Choosing The Right Opportunities For Your Blog (and yourself)

This post is part of the BlogHop Blog Conference at Home. To see the full agenda of learning sessions visit Blog Conference Newbie.

Blog Opps  – pretty much every blogger whose contact information is on their site gets offers for reviews, giveaways and even more often, informational press releases without a bottom line. So how do you take all of these offers of information, product and sometimes cash and decide which ones are right for you?

When you first start out and even sometimes along the way, it’s so tempting to snatch up every opportunity that comes along or to jump at an offer that’s not exactly a good fit, simply because the compensation is amazing. I mean, these companies want to give you something or send you on a fabulous trip! How can you say no?

But sometimes, you just need to say thanks, but no thanks. This won’t work for me.

How do you decide whether an opportunity is right for you? Ask yourself a few important questions before you say “YES!”

Does the product/company fit my brand?

Take a long, hard look at the product or service and the company behind it. Are you interested in the product? Will your readers care what you think about the product? Does it fit in with the other topics that you post about on your site? Is the company behind it someone that you want your name affiliated with? Those are all questions that you need to have resounding yeses to before accepting an offer.

Recently, I noticed Molly Gold of GoMomInc partnering with the Stow Company.  The main focus of Molly’s brand is organization; Stow offers organizational products. Molly is working with a company that offers products that her readers will naturally be drawn to solely by their purpose for visiting her site and Stow gets the benefit of a trusted voice in the blogging community endorsing their products. Win-win!

So what’s the non-niche blogger to do? Those whose blog has a specific focus, whether it be organization, infancy, green, food or any other topic, have it a little easier when it comes to deciding whether a sponsor is a natural fit their blog. The rest of us have our work cut out for us. We need to carefully analyze each offer and decide if it makes sense for both ourselves and our readers. If it doesn’t, we need to step away and wait for something that does. Our personal integrity depends on it. The level of trust we need to keep our readers coming back can be compromised when we start endorsing companies that simply don’t make sense, just to get the perks they’re offering.

Do I have time and resources to meet the requirements?

Be honest with yourself about your limitations. There is nothing worse than taking on too much and burning out on writing for others on your own site. Trust me. I’ve done it. Deadlines will start to slip past and be forgotten, review items will end up hidden in the closet for “later” and the things you do post will be rushed and low-quality. Or you’ll lose sleep to make sure that it all does get done, and other things in your life will suffer.

When choosing opportunities, think of your blog as a job. If you have only 10 available hours in the week to work on your blog, don’t schedule 20 hours worth of work. You aren’t going to get time and a half for those extra hours, you’re just going to get frustrated.

Look carefully at what they’re asking for, as well. Campaigns are often more than just a quick post or review. Sometimes there is a giveaway component or they might be requesting a vlog, which might require several takes and a quiet house. There could be a shop involved at a store that’s an hour away. All of that needs to factor in to your decision to sign on. Do you have the time to do the job and do it right?

Is the compensation worth my time?

There are ongoing discussions in the blogosphere about compensation levels and “selling out.” People are constantly taken aback by the decisions of some bloggers to “write for cupcakes”(hat tip to Christina Gleason at the first Type-A Town Hall for that phrase) while others are crying in their cornflakes that they didn’t even get offered a lick of icing for the time they spent crafting a post. No matter what the rest of the world thinks, the only thing that matters is whether you feel fairly compensated. What might be a fabulous opportunity to you, sounds like a company trying to get something for nothing to the next person.

Disagree? Put yourself in the shoes of the SAHM blogger whose husband was just laid off from his job. When Bob’s Burger Barn comes to her with a $25 gift card that will let her take her family out to eat, in exchange for the hour it takes her to write a sponsored post, that sounds like heaven! Should she turn down that offer so that Bob will get the picture and offer more for the rest of us the next time around or should she jump at the chance and make her family happy for a night?

Deciding whether the compensation is worth your time is completely personal. There may even be cases where you believe in a cause or a product so much that you feel that it would be a great fit and worth it to you to write without any compensation. And that’s OKAY! It’s your space – Own it and be happy with what you’re accepting!

Also, don’t be afraid to ask for more from a company than what is initially offered, if it’s simply not enough. Reply back that you’re interested in working with them and offer them your personal rates and requirements. The worst they can say is no.

Will my involvement benefit the company?

As much as we like to think that pitches and blog opps are all about us, we do need to take into consideration how our involvement in a campaign will benefit its sponsor.  If you look at a pitch and think to yourself “I can really use that $100 and I do like the products, but none of my readers are going to click that link (or like that page or enter this giveaway),” it’s probably a good idea to turn it down.

While lining your pockets is a huge priority to you, it’s also about bottom-line for the sponsors as well. If they have to report back to their supervisors that the campaign they just spent thousands of dollars on was a total flop, they’re not going to get budget to come back for more. When you take on campaigns that you know won’t do well, you might get a few bucks in your pocket or a fun product, but you could be taking away that opportunity for other bloggers in the future.

There are no set in stone parameters for what makes a good blog opportunity. What works for me and my readers, might not sound so great to you and yours. It’s up to each of us to take responsibility for our own decisions and decide what fits best. Choose the opportunities that make sense to you personally, editorially and financially and leave the rest on the table for someone who would fit them better.

How do you decide which opportunities to accept?