Staying organized with sponsorships

Since starting sponsorships back up after a 5 month break I have come to realize what works for me when it comes to keeping sponsorships running as smoothly and easily as possible. Part of the reason why I stopped accepting sponsorships was because it got to be overwhelming to keep track of information, who sent what, who needed to send what, who paid and didn't. And it started to feel like a chore.

So with that, I feel this time around, I have a clear head on my shoulders and I wanted to share some tips that worked for me with organizing sponsorship information.

1. Keep all sponsorship information, rates, packages, features, and blog stats fresh and up to date. 
I like to share this information on a separate sponsorship page. Some other people like to send a private email with rates and packages after you inquire. It's totally up to you. But sending another email, that's just another step that I don't really have the time for so I lay it all out there for all to see.

1a. If you are going to send an email with sponsorship information, save it as a draft in your email (I know hotmail has this as a folder, I'm not sure about other email services) and when someone contacts you about your rates and information, all you have to do is copy and paste and send! Quick and easy.

 2. Keep notes! 
When numerous sponsors apply it seems to happen all at once or in big chunks. For me, this is when it starts to feel overwhelming, but if you keep clear notes you will make it so much easier on yourself. So to be sure I keep all the information straight I keep track of the following in Window's note pad:

-Name

-Contact email

-PayPal email (in the event you need to send an invoice and it's a different address than the contact email)

-URL to have button linked to

-Networking links

-If I have their button, write ups, features, etc.

-If they paid or if it's a swap

-If I'm doing a swap, I mark if I sent my stuff to them 

Then this gets saved in my "December sponsors" folder on my desktop so everything is together.

3. Make a special folder in your inbox specifically for that month's sponsors and put all emails in that folder to keep your inbox neat. 
A messy inbox freaks me out. Having a separate folder is good because if I realize I don't have something from someone, I can double check if they indeed did send it and I overlooked it or if they really didn't send it yet. Then I can decide to remind them.

4. Use a PayPal Pay Now form.
This time around, I am asking for sponsors to pay first with an easy PayPal Pay Now form right on the sponsor page. This saves me the step of having to ask what their PayPal email address is, wait to hear back, and send an invoice. Having this form, their payment goes right into my account and I get an email notifying me. Since I customized the form to include their contact email and URL to have the button linked to, I have that information right away too! Then I can send them a message thanking them and asking them for the remaining information (write up, networking links, photo, ad button, etc)

To learn how to set up an easy PayPal Pay Now form on your own sponsor page, click here for a tutorial!

 

I hope you found this helpful! And if you have any of your own suggestions, I'd love to hear them in the comments below.