
  • Post topics that have historically done well on my site
  • Search Engine Potential

Lately, I've been going back and finding posts that have the potential to do well in the next few months based on the seasons/holidays coming up.

I also go back to my more popular topics (such as pregnancy) and update those posts. I have a lot of luck with this topic on my blog, so it's one that I find worthwhile to update.

Lately I have been going back a year in my archives and look for posts that didn't get the traffic I expected.

It's also important to find posts that you could potentially rank better for. I learned a great strategy for doing this through the #Jeff SEO course I mention below (but you'll have to sign up for the class to find that out!).

SEO Updates

Updating a post to be better received by search engines is one of the most impactful things you can do for updating a blog post…in my opinion.

I've focused a lot on SEO over the past year. I've seen a huge increase in the traffic I get from search engines, and I tend to prefer it over social media traffic (it's a little more reliable than social media…Pinterest, I'm looking at you).

I've done a lot of reading and watching. One of my favorite websites is Neil Patel's website. He is a genius Internet marketer, and he shares really informative and helpful articles and videos. Whenever I read one post, it's like going down a rabbit hole – I can't stop.

Beyond that, I've lately purchased two resources that have been very enlightening as well:

Sprinting the Blogger Marathon – This book was written by a fellow blogger – Sabrina, from Dinner, then Dessert. Sabrina is the perfect example of someone who threw her whole heart and soul into growing her blog, and she has been extremely successful. Although her book isn't just about SEO, I found her tips for SEO and Pinterest to be particularly helpful. She is a food blogger, and much of the book is focused on that, but I've applied her principals to different niches.

#Jeff SEO Course – I finally signed up for this course after several blogger friends recommended it. I'm so glad I did! I'll admit that a lot of the information has been a refresher for me, but there have been some very helpful tips and tricks – especially for when it comes to finding which content I should update for search engines. You also get access to the private Facebook group, and Jeff is always willing to answer questions. It is available for a monthly subscription, as new content is always being added.

I have found that updating old blog posts for SEO seem to help them rank higher more quickly than when I'm trying to rank with a new post. Not gonna lie – it's nice to be able to just update an old post rather than create a whole new one (though I do that plenty, too!).

Anyways, for SEO updates. I've been using these methods for about a year now, though I've tweaked it a bit overtime:

First, I do keyword research using Serpstat, which is my preferred keyword research tool. They have a free version, but I took advantage of this deal, which makes it around $30 for a lifetime membership (this is still available through mid-October 2017). It isn't their top tier, but I haven't found anything I don't like about it. I will do a more indepth tutorial on how I use this tool at a later date.

I start keyword research by putting a pretty generic term in. For instance, when I was updating my caramel buttercream frosting post, I typed in "caramel frosting", and I went from there.

I typically find a main keyword with a competition level under 20-25, and then 2-4 supporting keywords as well. I also like to see what other websites are currently ranking for that term – if they are mainly other bloggers, I usually feel I have a good chance of making my way to the front page.

After I add these to my post, I track the keywords in Serpstat (go to Projects, Rank tracker, Positions to add keywords you want to monitor) so I can see the improvements. It's a bit addicting! I LOVE seeing my rankings go up.

I typically will update the title of my post, add some H2 and H3 tags, and try and naturally incorporate the keywords throughout the entire post. You only want one H1 tag in your post (and that, by default, is typically your post title). If you are unsure how to use Header Tags, I highly recommend reading this post. I also update the alt tag of my images to be my main keyword or variations if I have a lot of pictures.

I also try to use numbered lists and bullet points where possible. If you go to Google, you will often see that the first thing that shows up for a search term is a highlighted website excerpt with bullets or numbers.

You may also consider increasing the word count of the post. An average post I write is over 1000 words – typically more, especially my posts that rank well on Google.

I updated my meta information (what shows up in Google search). I use the Yoast SEO plugin, which puts an SEO box below my post composer. Here, I make sure I included my main keyword in the title and in the description. I keep these concise by interesting so they stand out to other people.

