You’re officially immersed in blog land: your traffic is increasing and you’ve become acquainted with your readers and the community your blog has created. You’re probably starting to wonder about the income-earning potential of your blog. For some, their blog is a side hobby that they are happy to have simply as a creative outlet; for others, their blog adds a bit of pocket change and supplemental income. And a growing group of bloggers are able to earn up to six figures from their full-time blogging pursuits. There’s an infinite range of possibilities as to what your blog could become and its potential earning power. In this chapter, we’ll discuss the various methods of monetizing your blog, what to charge, how to prepare a media kit for potential ad sponsors, and how to disclose any sponsored relationships to your readers.
Before you dive in to advertising, you’ll need to assess your traffic flow. Whether you use Google Analytics, IndexTools (Yahoo’s analytics program), or a tool that comes with your blogging platform, it’s important to have an analytics code embedded in your site so you can track your blog’s stats. Each tool will differ in the way its interface appears, but all of them provide vital information that compiles your blog’s traffic on a daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly basis. The most important stats and information include the following:
The number of unique visitors (daily or monthly) that your blog attracts tells how big your audience (or reach) is. This stat counts each person separately. For example, 2,300 unique visitors per day means that even if someone went to your site three times that day, they’d usually be counted once in your daily statistics.
The average length of time visitors spend on your site tells you whether readers are staying for a minute or ten minutes during a single visit. If readers come to your site regularly, they may take a look at new content only, while readers who are new to your site may spend some extra time perusing your archives.
The number of page views tells how many of your blog’s pages were viewed within a given time period (daily, weekly, or monthly). If someone visits your site and just reads the content on the front page, one page view would be counted, but if they go back to archived pages, each additional page is counted as a new page view. Usually monthly page views are the most important for your media kit. Installing a widget like LinkWithin can help increase your page views, as it provides thumbnails under each post that alert readers to past content they might be interested in.
The bounce rate indicates how quickly a user leaves a blog. A bounce rate under 65 percent is considered good and is worth mentioning in your media kit, as it shows that readers are staying to read your content and not clicking away too quickly.
Traffic sources indicate where your visitors are coming from, how they find you, and what sites are linking to your blog. If you see a spike in traffic one day, this section will help you figure out where the additional traffic came from, such as from another blog or your Twitter feed.
Visitor information offers more in-depth details on your readers, including where they live, what browsers they use, and what search terms they entered to land on your site. Depending on your blog and your types of sponsors, some of these details may be helpful for your media kit.
There are also more advanced stats that these tracking tools offer, depending on what you want to know, like which posts were the most viewed; but the aforementioned are the main stats about your site that advertisers will be interested in hearing about.
RSS
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a very common method that many readers use to read blogs these days. Rather than going to each site separately, they get daily updates from all their favorite blogs all in one place through this subscription-style service. So, you’ll want to make sure you provide an RSS link for them. You can also track your RSS feed’s stats by installing FeedBurner (see Resources), which gives readers a direct link to your RSS feed and allows you to track their reading behavior. Once installed, you can see not only how many people are subscribing to your site, but also how many of them click over to your blog from the feed.
As a new blog, you’re probably eager to get your site in front of new potential readers. With search engine optimization (SEO), you can increase the visibility of your blog by helping it to move higher up in Internet search engine results. While you can certainly hire SEO experts and consultants to optimize your site, most bloggers starting out don’t have the funds to go that route. Luckily, there are things you can do on your own for no cost at all. To help increase your ranking, simply take these extra steps when composing your posts or saving your image files:
No 1 Index Your Site
Your blog host may offer an option to index your site, or add it to search engine listings, so that your blog will begin to show up on search engines as soon as you start generating content. But you can also submit your URL for inclusion in Google’s index through a simple online form. There’s no guarantee that they’ll accept it, but it’s worth submitting it to their “Add your URL to Google” page.
No 2 Use Keyword-Rich Text When Linking
When linking to other sites, use the actual names of artists, companies, or stores in your post. For example, if you link the rubber stamp that was used for your homemade holiday cards to the Kate’s Paperie Web site, the link should say, “Rubber Stamp from Kate’s Paperie” (with the words “Kate’s Paperie” hyperlinked), as opposed to linking with a vague term like “click here,” “buy this,” or “source.” Piggyback on the power of those you link to, as users are likely to search for those key words and may find your post among the listings.
No 3 Title and Tag with Common Phrases
Apply titles and tags to all posts, and be sure to use keywords that are popular and common. For example, search engines will read the title “vanilla ice cream recipe” more clearly and quickly than “whipped frozen treat.” Or tag your home renovation post with “kitchen” or “bedroom” instead of “dream house.” You can also use Google’s Keyword Tool or Wordtracker to find the optimal words or phrasing to use. Not only does this help with SEO and readers accessing your content more easily, but tagging also helps you self-organize your own blog by creating consistent tags for your content.
No 4 Name Files with Short Dashes
When saving images to upload into your posts or naming the permalink for your post, use keywords separated by short dashes (instead of an underscore) so that it’s easy for a search engine to understand. For example, an image of Clinique lipstick should be labeled “clinique-lipstick.jpeg.” Also, make sure not to leave any spaces blank. If you have spaces between words instead of dashes and name the same image file above “clinique lipstick.jpeg,” it will appear as “clinique%20%lipstick.jpeg” on image searches, which is not very SEO friendly.
No 5 Crosslink
The more your site is mentioned and linked to, the higher it will rise in search results. You can use this to your benefit by linking to your old posts or past stories when applicable.
No 6 Use SEO Plug-ins and Programs
Various plug-ins can be installed on your blog to help increase its SEO potential. Some platforms, like WordPress, offer SEO plug-ins as part of your hosting package. Other tools (like Scribe) or software (like SEOmoz) are separate and will scan your posts and make suggestions about ways you can add important keywords or subtract words that are not as effective. These services vary in pricing (usually a fee from $17 to $100 per month) based on the level of help you need. Once installed on your blog, they will also monitor your stats and give you suggestions to improve your overall SEO.
