Who are you?

I get some pretty interesting messages in my blog. Today’s interesting piece comes from someone calling himself “heyjude.”

How can I find sponsors for my blog?I’m just starting to blog, is it possible to get sponsors at this early stage?

Who are the best possible sponsors for my blog? My niche is travel.

How to improve quality traffic? What SEO techniques do you use?

when did you started blogging

How old are you? Do you have a 9-5 job?

Interesting because the responses running through my head range from sarcastic, rude and to some extent, polite.

I have to admit I’m saddened that some people now are getting into blogging because of the free things, not because they want to share themselves. It probably sounds rather hypocritical of me to be saying this considering Just Wandering was created to be monetized, but 1) I have been blogging long before companies started sponsoring bloggers and 2) even without the perks I get from blogging, I would still continue blogging and traveling.

Traveling isn’t a cheap hobby — I know because that’s how I got into monetizing blogs in the first place — but if you work hard enough, you’ll find a way to finance your trips.

But to answer your questions, heyjude, I am 30 years old, turning 31 in November. I work full time as a virtual assistant.

I started blogging in 1998; I started travel blogging in 2006. Just Wandering is now 5 years old.

I’m not really into SEO and my technique at best is to install the All-in-One SEO plugin. My biggest traffic drawer are my Australian tourist visa posts, the Philippine passport renewal post, and the cheap Boracay resorts guide. See what I did there?

Write good, quality content on topics people are interested to read about. Make it interesting, invoke emotions, encourage your readers to comment and they’ll come back and even bring friends over.

The best sponsors for your blog, whether you’re blogging about fashion, food or travel, are the companies that you trust. Go for the brands you actually use, that way you don’t sound fake when you sing praises for them in your blog entry. It’s easier writing about a product or service that you really believe in, and your readers will love you for that.

Companies invest in marketing their product. Nobody sets out to lose money in a business, so when they shell out money, they expect something in return (and hopefully, with a little extra called profit). While generating buzz about a product or service is great, at the end of the day, a campaign is worthless if it does not result in making a sale.

Let me turn the table on you: if you are a company with an awesome product, who would you choose to promote it? What will be your criteria for choosing the lucky blogger? Does he/she have to be popular? Do you base your choice on how many readers his/her blog has or do you rely solely on traffic? Does the blog have to be in a niche that your product is most suited to? In short: would you choose YOU?

P.S. I don’t seek sponsors; they seek me. *flips hair*