Why should I sponsor a blog?...and enter this awesome giveaway!

You might have noticed that your favorite blogs have a lot of other blog buttons posted on their sidebar.  It seems the higher number of followers a blogger has, the more blogs they have promoted.  There is a few reasons why you see this.  Most of the time, both gain something in this transaction.

1.  The Blogger promotes another blog because the Blogger receives money for promoting.  This is called sponsoring a blog.  Most of the time a Blogger will have different packages to choose from, depending on what the blog is willing or able to afford.  The packages start from a tiny ad space on the side bar for a month, all the way up to a huge ad space at the top of the blog for a specified amount of time.  The Blogger will also promote the blog on other social media, like Twitter, instagram and Facebook if agreed upon.  Sometimes the Blogger will give the option to allow the sponsor blog to participate in a monthly giveaway, an individual giveaway with a featured post, or a guest post.  A featured post is where the Blogger will introduce your blog as a post.  A guest post is where you write the post and the Blogger will post it on her (his) blog.

The Blogger receives money...so what do you get if you sponsor a blog?

2.  You get exposure to new readers.  The idea is to obtain ad space from a high traffic blog.  If people really like a blog, they are willing to click on the blogs on their sidebar if an ad looks interesting to them.  If you want to sponsor a big fashion blog, you can expect to get traffic from a lot of other people who love to read fashion blogs.  So if you have a fashion blog, they might click on your ad space to come check out your blog, which is the goal of sponsorship.  When they get there, hopefully they like what they see and start to follow your blog. 

There are endless possibilities for sponsoring another blog.  You can pay a few bucks for a small ad for a month on a small blog, or you can pay $100 per month for a decent ad for a month on a high traffic blog.  Sometimes the high traffic blog will only accept certain blogs, and will decline to work with you.  Sometimes there is very limited space and you have to wait months to be able to sponsor that blog.  On a positive note, there are many medium and small blogs that have very cheap ad space and are willing to promote your blog, because they are trying to do the same exact thing with their blog.  Sometimes you can build a relationship with another blogger and decide to swap ads for free.  If you are lucky, there are a TON of giveaways that are always giving away ad space, packages, and you can win some expensive ad space to get your blog's name out there!

So if you really think about it, both sides of sponsorship can be really good.  Most bloggers don't begin a blog to start earning money, but there are some who realize the earning potential when they start blogging.  Sometimes people start a blog to help promote their small business on Etsy or Store Envy.  

So if you are a new blogger, you probably already have a profile picture on your blog.  If you don't have a button for ad space you are going to want to make one, and it's really easy and totally free:

1.  Choose your pic that you want to use.

2.  Add your blog name on it.  

You can use a free site called PicMonkey.  You can upgrade to use more features.  But it's great to use to rotate pics, edit your pic, and to resize your pic for different sized ad space and to save your button.

3.  Pick a site to upload your button.  I use Photobucket and I log in with my Facebook account.  You can also use Picasa to do this, which you can log in with your Google account.  You are able to do some editing, if needed, in these programs.  You are also able to share the pictures you upload with friends and family or choose to have your pictures private.

4. Upload your picture to a hosting site.  If you make your own blog button to display on your blog you will be able to get the HTML code to use, definitely from Photobucket. I don't remember about Picasa.  This ensures that your photo won't disappear because you accidently erased it from your computer.

I have very limited knowledge of HTML coding.  I know there is a way to post your own blog button for other people to use on their blogs.  I'll just cut corners on this one, and tell you to google it.  For example, there is a place on my blog if you wanna grab my button.

Most people will use a site called Passionfruit to sell their ads.  They pay the site a small fee if they make a sale.  The do not have to pay if they "sell" a free ad.  The site allows you to put in a special code that the seller provides, that will make the transaction FREE.  This usually happens when you win a giveaway. (I've won a lot of different ad space in the past year).  It's something to keep in mind if you decide to sell ad space.  To purchase an ad through Passionfruit, you fill out a short form where you provide a picture and a link to your blog (or website) that you want to promote.  It makes the HTML thing super easy.

*Just a quick unrelated tip: You can also join giveaways by giving away Ad Space as a prize.  You will gain traffic from the giveaway, and the person following you has a chance to win a prize.  Another symbiotic relationship...remember Bio?  Both people get something out of the deal!

So this is my take on Sponsoring Blogs.  If I have any information wrong about the HTML thing.  I apologize. Google is your friend.  Consult Him how to fix it.  Yes, Google is a boy.  

ENTER this giveaway I'm participating in to win an Urban Decay Naked Palette!! Ends July 8th!!!