No
CUPCAKES AND CASHMERE
LOS ANGELES, CA
IN NEED OF A CREATIVE OUTLET from the everyday doldrums of her advertising job, Emily Schuman started her blog, Cupcakes and Cashmere, in 2008 as a place to merge her two interests: fashion and food. The ability to think editorially came naturally to her thanks to a background in media studies and sociology and stints at Teen Vogue, Domino, and AOL. However, she wanted her blog to offer a more behind-the-scenes personality and show readers things such as a real girl’s wardrobe on a lazy Sunday or a tutorial on homemade ice-cream drumsticks. What started as a place for her to share her love of fashion and food now generates more than 8.3 million page views a month. Her self-made fashionista status has led to dream gigs including designing a bag for Coach, serving as a face for a Forever 21 advertising campaign, and being photographed by Garance Doré for Glamour. Now a full-time blogger, Emily serves as a shining example of the importance of authenticity. By only posting content she feels is the right fit, she demonstrates how originality and sincerity can lead to amazing things—like her newest book, Cupcakes and Cashmere.
How has the content of your blog changed or evolved?When I started, fashion blogs and food blogs were mutually exclusive, and I wanted to combine both of my interests into one site. I wasn’t cooking much in the beginning, so I talked more about dining out—like a great breakfast spot or where to get sushi by the beach. On the fashion end, I’d post about new clothing lines that I thought people should know about. Since I had worked at magazines and my brain functioned editorially, the blog was a bit more editorial initially. Now I’m much more a part of my blog, as it shows a lot of my life. I think that shift to a more personal angle came from realizing that people are looking for inspiration from a real person.
A lot of your content is self-generated, including photos of your outfits or what you’re cooking. How important is unique content to the success of a blog?For me, content that readers can’t find everywhere is really important. But you have to make sure that when you’re posting your own content that it’s also good. Photos that are out of focus or uninteresting won’t help you much, even if they are your own images. So it’s got to be both unique in content and strong in quality.
Readers tune in to see what you’ll wear next. What’s your process in choosing an outfit?I choose what to wear based on where I’m going, what I’m doing, and what I’d actually wear there. But, because it tends to stay warm in L.A. and my readers are all over the world, I try to pay attention to the seasons so that my outfits translate to other areas. I also try to include pieces across a range of price points to achieve the look.
I think the basis of my style involves simple silhouettes. It feels clean and polished but with a bit of an eclectic, vintage touch. I’m a lot more experimental with the way I’ll put things together than I used to be, and the blog has certainly helped me to be more comfortable with pushing the boundaries. In the end, every outfit has to feel like me while elevating it to something that is interesting to readers and isn’t too simple. The minute you start compromising your taste and vision is when you lose that authenticity that people grow to trust.
At what point did you feel comfortable leaving your job and blogging full-time?There was never a point of 100 percent certainty that I felt comfortable leaving my day job. I had come to a crossroads at my job at AOL. Although my position was secure, they were laying off one-third of the staff. I volunteered to be part of that group to get a bit of financial cushion from the layoff. While my parents didn’t really get the whole blogging thing at the time, they were very supportive in my decision, which helped me to take the leap. Once I made the jump, I never looked back, and have not regretted it since.
How did the opportunities with Coach and Forever 21 come about? Did you seek them out, or did they come to you?I feel very lucky that I haven’t had to do much outreach. All of the opportunities have come to me so far. However, I’m very careful about the relationships I form with brands—they must be brands I admire, support, and that are a natural fit for me. With Coach, they flew me and a few other bloggers out to New York for Fashion Week. We got to go behind the scenes at the Coach offices, meet with the CEO, and offer our feedback on their brand and products. The relationship grew from there, and they asked me to design a bag in collaboration with them. I was intimidated at first because I don’t have any formal experience in fashion, but they walked me through the process complete with sketches, inspiration boards, and color palettes. I knew I wanted to design a bag that was classic, versatile, and unique—and ultimately something I’d love to carry.
With Forever 21, they chose five bloggers with distinct styles to be in an ad campaign. They pulled a bunch of pieces for us, and we got to put together our own ensembles. Any time you can collaborate with other bloggers and girls you admire, it’s so fun. The way they worked with us and let us stick to what we’d choose on our own felt very natural and genuine.
Some of the items you wear on your blog have been given to you by companies. How do you deal with that editorially and acknowledge it?I’m consistently maintaining relationships and networking with fashion brands I love. I have meetings, attend events, see samples, and am in constant contact with the PR folks or representatives of various brands. Typically, the best relationships are when there are no assumptions. If a company sends me clothing or a handbag, I never feel obligated or required to write about them. It’s not good to work with someone just because they send you something for free. It shouldn’t feel forced and should be something you’d want to buy yourself or wear normally. For pieces that are given to me that I do wear and post about, I simply state that the item’s been gifted to adhere to FTC regulations.
How do you generate income from your blog?My income currently comes from three main sources: sponsored ads on my blog, affiliate links to clothing I’m wearing (where I earn a portion of the click-through sales), and earnings from my Cupcakes and Cashmere book.
How do you interact with your readers through Twitter and Facebook?I try to keep the content simple and light on my blog, and then I use the other forms of social networking to share a realistic view of my life as well as behind-the-scenes stories so they can see that I’m a real person who they can relate to. I use Twitter to share information—the new boots I just got or what I had for dessert. In contrast, on Facebook, I interact a bit more and answer questions like what nail polish color I’m wearing in a post.
