Would you pay to sponsor a blog?

[writecombination]

Would you pay to sponsor a generic business blog?

Let me declare an interest - I run a business blog and perhaps one day someone will sponsor it BUT I am not actively seeking a sponsor at the moment.

This is a genuine enquiry to gather some feedback about blog sponsorship. If your immediate response is NEVER then please say that, although it would be useful to know why.

If you would consider sponsoring one, what amounts would you be willing to pay and what level of traffic would you be looking for? Would you consider sponsorship in return for offering a service of your own, rather than spending real money.

I look forward to your responses.

Andrew

[10 Yetis]

If I was a biz owner and I operated in the market that the blog writes about then yes. In terms of traffic requirements and costs etc, it depends on the sector.

Don't forget, places like TechCrunch are technically "blogs" and they make a fair old whack out of advertising.

In my experience, the main focus should be on raising the profile of the blog or blogger and this naturally brings advertising requests.

Hope this helps.

Andy

[esscotti]

The question sounds like a rephrased version of - "would you ever pay to advertise on a website" - Of course I would! :)

The price I would be willing to pay would be related to the amount of traffic and the quality of visitors to the blog.

Maybe you could find some related or similar website and see how they charge sponsors/advertisers?

Regards,
Arvind
--------------------
Cambridge web design (http://www.esscotti.com/)

[webcreationuk]

Why not? If that blog is related to my business' niche, if it's a well written one, if it's a visited one, if visitors are quality visitors then yes, I would pay. Lots of ifs, I could find more, but it's all about the money isn't it? :)

[phil battison]

Yes we would but again with all the same caveats about relevance, profile, quality of posts, frequency of posts etc. It would also depend if the blog was running Google Adsense ads because we'd be reluctant to pay to sponsor the blog but have traffic either routed to competitors or to pay twice if our own Google ads started to appear on the blog.

[Snippa]

I agree, but I have to say I'm cheap, so I wouldn't pay much. But yes, I would pay to advertise or sponsor a blog, assuming it interested my target audience and got enough traffic to warrant doing so.

[writecombination]

For the moment I've decided to go with a sponsorship model based on exchange of value. That is, someone gives me something in return for having a banner on http://www.bizoh.net.

I'm restricting it to one sponsor at a time, and I'm fairly open about what's exchanged.

[sirearl]

Much better of to use your blog to sell direct to the public.I imagine building a high traffic blog site is hard work.


Earl

[accountancyextra]

In answer to your question - If the blog was highly ranked, had sufficient traffic and was relevant, then yes I would.

Before you launch into getting advertisers on board, have quick think about strategy. Would your blog be better to have several smaller advertisers on it, or could you make it popular enough to have an exclusivity deal with a large firm? Admittidley this will take a bit longer, but could be much more lucrative

[writecombination]

Personally, I dislike blogs and other sites packed with ads. It tells me that the real motivation of the writer is to make money, which immediately devalues the content - in my eyes, at least.

Of course I'd like my blog to generate income, but its primary purpose is to give me a platform to write about subjects important to me - small business advice and business success stories. It's also a useful to point potential clients to, which gives it an indirect function as an income generator.

Andrew

PS This is my 100th posting on UKBF, apparently.

[James.Dunford]

I think if the content was right and the blog was well written maybe - but then the amount which i would be willing to pay would not be enough for it to make any sort of money!