Sponsored Post Rules (disclosure, how many, etc…)

There are a lot of “rules” that go along with sponsored posts…

Lets start with the Disclosure:

1- What is a disclosure and why do you need them?
The purpose of a disclosure is to help readers determine if the blogger is endorsing a brand or not.    Don’t worry… You can get creative– it doesn’t have to be the same boring disclosure.

a- Your disclosure has to be stated BEFORE any links – linking to the brand.
b- Your links need to be no-follow, so if you are asked to link to the brand in your disclosure, add the no-follow button (you can get a plugin for this… I have it.)
c- You need to use a disclosure statement on social media, too.   Sometimes #sponsored or #ad is all that you need.  It has to be understandable to everyone, so #spon may not work anymore.
d- The disclosure must be close (physically) to the statement or endorsement.   (example- they have to be in the same tweet or in the same Facebook share).   I’m not sure about Pinterest, because using a hashtag on Pinterest is a No-No, so we need to get creative with the Pinterest description.
e- They have to be visible (not “in the fine print”)
f- Disclosure is needed for videos, as well (youtube.com, etc…)

2. How often to post a sponsored post:
There are a lot of Pros & Cons to writing sponsored posts.    I personally do quite a few, but I work them into my posts.   I wrote a post about 10 ways to use Cake-Mix in a box, when writing about cake-mix.  I wrote a post about how to keep your kids busy when waiting at the Doctor’s office, when writing about a new cell phone (phones keep our kids busy, that’s for sure!).  Now if I were doing my posts a reviews, I would not post as many.   They say to do five regular posts to every one sponsored post, which would be around one a week.  Sometimes I will do more than that- sometimes I will do one sponsored post for every regular post.  On days where I have a lot to do (around holidays) I will normally write two posts a day- one regular, one sponsored.
In the end, it is up to you.  

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DISCLAIMER: We are not attorneys. The information provided is not legal advice and is only based on our experiences as bloggers.