After doing this, I republish the post (more on that in a second), and I submit the post through Google Webmaster tools.

I do not typically update my permalinks for a post. If you do this, make sure you set up a 301 redirect. There are many WordPress plugins that do this. 

Link Updates

When I go through old posts to update them, I try and update links.

First off all, I make sure all of the links I currently have are still working. With Amazon links, I check to make sure that product is still available. I also update the Amazon links to be to a product search page, as opposed to a specific product.

I then see if there are any new opportunities for  affiliate links – especially if it is something that is something not available on Amazon. I love Amazon affiliates, but sometimes, other programs can be more lucrative.

I will update old sponsored content (if my contract permits it) with new links (often affiliate), and perhaps more relevant information.

I also check to see if there are any external links that I can change to new posts I've written on my blog. I have been trying to limit the number of external links I have in a post, simply because I want Google to see my site as the authority. If I link a lot to other sites, it may seem that I'm less of an authority. With that said, I do try and incorporate high quality backlinks to other sites when appropriate.

Finally, I incorporate backlinks to my own content. I don't try and spam the post with it – but if there's a relevant place, I put them in with the keywords for that post. I also add related posts at the end of the post (or sometimes, after a section if the content is set up like that).

Social Media Updates

I try and do a few things to update my social media for the posts.

Mainly, I update my Pinterest image if I don't feel it's clear – the image, the text, etc. I've been trying to redo any Pinterest images that have the text going over the picture, because I just don't feel that this looks very good, and I used to do it a lot. I make sure my Pinterest image has lots of good keywords and even a few hashtags (since those are now relevant on Pinterest again!).

I use the paid plugin called Social Warfare. This is my preferred social media plugin for various reasons, but I like that it makes it easy to put images and descriptions for Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. I just make sure these are showing what I want them to.

Photos

I don't update the photos for every post, but if it's a really old recipe post, I try and update the pictures to something more appealing. I also typically make a new Pinterest image that goes more with  my "theme" that I usually go with for Pinterest images. I've found that 750×1800 works best (I know that's not what the "experts" say, but it works for me!)

I try to have 3-5 images in recipe posts. My more informational posts tend to have less, but sometimes I do try and add some stock photography in to break up the text. I have been using Stencil lately for this, because they have a great library of stock photography that you can use with no attribution. My brother and sister-in-law put together this great post on free stock photography websites, if you like to use stock photography.

Just for your reference, I currently use a Nikon D750 with an 50mm portrait lens. They work well for me!

Newsletter 

I've been working a lot on my growing my email list this past year, so I will often look at the post I'm updating and see if there's anything I can do to make people sign up for my list.

For instance, with this Birthday Poster, I used to offer it for free. However, when I was updating it a few months ago, I made it so people had to signup for my newsletter in order to get the freebie. I've gotten many new subscribers from doing this. I've done this with a lot of posts, and the result is always similar. I cringe to think about all the email subscribers I missed out on!

I use MailerLite as my newsletter/email delivery system. I really like them, and I feel they have great features for a very affordable price. It's free for the first 1000 subscribers.

I also use Thrive Themes lead generation plugin to get new subscribers. It has it's quirks, but it's a one time fee and works great – especially for creating so many different optin forms.

Republishing Old Blog Posts

After the entire post has been updated, I republish it. Please note that you SHOULD NOT do this if you have dates in your permalink structure. If you don't, go right ahead and republish your post.

This signals to Google that the post is still relevant. If the last time a post was updated was five years ago, Google may not find that as helpful as one that was updated today.

Promoting 

Finally, I promote the post! I do my typical promotion strategy – Pinterest, Twitter, sometimes Instagram or an Instagram story, Flipboard, and Facebook.

If it's a recipe, it will automatically be sent out to my recipe newsletter the next day; for other posts, I just make note to promote it in an upcoming newsletter.

 

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Flipboard for Bloggers: A Mindless Way to Increase Traffic

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I started blogging right around the tail end of when it was a huge driver of traffic for people without much effort having to be put in.

