Months of waiting, preparing and blogging lead up to IZEAFest 2009. This was going to be the biggest event for me all year. It did not disappoint. I had known a few of the secrets going into this event because one of them you can see right now in this blog. Ted Murphy CEO of IZEA redesigned BenSpark.com, created my logo and propelled my overall brand to the next level.
This morning my Mom called and told me that a giant praying mantis was down on one of her wicker chairs and I should bring my camera. Well, I am always up for a praying mantis photos so I came right down. I like how this guy is just looking at me like “What Do You Want!”
It got me thinking about the trend I am seeing lately where bloggers are shouting from the rafters that they want sponsors so that they can go to events. I see it constantly every day from people who want sponsors to do this for them or that for them. I had a large contest with many prizes and I had many great sponsors. I don’t believe that I got sponsorship because my blog is anything special. I’m a guy who likes to take photos every day and post them. A large percentage of them are of my beautiful daughter Eva. So really my blog is not great standout.
So How Did I get So Many Great Sponsors?
I built relationships with people. It is that simple. I found the right people to talk to by doing a little research and then I pitched them my idea. Some were on board right away like Michael from Xshot (can’t wait to actually meet him as we’ve known each other for two years now). Michael and I talked about my Ultimate IZEAFest Prize Pack Contest months and months before I actually started asking for sponsorships. The way I went about it was this. I stated my case as well as what I could do for each and every sponsor and I asked for something specific. To this end I was pretty successful and happy with the outcomes. There were one or two people who I approached who felt that I didn’t provide enough value for what I was asking. That is okay I continued to ask other sponsors or I would find ways in which each sponsor that said no might want to do something differently.
What I didn’t do
I didn’t shout out on twitter multiple times a day “sponsor me”. That is tacky and I would think that a sponsor would certainly be turned off on that. If you want to work with someone you need to start that relationship. Introduce yourself and clearly define what you want, why you want it, why it is in the benefit of the sponsor to provide you with what you want and how a relationship with you would be beneficial.