What’s an average working day for you?A lot of people assume blogging is really easy and that it doesn’t take a lot of time, but blogging full-time really is a full-time job (and then some)! Every day is always different, but I do try to have calls and meetings daily so that I interact with people regularly. I am usually up by 6:00 A.M. I’ll answer e-mails, check stats, and maintain my Twitter and Facebook pages for the first hour or two of the day. I spend a lot of the day prepping for a photo shoot and figuring out what the next day’s post is going to be. If I’m going to do a food post, I have to pick out a recipe, go shopping for ingredients, create the dish, and then take photos of it. For an outfit post, I’ll work on picking out the outfit—making sure to include anything new I want to show. Finally, once the photos are shot, I’ll spend another few hours editing them and putting together the actual post. I’m always thinking about my blog and how something in my life can turn into a fun post and become actual content. Even though it’s very demanding, and there’s pressure to give fresh content daily—I’m very fortunate to do what I do, and I love every moment of it!
Every day, more and more companies are understanding the value of blogs as a way to point customers to their site to generate more sales of their products or services. When starting an advertising program, think about which companies would be a good fit as sponsors on your blog. It’s always best to stick to companies or sites that you like or would buy from yourself. Look at the types of companies you already feature. For example, if you enjoy posting about natural beauty products, you could reach out to a new boutique soy candle company to let them know you’d love to help bring more customers to their site. Also, have any companies thanked you for your posts that brought them some great traffic? If they’ve gotten high traffic from your blog, they may be interested in your ad program.
Remember that you don’t have to work with every sponsor that is interested in placing an ad on your blog, especially if their products, service, or aesthetic are not the right fit for your site. It’s okay to reply with a polite e-mail telling them that you have a policy of only working with the sponsors that best fit your brand and site. Furthermore, if you convey a desire to create the best outcome for not only you but for them as well, they will usually be very understanding and appreciative that you’re not just pocketing their money.
Typically, it’s a good idea to wait to offer ads until your traffic is at a level that is worth your time and enticing to a sponsor. I recommend a minimum of 1,000 visitors a day or 100,000 page views a month before launching an ad program. If you’re only charging $20 per month for an ad spot, once you’ve paid taxes on your earnings (see page 113), that income may not be worth your time. If your reader stats aren’t quite there yet, you could try affiliate programs (see page 148) or offer free ads to friends with businesses or other companies you really love as a way to test out your ad program.
When you do officially launch your ad program, be sure to announce it on your blog and any other social media sites you use, like Facebook and Twitter. You can also place a simple link or graphic on your blog stating that ad space is available and how to inquire for more information. While you don’t need to remind readers every week that you’re now monetizing, you should spread the word every so often so potential sponsors know about this exciting new marketplace.
What may seem like a small area of your site can be prime real estate for a sponsor to place a banner ad. However, unlike an ad you’d see in a magazine or newspaper, banner ads have the added benefit of taking readers directly to the sponsor’s site with the click of a button. Banner ads can include one or more images, can be configured in a variety of sizes from tiny buttons to vertical towers, and be placed in various areas on your blog. You can ask your advertisers to give you static jpegs, animated gifs, or flash motion frames. Here’s a look at the most common types of banner ads bloggers use.
No 1 Basic Banner
You can specify the sizes and shapes of your ads, whether square, horizontal rectangle, or vertical rectangle. The width of the ads should be based on the width of your side columns to make an ad area or space that makes the most sense aesthetically. For example, if your right column is 120 pixels wide, only use and accept ads that are that width, which may include 120 × 90, 120 × 120, 120 × 240, or 120 × 600 pixels. When a reader first views your site, an “above the fold” ad is one that they would see without scrolling down the page. In comparison, a “below the fold” ad can only be seen once they’ve scrolled down the page. Therefore, above the fold ads are usually priced higher because of their prime placement, and are more limited in quantity due to the number of ads that can fit in that top location.
No 2 Leaderboard
These rectangular ads are horizontal and squat (728 × 90 pixels, for example) and can appear in several places, commonly at the top of your site above your banner, or the bottom of your blog page. This ad space is the most coveted when placed at the top of a site, and therefore is the most costly for an advertiser. However, it’s also the most in-your-face of banner options, which may be to your benefit earnings-wise, but not so much aesthetics-wise.
No 3 Between Posts
A medium-size ad (around 300 × 250 pixels in size) is a common banner size to place in between posts. This is usually a pretty coveted spot, especially if it falls between your newest content, or the top two posts on your site, so the rates for an ad between posts are usually higher.
No 4 RSS Ads
Readers that view your blog posts strictly through their RSS feeds won’t see the ads on the side column of your blog. Therefore, you can offer advertisers ad space that will show up in the feeds above or below your post to attract those readers as well. Check with your blog platform and RSS feed host to see how to install these ads. You can also find ad options for RSS feeds through Google Ads.
TEXT LINK ADS
Text links are just like they sound: an advertiser pays you to put a link to their site on your blog. With no image attached, a text link takes up less space and looks just like a hyperlink. These links can appear in the same column as your banner ads, right below them. Deep contextual links are another form of text link, except they are part of the content of a post. For example, if you post about the acrylic paints you used for a DIY project, a sponsor can pay you to link to their paint brand.
Figuring out what to charge is usually the trickiest part of starting an ad program. There is no one secret formula out there for what the perfect pricing would be. There are many factors to consider, including your reader stats, reach, and growth since you launched, as well as what similar blogs are charging for their ads.
You may hear about ads being charged based on a CPM basis. CPM, or cost per mille (mille is the Latin word for 1,000), basically means the cost per 1,000 impressions. Ad networks sell ads on their sites, and larger companies inquire about ad pricing based on CPM. For example, if a blog charges $1 CPM, that means the blogger would be paid $1 for every 1,000 impressions (meaning the readers that visit that blog who potentially see the ad). For a new blogger, it’ll be easier to charge a flat monthly rate, since many advertisers (especially small businesses) are not set up to track CPMs.
There is no one secret formula out there for what the perfect pricing would be.
A very basic formula to help you determine your pricing is to look at your monthly page views and divide that number by 1,000. For example, if you have 100,000 page views per month and divide that by 1,000, your base ad price (for the smallest-size ad, say 125 × 125) would be $100 per month. You can also use a blog with a larger readership to come up with your base ad rate by prorating their fees. For example, if a bigger blog in your genre generates 1,000,000 page views per month and charges $900 per month for a 125 × 125 ad, and your page views are about 100,000 per month, that’s one-tenth of the other blog’s readership. Therefore, you could charge one-tenth of their pricing, or $90 per month, for the small ad spot.
