If you don’t make it easy to find this information, you stand to lose out on jobs for which you might otherwise be a perfect fit.
Must Haves To Be PR-Friendly & Make Money From Your Blog
The first paid work I got from my blog was not something I went after or applied for; it came in the form of an email from a PR company I had never heard of, offering me money to try a hamburger and write about it. They found my blog, and were able to gather all the information they needed to determine I was a good fit before they even contacted me.
1) About Page
Who are you? What do you blog about? Do you have kids or pets? Are you a vegetarian? Your about page is a good opportunity to give an overview of you and your blog. It is important to remember there are people looking at hundreds of blogs each day to find bloggers who are a good fit for their brand. If a brand needs moms of boys aged 3-7 to try a new clothing line, you don’t need them wasting their time or yours sending you a pitch for this opportunity when you have 14 year-old twin daughters.
2) Email Address
You need to place an email address prominently on your blog. It doesn’t have to be your personal email address, in fact, it is best to set up an email address specifically for your blog. But whatever email you choose to use, it needs to be visible on your blog. There are several places where people might look for an email address, and I encourage you to place yours in each of these places.
- On your about page.
- On a contact page.
- On a PR or Advertising Page.
- On your sidebar. (This could be in the form of an icon with your social media icons and links.)
Some bloggers have a contact form on their site. Contact forms are fine, but it is still necessary to have your email address written out. When someone from a PR firm is clicking through 300 blogs to find ten people to contact, they want to be able to quickly and easily copy down the pertinent contact information. They will not go to each blog separately and fill out contact forms.
3) Your Location
You don’t need to share your street address on your blog, but an approximate location is important. One way to do this is to specify the closest major city. Remember that hamburger I was paid to write about a few years ago? The company needed bloggers who were located in a specific city, and they initially found my blog through a google search for bloggers in Orlando.
4) Your Name
Once someone has looked at your blog, determined you might be a great fit, and found your email address; they need to know who they are emailing. A lot of bloggers complain about getting emails addressed “Dear Mommy Blogger.” Do your part by offering people a name to use when they contact you. It doesn’t have to be your full name, or even your real name. It is completely acceptable to give yourself a layer of anonymity online, but you have to give people something to call you. This is true for brands from whom you want to make money, and for the daily readers of your blog.
Whether you use your real name, or you decide to use a pseudonym, make sure it is easy to find on your blog.
5) Right-Click Enabled
There are ways to protect your pictures and written blog content. One way that some bloggers try to stop thieves is disabling right-clicks on their blog. The idea is that it stops someone from copying and pasting their content or saving their pictures. The truth is, there are many ways around this if someone is really determined to steal from your blog. Not only is it not a fool-proof deterrent to thieves, it can also be an interference in your goal to make money from your blog.
You know the email address and name you carefully added to your pages and sidebar to make it easy for brands to contact you? They want to copy/paste them into their list or spreadsheet. When you disable right-clicks, it means they have to switch screens and hopefully remember the correct spelling of your name and email address as they type them. This seems like a small thing, but often it is the small things that may cause you to be left off a list.
6) Social Media Links
When a brand works with a blogger, they often want to include some kind of social media amplification in the contract. Your follower numbers and interaction can be important determining factors in whether or not they reach out to you. Placing links to your social media profiles on your main page makes it easier for them to find. It will also help your readers to find and follow you on social media, which is a good thing.
I’ve also had PR reps and people who work with blogger-friendly brands follow me on social media. Maybe the project they were working on at the time wasn’t a fit for me, but this helps them remember me for a future project. Never underestimate the power of social media, and who might be reading what you put out on twitter late at night.
7) PR or Advertising Page
Are you excited to write sponsored posts, but don’t offer sidebar advertisements? Or maybe you only want to review llama sweaters? It is important to set goals and rules for your blog, and determine beforehand what opportunities you are willing to take. A PR or Advertising Page is the perfect place to put this information. It is one more step in making it easy for brands to find you and contact you with opportunities that fit your blog. You don’t have to put specific rates on this page, but be clear about what kind of offers you are willing to entertain.
Write great content, and make it easy for brands to find and contact you. Those are the most important steps to making money from your blog.
KEEP READING
Looking for more info on how to make money from your blog? Here are a few posts about setting up pages on your blog and making money that you’ll find helpful: