You know, now that we have the Sitewide Disclosure Policy, we are no longer individually disclosing on sponsored posts (except for every once in a while, as we explain there) and I wanted to take a moment to discuss, not the benefits, but the drawbacks of sponsored posting and what all goes into it.
So you know, this is neither a sponsored post nor a defense of paid posting.
While some bloggers - there are many, actually (a whole subsect of the blogosphere, in fact) - do not like sponsored posts, I don't think most of them appreciate what goes into the practice. Far from just "copying & pasting" prewritten text, we paid bloggers are ad-copy writers, sometime journalists, sometime reviewers, and all points between. In all cases, we have to be writers, marketers, and business people of the highest degree - we have to be!
Not in defense, because I have pleaded my case to death by now, but what is wrong with getting paid to do something you love and already do anyway? This whole anti-sponsored post "movement" (if you want to call it that) reminds me of the way so many death metal enthusiasts were anti-commercialism; "It's all about the music." That's why death metal basically died, just so you know. It isn't that it ever went out of "fashion" because death metal was never very popular; it appealed to a limited cross-section of listeners who tended to be rabid fans, but they also tended to be fiercely broke - and very easy to offend whenever they found out their idols were making money on anything!
"I used to like [insert band name here] until they started selling T-shirts at [insert record store name here]," and, "I used to listen to [insert band name here] until I saw them on MTV [or in a known music magazine]," and so on, ad nauseam.
Yeah, well kids, that meant a lot of death metal musicians had to take on day jobs, which cut into their time to make music - especially as they grew older and started their own families and so forth - which led directly to their needing to focus more on their day jobs in order to bring in more money, which made them lose their record deals. Not to mention the myriad recording labels who went out of business because they could not support themselves. The same is true of blogging.
I am going to blog either way - have since 1998 - but I love getting paid to do it. Just like I am going to talk about my favorite TV show, the coolest new movie coming out, whatever book or comic I am reading, and on and on. If I can get paid to do these things, then what in the world is wrong with that?
Nothing.
If only it were that easy!
Many of the programs available do not let you pick and choose which advertisers you want to take on - that's why you sometimes see posts that you might think don't "fit" with the blog (even though this, like all my other blogs, is really a catch-all blog with a general theme). In other cases, you have to actively seek-out advertisers and bid on campaigns - you might get accepted, you might be rejected - but it can take hours, even days to finally catch a bite. Sometimes, you have to sign-up with merchants and you receive a commission on sales generated, meaning you have to decide when and how to advertise them and unless you really know how to do that effectively, you are not going to make much money (and they are easy to forget when you're working under deadlines - did I mention deadlines? I didn't? Well, many programs have deadlines you have to beat in order to get paid). A lot of time, effort, work, and research go into the whole thing.
All told, it's truly a job - real, actual work - and you have to treat it as such. The trick is not to lose sight of the simple joy of blogging that brought you to it in the first place. But it takes a lot of your time to do all the business of sponsored posts - time that takes away from being able to visit others' blogs, not to mention a lot of outgoing links that bring down your PR, meaning you often trade popularity for the chance to make money, and that can be disheartening if you let it get to you.
So, for those of you completely against sponsored posts, you should be aware of just how much is involved and how much those of us who participate in these programs give up in order to pursue them - especially those of us for whom this is a significant portion of our overall income! All in all, it balances itself out, as we often trade a large chunk of our time, effort, and popularity for a little bit of cash, but it allows us to keep blogging (and do it more often) than many others who fall out of the habit after just a few months.
So you know, this is neither a sponsored post nor a defense of paid posting.
While some bloggers - there are many, actually (a whole subsect of the blogosphere, in fact) - do not like sponsored posts, I don't think most of them appreciate what goes into the practice. Far from just "copying & pasting" prewritten text, we paid bloggers are ad-copy writers, sometime journalists, sometime reviewers, and all points between. In all cases, we have to be writers, marketers, and business people of the highest degree - we have to be!
Not in defense, because I have pleaded my case to death by now, but what is wrong with getting paid to do something you love and already do anyway? This whole anti-sponsored post "movement" (if you want to call it that) reminds me of the way so many death metal enthusiasts were anti-commercialism; "It's all about the music." That's why death metal basically died, just so you know. It isn't that it ever went out of "fashion" because death metal was never very popular; it appealed to a limited cross-section of listeners who tended to be rabid fans, but they also tended to be fiercely broke - and very easy to offend whenever they found out their idols were making money on anything!
"I used to like [insert band name here] until they started selling T-shirts at [insert record store name here]," and, "I used to listen to [insert band name here] until I saw them on MTV [or in a known music magazine]," and so on, ad nauseam.
Yeah, well kids, that meant a lot of death metal musicians had to take on day jobs, which cut into their time to make music - especially as they grew older and started their own families and so forth - which led directly to their needing to focus more on their day jobs in order to bring in more money, which made them lose their record deals. Not to mention the myriad recording labels who went out of business because they could not support themselves. The same is true of blogging.
I am going to blog either way - have since 1998 - but I love getting paid to do it. Just like I am going to talk about my favorite TV show, the coolest new movie coming out, whatever book or comic I am reading, and on and on. If I can get paid to do these things, then what in the world is wrong with that?
Nothing.
If only it were that easy!
Many of the programs available do not let you pick and choose which advertisers you want to take on - that's why you sometimes see posts that you might think don't "fit" with the blog (even though this, like all my other blogs, is really a catch-all blog with a general theme). In other cases, you have to actively seek-out advertisers and bid on campaigns - you might get accepted, you might be rejected - but it can take hours, even days to finally catch a bite. Sometimes, you have to sign-up with merchants and you receive a commission on sales generated, meaning you have to decide when and how to advertise them and unless you really know how to do that effectively, you are not going to make much money (and they are easy to forget when you're working under deadlines - did I mention deadlines? I didn't? Well, many programs have deadlines you have to beat in order to get paid). A lot of time, effort, work, and research go into the whole thing.
All told, it's truly a job - real, actual work - and you have to treat it as such. The trick is not to lose sight of the simple joy of blogging that brought you to it in the first place. But it takes a lot of your time to do all the business of sponsored posts - time that takes away from being able to visit others' blogs, not to mention a lot of outgoing links that bring down your PR, meaning you often trade popularity for the chance to make money, and that can be disheartening if you let it get to you.
So, for those of you completely against sponsored posts, you should be aware of just how much is involved and how much those of us who participate in these programs give up in order to pursue them - especially those of us for whom this is a significant portion of our overall income! All in all, it balances itself out, as we often trade a large chunk of our time, effort, and popularity for a little bit of cash, but it allows us to keep blogging (and do it more often) than many others who fall out of the habit after just a few months.
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