There were no algorithms. Having tons and tons of followers was the ultimate goal. And if you pinned something, it would almost certainly do well.

Well, that’s not the case anymore, and while Pinterest still is a huge driver of traffic, you do have to work a little harder for it.

I have also realized this year just how dependent my traffic is on Pinterest, and my goal has been to diversify my traffic even more.

You shouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket – especially when it comes to social networks.

One social network I’ve been using more lately is Flipboard. It’s basically a magazine app, and you can flip your content on it.

Unlike many social networks, Flipboard seems to really encourage you to add your content frequently….for now, at least.

I’m not sure what the real “secrets” of Flipboard are, but I have gotten steady traffic from it in recent months, so I thought I’d share a few tips. It’s definitely one of those social networks that I think a lot of people ignore, but hopefully this will be helpful! I do think it’s worth the two seconds it takes to flip something!

What is Flipboard?

First off – what is Flipboard? As I mentioned earlier, it’s basically an online magazine. Forrest has been using it for awhile – it’s just an easy way to get news, fun articles, etc.

You can create magazines to flip content to, or you can just browse through the home feed.

The point is to get people to flip your content – though how exactly you do that is a bit of a mystery. In my experience, it doesn’t really matter how many followers you have.

I personally think that consistency pays off on Flipboard. I flipped things for months there without getting as much as a pageview. However, I just looked at my stats from the last week, and it’s my #3 social referral. Pretty cool!

Getting Started with Flipboard

First off, you have to start an account! Just go to Flipboard.com or download the app on your phone. You can create an account, put your site’s information into it, and you are ready to go.

You will likely be asked what your interests are, and it will start to suggest that type of content into your feed. I recommend selecting topics that are related to your blog.

As soon as you are signed up, I would suggest creating a bunch of specific boards for your niche. I think the more niche-specific you can be, the better. This isn’t really a place to create a magazine called, “My Blog,” and just throw a bunch of content into it.

I have 43 magazines. Here are a few titles:

  • The Best Breastfeeding Advice
  • Surviving Pregnancy
  • Family Friendly Recipes
  • Home Decor and Renovations
  • Smart Money Saving Tips

And so on. Make your titles interesting, have some keywords in it, and just make sure you have them be pretty specific!

Okay, I’m set up. Now what?

Well, I’ve read a lot about Flipboard – strategy, if you should share your own posts, if joint magazines are effective, etc.

From what I understand, Flipboard wants you to put your content on. I don’t know that I would suggest “flipping” all of your content at once, but don’t feel like you have to 30% your content, 70% others.

As the title of this post suggests, it’s a pretty mindless social media. I feel like I’ve gotten better results when I’ve just flipped my new content, jumped on the app every now and then to look around, etc. as I have when I’ve tried to be a part of post flipping groups.

You can join collaborative magazines, which may or may not be super effective. I don’t think it hurts to join them.

More than anything, I think it’s consistency. Consistently flip posts – and make sure they are high quality. Make sure you flip everything.

I also believe a lot of it is luck of the draw. You never know when a post might take off!

How I “Flip”

As soon as I have a post go live, I immediately press my browser extension – which you can download here.

When I press the button, it pulls up my post and the image it thinks is associated with my blog. If it pulls the wrong one, you can select any image from your page.

At this point, I add it to any relevant relevant magazine, and I call it good!

Easy as pie! You can also download the app to your phone, copy a link from anywhere, and when you go to open the app, it will ask if you want to flip that post.

 

Group Magazines

You can also join group magazines – these are basically the equivalent of group boards on Pinterest. Basically, it’s just a way to expand your reach. Consider creating a few with your blogger friends!

Follow Others

While I don’t have a ton of followers, and I have gotten some good traffic from Flipboard, I do think it’s a good idea to try and gain a following. One of the easiest techniques is to just go follow other people who are following interests or magazines related to your blog!

