How to become a professional sponsored post writer

I have been writing sponsored posts for some time now. I consider it my job. Its a job I love because ….

• I love to write
• I am my own boss
• I earn without leaving my home
• I discover and learn about new things all the time
• I feel a warm sense of achievement and pride or a good feeling overall when I’ve written a good piece
• I improve my writing skills (the more I write the better I become with practise)

Just like anyone else, I have my own views about writing paid posts but I don’t think I’ve penned it down before so I shall. Here’s my Top 11 dos and dont’s if you aspire to become a professional sponsored post writer.

1. Treat it professionally and not just something you do on the side. I take writing paid posts very seriously. I always read the advertisers’ requirements, visit their websites and try to write a good review to match those requirements based on the information available on the site.
2. Do your homework. Do some research like visiting similar sites or checking up some terms used. Do a google search to find out what comes up tops for certain keywords. In other words, do your homework before you write your review. Give it lots of thought and research.
3. Write a professional “press release”. Don’t bluff. To me a good review is like writing a press release on behalf of your client the advertiser. Its a review of the product or service available at their site. Don’t bluff by endorsing a product you’ve never even used before by saying “I’ve used it and its really wonderful.” Thats unethical and unprofessional. Just say “This site has this product that ….”  To me, a good review is like writing a professional press release.
4. Never ever copy and paste. Not from the advertiser’s site and certainly not from competitor’s sites or other paid post writer’s sites.
5. Don’t apologise for writing paid posts. I’ve seen these too many times. Many bloggers apologise for writing paid posts. Sometimes they say “Please bear with me. Once I start a new blog, I won’t flood it with paid posts.” And when they start a new blog, they once again flood it with paid posts. To me apologising means you don’t believe in what you do. You think that paid posts are terrible for a blog but you do it anyway for the money. I believe in what I do. I believe that its not easy to write a sponsored post. You have to maintain your blog well, make sure you fill it up with good content so that you achieve higher rankings. You need to manage your time well because it can be time consumming and encroach on your personal life and time. You need to do your homework as what I’ve mentioned above. To me your blog is like a cyber real estate. Its really nice to grow it and turn it into something worthwhile but its not easy to do that. It requires WORK. Once you have done all that WORK (and its a continuous process), I don’t see whats so bad or wrong to write posts for advertisers who wish to pay you to write a review for them. Its a win win situation. Advertisers benefit from your link (the higher your rankings the more worthwhile your link is), the traffic and channeling of search engine results towards their pages and they don’t mind paying you for that. The blogger benefits by being paid and the satisfaction that comes from writing a good post.
6. Don’t be arrogant. This is the opposite of 5 above. Some writers say to their readers. “This is my blog. I can do whatever I like with it and if you don’t like the fact that I write paid posts, you can leave!”
7. Don’t be blinded by money. It can be very tempting to write as many posts as you can squeeze in because the more you write the more you earn. Try not to. Sometimes you have to turn down an offer because its something you just can’t write about. Its something totally alien to you and something you don’t believe in. You won’t be able to write a good post that way.
8. Don’t violate Terms of Service (TOS). Most sponsored posts intermediaries have some TOS. Usually they require your blog to have a certain percentage of your own original postings. Some bloggers violate this by writing paid posts for several companies back to back so they can earn more. If you do this, you earn more at first but in the long run your blog loses its worth. Regular readers will leave when they have nothing to read accept sponsored posts and advertisers don’t like it either so why do it? While on the subject of TOS, I have another thing to comment. Some TOS requires that you have your own original posts in between the paid posts and many bloggers like to say “I am writing this filler post….” Even if you are writing a filler post, do so quietly, you don’t have to announce it to the world. It looks very unprofessional and I am sure advertisers won’t be impressed. Speaking about TOS, I must share a story. Recently, I unintentionally violated a TOS of writing more than my limit of posts allowed. (Yes, that can happen). I wasted a lot of time (both support’s and my own) trying to do everything I could to prevent my post from being rejected. My advice? Don’t! Rules are rules. Even if you have violated them by accident and you are penalised for it, Accept the decision and move on.
9. Don’t write a quick or half hearted post just for the money. Its quick money to write a quickie. Write some stuff and slot in the keyword that the advertiser wants ie. “Wham Bam” and move on to the next. The quality of your posts will suffer. Its better to have a few good quality postings and let your blog speak for itself so that you receive more and better orders rather than a lot of poor quality posts written in a hurry.
10. Anyone can write a sponsored post but not everyone can write a good sponsored post. This one comes with practise I suppose. You require certain writing skills to write a professional review. You need to relate it with your own experience, write for a special audience ie think about the readers when you write. You can’t write it the same way as you write your own blog or online journal. Its got to be in a different writing style. And always use proper English and check your spelling and sentences.
11. Use Pictures. I like to use pictures because they speak louder than words. Besides it gives my blog more color and character plus I don’t have to worry about picture copyright when I use advertiser’s pictures and they would be pleased too.

I think the many professional sponsored post writers out there will agree with what I have written and for those who are thinking of becoming one, I hope this post was useful to you. 🙂 Happy writing everyone! 

Independent thought: When writing sponsored posts for the purpose of online advertising, one should have sufficient internet marketing information. Because when it comes to internet marketing, the terms frequently used for search advertising , have to be used. Sponsored post writing is partially like a press release or email marketing.