There have been some misunderstandings perpetuated lately about how much money successful mommybloggers make. Because most of the really successful ones will not talk about how much they make except off the record, it is easy to assume that everyone who mommyblogs is fighting over gigs that are worth a few hundred bucks a post at most: those are the people who respond to a general call on Twitter about rates for sponsored posts. But saying that this represents what successful mommybloggers make is like saying that you can judge the salary of a working actor by the extra who works as a waitress at nights to make ends meet.
The people who are making the real money are not talking about it publicly. They are not talking about it because the amount of money they make for these posts is jaw-dropping.
For bloggers who are doing it professionally, sponsored posts pay very very well. You probably don’t even know how well unless you happen to be one of those bloggers, or unless you have access to one of them. For example, in a recent post about how much money mommybloggers make, there was a bit about a blogger who claimed to have a million pageviews per month and who charged one thousand dollars for a sponsored post. I received a direct message on Twitter from somebody who knows how much these posts pay which said, “The fact that this blogger would charge only $1,000 for a sponsored post proves that she cannot possibly have a million pageviews.” Because if she really had a million pageviews, she would probably be charging at least $5,000 for a sponsored post. Or else in the market for new representation.
So you can see why turning down sponsored posts would be very difficult for bloggers to do. A few hours (tops) of work for several thousand dollars? It would be tough to find a writing gig that rivaled that return rate.
The problem is that all but the most dedicated of fans tends to be turned off by sponsored content, and I assume this is why these posts pay so well. I used to think that well-placed ads and professionally done placements would temper this effect, but recent months have shown this might not be the case. Is it that readers begrudge the blogger making money? Perhaps in some cases, but generally I think it has more to do with an authenticity 
problem: people who are attracted to blogs tend to like the personal, unpolished touch that differentiates blogs from magazines. Sponsored content gets in the way of that, and some audiences are more tolerant than others of the distance.
Whether you are a big blogger or a smaller blogger, you should keep this problem in mind when deciding to do a sponsored post. The larger bloggers need to worry about how many they can do before the audience turns off completely, and the smaller ones should probably be turning down most of (if not all of) the small offers if they ever want to be one of the people entertaining a large offer.
I knew those numbers had to be low. HAD to be. The 75.00 to a few hundred per post implied so fervently as a “going” rate could not possibly be worth the effort, risking the loss of readership, or the commercialization of one’s voice. As you mention, a MILLION page views is only worth 1,000? Come on. Ads in magazines or other traditional media don’t usually involve people whom a reader feels close to, as in the more personal relationship many bloggers seek to form with their readers., whether that is a genuine reaching out or a manipulated attempt at a cash grab. I think Amalah , with her American Cancer Society posts does it extremely well. It is a very natural relationship with a reputable sponsor and terrific writing skills. no way she charges < 1,000 per post nor should she. I just don't see a similar high quality integration of sponsored posts in other blogs. I really dislike the cutesy "aw, shucks" tone of most other sponsored posts, in particular, the clumsy attempt to pretend the post isn't an ad until the tiny disclosure at the end. .
I'm so glad to see you writing again, welcome back.
As a blogger who does receive nearly a million pageviews a month, it isn’t unheard of to not get paid even $1,000, and definitely not $5,000. I am not saying it isn’t possible that it happens but my guess is it is more rare than you think. Even if you have that big of an audience and influence, companies with that kind of money that are willing to throw it in the internet arena are few and far between in comparison to companies that are still throwing that kind of money towards traditional media. I just felt like i needed to throw that in. Of course, if you know those companies, feel free to send them my way.
For those of us not following this as closely, is there any way to find out the identity of “a blogger who claimed to have a million pageviews per month and who charged one thousand dollars for a sponsored post”? Maybe you can do it somehow without linking, since that’s for some reason not desirable. I just want all the facts–but without an exhaustive Google search…
And, on the topic of sponsored posts, I usually dislike them. I imagine most readers do. I did, however, appreciate Heather Armstrong’s post about Ikea. I didn’t find it obnoxious, personally. Maybe it helps that I already like Ikea. (Which does me no particular credit; I gather it’s the biggest furniture maker in the world and guilty of all manner of environmental sins. Perhaps it’s that the products are so design-y yet soothingly Swedish, and, of course, inexpensive…)
There was a post on Babble Momcrunch about sponsored posts. Maybe about two weeks ago? Several bloggers said their pageviews and other stats, plus what they charged per post.
