Love it or hate it blogging has become a business for many of us. But blogging is such new frontier that there are few set rules and even fewer guidelines on how to do it the right way. There are so many little tips and tricks and ins and outs of this crazy world that I want to share with everyone what I have learned along my journey.
You should know that I am not the expert in all of this but I have a few morsels of awesome I want to pass along.
You may or may not remember this post about Ways You Can Make Money Blogging.
I highlighted a few companies that I work with to bring in some flowski (as Court calls it).
One of which was Social Spark.
For those of you who don’t know what Social Spark is here is the readers digest version:
Social Spark is an ad network where you write sponsored blog posts about a certain company or subject.
I Love Social Spark because you set your price and then they send you offers from all different types of companies. You can either accept or decline the offer. You have no obligation to post something that isn’t in line with your content. They tell you in advance how much each campaign is worth. They range anywhere from $5.00 to hundreds. They work with a lot of large reputable brands and have AMAZING customer (blogger) service.
Because they have such a wide offering you just have to make sure that you are blogging with what you feel comfortable with. I get offers daily from Social Spark. Most have nothing to do with my blog so I don’t accept them. You can determine for yourself what is right for your blog. I just choose to keep mine on the topic of my niche.
You can see an example of a post I did that was sponsored by Social Spark and Pier 1 here.
But here is some info that I can pretty much guarantee you haven’t found even if you are apart of Social Spark.
Did you know that they give an estimate of what a sponsored post is worth based on your blog’s analytics?!
Once you sign up with Social Spark and link your analytics to their site it will give you an amount of what your posts are worth to sponsors!!
Really quick here is how you find it.
Log into your Social Spark Dashboard. Click on Your Properties.
Then click on Edit Property:
Then scroll down to #3. That will give you an estimate of what your post is worth based on your stats. You need to remember that SS works in points not $, so count one penny for each point.
The question then becomes, will companies pay that? The suggested price for Vintage Revivals was much much higher than I thought it would be. You should know that I have not been paid the amount that my suggested price is, but knowing what it is has significantly improved my confidence when I work with brands and on other Social Spark campaigns. I am not scared to negotiate because the brands see what my suggested post price is and they know they are getting a deal!
When you work with Social Spark you have the control to blog about what YOU want, there is NO obligation to post if you don’t want to. I love that. I feel like I am in complete control. You actually have a say in your prices, and work with really great brands. You can sign up here. Good Luck!!
Love Your Guts, Mandi
In the spirit of full disclosure I will receive referral credit if you sign up with Social Spark. But truly all opinions are 10000% mine yo.
THANK YOU FOR POSTING THIS! We signed up for Social Spark a while ago but really don’t know how to use it 🙂 We have our preferred compensation set to the default (500 points–$5) and I just went and checked our suggested price per post and I was blown away!! It was A LOT more! Thank you for giving us the confidence we need to start working with some of these companies. As of now we have zero advertising on our blog, but we’re hoping after SNAP we’ll be able to figure out what we want to do before we jump in to all of that 🙂 Thanks again Mandi!
LOVE this – didn’t know they did this!! Mine was a LOT more…good to know! Doesn’t mean I’ll get that…but it’s a good self-esteem boost 🙂
Thanks so much for this Mandi! I am in the sponge mode, trying to absorb as much information on blogging as I can, to help get mine rolling. This is something I can’t really worry about too much now, but will be bookmarking to come back to later!
Thanks for posting this info! I signed up for Social Spark way back and still haven’t found a sponsor that actually has anything to do with my blog. They seem very random at best. I’ll have to do some more homework.
Thanks for the info!
Really interesting- thanks for sharing!
Thanks for sharing! I signed up today 🙂
Oh what a great post! I need to go and read your other blogging $ posts again. I read them a couple months ago and it just kinda went over my head but recently I have been thinking about that stuff more. I guess once you get going with blogging and things start to click and make sense, it’s easier to comprehend 🙂 What do you mean when you say, “set your price” ? Do you just pick a price to charge and then negotiate from there?
Thanks so much for this info. I’m so new to all this blogging stuff that I actually feel like I have to take a blogging class!
Thanks for the helpful info! I am quite new to the blog world and would like to eventually grow over time. This is very helpful for future use. Love your posts!!
Thank you sooooo much for posting this! I already signed up. It is kind of you to share this with others!
http://www.createyourdecor.blogspot.com
Excellent post!
Thank you for sharing this. I have been sigend up but have not seen any deals was a good fit for my site. A few questions:: How long did you blog before you signed up for Social Spark–how many page hits did you have at that time? How long did it take before you received opportunities?
https://gosimplysavvy.com/blog
I REALLY commend you for constantly share really good and solid advice to those of us that are struggling to get our blogs going. It is very generous of you. Thanks.
I’m so sad because WordPress.com doesn’t allow Google Analytics! So I can’t sign up. Does anyone know an alternative?
Great info, as always!! TY for sharing your wealth of awesome knowledge with us. 🙂 Cindy, I have wordpress (self hosted tho) and I have google analytics.
Hey, Mandi! Didja know? You can get a li’l extra $$ by referring people, so you can change your sign up “here” link to the referral link they give you, and that’ll up your referrals! It might feel better if you mention that that’s where the link goes, but I don’t think anyone’d mind!
OK, I remember when you wrote about this before & I was too chicken to sign up. I did this time though! Thank you for your help. Looking forward to seeing you at SNAP!
Warmly, Michelle