#HowTo – How to Value your Blog for Sponsored Posts

Bloggers are in high demand in the Affiliate Marketing space.    Read that part again.   As Retailers look to create high value, high impact relationships – they are looking more closely than ever at bloggers who are delivering high quality content every day.

What that means is… you are in more control than you think.

A lot of bloggers have been contacted by Merchants directly about the idea of “Sponsored Posts” – and so I wanted to give you a few ideas as to how to value such a possibility.

As a blogger, some of your Merchant partners may start asking you about doing “Sponsored Posts”. At such time, you may be asking “What is a Sponsored Post?” – and rightly so!

Here is some advice that I recently gave one of our more successful bloggers about venturing into that world:

Here are 5 Basic Points to consider moving forward…

1. Cost Per Click Rates (CPC)

CPC (Cost Per Click Rates) can vary, but are generally very high – this is a key factor when considering negotiating.

2. Product Features

At the Merchants discretion, they could send you product to highlight.

3. Traffic Levels

You need to know what the traffic levels are on your blog, and what kind of expected viewership you can deliver via your combined blog and newsletter.

4. Traffic Valuation

Traffic is valuable, and your traffic (as it comes with organic “validation” is even more valuable)

Consider the following rate table as a starting point  (I’ve included a starting point of 5,000 visitors as my rates are working off of the assumption that the Merchant has contacted you in this regard):

This is not set in stone! 

You need to consider other things that could take that rate up or down. Think of these factors:

A. Social Media

Number of Twitter followers or Facebook “Likes” – and whether or not you will Tweet/Post on Facebook the information.

B. Newsletter Subscriptions

Newsletter subscriptions and whether or not you will send the post as a newsletter, or part of a newsletter.

The goal here is to create long term partnerships where you can rely on posting income and subsequent Affiliate Marketing income.

A few more thoughts and considerations on traffic valuations:

• This rate itself – even the up front fee to post –  is still probably going to be lower than what they would pay for traffic, so don’t feel bad asking for it.   The worst thing they can do is counter-offer or turn it down… which is not a bad thing at all.   The worst thing that YOU, as a blogger, can do is undervalue yourself.   Think about it, how long do those posts take…. A few hours at least?  At an hourly rate that is not much at all.

• If this is your first venture into a “Sponsored Post” – use it as a learning experience.   Use your first offer as a place to start.   They may outright reject you, or they may think “Wow, that’s a bargain”.   In any case, it is a great learning experience.

• You could include a clause to re-pay (or to do a second post for free) the money to them should, for some reason, the post receive far less than expected traffic values.   Set real numbers, such as 1,000 clicks – and then basically work your tail off to get that traffic to them.  This is  basically your version of a “Money back guarantee”. 

• Offer them headline review control, and ultimate approval on content going out – you want them happy with the post.   You can actually use content management tool such as Shareist for this as you can use the “Contributor” feature and assign them a login where they can review the content prior to it going out.

5. Payment

Make sure you have the Merchant deliver any payment directly to your ShareASale Account prior to writing any post.  Not only is this part of the rules at ShareASale but you’ll be able to feel confident that payment is already made.