I have such a hard time with sponsored content on my own site. I know it’s a turn off, but a hundred bucks is a hundred bucks….forget about $5000. For $5000 I would call my own self a whore on my blog. I try to limit the sponsored posts to once a month and just cross my fingers that anyone following my blog will buck up, leave a comment telling the brand they’re rad, and help me make some easy money.
Which raises another interesting topic…I can’t tell you how many times I’ve received group emails or messages in private Facebook groups from friends asking everyone to comment on a sponsored blog post. Authenticity? Dude, half those comments were favors fulfilled by friends to help make them look good in the eyes of the brand.
Smoke and mirrors.
Yeah, and don’t get me started on the purchased facebook fans, twitter followers, etc. It’s all kind of feeding into a sense of phoniness. I don’t know if it wrecks the blog’s ability to continue to make money, but it cannot be good.
I read about people buying Twitter followers on Get Off My Internets. I assume this is a dirty little secret. Do you think this accounts for Dooce’s huge Twitter following? I’ve always been curious about that.
How does this even work — buying twitter or facebook follower?
There are companies that do this — you pay them a certain amount of money for x number of followers. The accounts are just fake, they just inflate your numbers to make you look influential.
I think Dooce would have a large following no matter what. Having said that, there are few celebrities that even have 1.5 million followers, so it does make one wonder. I have absolutely no knowledge of this being true or anything other than gossip, of course. And I should say that if she (or anyone else) *had* purchased twitter followers, I’m not sure it was a bad business decision, as that number gets trotted out all the time as evidence of her influence. At some point, I think it becomes irrelevant whether it’s true or not.
Wow – I’m SO new.. I didn’t even know any of this!
On the flip side, in the Aus sponsored post market, it appears that even bloggers with larger traffic numbers can’t seem to charge any more than a couple of hundred for a sponsored post. No one wants to pay it yet (is it because we all suck? Probably)
It may be just that it’s new and untested. I doubt that sponsored posts were paying this well initially — particularly because most of the bigger bloggers who get these huge dollar amounts were unwililng to do sponsored posts up until about 1 1/2 years ago or so.
Interesting post. I normally filter out the offered sponsored posts, based on my niche and readership. If it’s informational, related, and you don’t have to lie about it, why not?
Well, because it might turn off readers.
I have stopped reading blogs when I notice that sponsored posts are taking over. I’m not against them – do whatever you want on your own blog. However, you have to weigh the consequences of losing readers against the money you make. I almost ALWAYS completely skip a post that is sponsored. They just aren’t interesting, which is what it all comes down to. There are a few blogs where sponsored posts are good reading, including Enjoying the Small Things. She can make a Hallmark sponsored post be interesting, fitting it in with the style of her other posts. Most bloggers can’t do that. I don’t mind Dooce’s IKEA posts becaue I love IKEA. I don’t really read them fully – mainly just look at the pictures.
I’ve been annoyed, lately, at all the Babycenter sponsored posts. It is possible that I don’t understand how it works. I notice that the ones I hate are all tagged ‘Products’, so maybe it is my mistake to assume that those posts SHOULDN’T all be sponsored. They are so boring and noninformative.
If a blogger is talented enough to write a good quality sponsored post that people actually read, then good for them. However, as a regular old reader (non-blogger) – my opinion about it is that most sponsored posts are boring and if you do them a lot, I will lose a bit of respect for you (not that I hold it against you, I just don’t enjoy them) and might stop reading if it is too frequent.
I’d like to add that I really think the post TITLE should include “(sponsored)” in it so that we can make the decision up front about whether we’d like to read it. Again, I know how my bloggers write and I know whose sponsored posts I am willing to read.
Laura
I think that the frequency people do sponsored posts makes a huge difference. Unfortunately, ad buys tend to cluster around certain times of the year, so they don’t have complete control over that if they want to do them. The holiday season is particularly bad for this — half my reader looks as if it has been taken over by Kraft for a month at a time.
