Cybermummy Recap: The Quick Guide To Working With Brands & Making Money From Your Blog

Natcm3

After getting lots of queries following my talk on Saturday at Cybermummy, the UK's first conference for blogging mums, here are ten key things (note I could wax lyrical about a lot of things but have to zip it sometime) to note about working with brands and trying to make money from your blog.

1. Work out who you are - Personal Values & Blog Values

Much like in dating and relationships, if you don't know who you are, you'll be whatever you think people want you to be and then find yourself living outside of your values. This is no different in business and in blogging. Who are you? What are your personal values? What are your blogs values? Values are your firmly held beliefs about what you need to live your life authentically, hence your blog values are your beliefs that not only allow you to blog and work authentically, but to work with brands or generate an income in an authentic manner.

As an aside, make sure who you are is what is coming across. There's no point in saying you want to be an authority on a particular subject if what you're known for is negative stuff - manage your online reputation vigourously to ensure it's congruent with your values.

2. Define your blogging boundaries

Boundaries teach people how to treat you and what to expect from you. You need to know what your limits are and live by them. While stepping out of your comfort zone is good for challenging yourself, stepping out of your comfort zone to let your boundaries get busted is not. You need boundaries for every relationship - romantic, friends, family, colleagues etc and...your blog.

What are you and are you not prepared to do?

Research the different ways that people work with brands and find out what you're comfortable with.

Communicate your boundaries - Having a what I like/how I want to be contacted page puts you in charge of making your boundaries clear.

3. Create your own opportunities and don't travel with the herd

Look you could sit on your backside and wait for brand owners, retailers, PRs to find you but I suggest you create your own individual opportunities as well. In fact I insist. People will feel your genuine interest if when you do work with brands etc, they're people who you genuinely click with and have a passion for what they do. Don't be a sheep - you can find out what others are doing but it doesn't mean you have to do it and I suggest you dance to your own beat.

4. Everybody talks about brands - most of you just don't realise it.

Blogs are conversations taken online. Remember when you told someone that you thought X was really good, but Y was really sh*te, but you'd like to have a go of Z? Everybody talks about brands and products and services all the time. They don't do it in an infomercial, they don't talk in a review format, but they do slip their way into conversations all the time. Which brings me to...

4. Get to grips with what selling out actually is.

I'm going to give it to you straight no chaser because it bores me no end when I hear people bleeting on about selling out. You are not selling out if you 1) work with brands or 2) earn money from your blog. However the key to not selling out is all in how you go about working with brands or earning money from your blog.

If you've thought about 'crossing to the darkside' (joke) but then dismissed it as 'selling out', you've likely seen examples that make you uncomfortable, or your beliefs about money and working with brands bring out that uncomfortable feeling.

A lot of us have a weird relationship with money - As bloggers, there is also an element of wanting to keep up with the Jones and worrying about what 'they' will think, which is a bit like trying to cup the ocean in your hand...

If you know your values and have defined your boundaries then you can talk about brands on your blog without selling yourself down the river like a two bit hooker. This is because you teach people what to expect from you and they learn your 'flow' and 'voice'.

But, it is perceived as selling out if the only time you ever talk about brands is off the back of being contacted by them directly or indirectly and in response to being given something for free or even being paid for it.

I write about products and brands on Bambino Goodies - Over 90% of what is written about is driven solely by us with no contact directly or indirectly from anyone.

If you're going to write about products or services, ask yourself: If I wasn't being contacted by PRs/looking to get some free stuff for myself/trying to get some money, would I still want to write about this?

Am I prepared to write about 'stuff' if I'm not being compensated for it in some way, shape, or form? If the answer is no, then you will open yourself up to your editorial integrity being called into question.

Am I setting up a 'review site' to leverage opportunities with PRs? If so, how will this work in the medium and long term and how will I differentiate myself from anyone else they contact?

5. Explore your options and get creative about how to earn an income from your blog.

I am not reliant on advertising for earning my living. As an example of how you can earn a living from blogging, I earn mine from 1) ebooks, 2) direct advertising (banners, buttons), 3) indirect (a little affiliate stuff), 4) consultations with readers who want my advice and support and 5) consultancy work. I'm just about to start doing events both on and offline and doing print versions of my ebooks, plus I'm sure there are other things I've forgotten.

The point is - you have options. Do your homework and brainstorm what you can do. Other people I know have taken a long view to aim for a book deal, there's speaking engagements, selling your creations, e-courses, and all sorts.

What do you know a lot about? What did you do in The Time Before Kids? What are you a goto for?

6. Make yourself brand friendly

Have a contact page that says how you want to be contacted and what about. You have a responsibility as a blogger looking to work with brands to hold up your end of the communication and state what you're interested in and make the process easier. It also makes it a hell of a lot easier when people are wide of the mark to feel unperturbed about deleting their emails.

Create a prewritten email that you can tweak a bit and send off to people you're contacting or who have contacted you which has key information about you and your blog, and/or

Design a Media Kit/Page. One page is fine. Include logo/header, description of your blog - what it's about, what type of content you write, type of people you read, and then include a decent sized paragraph about yourself and a photo. Put down the type of opportunities you're offering - competitions, discount codes, sponsorship, advertorials, advertising, speaking engagements etc. If you've been featured in the press, won any awards etc, create a 'press' section. Do include rough stats - example average unique users a month, page impressions. They're not necessarily expecting high numbers but if you're going to engage with brands, you should not be all 'don't they know who I am' about making your stats known to them - they have to report back to their clients.

Shove it into Word or Powerpoint and save it as a PDF file - bingo, you're good to go.

Clean up your blog so that people can see where an ad would go. Very difficult to envision yourself with a blog that looks like roadkill.

7. Know your value. Get behind you and if you want to make things happen, make it happen.

Believe in you! Don't listen to naysayers - half of them don't know what the frick they're talking about or are just hoping you won't get a piece of the action that they want. If I'd listened to a lot of people who gave their two cents, I'd never be doing what I am or have given up before I'd really started.

Don't sell yourself too cheap but don't overprice yourself either. If you will go to the ends of the earth for a packet of biscuits, you're distorting your own value. Likewise, if you're behaving like the Mariah Carey of blogs, you may find yourself on the receiving end of negativity, especially if your talent and content doesn't match your diva status.

Photo Credits - Kat at Housewife Confidential aka my sister from another mother.