by Elizabeth, Delightfully Tacky
Whether or not to monetize your blog is definitely an important decision to make along your blogging journey. I started to think about accepting advertisers on Delightfully Tacky in January of 2010, when I first decided to follow my dream of driving around the country in the Brave. In addition to offsetting the cost of the increased time, money and energy I was spending on maintaining my blog, monetizing also offered me a way to make money while I was on the road and not able to hold down a stationary 9-5 type job. My blog advertising helped me not only to save money for my Brave journey, but it also helped cover some of the costs of going to NYFW and other blog related expenses. It was a big decision for me, and I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but I am thrilled that I've been able to make a living doing something I absolutely love!
Some people have expressed "disappointment" that I make money off of my blog, but I believe it's a personal decision. If I was making money off of selling my artwork (which I sometimes do), I don't think most people would think that's selling out. Being a studio artist is a completely legitimate career. It may not end up being a super-lucrative career (unless you become really famous), but I think the most important thing for career-artists is that they love what they do and wouldn't trade it in just to be rich and working a steady job that they hate. Being a starving blogger is very similar to being a starving artist. Blogging is an extremely creative endeavor. You spend a lot of time working on your blog, cultivating relationships with other bloggers, networking, taking photos, creating graphics, and trying your best to bring great content to your readers. In a lot of senses, maintaining a blog is very similar to maintaining a small magazine. You have tiny daily editorials (outfit shoots), you may do product reviews, you may interview cool people or other bloggers, you might show people your favorite spring trends- all of these things you can find in a magazine! Except that people come to your blog because they like your take on things! Maybe they enjoy your writing style, your photographs, the topics you cover, or just your personality. Either way, people are coming to your blog to enjoy the content you work to provide. And just because it's work doesn't mean you don't enjoy it. I have and do work incredibly hard on my blog, but I love every second of it. It's still just as fun for me as the day I started. I would say it's more fun now that I'm more a part of the online community. I've met some amazing friends and have had amazing opportunities through blogging.
Another thing to note is that once you start taking sponsors- you can always chose to stop at any time. If you want to try it out, test the waters, go ahead! If you end up deciding it feels wrong for your blog at that time, don't feel bad about it! Finish out your sponsors' ads (or take them down and refund the sponsors), and go back to being an ad-free blog! The beauty of blogging is that nothing is set in stone. Your blog is YOURS. You are free to do whatever you'd like with it. If advertising ends up being something you don't want to include, that's perfectly fine!
If you do decide to accept advertisers, you have to be discerning with how you handle it. The reason a lot of people are against ads on blogs is because they've seen other blogs become less genuine and more sponsor focused, devaluing the content that they post. I think one important way of keeping this from happening is to only accept sponsors from companies or shops which you honestly like. If you don't care a thing for underwater basket weaving, but an underwater basket weaving company contacts you asking to buy ad space on your blog, you might want to think twice before accepting them as a sponsor. Your readers will be able to tell that that sponsor doesn't really match with your blog and it's content. I also like to think of this in terms of what the sponsor is getting out of their ad. If you don't care anything about their shop or product, you probably won't be able to direct much traffic their way. So really they aren't going to get much out of the ad, and you're just going to injure your blog's honesty.
Something important to keep in mind: always blog for yourself. Don't blog for anyone else. Once you start trying to cater to someone else, whether it be your readers or your sponsors, you'll lose your own voice-which is an indispensable commodity. Your voice is in high demand because guess what? There's only one of you. You're the only one that can be you! Don't compromise that for anyone else!
