Sponsored Content: Share your expertise with our readers

AuPairMom is happy to offer parents, au pairs, Au Pair Agencies, Au Pair Agency Employees, ChildCare Experts, and representatives of businesses related to happy family life the opportunity to share their own unique insights with the AuPairMom community (over 21,000 visitors/ month).

Sponsored Content should provide AuPairMom readers and the Au Pairing community with thoughtful, helpful perspectives, advice, and reflection.

Below are some guidelines for sponsored posts.

** Since this is a new plan, I’m open to your comments and suggestions on how to shape sponsored content so that it’s valuable to everyone involved.

Content of Sponsored Posts

All posts will demonstrate that they support AuPairMom’s mission of helping to build strong relationships between Host Families and Au Pairs.

Posts must follow the spirit of AuPairMom’s comment policy.  Critiques of anything — even the weather– must be offered in a fair, kind and constructive way.

Sponsored Content can be written by you, by me, or by other AuPairMom readers.

Topics can run the gamut from instructional (e.g., 6 Ways to Limit the Au Pair Car to Protect Your Au Pair ) to reflective (e.g., We *are* making a difference ) to humorous (e.g., The Most Successful Au Pair Picker in all of New Jersey).

If you want to write a post that recommends or reviews a product or service, let’s talk before you write it so that we make sure it fits with AuPairMom’s mission.

Pitching

If you are interested in writing a post or a series of posts, send me a pitch at mom@aupairmom.com.  A pitch will help us talk about fitting your post into the parameters of AuPairMom’s philosophy and community needs — before you get down to the hard work of writing.

Send your pitch to mom@aupairmom.com.  The “Subject” line of your email should read: Sponsored Content Pitch.  

For single posts, tell me in in one or two paragraphs what you’d like to write about. Be sure to tell me how your proposed post will help the AuPairMom community.

For a series of posts, tell me the general topic, how many posts you’d like in your series, and what some of the possible single posts might be. That will be enough to start a conversation to shape your contributions.

Legal-ish Information

All posts will be copyrighted by AuPairMom unless otherwise negotiated in advance.

As per the current content policy, all comments on the blog posts become the property of AuPairMom and cannot be shared or reposted without express written permission.

Comments will be moderated by AuPairMom as per the current comments policy.

Posts can be cross-posted in whole on the sponsoring business’s website, with attribution and links back to AuPairMom, if desired and if negotiated in advance.

Images used in the content must be (1) owned by the writer, (2) with a clear ‘copyleft’, creative commons designation, (3) purchased by the writer, or (4) clearly in the public domain. It is the responsibility of the writer to provide images and their documentation.

We’re happy to link back to the source of an image and/or to mention that the image is available for purchase (as I do with images from sites like Etsy).

Promoting Your Sponsored Content

We’ll both promote your sponsored content on AuPairMom.

I will tweet about your sponsored content twice per day the week it’s published,  once a day for two weeks after, and once a week for the remainder of the year, from my AuPairMom account (ab0ut 800 followers).  I’ll also tweet it once a day for the first week from my personal twitter account (about 6,000 followers.)

I’ll publish an announcement of the post on the AuPairMom Facebook page.

The sponsor/authors will tweet about the sponsored content with a link to AuPairMom twice per day the week it’s published,  once a day for two weeks after, and once a week for the remainder of the year, from their corporate or personal accounts.

The sponsor/authors will publish an announcement of the post and a link back to it on their own (business or personal) Facebook page.

Topics and Themes

Sponsored Content should address issues that matter to AuPairMom readers– either host parents, au pairs, or the whole readership. It should share the sponsoring entity or person’s particular expertise or area of interest.

E.g., If your agency wanted to be known for having a large, reliable pool of special-needs qualified Au Pairs, you might sponsor a blog post on “Helping an Au Pair Candidate Understand Your Child’s Special Needs — Before You Match”.

Content may also include contests, product giveaways, and prizes.

Content may include a signup link for the sponsor/author’s own site, newsletter, etc.

Rates

For the first few months, the rate for a single sponsored post will be $300.

(For perspective, that’s about the same as the bonus for referring just *one* family to an agency. It’s less than the $350-450 discount for renewing a family, and just a sixth of the $1,900 discount for an extension family.)

After the first quarter, the rates will likely increase a bit.

The rates for Sponsored Content series will reflect the length, number, and frequency of the posts.

For example: A series of 12 monthly posts between 750 and 1,000 words might be $800 per quarter, $3,200 annually. For an additional fee, yours could be the only sponsored content that month.

Clear Differentiation from Regular Content

Sponsored content will be clearly noted at the top and bottom of the blog post page, so that readers know that it’s paid content rather than a community guest blogger.

E.g.,   ~~~ This post is sponsored by the J&M Banks AuPair Agency.  ~~~

Credits, Links, and Logos

The author and/or the sponsoring business will have a bio paragraph at the end of the post, with a link to their own business page and/ or their social media account.

E.g.,   Ms. Poppins, known for her expertise with spoonfuls of sugar, works with the J&M Banks Agency. J&M Banks is the largest Caregiver-Family Matching site on Cherry Lane. Follow her on @MaryPoppins.

The sponsor’s logo may also be added to the post, probably near the author credit.

The post’s copy may (and should) contain up to three contextual links to the sponsor’s materials and three links to internal AuPairMom content, to provide insight or relevant keywords.

If the author writes frequently for AuPairMom, s/he may have a “Contributing Writer” page, with her/his own personal bio. This page is to help writers receive credit for their contributions and help them build online portfolios.

Approval

The copy and images for the sponsored content will be approved by both the Sponsor and AuPairMom before the content is published on AuPairMom.

Of course, guest posts from Community Members who are not agency reps or community professionals or related to a business are always welcome! We love having moms, dads, and au pairs share their stories as a contribution to the community (and as a chance to write and publish).

These are preliminary guidelines– we will revise them as we get more experience with sponsoring content.

Please email me if you’re interested in sharing your ideas with AuPairMom readers.

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