© ilco

I haven’t been writing a lot of sponsored posts on the blog but as a reader, I have read a lot of sponsored posts on blogs. It’s part of a full-time blogger’s bread and butter these days. Not only professional bloggers do it, many bloggers who have day jobs do it too.

There’s nothing wrong with writing sponsored content. It can be good money. It can mean being able to treat yourself to a nice bag. It can also mean paying your rent. I’m not against sponsored posts at all. If I get an opportunity to be able to have some of my content paid for within reason, why not? If a company wants to pay you $500 to write an article for them on a topic that is more than relevant on your blog, wouldn’t you do it? Would you do it?

Having said that, there’s always a caveat in writing sponsored posts. Your readers. Some will be okay with them, some won’t. It’s just natural, I guess. They’re not stupid. I’m an avid blog reader myself and I can spot sponsored posts from a mile away. I’m sure you can too. A good way to gauge if your readers are okay with your introduction of sponsored content is to run a short survey. Just ask them. Most of your loyal readers will be fine with it as long as you keep your content relevant.

Every now and then, I receive sponsored content offers. Some are good money, most are not. Many third-party companies still think it’s absolutely all right to pay bloggers $50 to write a 500-word post. Frankly, I think it’s a slap on the face to bloggers, and I always tell fellow bloggers that their blogs are worth more than 10-cents/word. I turn down about 90% of them because of that, and mainly because they’re usually topics that I don’t cover on the blog.

So, going back to the question of the day, what makes and breaks a sponsored post?

Disclosure, disclosure, disclosure

I know of bloggers who do not disclose that the article they wrote was sponsored and it’s an action that I’m still scratching my head to understand. Perhaps it’s to say “if magazines don’t disclose, why should I?” But you see, there’s a reason why blogs resonate better with consumers compared to magazines. They look to bloggers for honest opinions. Lack of disclosure questions the integrity of the blogger.

Your readers aren’t going to hunt you down with pitchforks if you write sponsored posts, so don’t insult their intelligence by not disclosing. Sponsored posts can be sniffed out from a mile away. It’s only a couple of lines in the post. Even if you’re not a blogger in the US governed by FTC laws, it’s good practice writing disclosures.

This is a beauty blog but might I interest you in home insurance today?

I’m sorry but beauty blogs that talk about dishwashing liquid or potting mix out of the blue turn me off big time. Back in the day when companies like PayPerPost and goodness-knows-what used to pay $10 per post with a link, so many bloggers jumped on board. I know I did. I wrote about online casinos and gaming amidst lipsticks and serums. In retrospect, it was something I shouldn’t have done because it was not only highly irrelevant to the blog, I felt like it insulted my readers to read about a moisturiser one day and online dating the next. I didn’t even make much money out of it ($30+ a month for a few months?).

It’s a different story nowadays. Brands are willing to pay a whole lot more money to bloggers to write sponsored content. For full-time bloggers, it’s income and the matter of paying this month’s bills and rent. It can be a tough choice to make when you have to decide whether to accept or decline a sponsored post offer that pays at least $1000 to write about their latest insurance plan when you run a beauty blog. It’s a lot of money especially if you blog full-time. At the end of the day, as bloggers, we have to decide whether it’s worth letting go of opportunities that are irrelevant to our content or letting our readers go.

Make me go wow!

I can think of 2 bloggers who make sponsored content fun to read, and that’s Nikki from Styling You and Dani from Danimezza. They inject their personalities and life stories to make their sponsored posts interesting. Nikki, who runs a fashion/lifestyle blog, actually made talking about insurance relevant to her blog. I was surprised to find that it didn’t turn me off at all. In fact, when I got to the end of the post, it got me thinking about my family and if we had enough insurance to cover us if something went wrong. This is what sponsored content should be like. You should be able to enjoy reading to the end of the post without yawning or rolling your eyes “Euww. She’s only saying that because she was paid to say it“.

My point is, like all your regular posts, make sponsored ones interesting and worth reading, especially if you decide to write on subjects that are irrelevant to the blog. If you find it difficult to tie a topic like insurance to your beauty content, then perhaps it might be an offer you’d want to let go. If it’s a topic relevant to your blog, then you’ve hit the jackpot. It’s your niche; you should be able to write about it in your sleep. On the other hand, try not to make it gushy. I think you can still write positively about something without the necessarily needing to gush about how wonderful the product or service is. Would you still oversell if you weren’t paid to write about it?

These are just a few points on what makes and breaks sponsored posts. With sponsored content opportunities on the rise, it’s okay to jump on the bandwagon. Just keep your readers in mind when you do.

Kirstie Clements, the former editor of Vogue Australia, wrote in her book The Vogue Factor, “an editor is only as good as her last cover“. I think it speaks the same for bloggers. A blogger is only as good as his/her last blog post. Would you want your last one to be about dishwashing liquid?

What are your thoughts on sponsored posts and bloggers who write them? Are you all right with them? Is there a time when you weren’t? What do you think makes or breaks sponsored content?