You should also do research on what other bloggers within your niche and with a similar level of readership are charging for a 125 × 125 ad, or something close in size. Many advertisers will shop around by requesting rates from a few blogs they’re interested in to see which might offer the best value for their money. If another blog similar to yours is charging much less but has the same amount of traffic, an advertiser may very well choose that blog over yours if they are choosing solely based on budget. That’s when you need to decide if you’ve got something to offer that the other blog doesn’t, therefore making it worth it for you to stick to a slightly higher price, or if you want to be on par with their pricing. You may ask yourself, “How do I find out what other bloggers are charging?” Some blogs list their rates on their site. For those who don’t, if you’re friendly with them, you could simply ask. Most bloggers are open to helping others and are happy to share what they can to help you with your growing site.
Next, you may choose to tweak the base rate for the smallest ad, charging slightly more or less, for the following reasons.
You’ve grown quickly. Maybe you’ve received a lot of great press in the first few months of your launch and you’ve seen your readership grow substantially each month.
You have a very specific niche, so your readership is highly targeted.
You’d prefer to accept a small number of ads on your site, so every ad will get more attention.
You don’t post consistently, or have a set number of times you post a week, and therefore cannot guarantee how often readers will check your site.
You want to be an affordable option for indie businesses like Etsy shops or those who may not have big advertising budgets.
Based on the above example, I’ve determined that a blog with 100,000 page views could charge $100/month based on my initial formula, or $90/month if we compare it to an example of a bigger site’s rates. Because my sample blog has had pretty quick growth, I’d stick to the higher of the two numbers for the 125 × 125 ad spot. Now, if you’re offering a larger option as well, like 125 × 250, I’d charge anywhere from 50 percent to 75 percent more of the base $100/month price. So, that would mean $150 to $175 for the larger ad because it’s twice the size. These two options (if you want to offer both sizes) can be the base price for your above-the-fold ad. See how many ads you can fit above the fold, and then offer the same sizes below the fold at a lower rate. Since below-the-fold ads don’t get quite as high a placement, the pricing of those spots could be 25 percent to 40 percent less than your prime above the fold spots. So, based on this example, a 125 × 125 ad below the fold could be $60 to $75/month, and a 125 × 250 ad would be $110 to $130. To make things easier, you can offer one size only, or rotate the placement of your ads so that every ad gets to be in an above-the-fold spot each month—that way you’re dealing with only one size and one price point.
You may find yourself experimenting with and tweaking your ad program rates a bit in the beginning based on the interest you receive. If you see that you’re booking ads pretty quickly with your current package, keep things as-is and wait six months or until the end of the year to reassess and see if it’s worth raising your rates a bit. Or, if you’re not getting a ton of bookings, then lower your rate package a bit until you find a sweet spot that seems right for you. In time, you’ll find a rate program that you can stick to and feel comfortable with what you’re offering your sponsors. You can up your rates every year as your readership or demand grows; just be sure to raise them gradually to stay consistent with your growth. If your readership is up 10 percent from last year, you can consider raising your rates by 10 percent. It’s also nice to thank longtime sponsors by giving them a smaller increase in your rate or extending the older rate a little bit longer.
No
REGRETSY
SHERMAN OAKS, CA
WHILE ETSY is known as a site for finding an array of unique handmade goods, April Winchell’s blog, Regretsy, includes honest and biting commentary on the odd items people create and sell, like hand-stamped jewelry with a glaring typo, a urinal dress, a toilet paper cozy, or a batik Star Wars T-shirt. She finds humor in the quirky, and started her blog as a spoof of the Web site of handmade sellers. April developed her sense of humor from a young age, working as a voiceover actress for cartoons when she was eleven years old. Now, with Regretsy, she uses her innate sarcasm for both entertainment and for good. Since launching in 2009, Regretsy has raised more than $200,000 for various charities as well as for Etsy sellers who are going through rough times. She claims, “People [in the Regretsy community] aren’t just mean and want to make fun of others just for the sake of it. Most are warmhearted and generous people, so I love that I can use my site based on humor to help people at the same time.”
How did Regretsy begin?I’ve always had an appreciation for things that were well made and crafty, but really loved things that were offbeat and odd as well. When I discovered Etsy in 2006, a friend and I got into a habit of sending each other the terrible things we’d find on the site—it got to be really fun and hilarious. We’d give each other things like candy bowls made out of records, really ugly purses, and weird toys. Then my friend bought me an item from an Etsy seller in South Africa. It arrived with a ton of delivery issues, and when I finally got the post office to release it to me, I discovered he’d sent me a horrible white rug with a stencil of Obama on it. When I later told him how much trouble it was to get the package out of customs, he laughed and said, “I’m sorry it was such an ordeal. You have my regretsy.” Then the lightbulb went off in my head. I registered the domain www.regretsy.com, and then I forgot about it. A few months later, I came across it again, and sat at my computer that weekend putting up all these crazy things from Etsy that I’d usually make fun of. I didn’t think the site would last too long, and figured Etsy would be upset and have a cease-and-desist in my lap soon enough, so I figured I’d have fun with it until then.
How did people start hearing about your site?I started Regretsy in October 2009, and within three days it had 96 million hits. Jezebel, Apartment Therapy, and MetaFilter picked it up and blogged about it within two days after my blog launched. Two days later, someone who wanted to buy the site approached me. And then two days after that, the Wall Street Journal and the BBC had featured it. It was crazy—this all happened within the first week!
I started off blogging anonymously because I thought people might be more intrigued by it if they didn’t know who was behind it. There was an initial wave of criticism; some people thought some Hollywood studio was driving it, and others thought Diablo Cody wrote it. The initial wave of response was very positive, but also very, very negative. It was the 6,000th most popular Web site in the United States within two days, and is in the 2,000s now.
