Sponsoring a website - What it is exactly.

Sponsoring a website - What it is exactly.

Sponsoring a website can be seen as just buying ad space on a page in order to get more traffic to your own website to increase your sales, but is that everything? Sponsoring has been around for a long time and it's not just online, you can see it everywhere from religious events to cookie sales. When you're sponsoring something it usually costs money and you get to put your logo or banner on the website, flyer, product, etc. but that's not the only benefit you gain from it.


What do you gain from sponsoring a website?
Well what you gain is a little thing called branding. It's difficult to brand a product to be seen as the top dog in the niche, but it can be done if you strategically do it. Sponsoring a website is one way of getting your brand out there since your logo will be easily viewable. You will gain the normal traffic and sales from a sponsored position and you will also be included in all the emails, flyers, and any promotion done for the website since you're one of the people helping push the site. Think of a sponsor position as kind of an investor that doesn't get linked into the company forever. You will be helping to build the company/website and in return they add you into their marketing whenever possible. It's a win win in most scenarios

Does sponsoring cost more than banner advertising?
In my experience, yes it does. It normally costs more because you're not just getting a small banner on the businesses website, you're getting added into everything there is to do with the site, such as all their marketing material. Think of this as an ad spot on anything that the business is doing, your logo will be on anything they do such as events, newsletters, billboards, flyers, etc.

Is there a way to spot a bad sponsorship opportunity?
Of course there is, and it's probably pretty obvious after I tell you lol. Some of the worst sponsorship opportunities online are with brand new websites that aren't offering anything new or innovative. Sure someone could make a dog bed website and make it look nice, but there are million dollar companies out there already selling dog beds. Do you think you'll be profiting much off of the marketing done by the not so new idea of dog beds?

What should I look for in a sponsorship opportunity?
Look for something that is new and innovative. The tech industry is always pushing out new ideas but that could be hit or miss since not everything has a place in todays world. Now you could sponsor a tech website that is ahead of it's time and not make a penny, and when you stop sponsoring them they go big for some reason and you miss out. The tech industry is hit or miss, but you should be good if you sponsor something that is already getting news coverage since it's seen as a more viable means to advance something in todays world. A good example is if you were to sponsor a VR company rather than an A.I. company about 2 years ago. While A.I. development has come a long way in the past 10 years, it's just not there yet. With a VR you can actually see items out there today that are being sold for hundreds of dollars and work well. So if you were to sponsor both an A.I. and V.R. company, your V.R. company sponsorship would have been much smarter since it's just tech and not virtual. Hell, maybe someone should start sponsoring an A.I. company and rake in the cash in 2 years then thank me lol

Should I only sponsor something if it will make a profit?
Well if you only did that then you'd be the evil boss of homer simpson from the Simpsons lol. Sponsoring will help build your brand as well as help out other people with their goals. You don't always have to think about profits when sponsoring a website because you're just trying to help them out. Obviously you can't sponsor a website if you don't have the funds, but hopefully your heart is in the right place.

Have you ever sponsored a website?
I sure have! I don't do it too often though because I only sponsor when the opportunity is right. If I think I can break even or profit, I'll talk about a sponsorship opportunity with the website or business owner. Normally I just look for a month to month banner position on the website and that's all. If the website or business already has a good amount of traffic, sales and newsletter sign ups I'll go for a sponsorship without second guessing it.



In conclusion, you should look out for sponsorship opportunities and treat them like ad spots. If the website starts gaining tracktion then you're one of the first people to have a link on there for everyone to see. Your investment is one of the reasons this business/website was able to flourish and you should be happy about that. You won't always profit, but that's ok sometimes if you can afford the loss. If you don't have the funding, I wouldn't look into sponsoring a website at this time, just worry about making more money for yourself and help someone out at a later date


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Thanks!

Razzy