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Sponsored Blog Posts: Everything You Need to Know

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Sponsored Posts for Bloggers 101

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Some of the questions I get the most have to do with sponsored posts. As much as I would like to respond to each of those questions individually, I decided it would be most time effective and, hopefully, helpful, if I wrote a post about everything you wanted to know about sponsored posts!

I’ve been involved with writing sponsored posts since very early on in my blogging career. I felt like it was a good way to make money, get involved with brands I love, and find ideas for new content. Sponsored posts aren’t for everyone, but for our blog, they’ve worked well. I work hard to ensure our sponsored content is written as organically as possible, and I have become rather picky about what content we put on our blog. I believe in being transparent and honest with my readers, and that means only promoting products, companies, and services I believe in! I also love that sponsored posts will often help me come up with new ideas for posts.

With that said, here is a compilation of common questions I get regarding sponsored posts. Please let me know if I missed anything!

How do you get sponsored posts? 

There are many ways to find companies that want you to write about them. The two most common ways are through sponsored post networks and working directly with a company.

Sponsored post companies work as the middle man between bloggers and large companies.  You can read all about my favorite sponsored post companies in this post. Many of the opportunities they offer would be unattainable to many bloggers. This is a great place to start, because you can apply for different opps (or they will reach out to you when they have something that fits). You don’t have to worry about finding PR contacts, knowing how much to charge, how to pitch, etc. The rates they offer vary – companies like Social Fabric pay everyone in a certain campaign the same amount. However, with TapInfluence, IZEA, and Mom it Forward, you are paid depending on your influence and reach. I much prefer this, because it means as my blog grows, I can still work with these companies but be paid fairly.

Sponsored post companies do take a cut of the pay, and you never really know how much that is. I’ve seen different sponsored post companies work with the same large companies, yet one sponsored post company would offer a sum of money that was significantly higher than the other – which makes me feel a little uneasy. However, I’m sure there are a lot of factors that play into this!

Reaching out to companies can be intimidating, but it can be very satisfying. I think that this is the best way to work with the companies you want to most. Not everyone company will respond, but when they do, it’s a good feeling!

Have companies reach out to you – Obviously, you can’t control if a company reaches out to you. However, you should make it as easy as possible for them to do so! Make sure you have your contact information easy to find on your website. Some companies will request a media kit, so consider creating one of those.

In my opinion, working directly with a company is far more lucrative and satisfying in the end. The longer I blog, the more I realize how much more I enjoy working directly with companies. For one thing, their budgets tend to be a little bit larger. With sponsored post companies, the budget is spread out among quite a few different bloggers, and the company also takes a cut. When you work directly with a company, I find there is more room for negotiation – not just monetarily, but regarding the theme of the post, the types of social shares they want, etc.

Why am I not getting sponsored posts? 

There are a lot of reasons for this. If you are working with a sponsored post company that sends out offers – as opposed to you, such as IZEA or TapInfluence – it might be because you haven’t filled out your profile well. I’ve found that if a company asks for you to fill out a profile for your site, the more complete it is, the better.

Sometimes there are just so many bloggers working with these companies; you might get overlooked, especially if you are just starting. The number one thing I would do is reach out to them, let them know you are interested in sponsored content and ask them what you could do to improve your chances. When I’ve done this in the past, I’ve always been successful.

Other reasons?

  • Your site has too many ads on it (or they might be too distracting)
  • Your pictures aren’t high enough quality
  • Your writing isn’t engaging enough
  • Sponsored content you have done in the past hasn’t done well

When can you start doing sponsored posts? Am I too small? 

Many people wonder if they have a large enough blog for sponsored posts – when can you start doing posts?

The answer is this – it just depends. I know, not the best answer. But it does. There are so many factors that go into sponsored posts and who get picked. While numbers do matter, I think you are never really too small to start working with companies. There are tons of smaller companies out there that are more than willing to work with bloggers. Don’t be afraid to start reaching out as soon as you feel like you have a decent amount of content on your blog, and that you have a following.

I often tell people this – a blog that only has 10,000 monthly page views but they have tons of loyal followers is much better than a blog with a million page views, but no one trusts what they are saying. You just need to be able to sell yourself and show that you do have influence, even if you aren’t large!