If blogging is how you make your money then why shouldn’t a blogger do sponsored posts? If you’ve worked hard enough at blogging, are witty and smart enough and a good enough writer to get enough page views to generate that kind of income from a sponsored post, then I say you’re stupid not to do it. If you don’t like sponsored posts don’t read them. It really is that simple. Blogging daily is WORK — and no I do not have a blog — but if I did and I was successful you’d better believe I’d jump on the sponsored ad bandwagon. WHY NOT? Everyone wants to be compensated for hard work, don’t they? I can’t even imagine writing a daily post — finding enough interesting content to have folks keep coming back DAILY for a dose of MY writing. If Ikea came to me and offered me the chance to redo a room in my house on the basis of page views, I wouldn’t turn them down. Find me a blogger who would. Really. Find me someone. Being a top blogger is more than just luck folks. They’re making big BIG money because they have a good work ethic, are witty and smart, and are good writers — some of them hellish good writers. Monica, from the blog The Girl Who sometimes makes me laugh out loud while reading her blog — I say she should take every single sponsored post that comes her way. Its my choice to read them or not, but she’s gotta make a living and feed her family. Never mind the fact that I think we should be supporting successful women in BUSINESS, no matter what business they choose to do. And blogging can be a good business.
I don’t think Anna’s saying that people shouldn’t write sponsored posts and in fact is explaining why they actually do them (ie, they pay much more than everyday readers had imagined). But she’s also articulating the very real risk bloggers take of alienating readers when they do sponsored posts.
I’m so glad you’re back to blogging, Anna — you’re able to provide the kind of context that I can’t get anywhere else. This post was fascinating and explains so much about why it might seem worth it to have sponsored content. I don’t read it when it appears on my favorite blogs because for much of what I read (design blogs) I’m interested in the very particular point of view of the writer and when it’s a sponsored post I know that it isn’t their taste/view/voice, they’re just being paid to slap sponsored content into that slot.
That said, an occasional blogger can pull it off. My favorite gossip blog (Lainey Gossip) has sponsored posts and I read them because they’re usually just as thoughtful and funny as the non-sponsored kind, plus she often leaves clues to Blind Items there. So, I guess I am, in turn, whoring myself out as a reader: ok, I will read this if I get some gossipy nuggets
Yes. Exactly. The loss of readership has happened on more than a few blogs at this point. That’s all I’m pointing out. Do sponsored posts, particularly if they pay this well, but know what you might be doing to your audience numbers.
This seems really defensive, and I’m not sure why. I’ve noticed that people lose readers when they do sponsored posts. They can go ahead and do them anyway, I have no problem with that. They should just do so with the knowledge that it might turn people off. I’m glad they’re making money, and I’m not sure that anything I wrote suggests otherwise.
the payment for sponsored post is so interesting – i have a low-traffic blog and the times i have been paid for sponsored content i feel like the company just wants the link for search, they don’t really care who reads the post, comments on it, etc.
There are many companies who are, indeed, paying for a link to increase their SEO. This is something that you should beware of when agreeing to ads and sponsored posts with a smaller blog. Google can penalize you for this kind of thing if your ads aren’t properly marked.
i have even been hearing lately google will penalize you even if you do mark as ads!
I think it really depends on the blogger. I hate sponsored posts when they are very in your face about it. “Hello this is a sponsored post. I love this product because I’m being paid to tell you so. Don’t you love it too?” But I don’t mind it when a blogger can weave a real post around sponsored content. I find that Casey from Moosh in Indy does it really well. Her Hallmark posts rarely make you realize you’re reading a sponsored post until you get to the end. And I completely agree that I won’t read blogs that are almost entirely reviews and giveaways. I really wonder who does and how they get enough viewings to get sponsors to give them things. It’s a huge turn off.
Also. I can’t believe bloggers make that much money doing that, its kind of gross.
I can understand why the disclosure is awkward, but I have to disagree on letting you go to the end until you find out it’s sponsored. You need to know when you are being marketed to in order to make an informed decision. And most readers seem to prefer the disclosure up front from what I have seen.
It’s getting harder to accept some sponsored opps because many companies are asking for A TON of work relative to what they pay. I lost a gig because I don’t have a Facebook page specifically for my blog and I wouldn’t cross promote on my personal page. Between blog posts, Facebook updates, Tweets, Goolge+ posts and now Pinerest, the opportunity has to really make sense for me to take it. Which is why I’m not making money off the blog itself but rather the work that comes from my online presence.