Why do you think readers enjoy your site?Everybody has the experience of someone giving them something homemade that they hate—a bad sweater or some terrible cookies. Then, they come home from their birthday party or Secret Santa and make fun of it. It’s really human, and everyone’s had that experience. And my site makes fun of that through the things people choose to make.
Also, on Etsy, they don’t allow you to say anything negative about anyone’s work. So, I accidentally created a clearinghouse for people to vent, and I think they enjoy being able to say what they want to. I make fun of stuff simply because it’s ridiculous. It turns out that I want to own these items for a different reason than the person who made it had in mind. I try to say what my initial thought is about the items I post, and it’s usually also what other people are thinking. A lot of the comments and e-mails say something like “Oh my god, that’s what I was thinking when I saw this!”
What was the response from Etsy?I thought they wouldn’t like it, but I wasn’t initially concerned about it too much. They wrote me within two days of my blog’s launch. Basically, their lawyer told me there were a few things on the site that could confuse people and make them think we were affiliated. They made it clear that they had no desire to shut me down. They just asked me to change the colors and layout, because they were really similar at the time. I didn’t think of the blog being an ongoing thing initially, so I didn’t think much about mocking their layout, too. But I did end up changing the layout and fonts and put a disclaimer on there that I’m not associated with Etsy.
It’s ironic that even though you are making fun of sellers’ products, it actually gives them a ton of traffic and sales. How has the response been from those sellers you feature?Initially, I didn’t link to the sellers, because I thought readers would harass them. But pretty quickly the sellers themselves were asking to be linked. It hadn’t occurred to me that there would be value in that. But once I realized that this site could actually be a marketing tool, I got interested in a whole new way. I love seeing the way people are motivated to buy. A lot of people think you can’t sell anything that is marketed in a negative or humorous way. But now sellers contact me asking to please find something in their shop to post and make fun of.
The traffic it brings sellers has been amazing. I posted about a woman who needlepoints pornographic images onto antique fabrics, because I thought the contrast between the two was hilarious. Once I posted it on Regretsy, the pillows sold out, and she got approached with a contract to create the pillows for a museum in New York. It was never my intention to keep people from selling stuff; I just found humor in some of these things they were selling.
Some people get upset and want me to take their listing down. If they want it taken down and don’t make a big stink about it, I will usually comply, except in certain cases, which I mention in my FAQ section.
Do you monitor comments on your blog?I let people say what they want for the most part, unless they become disruptive or encourage harassing the seller. But I find that the community does a pretty good job of policing itself.
You give a portion of profits to charity every year and have raised more than $200,000 since starting your site. Why did you choose to give back in this way?I’ve always been into doing some good and working with charities. Once I saw that my site had legs and was going to be something, I quickly integrated the charity component. If it was just 100 percent snark all the time, I would have gotten tired of it by now.
Sometimes people see the site and think it’s all about the nasty, mean-spirited humor, but people are more complicated and complex than that. Most of the Regretsy community is made up of warmhearted, generous people. For example, Regretsy has a team on Etsy called “April’s Army.” It’s one of the largest teams on Etsy, with more than 2,000 sellers. Every month, I choose an Etsy seller who is struggling and needs financial and emotional support, and the team turns out in force to help them. Each team member donates at least one handmade object to the April’s Army Etsy store, and the proceeds go directly to the person we’ve chosen to help. In the last four months, we’ve raised more than $25,000, helping to pay for cancer treatments, funerals, and to keep people in their homes.
What do you love most about blogging?The thing I love the most is making people laugh—that’s always been my goal and my dream my whole life. I love the immediacy and the whole flash mob aspect of it. Someone wrote to me and told me about how she needed to raise money to have surgery because she didn’t have insurance, so I posted about it and said, “Let’s sell this girl’s shop out.” Immediately, her shop sold out, and she raised the money she needed to get her surgery.
What’s your number-one piece of advice to new bloggers?The worst thing that you could do is to study the market and look at the sites that are successful and try and create something in that vein. Just because it’s working for someone else doesn’t mean that it will work for you. It has to come from something that’s burning inside you, and therefore totally unique to you. Pretend there is no box or boundaries around what you can blog about, and find something that you can write about every single day.
Any potential sponsor, whether they’ve come to you or you’ve approached them, will need to know more about what your site offers them before they’ll feel ready to hand over their cash. A media kit can be a simple one- to two-page PDF with your blog’s logo or header that gives potential sponsors the following information.
Information about Your Site. When you launched, your blog’s history and growth, how often you post, what topics you cover, and why your blog adds value to your specific niche.
Information about You. Your background, especially if your past work experience or what you do outside of the blog matches a potential sponsor’s industry. They’d love to know that you’re a mover and shaker in a particular field.
Site Stats. How many unique daily readers and monthly page views you generate on average, your bounce rate (if it’s low), and how many RSS subscribers you have. If you have a high page rank on Google, it’s worth mentioning here, too!
Demographics. Be sure to give details about your readers, including where they live, why they visit your site, and how much income they earn. This detailed information can be collected by conducting a reader survey (usually yearly) on your blog with the help of a site like SurveyMonkey.
Press Mentions. If your blog has been mentioned in any magazines, online sites, or important blogs, it shows that you’re making an impact with the content you provide. This bodes well for sponsors, as it shows the growth potential of your blog and that new readers are finding you from these accolades.
Ad Sizes. You can offer ads ranging from simple text links and small buttons to large tower ads. Decide which options look best in the layout of your site, and offer a couple different options for sponsors. There’s no need to offer every size out there, as you’ll want to make it easy for you to maintain and easy for them to choose from, especially when you are just beginning.
Ad Location. Whether above the fold, below the fold, in the leaderboard, or in between posts, tell sponsors where their ad will go and the various options they have to choose from.
Ad Costs and Duration. List your pricing options and any discounts you offer for booking multiple months at a time. You can also decide to place a limit on how many months a sponsor can purchase at one time (for example, a three- or six-month maximum). If you decide to sell one year’s worth of advertising in advance, you need to guarantee that you’ll still be maintaining your blog a year from now. Also, such a long booking may not be to your advantage, as your readership may grow significantly within the year, and giving a sponsor one year’s worth of your current pricing may be selling yourself short.