Some companies (particularly the sponsored post companies) have a minimum threshold you must reach before they accept you into their network. This varies widely depending on the company, though I find that it’s typically around 20,000. Companies like Influence Central and Weave Media accept smaller blogs, as does IZEA. So be sure to look into those!

What to be wary of?

Almost as soon as I started blogging, I started getting emails from random companies asking me for my sponsored post rates or to put links on my site for them, as well as for random product reviews. I was so thrilled that people were even noticing my blog! However, I quickly realized that most of these companies weren’t working with. I probably get several of these a day still but resist the urge to work with them when you start getting them! Many companies that will reach out to you will be legitimate…but many won’t be. Here are a few things that I would look for in sketchy emails:

  • Using very vague terms – most of these emails are form emails, and they will just change the name of who they are emailing to. I don’t like when it sounds like they haven’t even looked at my site.
  • They are looking for you to place links in certain posts and on certain pages. If you get inquiries like this, be sure to ask if they are looking for dofollow or nofollow. If they say dofollow, run away. This will only hurt your site (and their site) in the long run.
  • The offer has nothing to do with your site
  • At the end of it, after their signature, it says, “Don’t pitch me bro!” This is just a form email they send to everyone.
  • The product is dumb and worth nothing. I get tons of people asking me to review a $10 product for free. I’m not against doing posts in exchange for product, but it has to be of value to my readers and me!

Sponsored Blog Post Rate: How Much to Charge?

The million dollar question! There are many formulas out there, but I have yet to find one that works well for everyone. There are SO many factors that play into this. For instance, in a Facebook group I am in, someone mentioned the other day that they had a client with around 10,000 visitors, but they get paid $2000 for recipe sponsored posts. Now, I don’t even get paid that much for a sponsored post (but it makes me question if my rates are too low!)

In general, I’ve heard people often state that for every 100,000 page views you have, you should charge $100. I think that this is a good starting point, but most bloggers I know charge more than that. I think a lot of it should depend on what the brand is expecting from you – maybe you have 30,000 Instagram followers, but your page views are lower. If you offer to promote it on Instagram, you’d be offering more value to it! So, I say start with the $100/100,000 page views mark, and go up from there. Maybe add $25 for every 1000 followers you have on a certain network.

This doesn’t mean that if you only get 10,000 page views you shouldn’t charge anything. In fact, I think most bloggers will tell you they wish that they had started charging for posts earlier. I’d say at a minimum, $50 is usually a good place to start. My first sponsored post was when I had 3,000 monthly page views, and I charge $75.

Keep this in mind as well – if it’s a well-known, reputable company that’s rather large…they have more money. So don’t be afraid to pitch a higher amount if they ask you how much you charge. Someone gave me this advice once:

If you don’t feel a little bit sick when you tell them the amount you charge, you aren’t charging enough.

I have followed this advice, and it’s been very successful for me. There’s been times where a brand has been a little too eager to accept the amount I offered, and I was kicking myself for not saying a higher price. I think it’s better to start high, rather than low – because, really, they may come back with a lower offer that is still acceptable…but I’ve never had a company come back and say, “Oh, you only charge $xx amount? How about $100 more?”

Negotiating Pay – can you and should you?

Sometimes when I have a company reach out to me, they will offer me a certain amount of money. Occasionally I will just accept it right off the bat, but usually, unless they state up front that it’s a set amount (such as with Social Fabric), I will always ask this question:

Is there any additional compensation available for this campaign?

Sometimes they will say no, and depending on the initial amount, I will decide whether or not I will accept it. But about 50% of the time, the company will come back and let me know that there is additional budget that they can offer me. It truly doesn’t hurt to ask!

How do you get on a brand’s radar?

