Four Surprising Facts about Blogging
I recently sat down with a curious and stylish VCU student, Madison. For her final project, she recorded our conversation and I shared my journey to blogging, my gripes, my strengths, my weaknesses and more. Give it a listen here.
During our chat, I started jotting down a list of things I’ve learned along the way. Most new bloggers and followers don’t know about the work that goes into making things happen or sometimes not happen.
Here’s the list so far:
How to Maintain your Voice While Representing Other Brands
In order to make money from blogging, you have to partner with brands. From Spirit Airlines to Bright Body, I’ve earned income from sponsored posts and created content in collaboration with likely hundreds of brands. There is an exchange of payment and goods for my content and as result, brands make requests about messaging and deadlines. The trick is maintaining my personal brand and voice while still getting the brand’s messaging out there. This is important because my followers trust me to be honest. It’s also important because my personal brand grows because of consistency and authenticity. Those two things are vital. No one teaches you this when you start out. It’s never worth it to work with brands I wouldn’t use as a customer already.
It’s About You, Not the Niche
When I first started my blog, I actually included features of other people. You’ll hear about that in the interview. Within the first year, I realized people much preferred following me instead of what other people were up to. This was a strange switch for me. I wasn’t used to being in the spotlight. That transition morphed into a more focused approach to my blog. Instead of just writing about one thing, I wrote about everything I was truly interested in. I started writing about not just fashion, but skin care, travel, events, food and more. People paid attention and really cared about how I lived my day-to-day life. When Madison asked about my niche, I responded that my niche is me.
How To Negotiate Sponsorship and Partnership Fees
This is one of the hardest parts of blogging. At first, you say “yes” to everything. It’s fun to get free stuff and get paid off of anything blog related. As the brand collaboration requests grow along with your followers, you get better and better and the back and forth that occurs before you settle on an agreement. Things to smooth out before you confirm a partnership include deadlines, in-kind gifts, sponsorship fees, social media requirements, and even legal fees. To the last point, I also ask myself if the brand fits with my overall lifestyle. If the answer is so no, then I say thank you and move on without any negotiation. A great media kit helps with this. I have a new template from PicMonkey. Happy to share if you want to see! Just shoot me an email.
What a Makes a Good Blog Partner
Brand-influencer communication and relationship building is so important to me now. My blog is not a full time gig, so my time must be used very wisely. I want to create high quality and exciting content on my blog that pays some bills and makes me happy. The best way for me to do that is to work with brands who get to know me, want to develop long-term relationships, and provide a personal touch. For example, I’ve worked with Verizon twice now. The PR team has my personal cell number, knows where I like to shop, and provides info they know I’ll use for my content. They don’t push anything on me and they get me contracts to sign quickly and efficiently. They know me, my audience and more. Brands I don’t like to work with send me impersonal mass emails, don’t use proper English, don’t know things like I don’t have a pet, and don’t have marketing budgets for blogger/influencer partnerships. I just ignore them for the most part. I get multiple requests in the latter category daily. They just aren’t worth it to my banking account, my followers or my other competing deadlines and projects.
Do you have blogging questions?
Don’t forget to listen to the interview. Some of your questions may be answered there.
Good luck, Madison! It was a pleasure meeting you!
VCU students: I’m looking for a summer intern! Send me an email at sweetsauceblog@gmail.com