Artwork Specs. Will you offer static jpegs, animated gifs, or both? If the idea of animated or blinking ads seems distracting to you, you can choose to allow only still jpegs with one image per ad. Specify what types of files you’ll accept and any maximum file sizes that are conducive to your blog. Usually files under 50K are good for both jpegs and animated gifs and won’t bog down the load time on your site. You can also mention that you have the right to review ad artwork to make sure it’s a good fit aesthetically before it goes on your blog.
How to Reserve. You should always be paid up front by a sponsor before placing their ad on your site. Otherwise, you may end up being burned by a buyer who promises to pay but never follows through. Sponsors should reserve their spot by paying for the full block of time they’ve committed to, whether one week, one month, or three months.
How to Pay. You can decide to accept payment by check, credit card, or PayPal. Many bloggers and sponsors are comfortable with PayPal because of its ease of use. It allows you to send sponsors invoices and track your payments over time. Also, will you offer refunds or accept cancellations? Typically, it’s easiest to state that once an ad is paid for, there are no cancellations or refunds allowed. That way, a sponsor can make a thoughtful and informed decision before committing to any advertising.
Additional Benefits. If there are any additional benefits you can offer sponsors, be sure to add them to make your ad program even more enticing. Include information like the number of Twitter and Facebook followers you have, if you donate a percentage of your blog revenue to charity, or if you offer sponsors the option of holding giveaways on your site.
Similarly to how agents ease the communication between a working freelancer and a client, ad networks help blogs access potential advertisers they wouldn’t normally have contact with. There are a variety of ad networks out there, including Federated Media, Martha’s Circle, BlogHer, and Glam Media, that partner with bloggers within their specific niche to offer them larger advertisers through their combined network of exposure. If you apply and are accepted into a network, be sure to check the fine print of your contract to make sure that you can also sell ads on your own. While joining a network can be helpful, you don’t want it to limit the potential sponsors you could reach on your own as your blog grows. Typically, you should be blogging for at least a few months and have a growing readership before approaching such a network. While some have strict requirements on whom they’ll work with and what their stats need to be, others are open to any size blog joining forces with them. All of these networks will have more information on their site about application requirements and what they can offer you.
Once you’ve been accepted to and joined an ad network, you’ll have access to a variety of ads, many of which were discussed earlier. You may also have access to moving ads like pop-up ads, floating ads, and expanding ads. These function exactly as they sound: they appear out of nowhere, open a new page, or move across a page. You can decide whether to have these types of ads on your site, and if you choose not to, make sure you opt out with your network so that a pop-up ad that you did not want doesn’t appear on your site without your knowledge.
WORKING WITH AN AGENT
As bloggers have shown their ability to become media personalities, every day more companies are looking to them to endorse their brand. The good news is bloggers don’t have to secure deals with these companies on their own anymore. An influential blogger can now sign on with an agency that focuses on representing bloggers—like Digital Brand Architects—and rely on her agent to find jobs as well as negotiate fees. A blogger could score a gig to blog for her dream home decor company, pitch a TV show concept to a network, or even appear in a television commercial for her favorite brand—opportunities a blogger may not have been able to achieve on her own. But in return, a blogger will have to pay a commission (usually 10 to 20 percent) on contracts acquired through the agency.
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GLAM MEDIA
WORLDWIDE
FOUNDED IN 2003, Glam Media was created to offer new online content to women and to attract high-end advertisers to the Glam.com site. At the time, most companies were still using traditional media and were wary of advertising online. Aware of the fact that women were often in charge of the finances at home, Glam started recruiting fashion, beauty, and entertainment bloggers in 2005 to provide a network of sites that advertisers could tap into to reach their potential customers. Over the years, Glam has grown from working with 6 bloggers to partnering with more than 2,500 bloggers, and is now the eighth most visited property on the Internet. A form of ad network, Glam is a “vertical network,” which represents publishers by sharing advertising options with them. Glam provides not only advertising options for its publishers (or bloggers), but also PR packages designed to help them monetize and promote their blogs. Julieta Alvarado is Glam’s Senior Director of Network & Community International, and her job is to keep bloggers happy, help them generate as much revenue as possible, and continue to bring high-quality bloggers into the network. Here she shares some tips on and benefits of becoming part of a network like Glam.
How do bloggers earn an income through working with you? What are the different ways in which they can monetize, and what’s the earning potential?The main source of revenue is through having a standard ad, in one of a variety of sizes, on your blog, and bloggers are compensated with an industry-standard revenue share based on the CPM that their site generates. Because we’re such a big company and have a large number of campaigns and clients, we can offer ads to our bloggers that they wouldn’t have access to on their own.
Clients often come to us to throw events and to help create advertorials as well. For example, Mercedes-Benz (which sponsors Fashion Week all over the world) wanted to work with a couple of our top fashion bloggers in each of the cities where Fashion Week was being held. Those bloggers got to attend and review the shows, visit and review the Mercedes-Benz lounge, and then they were compensated for creating posts about their experience. We were able to pay them a flat fee of around $5,000 for their work in addition to covering their travel and accommodations. For Toyota, we needed to recruit publishers that once owned a Toyota Camry and would be willing to talk on their blog about why they liked it and why it was a reliable car. We had some mommy bloggers who offered to talk about how it was a good family car, and the campaign included their posts, standard ads, and advertorials with full disclosure. There’s usually a social media component as well where bloggers actively talk about their experiences and opinions on Facebook and Twitter. It’s a way that bloggers can earn additional revenue by telling readers about products they feel passionate about. We always give them the option not to participate, and this aspect is not a requirement to work with us.
The amount that a blogger makes really varies based on their traffic and how they choose to work with us. Some make a few hundred dollars a month and some make up to $5,000 per month. We work with one very high-profile celebrity blogger who makes close to $1 million per year in revenue with us, but that’s obviously the extreme, and is based on his huge readership.