  • Twitter: Twitter is not one of my favorite social networks, but I have found it’s an awesome way to connect with brands. One thing I did awhile back was create a private list on Twitter with all my favorite brands, so I could easily see all of their social interaction on Twitter and retweet or respond to their tweets. I’ve gotten some companies to reach out to me after doing this, so it’s worth a shot!
  • Use products or services from companies you work with in organic posts and tag the company when you share the post on social networks.
  • Follow them on all their social networks and interact with them!

Should you accept product for pay?

As with most things I’ve addressed in this post…it depends. If someone asks me to review a product that is only worth $10 – I say no thank you. For me to accept product instead of pay, it either has to be worth a similar value to what I charge a sponsored post for, or it has to be something I wanted to buy anyways.

Some people refused to work for product, and that’s okay. But if you want to work for product only…don’t feel bad about it! Everyone has different goals and ambitions, and if you want to work for product, more power to you!

How much sponsored content should you write?

So, how often should you do a sponsored post? This is where a lot of debate comes in. Some people say you should have less than 25% of your content be sponsored, others say once a month, and other bloggers are very successful with the majority of their content being sponsored. When it comes down to it, this is what I think – do what works best with your audience and don’t care what others think. I do try to have a few “organic” posts in between sponsored content, but there have been times where some different opportunities have popped up that had to be posted one right after another. Guess what? My traffic wasn’t affected at all and no one cared (at least no one told me they cared – and I didn’t lose followers!) If you are just writing really ad-like posts, then yes, you will probably lose followers.

However, if you do your best to make sure your sponsored posts are as high quality as your organic posts, I don’t see a problem. Some of my most successful posts of all time have been sponsored. Just make sure you are authentic and don’t promote something you don’t believe in. That’s when you’ll start losing fans. People can see through a phony post.

With that said, there are some companies that won’t work with you if you have a high ratio of sponsored posts. This is their decision, and it’s usually because they want their posts to stand out more. I do think it’s important to create content that’s not sponsored, but I also believe that it’s important to be compensated for your work…and sponsored posts are a great way to do that!

How to find media contacts

When you want to work with a specific company, you may wonder how to even get in touch with them. Here are four ways that I’ve successfully found the PR reps for companies:

  • Press releases – just Google “company name press releases” and if they’ve had any, there should be a media contact on there.
  • Linkedin – I think more Bloggers should tap into the power of LinkedIn. It’s really a gold mine for networking and even promotion. Most people that are working the PR for a company have a LinkedIn profile.
  • Social networks – I’ve connected with the media contact for a company many times by reaching out via Facebook message or direct message on Twitter. Lots of companies are very active on social networks, so this can be a great place to start!
  • Website – While not every website lists their PR contact, I’ve found that majority do. I usually look for an email that has a name attached to it – rather than just “media @ company . com”, but I have had success with a few of those blanket email addresses as well.

Contracts

I’m not very well-versed in contracts and what they should all entail, but in my experience, they are very important. When you work with a sponsored post company, you will likely have to agree to their Terms and Conditions before they officially let you know and sign a contract. While it might be tempting to just skim over the contract, make sure you know what you are getting into. It’s important to note what types of rights to your content and photos they claim, how long sponsored content must stay up, if you can work with other companies, etc.

When you work with companies directly, there aren’t always contracts exchanged, but there should be. One time, having a contract really saved me. After a draft of my post had been approved and posted, the company came back and told me they decided to take another direction, and that they wanted me to change my entire post. Well, the contract explicitly spelled out what I was supposed to write about, and I had fulfilled that, so I politely declined the changes (because it truly would have been easier to just take the post down.) They were fine with it, and I felt like having that contract to back up what we originally had talked about helped me a lot. Contracts can ensure a company doesn’t take advantage of you and that all your rights are covered.

If you have questions about contracts, I would recommend talking with a lawyer. I know many bloggers have had a mock contract written up by a lawyer to be used when working directly with companies, and if you do a lot of this, I think it’s a smart idea.

FTC

Awhile back, the FTC came out with requirements on how you to disclose to your readers if you’ve been compensated for promotion or if you’ll be paid for the person reading your post/clicking on a link. They released a guidebook called .COM disclosures that I recommend everyone read!

