1. Figure out what your time is worth and what you would need to charge to make all the additional work that comes with advertising worth it.
2. Be honest in communicating what the growth of your blog means to your readers. Many have been with you from the start and you don’t want the advertising to catch them by surprise!
3. Learn about what all your options are: ad networks, boutique ads, affiliate links/ads, brand collaborations. Figure out what makes the most sense to your brand.
4. Learn what your influence is. Be comfortable using google analytics and talking with potential advertisers about your readership.
5. Practice a few PR lines to become confidant in speaking about your influence and what makes your blog stand out from others in its genre.
6. Connect with other bloggers that might have more experience with advertising so you can have people to bounce ideas off of, or run issues by when they come up.
7. Don’t be discouraged! It takes a while to stand out in your genre. Be patient and persistent. Brand are just barely started to understand the kind of influence bloggers have so hang in there and keep up the hard work!
This post is by Liz Stanley, see more in this series here. Photography by Petra Bindel.
