How to Get Sponsored in 2023: A Guide for Bloggers

July 29, 2018

Kate Kordsmeier

How to Make Money Online

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  1. Sarah Newman says:

    This is incredible and truly inspiring! I love your story and how you ramped up your sponsorships so quickly and yet authentically–that can be a hard balance to strike, but you’ve done it!! 😀

  2. JULIE says:

    Hi, I tried to download your sponsored content tracking google doc but it didnt work when I put my email in. Are you able to email me another link?

    • Hi, Julie: Which part didn’t work? It looks like you received an email with a link to download the Google doc…what happened when you clicked that link? I’m sorry for any trouble, feel free to email me directly at kate@rootandrevel.com and we’ll get you taken care of!

  3. Toni Okamoto says:

    I love this article! Thanks, Kate! I have a question: How do you set a calendar to keep you on track with sponsored posts? Do you do it on a spreadsheet?

    Thanks again!

    • Awesome – glad you enjoyed! Yes, I use a spreadsheet for everything! (You can download it in this post) We have our entire editorial calendar set for the year and work a couple months in advance, so always know what we need to work on next. I have photo shoots every 2 weeks, so can see what’s coming up and what needs to be prepped for that. Hope that helps!

  4. I tried to download it and after I type in all my info, it just says error!

  5. Heather says:

    How often each month were you pitching to brands would you say? You mentioned 40 was that each month? And how many were you posting to the blog each month? This is so helpful and encouraging! I have a very specific niche so I find it a bit difficult to Always find a ton of brands! 

    • It really varied on how many brands we pitched; we’d go through rounds of reaching out to lots of brands in different categories (say 20 each in beauty, food, etc.) and usually were doing about 4 sponsored posts/month in addition to social media only posts that were totally separate. Glad this has been helpful for you and good luck!

  6. LOVED this! Exaclty what I needed… my questions is how do you turn around an offer for free product into a paid sponsorship? Do you just send your media kit with prices? Thank you! This was so so so helpful

    • Really glad you found this helpful! Yes, exactly. You can say something like, “Thank you for sharing about X! I’d love to learn more about BRAND’S NAME as it sounds like it could be a great fit. Do you ever work with influencers on sponsored content? If so, I’ve attached my media kit. Once you have a chance to review it, I’d be happy to send over some story ideas and/or answer any questions about how we can partner! Hope to work with you soon.”

  7. Marissa says:

    Thank you for the helpful info, however the google doc took me to a baby registry checklist. Question- how would you negotiate with a brand that says they will only offer free product because they’re a small business? Do I say I’m only accepting payment and see if they come in with an offer? If they just send free product am I obligated to write a whole post about their product or is that just out of generosity? f there’s no money exchanging hands, am I not bound to write anything?  Thanks!!

    • Sorry about that Marissa – we just switched email providers so had some kinks to iron out. It should be working now, or email us to get the doc if you’d like! To answer your questions, it really depends on the brand. Sometimes they just don’t have a budget and there’s no space for negotiation, while other times they have some wiggle room.
      Whether or not you decide to only get paid for your work vs. getting free product again depends on you and your strategy. I did that for a while when I really wanted to increase my income and it worked well, but now I tend to enjoy free samples and products I’m genuinely interested in instead of doing sponsored content, simply because I like having freedom in what I write about and am happy with where my income is at, so it’s just not necessary at this stage for me. You can try your idea about saying you’re only accepting payment and see how it goes!

      Finally–no, you are not obliged to write a whole post in exchange for product, you just need to be SUPER CLEAR up front. For a really high value trade it might be a different story, but for $20 worth of salad dressings (for example) I just make it clear that I will sample the products and consider them for editorial inclusion if I love the product. Whew, hope all that helped!

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