There’s always a lot of debate on the “proper” way to disclose, but it comes down to this – transparency. Your readers need to know if you’ve been paid to promote something – whether it’s on your blog or on social media. On social networks, it’s as simple as putting a hash tag like this – #ad. On your blog, it just has to be clear, visible, and not hidden in anyway. So, if you put it in the footer of your site that you may have affiliate links on your site…that’s not going to cut it.

Basically, when in doubt, disclose. Most companies will have specific requirements based on what they’ve discussed with their lawyers, so if you aren’t sure how a company wants you to disclose, just ask. If they tell you not to disclose…run away!

What do companies look for?

There are a bunch of different things that companies look for, and it will vary depending on the company. Here are the main qualities I’ve seen and been told companies look for:

  • Influence: Like it or not, companies are interested in your numbers – page views, social following, etc. As I’ve already mentioned, if you don’t have a ton of visitors, you can still be successful with sponsored posts – it might just take a little more convincing of the company of the influence you have.
  • Engaged audience: Some companies will look at how many comments, likes, etc. you have on social posts and even on regular posts. I recommend working to gain the trust of your readers and interacting with them. If someone leaves a comment – respond! Chances are if you don’t ever respond, those readers will stop leaving them (or even stop reading your blog altogether.)
  • Quality posts: While some companies unfortunately just want the bloggers they work with to regurgitate pre-written messages, in my experience, most of them understand the importance of creating organic sponsored content. Instead of being a big ad for the company, it’s good to try and make the content honest and similar to other posts you write. I’ve found that people are far more likely to click on links na

How do you build an engaged readership?

I’ve mentioned several times that it’s important to companies that they work with bloggers who have an engaged audience. So, how do you get that?

It’s something that doesn’t happen over night, and it’s not something you can buy. I’d say the key to this is being genuine, and trying to connect with your audience. Rather than just posting a link to an article on a Facebook page, add your own commentary and ask questions. Respond to comments on blog posts and posts on social networks. It’s so important to let your readers know that you care they are reading your posts!

It’s good to gain the trust of your audience as well. You want them to be able to trust things you endorse, and that you have their best interest at heart. This means not just posting about any random product sent to you!

Overall, if you want your audience to engage with your content, you need to engage with them! While you don’t have to reveal all the fine details of your life, invite them into it a little bit.

What are the makings of a great sponsored post?

So what makes a good sponsored post? This will depend on who you are talking to. There are companies that simple just want you to post something that they created that is a big ad for them. Personally? I don’t think that’s a very good sponsored post.

To me, a good sponsored post is written exactly like a good organicly written post – it just has a little bit of information about a product or service. I personally don’t take sponsored posts that I couldn’t easily write a post about if I wasn’t being paid. I want people to read my sponsored content in the same way that they read any other post on my blog – I want it to be natural, provide needed information, and not be a big sales pitch.

It obviously should be proofread, and you should avoid mentioning competitors to the product. You may want to talk with the company you are working with about whether or not you can have ads on the post page or affiliate links. Some companies don’t care, while others are rather nitpicky.

Always proofread your posts and make sure you aren’t making any unverifiable claims on behalf of the company. Some companies will ask for a draft of a post just to make sure you aren’t saying anything that could put them at risk legally!

It’s important to be on time with your sponsored posts. Life happens – trust me, I know! I’ve had to ask for an extension a time or two, and typically, if you are up front and notify the company of extenuating circumstances up front, they will be willing to work with you.

It’s also important to have both your expectations and the companies up front. I’ve been in some awkward situations where I wasn’t given much information on what a post needed, and int he end, the company was disappointed because it didn’t turn out how they wanted. If you are unsure – always ask!

Campaign Wrap Up?

Some companies require that you report all the links, pageviews, social shares, etc. on a sponsored post. If this is required, it should be outlined ahead of time. I’ve had companies come back months after something was posted asking for social share stats, and honestly, I find that frustrating if they didn’t tell you up front this is data that you should keep track of. If you find this happening a lot, you could create a spreadsheet where you write all of your sponsored posts titles, and about a month or so after it posts, you can collect the data yourself.

