Do you remember the moment when you first realized you could make money on the internet? I remember vividly because it wasn’t very long ago.
I had just returned to blogging after an absence of more than a decade (“blogging” wasn’t even a word when I left), and everything was different. There were alternatives to static HTML sites and Geocities. There were enormous blogs with millions of followers. There were people getting book deals left and right – and even people making a full-time income just from their blogs.
I was far from the first person to wonder how they were doing it. How was it possible to go from a little dinky blog with 10 visitors a week to thousands of dollars in online income? And how could I get in on it?
Well, I’m sick of all the secrecy. I’m not giving away anything you can’t hunt down with some well-worded Google searches, but it’s always funny to me how reluctant people are to talk about private advertising. Here’s the truth about sponsored posts – where they come from, how people get them, and why no one talks about them.
Private Ads = Sponsored Posts (For the Most Part)
Put simply, private ads mean that someone is paying a blogger to put up a link, graphic, and/or blog post. For example, a company may pay a certain dollar amount per month or year for a banner ad.
This isn’t as simple as it sounds, however. Most of the time, when a company pays upfront like that, they aren’t really placing the ad in hopes that a bunch of people will click on it (though everyone involved pretends they are). Instead, they are placing links in hopes of manipulating PageRank.
If a large blog or website with high PageRank links to your blog, it’s like they’re saying, “Hey, this site is great and I endorse it.” A little bit of that site’s “link juice” is passed onto your site, and with enough of those “references” your own PageRank will increase.
So what do companies do? They pay employees to scour the internet for high-quality blogs in their niche and convince the bloggers to link to the company’s website. Most of the time they’ll try to do that for free by asking to “guest post” on your blog, but if you’re savvy enough to recognize the tactic for what it is, many of them will offer to pay for the link. A popular blog can receive dozens of these requests in a given month, resulting in thousands of dollars in income.
So Why’s That a Secret?
The problem is, Google doesn’t like it when people or companies try to manipulate PageRank. If you can buy your way to a good ranking, PageRank is no longer a measure of quality – it’s a measure of who has the most money to spend. If Google’s top secret algorithm detects what it calls “unnatural links,” or links that were placed for the sole purpose of gaming the system, you could suddenly find yourself with a PageRank of zero.
Believe me when I tell you, the googlebots are very skilled at finding paid links. Just yesterday, several of my fellow bloggers woke up to find they’d been “Google slapped” during the night and now have no PageRank. This also happened to a large number of blogs in spring 2012, including one of my own.
(Note: There are legitimate forms of sponsorship, such as when a company sends a product for review and the content is clearly marked as sponsored or compensated. If a company asks you to identify a paid post as a “guest post” or not at all, that should be considered a red flag.)
Why Risk It?
Bloggers accept private ads for two main reasons: (1) You don’t have to have a lot of traffic to get them and (2) you can make a TON of money from them, especially if you own multiple blogs in the same niche.
Other monetization strategies such as affiliate ads or Google AdSense require thousands of visits for any real results. For example, my personal blog gets about 50,000 pageviews per month, 60% of which come from search (search traffic is more likely to click on ads).
You know how much I make from AdSense? About $50 a month if I’m lucky. It’s obvious that I’m not going to get rich from those types of advertising. By comparison, sponsored posts seem like an easy way to make extra money.
The Bottom Line
Sponsored posts are a popular form of advertising because bloggers receive a lot of financial gain for very little work. However, sponsored posts can be detrimental to your site’s quality and can even have a negative effect on where your posts appear in search results.
If you choose to accept sponsored posts, be aware that you could lose your PageRank at any time. Since PageRank affects pricing for these posts (higher PageRank means you can charge more per link), your income stream could be cut off overnight, leaving you with a blog that looks spammy and no longer earns money.
While it’s true that legitimate monetization strategies are more difficult, that’s because there is no good way to get rich quick on the internet. No matter what the gurus say (you know, the ones selling their ebooks, coaching, etc. that are supposed to make you rich), the only way to make real money online is to provide something awesome that people want.
It’s up to you to decide whether you’ll accept sponsored posts on your blog, but it’s important to be aware of the potential consequences. Stay informed! See this video from Google’s Matt Cutts regarding unnatural links.
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Comments are now closed for this article.
Mandy @ MoneyMasterMom says
Thanks for confirming that I should keep politely declining all the offers I’m getting.
