I have one sponsor of this blog right now, Infusionsoft and one additional voice writing consistently, Casey Lewis.
At some point, I might have more but for now, that feels like plenty.
Why?
Because a sponsor, advertiser or guest post author is not just someone filling space on your blog.
They are an extension of what you are doing. A partner. An accomplice in awesome. They’re not someone just borrowing pixels in exchange for money, services or content.
Knowing that, you can’t casually pick people you’ll share your blog with, regardless of the size. In order to find blog advertisers, sponsors and guest post authors, here are 3 questions I think you should ask:
1. Do you use the service they are advertising?
I didn’t create this one, this is old school David Ogilvy, one of the masters of advertising. His theory was that if he or his wife would not use a product he would not advertise that product. I’ve had some good offers from good folks but I personally don’t use what they offer so I don’t feel great about telling you to. I use Infusionsoft to run my email list, so I feel good about recommending them.
2. Will it really help your readers?
I used to get offers from folks like mountain climbing outfitters who would tell me the readers of Stuff Christians Like would really love their product. Is their a fraction of readers of Christian satire who might also climb mountains? Sure, but that’s not why they were reading SCL. A lot of what I write about on this blog is about building community and chasing dreams. Infusionsoft helps me do that and I think they can help readers do that too.
3. If the only thing a reader saw was a guest post, would that be awesome?
It’s fun to pretend that readers will spend gobs of time going through your site, but that’s just not going to happen. If the only thing they read was a guest post, is that guest post an awesome representation of your entire site? If it’s not, don’t post it just to fill a slot on a day. I thought this one from Casey was, so I posted it. (Same goes with sponsored posts.)
I think down the road I will have more sponsors and more guest post authors. But for now, folks like Infusionsoft and Casey Lewis feel perfect.
If you want great readers, take great care with what you post.