Those of you that have used Blogger Tuesday will know we help you find blogging opportunities every week. It’s a simple concept: you give us your email address, and we send an email every Tuesday with pitches from brands offering paid blogging opportunities. Pick the campaigns you want to work on and you could secure the project and earn money.
Of course, this isn’t a magic platform that automatically generates money in your bank account. We simply send you the opportunities; it’s up to you to make the most out of them. In this post, we’ll show some tips to boost the chances of brands wanting to work with you, meaning you can make more money!
Tip 1: Define your blogging audience
Every blog should have a target audience that’s clearly defined. This will be a group or demographic that your blog is aimed at.
So, begin by defining your target audience – who is likely to be interested in your blog. This will depend on what you write about. For example, a blog about men’s fashion is likely to be targeted at a predominantly male demographic, probably of a certain age.
Why is this important? Because it helps brands know who reads your blog. They can see if your target audience matches theirs, so you could be a perfect fit. Without clearly defining your target audience, it’s less likely brands will work with you as they don’t see how they’ll benefit.
Tip 2: Create valuable content
The next tip is equally simple: create valuable content that people want to read.
A blog is useless if it doesn’t have posts that contain valuable information. Whether it’s tips and tricks, opinions, guides or whatever; valuable content draws in a regular audience. Not only that, but it helps you make the most of your blogging opportunities by displaying your capabilities to brands.
Businesses are way more inclined to pay a blogger that produces high-quality content than one with low-quality posts. They have more faith that you’re capable of actually writing stuff that helps their campaigns.
Our pro tip is to think about your audience. What content will they want to read? Do a bit of research to see what rival blogs are posting about, then design content around similar ideas/topics. Always ensure that the reader leaves the post gaining something from it!
If you need some extra help, we have a whole blog dedicated to writing engaging blog posts.
Tip 3: Gain more web traffic
We find that brands typically want to work with bloggers that have decent-sized audiences. They seek out blogs with plenty of web traffic, meaning more eyes will be on the posts you create for them. It’s a simple equation of more traffic equals more possibilities to generate leads for the business.
If you’re only getting 50 or 60 views per day on your blog, you’re going to struggle to find blogging opportunities. When we send our email, it’s unlikely that any of the brands will want to work with you if you contact them as you don’t really offer them anything.
Instead, you need to go away and work really hard on generating more web traffic. Obviously, we could write an entire in-depth article on this topic as there are so many things to consider.
Instead, here are a few tips to get started:
- Optimise your blog for search engines
- Work on on-page SEO like your site structure, using relevant keywords, creating meta descriptions, improving page speed, etc…
- Improve off-page SEO like link building to improve your domain authority
- Share your blog posts on social media to generate more views
- Share your blog posts on other blogging networks
- Write guest blogs on other sites to direct traffic back to your site (also a good way to build backlinks)
- Invest in paid advertising to promote your blog on Google
Slowly but surely, you create a blog that sees more traffic every day. The crucial element of all of this is to always make good content. We touched upon it earlier, but you have to be consistent. If you consistently churn out valuable content and work on the points listed above, you will gain more traffic.
As a result, brands will be more interested in working with you, so you make the most of the blogging opportunities presented. Instead of getting turned down, you’ll have to turn down some work because you’re too busy!
Tip 4: Work with brands that align with your personal brand
We kind of danced around this idea in Tip 1, but the main point is that you should work with brands that align with your blog.
What this means is you look for blogging opportunities that actually relate to what you write about. Imagine your blog is all about fitness and healthy eating. Do you think it makes sense to seek out blogging opportunities from fast-food brands or brands with nothing to do with your content?
No, and you won’t gain anything from them at all. Brands want to pay bloggers that can drive lead generation and possibly influence sales. So, they will work with you if your blog matches what they’re promoting. The closer you are to one another, the more likely it is you’ll get paid.
More than that, brands will pay bigger bucks to bloggers they feel will generate the best return on their investment. In the previous example, a protein powder company is likely to pay you a lot of money to create content on your fitness blog. Your target audience is perfect for them, so they know they’re going to get more leads than if they worked with a different blog that doesn’t have the same niche audience.
This is why our first tip is so important as you define your audience to know which brands are the best to work with. Then, when we send out blogging opportunities, pick the companies that strongly align with your personal brand.
Tip 5: Join affiliate marketing programs
An affiliate marketing program is when companies pay you to promote their goods/services. Yes, some of the blogging opportunities we hook you up with will be similar to this. The difference is that literally anyone can join an affiliate program. All you do is get a special link, and then whenever someone clicks on your link and buys something from the company, you get a commission fee.
How does this help you make the most of your blogging opportunities?
Well, it shows potential brands that you already have an influence. Sure, regular web traffic is great and they’ll love your impressive viewership. However, they’re truly interested in your power as an influencer.
If you can show them how much money you’re making from affiliate programs or how many sales you’ve helped generate via your blog posts, they’ll be super inclined to work with you. To be honest, this almost puts the ball in your court when you contact the brand. You can provide all of this evidence showing them just how influential you are. It lets them have an idea of how much they can gain from this partnership. Thus, you could be paid more than initially expected – and you may be lined up for repeat gigs.
Tip 6: Learn how to create content for brands
Finally, you will never make the most of blogging opportunities if you don’t know how to create content for brands.
When you receive an opportunity, read through the brief entirely. Look at what the brand wants you to do, paying close attention to all the key points and essential things they wish to include. If they want you to write about a particular topic, research that topic as best as possible.
From here, you want to create an excellent blog post that doesn’t harm the brand in any way. Don’t write something controversial or talk about topics that conflict with the brand’s interests. Also, avoid promoting rival companies in your outbound links – brands hate this.
If you followed the previous tips, you should have no trouble writing content for brands. They should have a similar audience to yours, so your tone won’t need to change that much. Oh, and one final thing: always submit your work or publish it on time.
The whole purpose of this tip is to ensure you make a good impression. This helps you secure more gigs and get more paid opportunities in the future.
Conclusion
We will always set you up with paid blogging opportunities every Tuesday. But, it’s your job to make the most of them. The advice in this guide will help you create a blog that’s every brand’s dream. You’ll be in the best possible position to communicate with brands about opportunities and secure lots of paid work.
Once you’ve taken advantage of a few paid opportunities, it’s highly likely you’ll get more and more!