What are the benefits to joining an ad network like yours?The blog industry can be so fragmented and intimidating when you’re new to it that a network helps newer blogs to connect with potential advertisers that they normally wouldn’t have access to. In addition to potential revenue and custom campaigns, we try and do as much PR as possible with our publishers. We’ll hold events so all the bloggers can meet each other, and we try and give them spotlights in our own press mentions. For example, if we have a story being written about us for the Wall Street Journal, we’ll pick a few bloggers to also be part of the interview. When FastCompany.com interviewed us in 2009, instead of making the article solely about Glam, we picked six of our top bloggers to be the focus of the story. We try to give them visibility, which helps them to grow their readership and hopefully get more revenue.
At what point can a blog join Glam? Is there a minimum traffic requirement?We require that you have at least 100,000 page views per month, and you have to have been blogging for over three months. We like to see blogs that are updating their content regularly and making attempts to bring unique content and grow their readership. However, if you are a newer blog but have amazing content and a look and feel that we think advertisers are going to like, we might make an exception if we think a new blog has a lot of potential.
What aspects should someone ask about or consider before joining an ad network?If I had a blog, I would want to know how reputable the company is. How long have they been in business? How do I know I’ll get paid from the ads on my site? You want to make sure you’re dealing with a company that is financially secure. Make sure that whomever you’re working with is making an effort to expand your reach and cares about helping to grow your site.
If you don’t have any knowledge of HTML, you may be wondering how in the world you’ll place these ads on your blog. While you may not have done any coding so far (especially if you’re using a blog platform that makes posting super-easy), here’s one reason to learn a little bit of code. The exact location where you’ll apply this coding into the back end of your site will depend on your blog platform, but here is the basic information you need to embed an ad on your site if your blog platform doesn’t have the functionality or plug-in to create the code for you:
Step 1 Once a sponsor sends you their artwork, check to make sure it has been set to the correct pixel size (width and length) and is in the correct format (jpeg or gif), and you’ve approved the artwork for your blog.
Step 2 If the file is not already named in a way that it is clear who the sponsor is, rename the ad so you can easily locate it later. For example, if you’re hosting an ad from The Shade Store that’s 120 × 120 pixels, you can save the ad as “Shade-Store-120-120.gif.”
Step 3 Save the ad to your server if necessary and get the URL for the image’s location on your server. If the advertiser chooses to host the ad image on their server, make sure they provide a URL for the location.
Step 4 Make sure you have the URL (on the sponsor’s site) that the ad will link to when a reader clicks on it.
Once you have the necessary information, you’ll have all the components needed to create the HTML for a blog ad. The HTML code for a blog ad is pretty simple, and once you understand the parts of it, you can copy and paste and replace information as needed. It’s important to maintain the same spacing and order in this coding; otherwise you could alter the way the ad appears. You’ll typically use the same code for every ad, except you’ll be replacing some of the information in the quotes (“ ”) with new information for each ad. The typical coding for an ad might look something like this:
<a href="<a href= "http:// www.theshadestore.com/" >http:// www.theshadestore.com/ </a> " target="_blank"><img border=0 alt="shade store" src="<a href="http:// ohjoy.blogs.com/ Shade_Store_120x120_ads.gif">http:// ohjoy.blogs.com/ Shade_Store_120x120_ads.gif </a>" width="120" height="120"/</a>
< a and </a > These are the anchor points of the code, which means the beginning and end of any section of HTML. Here, your coding starts with < a, and once it’s completed, it’s closed by having < /a > at the end.
href= This is the URL of the site you’re linking to. So the sponsor’s specific Web site would be placed between the quotations after href=.
target=“_blank” This opens a new window or tab in your browser when the ad is clicked on. Change “_blank” to “_none” if you don’t want that to happen.
img border=0 This assigns a border to the image if you want one. Otherwise, enter “0” after the equal sign.
alt=“[description of the ad]” This is the image tag where the ad or sponsor can be described in a few short words. This will appear on your site if your image fails to load and is useful for helping it to appear in Internet searches.
src=“[the URL for the ad image]” This is the source where the artwork image is coming from, which you’d upload to your site, or the sponsor may provide you with a link to the image from their site (see step 3 on page 145).
width=“[number of pixels]” and height=“[number of pixels]” This is the pixel width and height of the image, so make sure it matches each ad’s exact dimensions.
Once you’re on a roll with your advertising program, you can pat yourself on the back as you see those dollars coming in. However, while you should certainly be proud of your accomplishment, maintenance will be key in keeping it going. You can keep track of the ads—when each ad block starts and ends—by creating a spreadsheet in Excel or a timeline in Google Calendar. That way, when sponsors book in advance, you know when you need to start their ad and when they’re nearing the end of their ad run.
Whenever your current sponsors are near the end of their term, send them a reminder e-mail letting them know that their ads will soon expire and asking if they’d like to renew for another block. If this is their first time advertising with you, ask for their feedback and see what kind of traffic and sales they received. This is useful information for you to help gauge what your reach really is with advertisers. If they decide to renew, chances are they received some pretty good traffic. While you might assume that they’d let you know if they want to renew, most simply forget when their ad run will end on your site. Many of the sponsors on my blog renew due to their positive results—but if I didn’t remind them, less than a quarter would likely remember to get in touch on their own, simply because they’re busy business owners, too!
If you want other options to monetize other than a traditional ad, many bloggers work with sponsors to generate other forms of revenue. For example, a sponsor may offer to have you try a product in exchange for you writing your thoughts about it on your blog. These sponsored posts should still be about products that you like and use, but in this case, you are being paid to talk about your experience. For example, Jordan Ferney of Oh Happy Day! created a series of posts sponsored by Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and Method on cleaning tips for the closet, bathroom, and kitchen. She took her own photos using the product and wrote in her own voice to keep each post as close as possible stylistically to the other content she generates on her blog. As we’ll talk about later in this chapter, all sponsored posts must be disclosed to your readers—putting something as simple as “Sponsored Post” or “Sponsored by Method” in the header will do the trick.
