Meet My Sponsors

 

 

Obtaining sponsors for my blog was a lot like applying for jobs... I remember applying for teaching jobs just a couple of years ago. I contacted every principal of every school in every county within sixty miles of my hometown with an email that basically said, "Hey, I'm Katherine, I'm graduating soon, I can teach high school English, please give me a chance." I scored several interviews that way and, ultimately, landed my first job as a high school English teacher. Getting my blog sponsored basically worked the same way but at a much slower pace.

I dove back into my blog in late April and began looking for opportunities to expand by July. I began emailing all sorts of companies/businesses/brands that I love (many were from baby products I'd purchased as we prepared for Vaught's arrival), and I offered to write reviews for them for either small compensation or just general advertisement of my blog. I was enthusiastic and ready to help them in any way I could in exchange for pretty much anything they could offer me or my blog. I was turned down. A lot. Many representatives didn't respond to my emails, while others simply thanked me for my kind words and said they appreciate my positive review but that they weren't offering any special incentives or commissions at the time.

In October, I finally decided to try a different approach by checking some of my favorite online businesses for affiliate programs. Bingo. I signed up for as many as I could and by mid-December, I had scored several different sponsors! In a nutshell, I signed up by submitting some form of application, and my blog was inspected for authenticity and general appeal. I was also required to submit a screenshot of my Google Analytics page to prove that I have an adequate amount of readers. Once approved (and I've not yet been turned down, thankfully!), I agreed to advertise their business on my blog in my sidebars in exchange for pay-per-click commission and/or sales commissions.

If you're viewing my blog from a mobile device I don't believe you can see these, but if you're on a desktop or laptop, you'll notice the ads on the right side of my blog. The banners you see are the companies who sponsor my blog. Basically, if you click on these adds and shop these websites by doing so, you're not only benefiting the business, you're helping me and this lovely little blog out as well. So, if you're a big Zulily, ModCloth, Shutterfly, TinyPrints, or Lulu's shopper, please shop with these amazing businesses from my blog. All you need to do is simply visit my blog and click the links to these websites by clicking on their banner in my sidebar. Another perk to becoming an affiliate for these companies? I will often receive exclusive deals and coupons that I can release for my followers and readers to use. Be sure to hit me up about any promotions before you shop!

Why Bloggers Need Sponsors

I don't want anyone to be confused and think that Keeping Pace is suddenly going to get overrun by posts where I try to sell you something every day. If you're following me on Facebook or Instagram, I also promise to not spam your feed with promotions and deals every day. This is a lifestyle blog, and the main posts you'll find here are ones about my life and things going on in it, everything from my fitness journey to my trials and tribulations of being a new mother. As a blogger, advertising for these companies, and others when given the opportunity, will help ensure that my blog stays free and will allow me to expand to even more readers. I've said before that I don't understand how people make blogging a career; that's definitely not what I'm trying to do. Several people have emailed me/text messaged me to find out how I'm bringing in money from blogging. Please believe me when I say that it's not a significantly large amount! At all! I definitely could not quit my day job just to be a blogger. If one day this things really takes off, then yeah, I would consider it, but don't plan on that anytime soon! Have sponsors will mainly help me to expand my readership and branch out to even more audiences... from a blogger's perspective (and I think I can officially call myself a blogger now), that is very much a good thing!

It Is a Job

If there's one thing that I do want my followers and readers to know it's that keeping up a blog is most definitely a job! I can almost compare it to being an athletics or club sponsor as a teacher; you get a small supplement but not nearly enough for all the work you're truly putting in. I absolutely love writing so blogging comes naturally, but I also work extremely hard to make sure that the things I write about are appealing to my readers. I try to appeal to all age groups, both genders, and people from all sorts of backgrounds. It's very true that anyone can start a blog--seriously, it takes all of five minutes. But I've put more effort into this in the past few months than I have put into anything else I've ever done in my life, besides being a loving wife and mother. I can promise you that. I've taught myself how to edit HTML, custom design templates and layouts, direct link, edit photos, and so much more. I just obtained my very own domain name for my blog, and it took me nearly five hours to set it up! I probably devote at least a two or three hours every couple of days to my blog; that's a lot when you've got a newborn! Sorry. I guess I needed to jump on my high horse for just a moment so that you know how hard I work to make Keeping Pace a success. I'm so proud of how far I've come with blogging, and it's honor and a pleasure to be able to know so many of you through the process. Each day, I look forward to the many more places my blog will surely take me :)

As always, thank you--from the very bottom of my heart--for reading. You mean the world to me.

Kate