This post is partially inspired by Sarah’s recent blog entry, To Monetize or Not To Monetize, but also by my own feelings on the subject of blog ads, paid blog entries, product reviews, giveaways, blah blah blah — basically anything that could be shoved under the Sponsored Content Umbrella.
My history with blog monetization: I’ve been a paid blogging whore since January of 2007, when Amanda first introduced me to PayPerPost (back when they were super-awesome and not overrun with advertisers who expect $20.00 worth of work for $4.00). From that point onwards I hooked up with Blogsvertise, Blog To Profit, PayU2Blog, and a few others, including IZEA’s PPP spawn, such as SocialSpark. I branched out with Be a Magpie and Sponsored Tweets, which while not nearly as consistent or lucrative as standard paid blogging, have given me nice $50 payouts every 4-6 months.
How much do I make from paid blogging each month? Well, the exact numbers are for me to know and you not to know, but I will say that over the past several years paid blogging has nicely supplemented our regular income. Weekly income from paid blogging has bought two weeks worth of groceries at a time, paid for amusement park tickets, purchased Christmas presents, funded spontaneous online shopping, covered the rental of a uHaul, paid for my childrens’ preschool tuition and school pictures, among other things.
Then there are the banner ads and text links, which you can see are clearly identified and mostly well organized in my sidebar (the downside of providing sidebar ad space is having to have two sidebars, a larger-than-usual sidebar1, or dealing with a crazy long blog and forcing everyone to abuse their scrolly wheels). Those are usually purchased in quarterly, bi-annual or annual increments. I offer a discount for the “bulk” (as in months) purchase, and in return I get a nice little chunk at all once. It’s a win/win, as far as I’m concerned — though I do have certain rates and unless an advertiser is offering something extra snazzy (two year term, more than one link placement, etc.), I won’t go below those rates.
But I don’t consider myself a sellout, at least not in the sense of conforming my blog to an advertiser’s standards. I see so many bloggers getting their panties in a twist worrying over what design to use, how to format their posts, are they including enough categories or tags, should they heavily promote their social networks, blah blah blah, all in the hopes of attracting more advertisers. The worst offenders, in my opinion, are the bloggers that go so far as to censor their own content so that they attract and retain advertisers. This is something I never have and never will do. I may run the occasional giveaway and include the option to follow me on Twitter or be a fan of my page on Jenn.nu, I may try to increase my followers on Google Friend Connect, and sure, I’m going to beg ask you to subscribe to my RSS feed, but will I ever censor what I write on my blog, or write only certain things? HELL TO THE NO.
My motto with advertisers has and always will be: This is who I am. This is how I blog. I won’t change. Take it or leave it.
And if you really want to retain your identity and personality, while at the same time taking advantage of your blog’s traffic and stats, I highly suggest you do the same. Please, don’t become the cookie cutter paid blogger/giveaway host/product reviewer I come across so often these days. Break out of the mold and make your own. Worthwhile advertisers will see you shine and be more attracted to you as a result. But most importantly, you retain yourself, and visitors to your blog will take notice to that and be more apt to stick around to see what you have to say.
- I’ve always kept mine at 200px or less; this is the first layout featuring a 300px width sidebar! ↩
I like your way of thinking Jenn. I wouldn’t change my blog content for sponsors or advertisers. I like the fact that I have a blog of my own where I can talk about anything I want to. Too many people start blogging with high hopes that they will become paid bloggers and sometimes that just doesn’t happen for them.
Very well said! Paid bloggers or reviewers who are ‘sell-outs’, I think, are the bloggers who do things and will only post positive reviews or lie (clearly) in their reviews. I used to have a review blog and I had a company threaten me to that my review down because I had some negative things in the review (along with the positive) and I refused to. If I am going to promote something to my readers, I’m going to be honest. I don’t want to waste my time or theirs! What you are doing is awesome!
Jenn, first of all, your blog inspires me a LOT. Don’t know if I ever told you that. (Incidentally, I am SO glad you posted your plug-in list–I am adding a footnote to the entry I am working on now and I was like HOW DID SHE DO THAT? And all that other good stuff? I hope you don’t mind if I pick your brain about a few other blogging/design tips sometime down the road.)
I read some blogs, and it’s like, one lifestyle post sprinkled in with a billion giveaways and reviews. I hate that. I read people’s blogs to get to know them and hopefully make some new friends. Your blog–yeah, you make money on some of your posts, but it’s interwoven into your LIFE. I can tell you’re not reviewing something JUST to get the money or please a sponsor. Your blog is not a PR playground. So when I come across a sponsored post on yours, I don’t immediately want to scroll through. You have good enough balance that I am genuinely interested in what you have to say. And I think it’s because of what you just posted: you don’t change your posts to please others. You let your voice shine through.
Awesome.
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Paid blogging isn’t for me. I’d never do it on my blog. That being said, I know it’s out there and to each their own. Some bloggers can pull it off and some just can’t. Some overdo it. You are one of the bloggers who I always point to when I am trying to say, “THAT is how you are supposed to do it.”
Rock on, Jenn. Be who you are. I love your blog and I always have.
Blogging: you’re doing it right.
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