My love and enjoyment that I feel from writing my own blog stems from the enjoyment of reading other blogs. I really do adore blogging and I’m forever feeling inspired and creating new content to post on my blog.
Now after 3 years of blogging I am fortunate to be able to earn some money from my blog in the form of advertising and sponsored content. I know that this is a very controversial topic and each individual has there own approach to sponsored content. Admittedly this is something that I have got very wrong for a number of reasons in the past, but I think it’s been something that I’ve consciously improved on to help find that happy medium.
Drawing from my own experiences on sponsored content I thought I would share some tips that have helped me on this topic:
Be transparent
Over the years I feel that I have built a rapport with my readers and a certain level of trust. C&C is a for profit blog which I’ve been clear about from the beginning. For me it is very important to denote whether I have been remunerated for writing certain posts. Some PR companies will prefer you not to notify your readers that the post has been sponsored. However, whether you have been sent a products for review or have have been paid to include a contextual link there is always an alternative way to state this if you have been asked otherwise.
Keep the content relevant
Personally this has been one that I have struggled with in the past, especially in my initial foray with sponsored posts. The desire to earn money from blogging can overshadow the quality of the content. Accepting offers on topics that you are passionate about and are true to your own personal ethos help keep the content relevant and are not the antithesis of your regular posts.
Take control
This can be difficult with sponsored guest posts, but where possible I try and write the post yourself if possible so the tone of the posts blends in with your other blog posts. This prevents the sponsored posts becoming disjointed from your other personal material. Also, I quite like the challenge of fitting content around a specific link, it’s actually quite fun!
Balance it out
Trying to get the balance right between sponsored posts and your own content can be another struggle, especially if the sponsored posts are submitted with certain time constraints. There have been times where I’ve had a flurry of sponsored posts on my blog and not enough of my own content. Some readers have commented and I have taken this on board, as I do care about what you all think and want to continue to maintain a particular blogging standard that I can be proud of. As it stands I think I’ve now got this balance right and filtering the sponsored content and keeping it relevant has really helped with this.
One man’s meat is another man’s poison
I love this saying as it can be applied to so many situations. Posting sponsored content that you are passionate about is great and is the primary approach I use when selecting content. However, not everyone is going to enjoy these posts, so don’t be offended if some readers switch off. I’m exactly the same with sponsored posts on other blogs. I tend to skip the posts that do not interest me and return to read the next, It’s perfectly ok to do so!
Do you enjoy reading sponsored posts on blogs? How do you approach sponsored content on your own blogs?
For a newbie blogger like myself, I really appreciate posts like this! Personally I totally respect blogs with advertising and sponsorship, especially when you make it clear (like yourself). I figure if bloggers are giving away valuable information for free and entertaining their readers, then they absolutely deserve something in return, and I am very happy to support those who do. Keep it up Jemma!
That’s such a fab way to see sponsored posts on blogs. Making sponsored content obvious on my blog is very important to me personally. Thank you for your kind words Cat! 🙂
I agree with you totally and am glad you are so successful in blogging! I wish you all the best and will continue to read your blog and believe that you’ll state your true opinion, sponsored or not!
xoxo
http://berrybloomxo.blogspot.co.uk
Thank you so much for your kind words and support. It really means so much to me as sponsored posts is something that I have struggled to get right. 🙂
I think one important thing that you have missed out here is to look at what others in your blogging world are doing and remember that your readers probably don’t only just read your blog. One of the main reasons that I am now a dip in and out reader of UK health blogs rather than the every day reader I was is because there was a sudden explosion of sponsored posts and reviews across the board about a year or so ago. With this being a much smaller community than the US bloggers, my reader list was probably the same as the mailing list of the PR people contacting you. It got to the point where I stopped reading posts because once you read one bloggers review/sponsored post on whatever the product of the week was you didn’t need to read the 4 others that followed soon after. A few weeks of that and you start to lose why people followed you in the first place as for the reader all the blogs blend into one.
Hi Angela. You make a very important and valid point as I have noticed that sometimes the same advertising campaign appears on more than one blog. Unfortunately, it is impossible to know what other bloggers are going to post. Also, once tug have received a product to review you are obliged to write it up regardless of whether it had appeared on another blog. This is a tricky one, but a very interesting point! 🙂
Hi Jemma,
I must admit, I am one of your readers who has stopped following your blog via RSS as I found the increasing amount of sponsored content on C&C frustrating and not to my tastes. I now come by a couple of times a month and just skip over the sponsored posts as I don’t like being advertised to. That’s a personal matter though and I respect your decision and transparency regarding sponsored content.
I would like to raise a couple of questions / points for you though and I hope that you don’t mind. I wouldn’t raise them normally but for the topic of this post on sponsorship, advertising and content.
The first is to do with content quality. I really enjoy reading your blog and seeing your recipes and everyday life but I have noticed that many of your posts don’t appear to have been proof read all that accurately, if at all. There are spelling issues (there/their/they’re is a frequent one but I realise that spelling isn’t the be all and end all for communication), but the thing that stands out most to me is that sentences sometimes read like you have started with one stream of thought and then changed your phrasing, but kept both iterations. For example in this post : ‘Personally this has been one that I have struggled with in the past, especially in my INITIALLY foray with sponsored posts. The desire to earn money from blogging CAN HAS overshadowed the quality of the content.’