I have a canned response. Basically, it says, “Thanks, but I only accept guest posts from bloggers I know personally.” While I have accepted some sponsored posts on my other blog, I’ve become much more selective in what I’m willing to post. If you want to keep your rankings, you’re making the right decision!
I have one stupid question: I visit some blogs regularly. I see eye-candy ad on its side bar. I know that blogger can’t write “oh, please, pretty please, click on these ads”. When I visit them, do I help the blogger or these super-skilled googlebots know that my click was “fake”?
It’s very likely that the bots will know, especially if you do it more than once on the same site. While I know your heart is in the right place, you could actually get that person banned from AdSense! If the ads are affiliate ads and you want to use that product or service, that’s helpful, but I would never recommend clicking someone’s AdSense blocks.
Wow, fast reply! This is what I thought so I didin’t do that (or maybe just a few times when I saw a nice deal for restaurant in my city 😉 but I just wanted to be sure. I’m not sure if I remember it right but you wrote about it on SOT once. Anyway, thanks for reply!
The googlebots know and see all… It’s actually a little scary.
I have never accepted a sponsored post on my blog and I never, ever will. This is only one reason why but it’s a big one.
I actually get a lot of requests for sponsored posts on this site, but there’s no way I’d risk the reputation of my business (which pays my bills, while sponsored posts do not) for a quick buck. I’m not as picky on SOT because it’s a personal blog, but when your blog is your brand, it’s just not worth it.
Great post, and really great points. If only the other ways to make money online came as easily as emails from strangers.
John S @ Frugal Rules says
Thanks for posting this Andrea! At the end of the day there are no real ways to get rich quick. If there was, then everyone would be doing it. Those that are telling you that you can are simply making their money by selling you their e-books and the like telling you what to do. The temptation to take the sponsored posts is there, but I have become much more selective at what I’ll accept. So much of what is sent is really just crap, not to mention the fact the idea of trusting someone you don’t know that they’re on the up and up.
Agreed! I’ve wasted way too much time dealing with “ad reps” who weren’t reputable at all. It’s hard to turn down the money but sometimes the hassles and risks make it easier to walk away.
Kim@Eyesonthedollar says
Excellent information. I’m not sure why everything is such a big secret. If you put in the work, most people I know want to make a buck or two. I think if you accept sponsored posts, you have need to have a balance between your content that people come back for and what pays you money, being careful who you work with and that you don’t sell yourself short. If I depended on blogging for my main income, I’m sure I’d feel differently, but if any chance of money was taken away tomorrow, I’d still keep doing what I’m doing. Money is just icing on the cake.
I agree with you 100%, Kim. I don’t judge anyone for wanting to make money - after all, it’s not like I’ve never accepted sponsored posts - but it’s always sad to me when blogs I love become overrun with nothing but generic sponsored content and none of the stuff I enjoy reading. Balance is so important, as is blogging because you love it regardless of whether you make money.
Stephanie says
I’m not even that big of a blogger and I feel like I’m always getting emails from strangers about posts! I felt like a jerk ignoring them or telling them no, but you’ve given me the courage to not feel like such a jerk about it. I only let friends guest-post!
Definitely don’t feel like a jerk! No real blogger or freelance writer is going to email you out of the blue like that. They’re almost always being paid to place as many free links as possible.
Thanks for this information. I never knew the whole history behind these sponsored ads system. You broke it down and made it all make sense.
Ohhhh I always wondered what people were getting out of those guest post proposals that are like “I will provide 100% original content! All I ask is that you include a link to my website.”
Verdee says
Wow, thank you for shedding some light 🙂
-V
No problem!
Steven J Fromm says
Never been approached by these guys but I know what to do after reading your very informative post. Run, baby, run away as fast as possible!
Your last paragraph reminded me of a tongue-in-cheek post Nate St. Pierre wrote last year about how to make money from blogging. Basically, he wrote that to make money blogging, you start off with a blog on the topic of how to make money blogging, build up your traffic, and then sell them on an e-course on how to make money blogging!
I remember that post vividly! It was funny, but it was also sad because that’s basically the truth. I have vowed to myself never to sell the dream because it seems like such a ripoff.
Ittu says
This is good practice to generate a decent income with low traffic too but it can ruin the blog and blog rankings. Really good post Andrea 🙂
I definitely understand why people take the risk - sponsored posts can pay off in a way that cost-per-click ads never will on a site with lower traffic. But it’s just a matter of time before the links are discovered and the site takes a huge hit.