I’ll address the white elephant in the blogging room:

Sponsored posts.

As a blogger, there are many different ways to make money depending on your situation and wants.  This doesn’t include services like coaching or selling a product.  A few of those include sponsored posts, ads, campaigns, Instagram campaigns, affiliate links, and commissioned sales.  There are also Patreon pages which you can directly support or donate to podcasts or bloggers.

The two I personally use are ads (you can usually see on the sidebar) and sponsored posts from brands.  The rest of the options aren’t for me, but they do work well for others. To add, if you start blogging to make money, you probably should choose a different career path.  I know plenty of people that make a full-time income from blogging (not selling a product, just themselves as a brand), but unless you are internet famous, you probably won’t make a ton.  Or you’ll work with a lot of brands all of the time.

Being internet famous is like having a lot of monopoly money and when everyone logs off or stops playing…what do you have?  A bunch of likes that don’t exist when you shut off social media…

Through blogging, I make enough money to cover the fees associated with having your own domain and to cover most of my race entries for the year.

Moving forward though, someone asked the other day why there aren’t many “negative sponsored posts.”

It would involve the following scenario:

Blogger and Company Talk and Agree on some sort of terms of an agreement (product, payment, whatever)

The company sends blogger thing to review (and maybe even pays the blogger for review)

Blogger bashes the company and says it’s garbage.

Therefore the company just sent and possibly paid someone for bad publicity.

The company might lose many potential customers because everything on the internet is true.  Even if that product might work for someone else.

I’ll tell you first, why you don’t see it here.

I only accept brands I’ve used for long periods of time and already like.  Some brands I’ve worked with before include Vital Proteins, Vitamin Shoppe, Runners World, even brands like Scott, and places for the military to get their hair cut like Great Clips.

I don’t try and set myself up for failure with a brand, or something I know won’t work. 

So now you must think, wow Hollie just has favorable luck with everything?

That is not the case!  There have been plenty of higher paying (for me anyway) campaigns I have turned down. While my blog does not garner the attention of $1000+ influencer “deals,” I do know, of course, they exist!

I look at every single offer that is given to me.  I’m not going to ever choose something I already know I won’t like…that’s dumb.  (just like I’m not going to go to a diner with 0 stars but 1000 yelp reviews…LOL).

Here are a Few Recent Examples of Things I Turned Down that Would Have Been Negative:

On several occasions, I’ve gotten requests to post already written blog posts.  Prewritten content isn’t a big deal, and I’ve been happy to post prewritten content if it makes sense.  I turned this particular post down because of the material.

The content was about losing weight.  While many people do need to lose weight and exercise, that isn’t that focus on my blog.  My blog isn’t about losing weight, and that isn’t the tone I want to set.  The company was going to pay me $200 to just copy and paste into my blog.  It was a lot but for me, wasn’t worth it.

A few months ago, I turned down a campaign for the promotion of an app having to do with babies.  I have no children, but because many of the readers do, the brand thought it was a good fit.  It didn’t make sense, and it makes more sense for someone who has children to blog about that!

The last and best example is recently I was sent free activewear as well as a monthly subscription to a brand (about $50 per month).  On the website, the workout and lounge gear looked nice and something I could use.

When I received the activewear, it wasn’t the style wasn’t for me. I emailed the brand my honest feedback and exactly what I planned to blog.

I actually didn’t workout in or wear the apparel at all.  In the email, I also said I wouldn’t be posting photos of me wearing the attire because I wasn’t my style nor the style I wanted to portray.  I was more than happy to send the clothing (with tags) back, and they could use it for someone who is a better fit for the style.  Instead of taking a few photos and making a few extra dollars, I sent the clothing back.  I don’t have any regrets about that.

My point is, that is why you won’t see too many negative sponsored posts.  For me personally, I don’t accept every single campaign.  I won’t promote anything I don’t like or use.  Do I have to absolutely LOVE something like a free haircut to the military on certain days?  No, but do I think it’s an awesome gesture, of course, I do.

I am fortunate that I don’t rely on blogging as my full-time income or job.  From this post, it sounds like I’m given dozens of opportunities every day, but I can assure you I don’t! Unless you are one of the top bloggers, blogging is not a luxurious job that generates an easy and high paying income.  I blog because I like to share my story and things I’ve learned along the way.   It’s nice to make money and cover the costs of blogging, so it remains a freeish hobby, but I cannot see myself pursuing trying to “grow” and making it fulltime.  (I appreciate those who have worked hard to do so though!)

I don’t have a question today, but more of opinions on topics like influencers sponsored posts and making money as a blogger.