Have you been blogging as a hobby for a while, but are hoping to take it to the next level and start earning money? If so, you need to be attracting those all-important sponsors. Sponsors seek out blogs where they can place links and ads and generally pay well for the privilege of doing so. Here are some of the things they will be looking for.
Improve Your Domain Authority
Domain authority is based on three factors: age, popularity, and size. For reference, massive sites like Facebook, Twitter and Google have a domain authority of 100. As a blogger you should be aiming for a domain authority of 20 and above, this is usually the magic number most sponsors will look for when choosing sites to work with. Your domain authority should naturally increase with age providing you are updating regularly, but another way you can boost your score is by getting good quality backlinks. As a blogger, this could mean guest posting on other bloggers website with a link back to your own. It’s beneficial to both you and then, you get a backlink and exposure, and they get free good quality content. Network on social media, and find some bloggers who would be willing to post a guest post from you. Focusing on search engine optimization is also crucial, a company offering SEO services could be useful if you’re unsure. This uses keywords to help your posts rank higher when certain phrases are searched for, which improves your organic traffic.
Get a Professional Design
Blogs are in no short supply, so sponsors really do have their pick when it comes to choosing sites to offer paid ads to. To make yours stand out and grab their attention, it needs to have a nice design. Anything too busy, cluttered or amateurish is likely to put them off. Spend money on having a professional design, or purchase a premade template from somewhere like Etsy. Everything should look clean and balanced, it should be easy to navigate, and the fonts and colors should be easy to read. You can bring in a bit of fun and personality with your header, but keep everything else quite clean and professional.
Have an About Me Page
When sponsors look for blogs to advertise on, one thing they will be looking for is an ‘about’ page. The thing that makes blogs so incredible is that they’re written by real people, for real people. They can relate to others in a way that magazines and other print cant. An about me page shows you’re a real person who is engaged with their audience. Not just a site set up with a load of spam articles to try and earn money.
Take Beautiful Images
While content really is king, and you absolutely have to write high quality and interesting blog posts, your images are very important too. Fuzzy, grainy and out of focus photos cheapen the look, whereas high quality bright and clear pictures really grab people’s attention and draw them in. Take as many of your own photos as you can, but for times when that’s not possible use beautiful stock images. Sites like Pexels have tons of beautiful lifestyle type photos that are completely free to use.
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