I was recently offered $1,000 for a series of sponsored posts, some social media promotion, a giveaway. Not a horrible brand, but a brand that I don’t own or plan to ever own, a brand that doesn’t fit with Wardrobe Oxygen.
A thousand dollars is a lot of money. It’s a major game-changing sum. It was really hard to say no, but sponsorship is such a slippery slope. I could have said yes, done the posts, done the promotion, taken the money but then what next? When have you gone so far as to truly selling your soul? I know I said I did for the haircut, but that was me being emotional over the realization of how far I had gone. I always need to remember, my blog is an extension of me.
Whether it is a part-time hobby or a full-time profession, a blog is your digital business card, diary, photo album, government background check, resume, scrapbook, and coffee date with your best friend all rolled into one.
Some people have made blogging sponsorships and paid giveaways their job, and to me that’s a different story. Go to Prizey and you’ll find tons of folks who have chosen to make a living with these sorts of opportunities. Thing is, they aren’t trying to pretend as though they care about the brands or their readers, they’re not branding themselves along with the paid reviews. However for personal style bloggers, our business is us. We are what we are essentially selling on our blogs.
When does one stop? How much money does one have to throw at someone to get them to change their values? When does one distance themselves so much from their blog that they don’t blink at a strange partnership if it has a nice price?
I’m glad the brand didn’t offer more, because it would have been even harder to say no. Probably by writing this, I’ll receive fewer offers and that actually makes me happy. There’s too much temptation in the blogosphere to sell your soul.
