Sep 11, 2012 |
Recently, I asked my friend Ann of Doodles and Jots how she was able to get a certain company to sponsor a giveaway on her blog. Her reply was simply, “I asked.”
Okay. You’re right. It wasn’t that simple. But it was close. She told me she found a company that she thought would be more willing to sponsor. She contacted them with her proposal, and after a few months of negotiating emails and phone calls, she had her first giveaway!
Giveaways are great. It’s a way to bring more traffic to your Blog and show off your other skills. Companies pay attention to how thorough you review product; what your presentation style is; and whether your photographs compliment their product.
I’ve previously self-sponsored giveaways for books and gift packs, but recently started to seek Corporate Sponsorship. My first two, Aroma Housewares and Scharffen Berger, were exceptionally helpful. They both cross-promoted the Giveaways on twitter and Facebook. Which led to more Blog traffic.
Which, as any Blogger can tell you, is the ultimate goal of Blogging. I’m no longer lowest on the totem pole when it comes to being noticed. This comes in handy when I seek sponsorship from other companies.
I have a basic format to follow when emailing these companies. First, introductions are important. I tell them who I am, what my Blog is, and why I’m writing them (to seek sponsorship). Then I mention numbers. How many unique daily readers do I have? Approximately how many views per month? These numbers are important. I also let them know that these numbers are growing every day. I reference past reviews and giveaways that I’ve done (including links to the most recent post), and offer to review and promote their product. If there’s a specific product I’m interested in, I say so. Otherwise, I’ll leave that to their discretion. Finally, I tell them which social media sites I’m active on so they know how their Sponsorship will be promoted. I end by thanking them for their consideration, and sign off with my name, email address, and Blog site.
As for companies to contact, I try to stick with ones I’m familiar with. For my first Giveaway, I offered to review a product I already had (the Aroma Housewares’ Rice Cooker). All they had to do was agree to offer one to a random winner. It worked!
Soon after, I contact Scharffen Berger and they immediately responded with a better offer: They sent me eight assorted bars of their Artisan Chocolates and offered to provide the same to TWO winners!
There’s no tried-and-true formula for seeking Sponsors. The bigger Blogs (She’s Becoming DoughMessTic being one of my favorites) pretty much doesn’t have to seek out sponsorship. She’s so well-known, so well-put-together, that companies seek her reviews.
I asked Susan of DoughMessTic how she did it, and she advised to follow through. Respond to every email. Follow up. Be polite. And promote, promote, promote!
“Pinterest/Twitter/FB. Use them. Ask friends to help promote.
Do a good job for the sponsor, more will come.”
It was affirming to know that I’m already Doing It Right. I’m reaching out, I’m keeping in touch, and I’m definitely seeking promotion through various social networks.
I Googled “How to Get Blog Sponsors”. While most sites state the obvious “Ask” as their Number One rule, I came across this little gem as well: Post it on the Blog. Seriously. Who woulda thought to write on the Blog itself
“Hey! This Blog Needs Sponsors!”
How much more basic than that can a Blogger get?
Well, I’ve definitely been asking. And getting some remarkably wonderful results. I’m working on a Holiday Gift Basket Giveaway for early November, and while I’m still hammering out the small details, I’ve several sponsors on board already with a few more in negotiations. On top of the ones I haven’t heard back from yet. But I think it will be great.
I don’t want to name names just yet. I want to get a few more attached to this Shin-Dig before the Great Reveal. But trust me. It’s worth sticking around for.
Oh. And if you know of a company who might appreciate a good review and want to sponsor a giveaway, send them my way, would ya? Because
THIS BLOG NEEDS SPONSORS!
Thanks.
And Frankly, My Dear… that’s all she wrote!
Sep 10, 2012 |
Recently, I’ve been asked for my Blog Button. I realized I didn’t have one. How terrible! A Blog Button is a Brand. It’s a digital calling card. It lets people know who you are and how to find you. It’s like having a Blog on speed dial.
