So here’s the thing. It’d be awesome if I could make an income out of my blog. I invest a lot of time in it and I nourish it as a space for me to say whatever the hell I want. But yeh, it’d be nice if I could make a bit of money. I think slagging off bloggers who do accept campaigns and advertisements is kind of simplistic. Lots of us welcome at least a little advertising for a bunch of diverse reasons, and not all of them are “because I wanna know if I can make money”. I’m a woman who has struggled in traditional work places, I’m fat, I’m disabled, and I’m an artist in a country that really doesn’t know what the fuck to do with us. I’m a fat disabled introverted female artist who wants to know if she can make a buck online because it’s been really fucking hard trying to do it offline! The people willing to criticise those of us investigating this blogging as a part-time/ full-time career often aren’t in the same situation, they’ve usually got access to privileges that mean they can proudly proclaim their sites are “ad free”. And good onya, if that’s what you want to do, but don’t shit on those of us who are figuring out this PRETTY EXPERIMENTAL blogging revenue business and claim we’re bringing down blogging’s reputation.
That being said, I like being critical of everything including the things that benefit me. Here’s the comment I posted on the post that is still awaiting moderation:
I ought to add a whopping disclaimer to the beginning of this comment by saying that I am signed up with Nuffnang and I have done one sponsored campaign with them.
I’m in a unique position as a personality blogger who writes about fat discrimination, plus size fashion and my own art practice, and I think that by tarring all Nuffnang bloggers with the same brush you’re being a tad simplistic. Nuffnang haven’t really found many clients willing to offer me campaigns, perhaps because my content and audience aren’t your typical blogger fare. I am grateful they haven’t sent through poorly matched ones, I do trust that they research and match clients and bloggers pretty well.
The campaign I did take part in was for fashion awards sponsored by an alcohol brand, and I took part for my own reasons and not particularly for the money. The inconvenience of having to fly interstate several times disrupted my art practice, and as it turned out I was poorly compensated for this disruption. However I really wanted to participate in the campaign for my own subversive reasons: as a fat woman I am typically excluded from the fashion industry, so it was quite a novelty to have these people blow smoke up my spectacular derriere!
Please don’t assume that all bloggers involved in considering generating sponsored content are so naive as not to consider how their audience will react to this content hitting their RSS feed. The little soapbox I have built for myself is very precious to me, and I am loathe to jeopardise my independent voice for monetary gain (bar the chance perform the subversive role of fat lady at the fashion event). I do share some of your concerns but I figure that bloggers who do not take care to consider their audience may well eventually be left without one.
It’s kind of insulting to assume all bloggers are naive and don’t consider what they’re doing. But it’s also really insulting to assume that those bloggers who DON’T say no to questionable campaigns are doing it because they’re evil and money obsessed. Women just aren’t taught to say no, and I’ve got to say: Nuffnang’s campaign approval program doesn’t let you opt out easily. It automatically opts you IN to each advertising campaign!
So I will defend myself as a blogger who accepts certain advertising campaigns but I encourage critical discussion about the issues around it. It’s bigger than greed. Sometimes the advertising company (Nuffnang in this case) haven’t fully thought out their notification and approval process and it’s important to realise that this whole business of making money off blogs is still experimental and new. Discussion is great, shaming specific bloggers is nasty work.