That sounds like a good plan. I don’t think, personally, it’s worth all this social media cross-platform crap.
This is what I don’t understand — if you read a blog, like the writer and support the blog(ger) why can’t you support a once in awhile sponsored post. You read their writing for free on a daily basis — a sponsored post is the least you can do to support a person/blog. I don’t think bloggers should apologize or feel the need to apologize for making money on their blog by doing an occasional sponsored post. Its good business sense.
I understand completely that Anna is not making judgment but rather giving information.
I support the blogger by reading a blog filled with advertising (anyone who does sponsored posts also has advertising) that pops up (despite pop-up blockers), or blinks on and off from the sides of the page or between posts. I click on their posts so that they can use those clicks to get more advertising. I comment for the same reason. And I support the blogger by reading their posts on other blogs and commenting there, which helps them to get paid gigs elsewhere.
No one thinks that bloggers shouldn’t be able to make money, or should apologize for doing so — it’s simply not good business sense to have sponsored posts — that’s Anna’s point. It may make a blogger quick cash, but unless they’re a big, commercial outfit, it will alienate readers. Maybe that won’t be the case years from now, but at this particular point in the evolution of blogs and blogging that’s the way it is.
In some cases I don’t think it’s even an intellectual choice. If you asked the reader if they want the blogger to make money, nearly all of them would say yes. But that doesn’t mean they want to keep wading through sponsored posts, and it also doesn’t help the fact that the authenticity of the blogger tends to get eroded a bit from the presence of too many brands. It might not be how it *should* be, but it is the way it *Is.* If you look at comments from readers who are fed up with a blog’s sponsored posts, you will note they nearly always say something about not knowing what is “real” anymore. It gets in the way of the relationship the audience feels they have with the blogger, and this is a key component to why people read blogs.
I think “wading through sponsored posts” is a slight exaggeration. Rarely do I spend time wading though any sponsored posts and I read a lot of blogs, with ABDPBT being one of my more favorite. Also the “authenticity of the blogger tends to get eroded a bit from the presence of too many brands.” I disagree. This isn’t rocket science. I give bloggers a little more credit than that. A successful blogger knows their audience; they also know its not in their best interest to sponsor a post that is far far removed from who they are or what they believe in. And if they don’t, I’m pretty sure their audience will be happy to tell them, or their readership will dramatically fall.
I guess the bottom line for me is that for some people blogging is a business — expected or not, this is how they now make their money. If I find a sponsored post annoying I just don’t read it, but I also don’t click the unfollow button either.
“for some people blogging is a business — expected or not, this is how they now make their money.”
Right, and businesses have customers.The thing about blogging as a business, and about sponsored posts in particular, is that one big set of “customers” is not, in fact the group shelling out the cash to keep the business afloat. But while losing your reader-customers means you’ll likely lose your sponsor-customers eventually, it doesn’t really work the other way around. The bloggers who are skilled at sponsored posts are the ones that are best at balancing both those kinds of customers.
And certainly bloggers are entitled to make money from their blogs. But nobody is entitled to make money just because they have a blog.
When people who are obvious iPhone devotees are writing sponsored posts about Droids, yeah, they are eroding their authenticity.
This comment made me laugh. I totally agree! Most of the time, sponsored posts are fine and I can name a few bloggers who I think do them really well (Moosh in Indy, Girls Gone Child) and in a way that still feels authentic. However, I do remember last year when all the droid/Windows phone posts were going up that I thought “what a scam is this!” Many of the bloggers doing them had mentioned on numerous occassions how much they loved there Apple products including I-phones so it was obvious they were just trying to make money. There is absolutely nothing wrong with making money but in this instance, they were marketing a product that I felt they didn’t really like and/or support so therefore I was extremely turned off. This means, I didn’t enter their drawings to possibly when a product. I didn’t go to a store and check out the product. I didn’t research the product on the internet. In fact, it really backfired for the company because I thought “wow, this product must really suck if they are paying people who don’t actually use it to talk about it and give it away. So, in closing… sponsored posts are fine, but like every business decision, all the pros and cons should be weighed prior to taking the work.