I am so new to this blog stuff- though I have had a “blog” for a few years, I have never thought that I would be able to make money (or recoup money spent) from it. This was more of an online journal for me– and having readers was just a perk- I would bounce ideas off people.
Then I started making friends online and really beginning to learn more about what this “blogging thing” was really about. I attended BlogHer ’09 in Chicago this year and I was pleasantly surprised by all the amazing women who pretty much own the internet. 
I decided I would get attend next year’s BlogHer ’10 in NYC (baaaby!) but was really interested in attending Roni’s FitBloggin ’10 in Baltimore. One thing though–
I
Am
Broke.
I have enough money to pay my bills and eat, but after that, not much fun money. I think alot of people are like that right now.
So since I spent my last few fun money pennies on the early bird registration, I have until Late February to find a sponsor to help me defray the costs of the hotel and airfare.
I have no idea how to go about this.
So I started searching “blog conference sponsorship” in trusty Google, and here is what I came up with:
http://www.dealseekingmom.com/how-to-get-a-blog-conference-sponsorship/
She has great ideas and easy to follow steps on how to get started. now that I have decided that positive “losing” is my blog focus/topic, I can reach out to targeted companies to make sure we mesh well. I have a few companies I would like to reach out to, and will post them soon, but want to wait until I get all my ducks in a row.
First, I am worried about my reach in the blogosphere. I only have about 50-100 readers a day, but know I can grow that with better content, a few well-placed contests and really working on growing my Twitter presence.
I probably need to come out of the shadows and “out” myself too (by out, I mean share my real name 
) but I want to wait to do that until I have found my new job and make sure it is OK to have a blog where I feel like I can speak my mind without affecting the company I work for.
I also need to work on my “media kit”, figure out how to post PDF documents to my blog, and then work on opportunity letters to companies I am interested in. I will probably have to start small, but I hope to have atleast 2-4 small companies who will advertise, maybe have a contest before/after the conference on Twitter/my blog, and allow me to give away things at the conference, all while occasionally tweeting there name and mentioning their products that I know and love on my blog.
Also, I am a huge proponent of disclosure, and I don’t want my blog to just be products all the time! But I think a small smattering doesn’t hurt anyone!
Let me know if you have any tips or tricks that you used when starting out– anything will help!
Related posts:
Glad I’m not the only one who feels that way.
After sharing that link on Twitter the other day and going through the pdf, I began to question whether I would even receive sponsorship. Seems we have pretty similar pasts and stats.
Good luck finding sponsorship!
I hope we will both be able to find sponsorship– maybe if we both mention each other on twitter Follow Fridays, we can get more readership! Just checked out your blog– congrats on the 14 lb loss!
Oh gosh, I’ve been wondering about this option. I really really want to go. Thanks for the link, and I will probably start working on that as soon as we’re done updating the blog!