2026-10-22 · MarKrip

How to find sponsors for your website or newsletter (without cold-emailing 50 companies)

If you run a small site or newsletter, you've probably noticed that putting a sponsor on the page is the easy part. Finding one is hard. Finding the next one is harder.

That matches what people say in sponsorship threads on Reddit. In r/Newsletters, r/SideProject and r/Blogging, the pain is rarely "how do I display an ad". It's how to land the first sponsor, and then, in one person's words, "landing the third and fourth".

Here's a process that doesn't start with a spreadsheet of 50 cold emails.

Why ad networks probably won't help yet

The usual first idea is an ad network. For small sites, most quality networks are closed:

EthicalAds asks for about 50k pageviews a month.
Raptive lowered its minimum to 25k pageviews, with most traffic from the US, UK, Canada, Australia or New Zealand.
Ezoic now asks new sites for 250k monthly visitors.

Below that you're left with AdSense, which pays very little at small volumes, or pop-up and push networks that can hurt your readers' trust. Direct sponsorships are often the only option that pays properly, and also the one you control.

Step 1: Start with companies that already sponsor sites like yours

The best leads aren't companies that might want to advertise. They're companies that already pay to sponsor sites in your niche.

They have a budget, they've decided sponsorships work for them, and they know roughly what they pay. You're not convincing them to try something new. You're offering one more place for something they already do.

Where to find them:

"Sponsored" sections on similar sites. Open 10 sites your readers also visit and note every sponsor in the sidebar, footer and lists.
Past issues of newsletters in your niche. Sponsors are named at the top or in the middle of each issue. Look back two or three months.
Sponsor pages of open source projects your audience uses. Many list their sponsors publicly.
Podcast sponsor reads in your space.

After an hour you'll usually have a list of 10–20 companies. That's your real list, not 50.

Step 2: Make buying a two-minute job

Before you contact anyone, fix your Advertise page. When we looked at 22 Advertise pages on small and mid-size sites, only 7 let a sponsor book and pay on their own. About 10 didn't publish a price at all. The rest asked for an email, a form, a call or a Calendly booking.

Every extra step loses some buyers, especially small companies with a $50–300 budget who just want to try it.

A good Advertise page has:

a public price per week or month,
the dates that are still open,
what the placement looks like on the real page,
a way to pay by card right there.

Add a small "Advertise here" link next to the spot itself. The people reading your site are often the founders who might buy.

Step 3: Sell proof, not size

A repeated piece of advice in those Reddit threads: sponsors buy proof, not reach. A newsletter with fewer subscribers and good open and click rates often beats a bigger one with weak numbers.

For a website, proof means:

monthly visitors, and where the number comes from (which analytics tool),
impressions and clicks from past sponsors, if you have them,
who your readers are (job, niche, country),
a screenshot or live preview of the spot.

Put it on one page and keep it updated. A media kit PDF from last year with "contact us for pricing" doesn't help anyone. Some sites go further and guarantee a number: Skills Directory guarantees 25k views for its placement, which takes the risk off the sponsor.

Step 4: Price by niche, not just traffic

Across those 22 pages, the price per 1,000 monthly visitors varied about 35 times: from roughly $0.34 on a large tool directory to about $12.50 on Write the Docs, a documentation community. A narrow, valuable audience (developers, designers, a specific B2B role) can charge far more than a general list.

Practical rule: start at a price you'd be slightly embarrassed to be sold out at, and raise it when you sell out. Landingfolio does this publicly and adds $500 after a month sells out. Scarcity becomes a reason to book early.

Step 5: A short pitch to a short list

Now contact your 10–20 companies. Keep it short and specific:

Hi [name], I saw [company] sponsoring [similar site/newsletter]. I run [your site], a [one-line description] read by [who] — about [real monthly visitors] visitors a month (from [analytics tool]). There's an open sponsor spot in [placement] for [dates] at [price]. Here's what it looks like and how to book: [link]. Happy to answer anything.

Mention where you saw them sponsor. It shows you did your homework and puts your site in a category they already buy.

Step 6: Keep them (the third and fourth sponsor)

Getting the third and fourth sponsor is mostly about not losing the first two. Simple habits help:

Send a short report at the end of the period: impressions, clicks, anything you noticed.
Remind them a few days before the spot ends, with a one-click way to book again.
Offer the same dates next month before you offer them to anyone else.

A sponsor who renews is cheaper to keep than a new one is to find.

Trust rules that protect your readers (and your price)

Your audience is what you're selling, so don't burn it. The rules that show up again and again on well-run sites:

Label it clearly. "Sponsored" or "Ad". In the Reddit threads this was the only thing almost everyone agreed on, partly because of FTC disclosure rules.
Limit ads per page. MDN keeps it to two, EthicalAds shows one.
No tracking pixels or pop-ups.
Publish a short ad policy: what you won't accept, no scripts, no autoplay.

Readers notice when sponsors are handled well, and sponsors notice when readers trust the site.

Doing it without the busywork

You can do all of this with a spreadsheet, a Stripe link and a calendar reminder. If you'd rather not, trustslot does the selling part on your own site: sponsors see the spot, verified traffic and a live preview, book and pay you directly (through your own Stripe or your own payment link), and the ad starts and ends by itself. Either way, start with Step 1 — the companies that already sponsor sites like yours are the shortest path to your first deal.