There’s a new trend in blogging that seems to be increasing. The SPONSORED POST. For those of you who don’t know what a sponsored post is, it’s a post that is commissioned by a brand or agency. The blogger receives compensation for either writing original content in a post or publishing provided content all of which have specific links and keywords for search engine optimisation. Above all, bloggers MUST disclose this arrangement either through a disclosure at the end of a post or beginning of the post (which is the least popular of the disclosure options) or attach a sponsored post badge on the post.
It’s a pretty simple and painless arrangement actually. You’re paid to write a post or publish content which is sent to you. Seems like a no-brainer really; why wouldn’t everyone take the opportunity to do this? Well, this is where I am conflicted. Am I a sponsored post snob or am I just stupid?
Ages ago I wrote a sponsored post for ebuzzing. It was far more complicated than most of the sponsored posts of today. I had to use loads of provided images with links attached, I had to submit the post for editing in html format before it was approved for me to cut and paste into a post on my blog. For all of this work (and it was a couple hours of work) I was “paid” £40. However, in the fine print, I read after the fact, that you couldn’t access your earnings with ebuzzing until you had made £50 or more. Thus I would have to write at least one more sponsored post to have access to the money I had earned. I felt dirty when I published the post. It wasn’t something I would have written on my own. To me it SCREAMED “I was paid to write this! I’m a fraud”. I buried the post with another hastily written post and never accepted another opportunity. My £40 is probably still sitting somewhere waiting to be claimed.
I don’t begrudge any blogger the opportunity to be paid for their hard work. I think it’s great that bloggers are being sought out in this way and are finally being compensated properly. I know some bloggers who have received good payment for several sponsored posts and can’t deny that our bank balance would be improved dramatically if I simply accepted some of these opportunities. However, I have not received many requests to write or publish sponsored posts lately, in part because I have ignored them in the past.
Am I being a snob? What would you think, as a reader, if you came over to one of my posts, read it and discovered at the end of the post, that I was paid to write it and more than likely wouldn’t have written it if I hadn’t been paid? Would you rather read posts about me, my life, Ella and Sam and the adventures we get up to or would you rather read posts about car insurance or storage solutions? Am I daft? I could be paid anywhere from £40-80 for a sponsored post! I run advertising for products and/or brands that I support and am generally paid for that so is there any difference to running the odd sponsored post? What are your thoughts? Are Sponsored Posts the work of the devil or a necessity in today’s society? Should I be so precious about the content on my blog or take opportunities as they come? What say you??
It’s a personal thing really isn’t it? I accept them, not all that land in my inbox as I prefer to write my own content (I trust it more) and it must be of interest to my readers too. For example I turned down Injury Lawyers for U :/
xx
Having twins I haven’t been able to work and in this economic climate we were really feeling the pinch last year, it took 6 months to get back on track and that was also thanks to some sponsored posts. I wrote on my Mari’s World Facebook page this was the case and apologised to my readers but needs must.
Now the odd sponsored post means I can send the girls to gymnastics on a Monday which they love, I want to sign them up for a swimming course in the new term and I managed to buy myself some new jeans. All things that we couldn’t have afforded before.
I look at my blog as my ‘job’ now. I try to keep it as me as possible but I do allow for paid work too.
Hope this helps and hope you’re feeling better too
its a tough one, isn’t it? I too am being offered them and have to say I turn down more than I accept. I also prefer it if I can reword their post, so I don’t have to write the whole thing but also can tweak it to my style.
And it has to be relevant to me and something I think my readers want ton read. I don’t want to just be a company’s way of spamming my subscribers inboxes
But if those two criteria are met and it gives me £60 ish then why not?
Oh and I don’t do more than one a month! So I keep the balance of my blog still being me
I don’t see this as you being a snob, I see it as you being a blogger with integrity. Not just out to make money.
Its not stupid at all, and until very recently I’ve been really anti it. But with one salary coming in, it’s hard to say no to money for a post which won’t take me very long to put together. I’ve only done one so far and I was quite picky about those topics which I would and wouldn’t say no to. I wouldn’t ever do a sponsored post for something which wasn’t “me”. Because I know how much I hate reading those sponsored posts on their blogs where it’s so obvious that people have only done it for the money. The one I have done was on a topic which I would have written about, so I felt okay about it and that it wouldn’t sit uncomfortably with the rest of my content. I had plenty of comments on the post so my readers could obviously see through the fact it was sponsored content and still new it was me.