Some Buttons are more detailed than others. Some are simple. But all are recognizable. I began scouting around for a photo or image I could use. Because Buttons are small in size in order to fit on a Blog’s sidebar (that column to the left or right of your main articles), I wanted something a little simple yet descriptive.
It took a little time, but I think I’ve captured the essence of who I am, and what my Blog is.
Anyone who wants to share my blog just needs to copy the coding text in the box under the photo, and post it to their own Blog! Their link will have just the photo, not the coding. How’s that for advertising?!
Now for the How-To’s. It’s really not at all as difficult as I thought it would be. In fact, I’m not a computer geek AT ALL (well, maybe just a little), so for me to be able to do this by my own research… that should definitely tell you this is easy-peasy!
1. Choose your image. Make sure you have the rights to the photo, or have paid for licensing (my Button image came from Shutterstock, I added the personal photo and all text). Save it to your computer desktop. Even if you have it in your digital photos, I recommend saving a second copy to manipulate without fear of losing the original.
2. Find an online photo editing service. I like Photobucket. It’s free. It’s easy. It allows for creative editing and photo correcting. Create an account if you haven’t already, and upload your image to your online album for editing. Be sure to save when you’re finished. [You can also edit the photo on your computer if you have Photoshop or PowerPoint. Upload the finished image to your online photo album.]
3. Open the image online and make sure it looks like you want it to. THIS PART IS REALLY IMPORTANT! Make sure to save your image to a small size. Buttons are typically 150 x 150 pixels. Most sidebars allow for 200 pixels so you definitely don’t want anything wider than that or it won’t fit. Resize your finished image, and save it to your online album.
4. Open the image again. You’ll see a box list of coding. Select the “HTML code” and copy the entire code. Paste it into a Word Document. [In the image below, this is identified as “Original Coding’].
5. Between the first two quotation marks (“), delete the link and replace it with your Blog home address. Otherwise, it will link back to your online photo only. [In the image below, It’s highlighted as “YOUR_BLOG_HOME_HERE” for your example.]
6. Directly underneath all this code, you’ll want to add the Additional Coding. [In order for you to visibly see it, I had to post it as a photo image. Otherwise, it would act as code, which isn’t helpful for learning.]
7. Where the red link and highlights read “ENTIRE_ABOVE_CODING_HERE”, delete whatever is between the two quotation marks (“) and replace it with the ENTIRE original coding. Make sure the two coding sections are right on top of each other. [See the last section in the image above: “END CODING should look similar to this:”
8. I recommend saving this coding in a Word document for future reference. You can use it as a template for making more badges and buttons for your Blog.
9. To add the Button to your Blog: add the text in HTML format for either a Post or a Widget, and save.
10. If you add it as a Blog Post in HTML, do NOT revert to “visual” post editing before saving. This will invalidate some of the HTML and you’ll have to re-add the coding to make it work.
That’s it! I hope this keeps you from experiencing the headaches I had when trying to find this information. Please let me know if this helped you or if you had problems with my instructions.
And Frankly, My Dear… that’s all she wrote!
Sep 9, 2012
[NOTE: You can find links to all My Housing Project posts here.]
When the Fruitless Mulberry was cut down a year ago, the remaining roots started to wither and unlevel the underground. So as I worked on pulling up the Mock Orange root ball, Dot sat in the shade and began to pull up roots.
Dot’s Hard Work
Pulling Up Roots
It’s exciting to find actual soil mixing up as well; that will make planting next year so much easier for both myself and the new plants.
As one led to another, she was careful to not dissect the largest root; but rather keep it intact until the end of the day. The little dried up feeder roots were easily pulled, but the thicker ones took some effort.
Thick Roots
So Lizzie Cat got involved.
Lizzie Helps Dot
At day’s end, this is the result of Dot’s hard work:
Roots
I can’t wait to get out there and rake the ground level again. And then work on another section of the yard.
And Frankly, My Dear… that’s all she wrote!
