Writing A Great Sponsored Post

*In accordance with the FTC, there indeed affiliate links in this article, as I work with PicMonkey, as an affiliate marketer.  If you click and purchase through these links, I will make a small commission from these purchases.*

You just started a blog recently.

And now, you open your e-mail and have a message from a company asking you to try their product to write a review on your blog for them.

This is all new to you and you have never done this before.

So you may be asking what makes for a great sponsored post?

Or even how to go about responding to this company’s request.

I cannot tell you how many times I have been asked by other bloggers just starting out how to indeed work on that first sponsored post or even by bloggers who have a few sponsored posts under their belt, but not sure if they are doing everything completely by the book on this one.

Here is the thing when the sponsored post is done right, many might not even realize at first that it is indeed sponsored post until they see the FTC sponsored disclosure (more on this shortly).

First off, even before I get to the tips and steps for indeed writing a killer sponsored post, there are certain things that you can do to make the process easier for yourself when responding to companies looking for you to indeed sponsor them to not only make sure that, you, the blogger/writer get the most out of this experience.  And if you didn’t read my article on this, click here.

Now onto the actual process of indeed writing a sponsored post like a pro!

1.  Make Sure You Cover All Points That the Company Asked Of You for A Sponsored Post –

Most likely when the company contacted you they gave you guidelines to follow including talking points to include and possible images, too.  If they didn’t give you any images, I always say to ask for images and try to use them, as well create/edit your own image using PicMonkey, which brings me to tip #2.

2.  Use Unique Created or Editing Images for A Sponsored Post –

Nothing is worse then seeing a sponsored post and not seeing the person endorsing said product or service actually using that product and/or service.  So, when all else fails, take your own photos of what you are reviewing and even possibly create your own pinnable image with these photos.  Again, if you don’t have or know how to use Photoshop, PicMonkey online photo editing does wonders and even now allows you to use all your own fonts downloaded, too.

The above image for this post (not sponsored, but still my own article) was indeed created using PicMonkey.  I am not joking when I say they are the best and have tried others, but for the low price tag yearly (which I actually just renewed my annual subscription right before writing this post) totally worth subscribing to for times like these.

3.  Tell and Use Stories from Your Own Life for A Sponsored –

Nothing is better then opening a sponsored post and truly not knowing that it is indeed sponsored when the author begins this post by sharing something on a personal level that connected you to the product or service at hand.  I try my best to do this with each and every sponsored post I do, here is just an example of one to see what I mean.

See I also try very hard myself when asked to do a sponsored post to not work with something that I could not stand behind or wouldn’t fit into my lifestyle, such as this article here.  The thing is if I could craft a post in my head on some personal level when opening a company request e-mail for a sponsored post, I am more apt to indeed respond to the e-mail.

Trust me plenty of e-mails from companies get trashed by me, because I couldn’t fathom using the product/service at hand in my personal life, as well as just wouldn’t work on my overall blog niche.

For example if you are a Food Blogger and get asked to review some awesome kitchen appliance, that would be an example of a great product for you to jump on the bandwagon to review, but if you are asked to review baby blankets and don’t have babies nor kids, you might want to pass on this one.  Trust me, the review should be able to fit on your blog nicely and resonate with your overall audience, too.

4.  SEO, SEO, SEO for All Sponsored Posts-

This one is truly important, because if you are crafting a sponsored post, the company will probably hope to get some traffic from your post drawn back to their company. Plus, all those looking to get more information on the product or service being reviewed will get your post when searching for it, if you do this right.

If you are unsure of how SEO works or how to set it up and are on WordPress, you are in luck and head on over to my article that talks all this SEO with the Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress, where I explain in depth how to use this plugin to maximize your SEO in your post and on social network shares, as well, here.  If you are on Blogger, check out this article that gives some primo advice for SEO and Blogger Blogspot, here.

5. Use Disclosures for Sponsored Posts –

The FTC is very strict and has enforced that all company sponsored content be labeled as such and you must at the beginning of any of these articles state that it is indeed sponsored, whether or not you got paid or just got the product/service in exchange for your opinions listed.  Again, check the link above for more on this.

6.  No Follow Links for Sponsored Posts –

You will indeed need to use these, as well, when doing sponsored content to make sure for the Google gods to look down on your post as being done correctly and sending traffic your way for said post, as well as, for your blog in general.  So, very important and if you are on WordPress, here is a plugin that I spoke about that can help to do this for all your No Follow link needs, here

7.  Let the Company Know Your Post Is Live for Sponsored Posts –

Once your post is indeed live, you will want to let the company know, so they can pay you if this is a paid sponsored post, as well as, share on their own company social networks with others who follow their company.  This is crucial for I do believe if you are owned compensation, you would want to indeed be paid and also the traffic you could get from the company themselves is also very beneficial to your site, as well.  This bring me to #8!

8.  Share, share, share!!! –

Sharing is essential to getting a sponsored post out there.  So, you will indeed want to share all across your social networks to get as much exposure for the social post.  Remember the pinnable image created earlier, this will very much help, when sharing your post and getting it seen more then not.

And there you have it with tips to help you when writing and sharing to get as much exposure, as well as get out of the sponsored post experience.

Happy writing (and hopefully money making, too) now!

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