Sponsorship can also cross over into hosted events or projects. Erin Loechner from Design for Mankind was going through a huge home renovation project for her newly purchased home in Indiana. Since she felt comfortable talking on camera, she sent a proposal to the vice president of programming for HGTV.com pitching the idea of tracking her progress through a series of Web videos on their site. HGTV accepted and compensated Erin for her regular posts on HGTV.com, and she was then able to use the coverage that attracted to get various home décor companies (like Kohler and Andersen) to donate and sponsor goods for her home. For one year, as Erin’s house was being built from the ground up, she filmed weekly updates to share with HGTV fans as well as her own blog readers.
Some companies don’t have the time or desire to reach out to every blog they could potentially advertise with. Instead, they prefer to automate the process by offering an affiliate program, in which each blog is paid a commission based on the sales it generates by placing the sponsor’s ad on its site. For example, if you placed a banner ad on your craft blog for a fabric supply store through an affiliate program, you’d earn a percentage (usually 5 to 10 percent) of the sales the store received from your traffic. You can apply to join an affiliate program for bigger companies, like Amazon.com, or go to sites like LinkShare, ShareASale, and Commission Junction, which work with hundreds of smaller independent companies. With the latter, you can check out the various programs they offer and, once approved to be an affiliate, get codes for ad banners and links. As with sponsored ads, you should consider whether the company you’ll be helping to promote offers products or services of interest to your readers.
An affiliate program can be a great way to start offering ads when your readership isn’t large enough to get sponsored ads on your own or through an ad network. It can also be a great addition to sponsored ads, since you can use affiliate ads during slower advertising months to fill in available spots. Just like sponsored ads, affiliate ads will become more successful with increasing traffic—the more readers you have, the greater the likelihood of their clicking on a link or ad and buying a product that you’d make a commission on. To keep your affiliate ads interesting, regularly check for any new ads or banner artwork the sponsor offers, so you can keep the ads looking fresh and new to your readers.
Everyone loves a chance to win something for free, and giveaways can be a great way to thank your readers for the time they spend visiting your home on the Internet. Blogs can choose to offer giveaways every day, every week, a handful of times a year, or not at all. As your traffic grows, you will likely be approached by companies offering to partner with you for product giveaways. Giving away something fun to one of your readers is an easy way for growing companies to get additional traffic and eyeballs to their site. Before accepting an invitation to give away a free product, make sure the item is something you’d like for yourself. If you don’t like it or wouldn’t use it, chances are it won’t be appealing to your readers. Also, be sure to state the terms of any giveaways on your blog. What do readers have to do to enter—simply leave a comment, or do they need to visit the sponsor’s site or sign up on their Facebook page? Is the giveaway open to anyone in the world, or is it limited to those located in the United States? How will you pick the winner—at random, or based on their entry? If you choose at random, you can use a third-party site like Random Number Generator (www.random.org) to pick a winner for you.
Once you start hosting giveaways on a regular basis, you’ll find it requires a bit of time and maintenance to field all of the comments and entries that come pouring in. So it might make sense for you to charge sponsors for hosting a giveaway on your site. Some bloggers charge a flat fee for giveaways, while others require the business to be an existing sponsor (with a monthly banner ad)—that way, your time is compensated and the sponsor gets great traffic through your ad program. While giveaways can be a great way to draw traffic to your site, make sure you’re offering them in reasonable doses so that readers aren’t just coming for your giveaways and are still looking forward to the unique content you provide as well.
Because your readers will grow to love and trust your opinions, you need to be honest with them any time you’re compensated for posting about something, especially when it may not be obvious that you’re being paid. To help make those situations a bit more clear, some rules have been put in place. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the U.S. government whose job it is to protect consumers from being deceived by the media—which includes you, a new member. They are constantly updating the rules and regulations bloggers must follow, and foremost is making sure that bloggers provide full disclosure to their readers, particularly regarding any paid endorsements, sponsorships, or products they receive for free. Since most bloggers are not trained journalists or being guided by a large publisher, they may not be aware that they have to abide by the same standards and ethical guidelines as traditional journalists. These rules are already understood in traditional media, so the FTC is making an effort to inform bloggers of these journalistic guidelines. The FTC levies heavy fines against those who do not disclose this information. While it is clear that a company is paying you for any advertisements they may have on your blog, any product or company mentions or visuals that appear within the context of a post may not be so clear. If you are being compensated in any way through sponsorships or gifts, you must mention this either within the post, at the bottom of the post, or in the post title.
You may also find that companies want to send you products as a thank-you for your post(s) and the traffic you brought them, or would like to send you a product in hopes that you’ll post about it. You may initially be jumping for joy at the thought of receiving these “blogger perks,” but keep in mind that depending on what the item is—a bracelet versus a European vacation—it may be considered income, and will need to be accounted for when you file your taxes (check with an accountant about the rules in your state). Accepting a gift or a press discount after a post has been written is usually fine as long as it has no bearing on any future post, there is nothing expected of you, and it’s a thank-you based on an unbiased post you’ve already created. However, if you accept a product that you have not yet blogged about, there may be an expectation for you to blog about it once you receive it. Product reviews are a common practice in some niches, like beauty or food blogs, where the content is based solely on trying and reviewing real products. But regardless of whether a product you received is necessary for your content, according to FTC regulations, you’re required to state that the item was given to you for review.
It’s important to stay transparent with your readers, as that builds and keeps their trust.
You can choose not to accept a gift, or review a product and then send it back to the company when you’re done with it. You can let companies know in a polite e-mail or note that you’re happy to share things you love, but that you have a no-gifting policy. They’re likely to understand and appreciate your response.
It’s important to stay transparent with your readers, as that builds and keeps their trust. They’ll know that whatever you post about is something you genuinely like and want to share, not simply products you’re obliged to talk about because you got them for free.
