This post isn’t meant to offend anyone – of course, I say that and it probably will. The purpose of this post is to encourage some introspection. Blogging, as I’m finding, truly is a community. I honestly want you to succeed if you’re a blogger. I want you to be happy with your site, I want you to meet new, awesome people and find totally awesome connections through your site. This article is meant to simply ask you to think about your own blog, your own motivations, goals, etc and question if you’re doing the best you could be doing to meet those goals.
Most people begin a blog because they feel like they have something to say. They hope that people will stumble upon them online and find something universal in what they’ve said and connect. It is an act of union with strangers.
However, some people later begin to wonder if they could make money from their blog. After all, there are plenty of stories about it, right? We love to hear those stories about the average guy who “made it big” doing something fairly ordinary. And blogging is pretty ordinary these days.
Which brings us to a concern: if lots of people are blogging—and they are—how do you know whether your blog is worthy of brand-sponsorship - the holy grail for many bloggers in the blogosphere?
Bloggers that wish to interact with brands and take on sponsors need to take a moment to critically evaluate their site. Use an outsider’s eye. Is your site laid out in a pleasing, but also functional manner? If someone is a new visitor, can they find what they need easily? Is your navigation intuitive?
And, speaking of pleasing, how is your color combination? Is it harsh on the eyes? Do the colors you’ve chosen match or do they look like you selected them right out of a grab bag?
Is the purpose of your blog clear to the new visitor? There are blogs out there which never really state why the blog exists. Even after reading some posts, it’s difficult to tell if there was a central idea or if this is an online diary.
Is you site professional? Jargon and hip expressions can be cool and draw in visitors, but there is a line. Have you crossed it?
If you want to interact with brands, then it’s a good idea to let that be known. If you want to review products, and gain sponsorship, then you need to state that as your intention for the existence of the blog itself. How do you think brands would happen upon your site? Do you imagine that company men cruise the net checking for blogs that might be a good place to have a presence? Even if that were true, could they tell your blog is open to the idea or even actively seeking that? If not, you might want to add a “PR Friendly” type page to let them know beyond a shadow of a doubt.
The bottom line is that unless you make the purpose and intention of your blog known, you aren’t actively seeking a relationship with a brand. Blogs aren’t transformed into money-makers by themselves. No matter how much we want to embrace the stories of the average person who just happened to make it big, the reality is that you must captain the ship of your own destiny.
Take a good look at your site and be honest about its appearance and ask yourself – if you were a brand, would you work with you?
Cover image by WarzauWynn via Flickr.com
There Are Currently 6 Comments on this Post
Branding is definitely important for any site whether its a blog or just a portal. Having brand image can change your value and stand you out of the rest. Once you have a website or blog you must have a media kit to attract big budget sponsors.
Of course quality traffic and high quality content is the basic ingredients for any successful site/blog.
Thanks
Thanks for sharing this inspiration opening note to us. It really fascinate me to be honest. Anyway back to the main topic, blogging as said can serve as an activity with various purposes normally for personal stuff and for business. In this two aspect the true heart of a blogger exist also setting up goals to achieve.
Thank you for these tips. My friend is planning to launch a blog which can in turn attract sponsors and advertisers. But I don’t know if he’s aware that blogs are like brands, you need to market it well to sell. I’ll share this post to him.
Well one of the reasons many people engage to blogging is that they want to earn extra funds even at home. But this is not only the reason, one way or another people do blogging to share what I know and let other people know about it. Just like what you’ve said, blogging is a community, a group of smart individuals.
I totally agree with you. We should not hide our intention if it is to make money from our blog. And yes it takes a lot of times and hard works. I won’t happen in a snap and the first thing for any blog whose goal is to make money is to build networks first, making connection and generate traffic. It needs strategy as well as good content.
Do I have to answer THOSE questions? I’m finally working towards monetizing my considerable SoMe efforts…and time devoted to those efforts. Some of the questions asked of me force me to look at who/what I’m all about. I don’t want to do that! lol…
(dofollow)
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