What if the post did poorly?

Not every post does well – sponsored or not. If a post doesn’t do as well as you expected, and you promoted it as much as you could…then honestly, don’t worry. Some companies may be frustrated by this, and that is understandable, but if you did your best, you can’t beat yourself about it. Sometimes a post just doesn’t do well. If a company questions it’s performance, you can always explain the promotion that you did. However, this isn’t necessary if they don’t ask about it.

Now if you just wrote a post and didn’t promote it at all, this is a different story. You should always do your best to share your post and drive readership to it. You can’t control if people click on a post (especially because social networks can be so finnicky when it comes to showing posts to everyone who follows you), but you can promote it!

 

How to Setup Amazon Native Ads and Make $$

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I got an email today from Amazon stating that starting on November 1st, any commissions generated through Amazon Native Ads would earn a 12% commission, which is INSANE.

I think Amazon typically caps out at 8.5%, so to raise that commission during the hottest time of the year amazing.

Amazon Native Ads have been pretty successful for me. They have a higher conversion rate than text links (for me, at least), and I love how customizable they are. I have had a few people ask me how to get these set up, so here are a few tips.

First off, there are three different types of native ads available:

  • Search: Select a search phrase that you want to use to generate the items that show up. I think this is good when you are want a specific category of products, but not necessarily a specific product. You can see an example of that here.
  • Recommendations: Select categories of products that you want to show up (this is best for when you put them in the sidebar or bottom of posts automatically – doesn’t have to be as niche. My highest conversion rate is with these at 12%).
  • Custom: You select the items you want to show up in these ones. I select this option when I am talking about very specific products in a post. You must select four products in order for a code to be generated.

Next, where should you place them? The thing about Native Custom Ads is that they are very flexible to where you want to put them.

I recommend placing one at the bottom of your posts that shows up automatically – especially if you are a very niche blog. For Clarks Condensed, we write about multiple topics, so this doesn’t work as well (I don’t want to scare away my food fans with breastfeeding products!). You can still accomplish for multiple topics by using the custom sidebars plugin, but that’s a tutorial for another time.

I also recommend placing one in each post with products related to the topic of the post. For instance, if you are writing about a slow cooker recipe, put in an ad that has a slow cooker, slow cooker liners, etc. It’s up to you what kind of native ad you want to put here. I recommend starting with your most popular posts and going from there.

Now, how to get your Amazon Native Ads code!

First, login to your Amazon Affiliate account. At the top of your dashboard is a tab that says “Product Linking”. Hover over this, and then click on Native Shopping Ads.

When you get to this page, on the left hand side you will see something that says “Create Ad Unit” with an arrow. Here you can select what kind of ad you want. For this, I selected the Recommendation ads (I’ll show how to set up the other ones after the main tutorial):

Once you get to Recommendation ads, you can select the categories you want to show up. You can select more than one. You will move the categories you want from the “Available Categories” to “Selected Categories” using the arrows.

Then, there is a box underneath the categories that says fallbacks. If you select “search keywords” you have to put in a search keyword that will show up if no other products are available. When you do this, your code will finally appear. You can select no fallbacks and get the code…but I think it’s smart to have a fallback.

Before you copy the code, go down to “Advanced Settings”. You can select if the unit shows customized ads (based on the users search history) or not. Then, you select the ad size. I actually always choose “One Size” and “one row”. Otherwise, the responsive unit often shows up with two rows, which I think looks a little spammy.

Installing the Code

Now, select the entire code. This is what you will put on your site. If you are putting it in a post, paste it directly into the text or html mode of your post composer. Press save, and then go look at the post.

You must NOT navigate back to the visual mode, because this will mess up the code and make it not render correctly.

You can also install the code in your sidebar using a text widget (in WordPress) or an HTML unit (in Blogger). Just make sure you press save.

After you’ve installed your code, it should start showing up right away in the post!