This is a mere niggle for normal everyday posts and not something that really matters in the grand scheme of things for a personal blog… but if C&C is a brand that brings in money for you, and your readers have sponsored content to wade through, then the lack of proof reading can sometimes come across as though the sponsored posts are rushed and your heart isn’t really in it. You’re intelligent, you have a doctorate after all, so you clearly know how to express yourself and edit large amounts of content. It’d be a more enjoyable experience as a reader if blog posts were proof read a little more thoroughly though.
The second point is about content relevance. You say that you’re working on making sponsored content more relevant which is cool but I recall recently a post about foreign weddings which seemed to have been sponsored by a tourism board for a specific country… Which seemed odd to me because other than your recent wedding it seemed that there wasn’t really a link to the theme of C&C…Then there was a post about taking a mini break to Croatia I believe which came out of the blue… Had you just come back from Croatia? It seems strange to write about something if you haven’t directly experienced it. Especially if it’s a sponsored content post. The posts felt a little bit out of place on a healthy living blog, almost like they’d been shoehorned in. Anyway, you’ve said you’re working on this so I’ll say no more.
Please don’t see my comments here as an attack on you as an individual, they are just observations which I’ve held back from commenting on up until now but which this post about sponsored content provoked me to respond to. I think that anything goes if the blog is a personal blog for fun or leisure, but that once it becomes a business, users should be able to offer feedback as they are effectively contributing to your income. Whilst voting with our eyes (and RSS subscription) is one way of getting the point across, it doesn’t tell you very much about why readers come back time and again, or decide to stay away.
As I said at the start, I enjoy reading your blog. I’d just enjoy reading more (and visit more regularly – hence bringing you further revenue) if the sponsored content / editing of content issues were addressed a little differently.
Hi Alice, thanks for stopping by. It’s rare to get feedback like this from readers so I really appreciate your time. I’m really annoyed at those silly editing mistakes. I proof read all my posts, but once I’ve read something over a couple of times some mistakes end up disappearing into the abyss. I have corrected the ones that you have mentioned now. 🙂
In terms if sponsored content I make a conscious effort to post things that I find interesting or my readers may find useful. This blog has grown into a healthy living and lifestyle blog, which also explores my love of fashion, travel, interior design beauty and weddings. One if the commenters is quite right that some blogs do loose their individuality with sponsored posts and blend in with other blogs. Personally I try and look for more unique content that I am passionate about but still fits in with C&C. Thank you for your continued support! 🙂
Great post! I love your blog because it is nicely balanced and there aren’t so many sponsored posts every other post like some popular US blogs… Or where they don’t even admit it being sponsored. I’ll read a sponsored post if I find it interests me but most of the time I will probably skip tem. I prefer review posts as I generally like similar foods to you! 🙂
Thanks for that as I’ve been working hard to find a balance with sponsored content, glad to see it’s working 🙂 I’m the same with sponsored posts. I generally skip the ones that don’t interest me and come back another time.
I am going to be totally honest, I really dislike sponsored posts. I think they ruin the flow, community and feel of a each and every blog they regularly inhabit. I scantily read some of my ex-favourite blogs now because every other time I visit, there is a sponsored post. Not only is this irritating, it’s 90% of the time irrelevant: I mean you see posts about toothbrushes, bizarre apps and all manner of rubbish. I understand that they make handy money but they absolutely change the blog for readers. I agree with the below poster that the individuality is completely lost and, for me, a lot of blogs have become very contrived in how they feel.
Hi Jess. I understand that sponsored posts aren’t everyone’s cup of tea and I have noticed some of the bigger blogs get a bit carried away with this. The desire to earn money can overshadow the quality and relevance of the content. I totally own up to making this mistake in the past.
Your are absolutely right that relevance is so important. Sometimes if their is a flurry of sponsored posts that don’t fit the blogs original purpose it can make the blog rather disjointed.
Have to say I’m not fond at all of your sponsored or PR sample posts. They don’t come across as being objective or with any personal criticism which as a reader isn’t reassuring or particularly interesting to read.
I guess sponsored posts aren’t everyone’s thing and sometimes can dominate some blogs over personal
content sometimes. Personally I like them and read the ones that I’m
interested in. Thank you for sharing your thoughts! 🙂
I have actively starteded avoiding some of my old favourite blogs because it irritates me so much that they have lots of sponsored content all the time. I actually don’t want my ‘hit’ to register and, thus, perpetuate the rubbish being indiscriminately published. I effecitvely tae my business elsewhere once it becomes too much. I understand the money it brings in is a perk, but I hate it when blogs have clearly morphed into earners rather than labours of love.
I echo another point about your editing. This post is littered with poor editing and it is very off putting.
I think it is hard to get the balance right between personal content and sponsorsorrd content as it’s very easy to get carried away. I’ve found this difficult myself but think I’m
much better at this now and have found a happy medium between the two 🙂