Find the right blog

Are you working for a company interested to collaborate with various categories of bloggers? Do you have problems in finding out which blogs are the best to promote your products? Here are a couple of advices about how to make the right choices:

1. Most probably, the products that you are ready to distribute for free are limited and thus, you should be very careful with the category of blogs offered for distribution. The first step is to make a short and long list of networks where you will be interested to see your products presented as well as to define your target group.

2. You should always look for active bloggers - meaning with at least 1-2 posts the week. 

3. Be careful with the new blogs: some people would be happy to use your products for free and for this, they will set up a blog especially for this. Take your time and watch what is going on with the blog in the next weeks and months and start the collaboration only if you are sure that you deal with a committed blogger.

4. The volume of comments is also very important: the best case scenarios are the blogs with more than 5-6 comments for each posts.

5. Other big numbers in social media networks are important: the 'likes' of the Facebook pages, the 'followers' on Twitter or the 'daily ratio' of the readership will automatically pledge the cause of a medium or long term collaboration with a blogger.

6. Beyond those statistical aspects, you should take care of the language and the general design of the blog. Not anyone will be happy to associate his or her products with bloggers assuming vulgarity  or rasist messages whatever the impressive readership, isn't it?

7. Your geographical area of interest is also important. If you want to increase your customers from Asia, you should focus especially on the (big) blogs from this area.

Tips for finding sponsors?

Do you have a blog that is open to various collaborations - for instance, book and product reviews, travel packages, photography, Internet and hi-tech products - and you do not know how to find out more companies keen to help you find new and exciting projects?

Honestly, because I have a background in journalism, I avoided to find out more about this type of activity because I considered - and still think it is - not necessarily an informative approach dedicated to share something with your readers. In the majority of cases, people are happy to wear and use different products without any financial effort.

However, it is very important that before you address a certain company, you check carefully the conditions of partnerships. Many of them are honest in expressing their desire to do not interfere with the blogger's impression and thus, you will be free of any obligation to write something nice about something that it is nothing like that. 

My main interest is in books and till now, I had the chance of good collaborations, and most probably I will be tempted to expand a bit my porfolio of services. I like to write, to share to my readers the latest news and thus, I am open to collaborations and new experiences.

There are, in my opinion, a couple of conditions and steps that you should accomplish for successful collaborations:

1. Your blog should be updated regularly - at least once the week.

2. Having additional exposure - on Instagram, Facebook, Google+ - will help you to qualify for the attention of the potential sponsors. Also, do not forget to mention on your blog the e-mail address where you can be found for eventual collaborations.

3. Previous collaborations with other companies will send a message about your credibility.

4. Contact companies and businesses that are included in your editorial interests. For instance, if you have a blog about books and you contact a company for coffee machines, it is clear that you are interested in getting something for free without too much interest for the company as such.

5. On the other hand, it is important the quality of your writing. Add pictures, YouTube tutorials and correctly written posts. In the previous case, you can write a story about how your coffee maker contributed to the overwhelming success of your new book!

6. A bilingual version of the site - especially if you are not writing in English - is a guarantee that you can reach an extended audience.

7. When you address the potential sponsors, be succint but careful to explain in detail why the company should collaborate with you. Try to adequate your message to the possible target group of the company. Explain in a few words how do you see your future collaboration. Mention your social media coverage and any statistics about your audience as well as information about the profile of your readers. Do not try to cheat because nowadays you can easily find out how famous and 

8. Keep in touch with the representatives of the company: write them when you received their products, let them know when you are supposed to post your review. Do not let them write you back to ask you two months after the first contact what happened to their products. Most probably, they will not be interested to work with you in the future. After your review is live, let them know and send a short 'thank you' message. It will not take more than 10 minutes, anyway. 

9. Be honest in your review and mention that you received the products for a free review. However, for the sake of your credibility, try to avoid big and enthusiastic words that do not send any information about the products. Be simple and present as neutral as possible what are the products about and how they could serve the needs of the customers. If there are shortages in terms of qualities, do not hesitate to write about them because the truth should follow your writing activities, although you are not a journalist.