I really do think that it’s a personal choice.
For some people,myself included sponsored posts pay the bills. It would be lovely to be able to get on my high horse and judge other bloggers, but I realise that we all have different circumstances in our lives.
I certainly get a lot more then £40 and I never feel dirty for being paid to write, weather it be £80 for a sponsored post or £200 for a piece in the national press.
With the change in the way Google work out their algorithms and less adverts, I think that more and more companies will turn to sponsored posts as a way top get the links they did from adverts.
I do not have issues with reading them, as long as they have been disclosed.
I sometimes thinks it does me good as a writer to think creatively how to include a link within a post. My sponsored posts get comments, lots of hits and I hope make for interesting reading.
I write for me not for other people on MY blogs and if that earns be an income that that is fine by me. You have said in the past that you do not like the confrontation, I am sure a lot has happened in your life these past 30 days when you took a break that would have made a great blog post, sponsored or not.
In fact I am off on a short break right now to a caravan paid for by my sponsored posts. C’est la vie!
The Mad House,
I’m not judging anyone, which I believe I was conveyed in the post. I think it’s wonderful if people are getting paid what they deserve for their writing. I’m just trying to figure out whether I can find comfort with writing a sponsored post. Simple. More power to you for paying for your family holiday through your blog. Have a lovely time.
Karin
I have started writing sponsored posts on my blog because circumstances have dictated that I have to leave my job and earn money some other way and the occasional sponsored post means that I can afford a day out for us all or something that I need.
I always put my disclosure for sponsored posts at the top of my posts as that is what I prefer to see when reading other people’s posts. So far I have only had ones that I feel are relevant to me and my family, and hopefully my readers too. Usually I find that an idea for a blog post will have been mulling round in my head for a while and then I will be asked to add some links which means I am getting paid to write something that I would have anyway!
Only you can know what you feel happy writing about and why. Also, are you blogging for yourself or your audience? I don’t think that publishing the occasional sponsored post would lose you readers but not doing it definitely means you don’t get any money!
I think you are mad
If you don’t want to do them for whatever reason that’s fine – it’s up to you, but if you choose them well and don’t agree to do any old rubbish then I’d say why not! If I was offered them I’d jump at the chance. I’d not do one that was not at all relevant to my blog but I’d certainly try to make it fit, but we are seriously struggling to make ends meet, maybe I’d think differently if circumstances were different.
I understand your reservations, but I myself have done a few recently, having previously been unsure.
I am still yet to run a competition, and kind of limit how commercial I let my blog get.
Having said that, I would give my right arm for a Cybher sponsor….. the irony
I guess it is up to each of us where we draw the line, and it can be a wavy one
Liska xx
It’s simple – We have a toddler and another baby on the way. We need every penny we can get to pay the bills. I can’t find a job outside the home that will pay the cost of childcare so I need to do what I can and I would do anything for my children.
I choose not to run sponsored posts on Mummy’s Little Monkey because I just don’t think they fit in with the style of my blog. But I see why people do them, and I read them if the subject interests me. Tomatoes, To-MAH-toes, I say!!! xxxx
It think to each his/her own it really depend on your readership and the type of blog you want. For me I’m happy to read a post from any of the blogs that I follow and it doesn’t matter if its sponsored or not as long it fits with the reason or themes I’m following. I’ve like to do sponsored post, the money would be handy however I’ll aim to do posts that fit with what my current blog is about, not some random topic just for the money. I don’t think that would fair to my readers.
Be true to yourself and your blog, consider why you started it in the first place.
Sorry it’s taken me so long to get round to commenting. I don’t have a problem with blogs running sponsored posts. I think each to their own and I’m in no position to judge others for what they choose to do.
However, in terms of my own blog, I prefer to only run sponsored posts when they are relevant to me, my family, the experiences we are going through and are written about something that I would write about anyway. I’ve turned down opportunities before because the subject just didn’t fit with my blog or myself. If I was writing for another website or corporate blog then that would be different as I would be commissioned to write about something specific. A pet hate of mine is companies who get in touch with a pre-written post and expect you to publish it on your blog for free – I’ve had a few of those.