On being a blogging sell-out.

Usually, you’ll find post here about motherhood, fashion, a recipe or some kind of life event recap. I think of this blog as my public diary. The hubs just said the other day, “remember when Cooper did that?! I have to write it down!” Not to worry, hubs. I blogged it. 


I pretty much write what I want, when I want. It’s my space to be me. 


Lately, there has been lots of discussion swirling around bloggers (including myself) writing too many reviews. Writing anything to get money. I felt like I wanted to break it down for anyone wondering what the whole process is. 


The majority of the reviews I do are on my review blog. I usually don’t post much there, either. The most I’ve done this year is 4 post in 1 month. You know that if you’re clicking that link, you will find one of the following.


A sponsored post – One that I was paid to write. This means I was given product or information to review and write an honest opinion in exchange for money. 


A giveaway – Sometimes, I am given the same thing that I am giving away for myself. It is always disclosed at the bottom of the post as to my compensation. 


A combination of the two – A giveaway in addition to some sort of payment.


Now, the only reviews I do on the main blog here, are from the ad company you see on my sidebar, BlogHer. They are a great company that I enjoy working with. They are the middle man between companies and bloggers and they make my life easier. I do reviews through them occasionally. I love doing their reviews because there is almost always a great giveaway in it for you. Typically a Visa Gift Card. I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty excited if my odds aren’t too bad to win some free money. 


The tricky thing with them, is when the post go live. Meaning, they tell you when to post the review. You send your review to them for approval and for them to add all the proper links and legal jargon. Once every blogger in the campaign has their post done, the reviews all go out the same day. In an ideal world, I would have 2-3 of these reviews a month. It just so ended up that I had one the last week of June and now I have 2 for July going live this week. I wrote one the reviews almost a month ago, and it’s just now being published today. 


I have a few criteria for things I am going to review. 


It’s relevant to my readers – Clothing, shoes, baby goods, makeup


I need/want it – Let’s be honest. Who wouldn’t review a vacuum cleaner you needed instead of paying for it? 


There’s something sweet in it for you – I gave away an awesome stroller not too long ago. I didn’t get one. I didn’t get paid for promoting their brand. I just thought it was awesome and wanted one of you to have it. 


Sometimes, you apply to review things. Sometimes a company will just approach you and ask for you to review their product. You should know that I (and I’m sure the majority of other bloggers reviewing products) are saying no to a whole lot more than they say yes to. I could increase my shopping budget quite a bit if I just took every offer. I’d say there’s about 1 offer from BlogHer every weekday. I may apply to 1-2 a week. Out of those, I’m selected for a campaign about twice a month. Now, they may all fall into 1 week (like this one!) making me look like I’m grabbing every offer that pops into my inbox, when that really isn’t the case. 


The majority of campaigns now require a lot of social media promotion that they didn’t before. You’ll see #ad before anything that isn’t straight up my words. Am I replacing my normal tweets for ads? No. They are just additional tweets to complete a campaign. 


The whole thing is kind of a pain in the booty, really. The FTC has very strict laws on bloggers about how you have to disclose things on your blog. There are different laws for Facebook and Twitter as well, so it gets confusing. They seem to have no laws about Eva Longoria waving her gorgeous locks on a L’Oreal commercial, making you think she actually uses boxed color. Give me a break. (And seriously, I’m pretty sure she doesn’t need the money.) I’m not here to mislead anyone. I giving my honest opinion that is hopefully helpful to y’all. 


I do make money from sponsored post and some reviews. Don’t go thinking it’s a ton of money, because it’s not. Is it nice? Absolutely. I love feeling like I can contribute to the finances of our family a little bit or buy something I’d been wanting without feeling bad. I’ve spent a lot of time on this blog and it’s great to see a little reward. 


I don’t blog for the money. I blog about the same things I blogged about when I started and I’m never going to be a sell-out. I don’t think the amount of sponsored post I accept is overboard. In the month of June, I had 1 paid post and 1 unpaid review on this main blog. An amount I am very happy with. 


Hope that helps people see the whole sponsored post/review process a little differently. If you have questions, ask away!