I was just wondering how you should go about trying to get a sponsor. I have seen other websites/forums that run monthly contests and have a company donate prizes for the contest. The website makes it clear to all member who that sponsor is with a logo and link etc.. How do you go about doing this? Anyone done this before? I didnt think just blind emailing websites from google would work, maybe I am wrong. Do you even attempt the big boys, or just small sites? My site is outdoor related, so I want to find some outdoor sites who would donate a few things to give away, but I doubt someone like camping world could care less about me, or could I be wrong?
Your can try contacting some companies personally. Companies will only sponsor websites/other companies when they can get more potential customers. That's what it's all about. Customers. They don't sponsor you because they like you (can be, but whatever ), they sponsor to make their own company bigger, get more popular. I can tell you, it's hard to find a decent sponsor. Just contact as many companies as possible. And like ste1975 said: how much traffic does you website have?
I agree and am currently looking for a high profile sponsor; traffic and knowing your site users demographic are a must, and are a great starting point
Well, my site has only been live for about 4 or 5 months, but I get 4-500 u/v daily on average. I realize that they are going to be looking for a decent return, and was hoping that since my site is dedicated to what they sell, maybe they would see the benefit of it. I dont know. I was more concerned I guess about is it spamming, or wrong to contact these people like this? I know you have to be careful these days, and I just want to go about it correctly, I just didnt know what correctly would be. How do you approach them? I didnt want it to sound like, hey, I would like some free products if you would sponsor my site, etc... How would you approach them?
Well, the best way to do is to ask them (like you said, don't just ask them if they want to give free products). There's a small chance that they will come to you and want to sponsor you. Just write a professional letter/email to them and tell them about your site, why you need a sponsor, give them stats ... tell them everything they need/want to hear. If you write a very decent letter, they will read it more carefully and spend more attention to it. Just don't do like those 13 year old boys do to get a gameserver sponsored Good luck!
When you say sponsor are you simply looking for advertisers or are you looking for a strategic partnership with one company to drive traffic to each other. I agree with others that the basic thing they are going to ask themselves is WIIFM (what's in it for me) and look at potential ROI. We have a outdoor related business if you could send me your url I could take a look and see if its something we might be interested in getting involved with. We are always looking for places to promote our services to increase our web presence. John