How to sell sponsorships: a step-by-step guide
Nishant · Updated 10 Oct 2026 · 4 min read
Short answer
To sell sponsorships, choose one placement, set its price and dates, and put the offer in a one-page media kit. Pitch brands that already reach your readers, take payment before the start, then deliver and report. Direct selling suits a focused audience, but you need to find the sponsors; an unsold month earns nothing.
On this page
Is direct selling right for you?
Choose how much selling you want to do before choosing the placement:
| Option | Fits best when | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Ad network (AdSense, Ezoic, Mediavine, Raptive) | Large, general traffic and no time to sell | Paid per 1,000 views; you don't choose the ads; some networks set traffic minimums |
| Ad marketplace (BuySellAds, Carbon, EthicalAds) | A tech or developer audience and you want someone else to find buyers | The marketplace takes a share and decides who it accepts |
| Affiliate links | You already recommend products readers buy | Paid only when a reader buys |
| Direct sponsorships | A focused audience a brand wants to reach | You find sponsors, agree terms and swap ads yourself |
You can combine methods where the network permits it. Carbon is exclusive; EthicalAds restricts other ads on the same page. Check AdSense alternatives and the comparisons of BuySellAds, Carbon Ads and EthicalAds before mixing them.
1. Find what you can sell
List every place a brand could appear that you can deliver reliably:
- a spot on your pages (a banner, a sidebar card, a logo strip, a line under each post);
- a line or a block in your newsletter;
- a sponsored post or review;
- a "sponsored by" credit on a free tool, template or open-source project.
Start with one. A page spot is the easiest to repeat each month, because the brand supplies a logo, a line and a link and you write nothing. A sponsored post pays more per deal but needs writing each time (see what is a sponsored post).
2. Set a price from the data
Across 25 published websites with monthly USD prices, the median cheapest offer is $125; the middle half ask $50 to $300. These are asking prices, not confirmed sales.
Currently published directory: 43 unique domains. Source observations: 2026-10-08 to 2026-10-09. Asking prices, not confirmed sales. USD monthly website offers; each domain contributes its cheapest offer. A format cohort includes sites offering that format, not the individual placement price. Traffic bands describe stated visitors or pageviews; they are not CPM estimates. Groups need at least 10 unique domains.
No traffic cohort yet has enough fresh published domains to show a price range.
Newsletter per-issue prices need a separate sample; monthly website offers do not estimate them.
Worked example
Hypothetical example: a $150 monthly spot at 30,000 pageviews asks $5 per 1,000 pageviews. Ten booked months bring $1,500 before fees. These inputs illustrate the arithmetic; they are not a market recommendation.
3. Write a one-page media kit
A media kit tells a brand who it reaches and what it costs. Keep it to one page: your audience in one line, monthly visitors or subscribers, top countries, each spot with a screenshot, its price and its open months, and how to book. The free media kit generator builds one from your numbers.
4. Pitch brands
- Brands that already sponsor sites like yours. Their names are on similar sites' advertise pages and in similar newsletters. They have a budget for your readers.
- Tools you already write about or use. You already send them traffic.
- Readers who run companies. A note in your footer or newsletter ("This spot is open for November") reaches them.
Keep the pitch short: who reads you, the spot, the price and the open month, with a link to book. Fill in the brackets:
Subject A sidebar spot on [site] for November
Hi [name], [site] reaches [30,000] [developers] a month, and many of them are [the people you sell to].
I have one [sidebar card] open for November: your logo, one line and a link, on every [article], for [$150].
Book or see the dates here: [link]
[Your name]
Replace every bracket with your own audience, price and dates before sending. Follow up once after a week.
5. Take the booking and the payment
Agree the dates and the ad (logo, line, link) in writing, then take payment before the start date. Paying up front is normal for small sponsorships and saves chasing invoices. You can do this with a payment link from your own Stripe account, an invoice, or a booking tool. Decide in advance whether you approve each ad before it runs.
6. Deliver and report
Put the ad live on its first day and take it down on its last. Mark the links rel="sponsored" and label the spot as sponsored. At the end, send the sponsor views and clicks for the period and offer the next open month. A sponsor who gets a clear report is the easiest one to sell to again.
Note: Steps 5 and 6 can be done by hand with a calendar and payment links, or with a booking tool such as Sponsor.st.
Common mistakes
- Pitching before you have a price. Brands decide faster when the price and dates are already on the page.
- Selling everything at once. One spot that sells well beats five nobody books.
- Promising what you can't measure. Sell a placement and dates, not "awareness" or a number of sales.
- Running the ad before payment. Small deals are rarely worth chasing.
- No report at the end. Without views and clicks, the sponsor has no reason to book again.
- Missing labels. Unlabelled paid placements and followed paid links break FTC and Google rules.
For placing spots and running an advertise page, read how to sell ad space on your website.