Wednesday 4 September 2013

Thoughts on blog sponsorship - a follow up

I thought it would be good to follow up on my post from last week when I was thinking about blog sponsorship.

I was a bit nervous about putting the post out there, but I'm so glad I did.  Thank you so much to everyone who commented - I really appreciated your insights and you provided me with some valuable perspective.  It was awesome to have a really honest, friendly and constructive conversation about quite a tricky subject.

Ralph's getting some perspective too!

I wanted to give a little summary of what I learned from the people who commented and where my thinking is at now.  So, from the comments I learned that most of you follow blogs for inspiration and enjoy seeing and reading about projects with originality and creativity.  Me too, so no surprises there!

Most readers said they find too much sponsored content a turn-off, especially if it replaces what used to be interesting and creative content.  People also find it disappointing when they feel like a blogger has compromised his or her integrity by promoting something he or she doesn't totally believe in.  I completely agree with this, and I'd even take it a step further and say that when a blogger engages in too much marketing activity it's hard to feel that blogger always genuinely means what they are saying.

That said, most readers didn't think that blog sponsorship was necessarily a bad thing, and most commenters thought it was possible to strike the right balance and do sponsorship well.  That was incredibly encouraging to me, and when I thought about it, I realised that there are plenty of blogs out there which incorporate sponsorship in a way that (to me) doesn't detract from their high quality content.  Several people advised me to start off slow and regularly re-assess, and that made me realise that I can try sponsorship out, but if I find it doesn't work for me, I'm not tied to it for the long term.

So where to from here?  I've decided to approach a small number of sponsors I know and love to see if they want to work together.  I'm going to restrict both the number of sponsors and the number of sponsored posts on my blog to make sure it doesn't feel like marketing is taking over.  And I'm going to keep doing exactly what I've been doing for the last year or so - making projects I'm excited about and sharing them with you.

Ivy's so excited about this project she can't even keep her tongue in her mouth!

Thank you again to everyone who commented on my post last week, and if you didn't get a chance to comment then, or you've had further thoughts, I'd love to hear from you!

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good luck! I hope you keep us updated on your progress. This is something many of us think about.

Susan at TheBoredZombie.com said...

Very nice! Congrats!

Elise Lea said...

Good luck! I hope you can turn your blog into an even bigger success! I would love to hear more as you go about this process. Thank you for sharing with us.

Martha said...

Thank you for sharing your process with blog sponsorship. I wish you lots of success. And congrats on your first sponsors!

Erica said...

Good luck, I'm looking forward to seeing how things go for you!

Erica said...

Good luck, I'm looking forward to seeing how things go for you!

Kathy @ Kwilty Pleasures said...

Thanks for sharing...I have been wondering about sponsorships as well.

Tamie said...

I think your summary says it all. Find your comfortable balance.

Michelle@factotum-of-arts.com said...

I am so happy you were able to get help in making a decision. Great post and great news in you follow-up

Marie said...

I do have a problem with comments but I am completely ok with your way of thinking about sponsoring.
I love to catch inspiration on the blogs And if sponsoring remain not too present, it is not disturbing.
Good luck for your sponsor fishing

Mrs Flying Blind... said...

Go for it!!
I saw Lyndy's offer - perfect. Good luck x

Anne said...

Thank you so much for sharing all of this. :) I've been wondering about this as well!

Unknown said...

congratulations. i personally find new online fabric stores, which is always a plus. but i do see where some pages are TOO much on the sponsor/affiliates.

so anyhow, how do you know how much to charge for a sponsor?