The recession isn’t over yet, and most of us try to avoid spending. For many years, eye-catching banners promising us the best of this and that did their job: Caught our eye and snagged our credit card numbers. It was easy to spend and get more credit. Now that the credit has run out and many of us are in debt, we’ve developed a new skill. I call it ad blindness. This means that now we are able to browse the net for things that we’re interested in and completely ignore the banners, no matter how flashy, noisy and eye-catching they are. However, as we still need to buy things, we’ve become wiser. We’re gathering a wealth of information about a product or service before deciding to check out. We don’t trust the adverts and banners anymore. What we do trust are customer reviews and personal recommendations from people like us.
We bloggers like to express ourselves through poetry, philosophy, and our musings on life in general. To connect with us, like-minded individuals follow us and subscribe to our blogs. Like our readers, we are also customers. Our blogs themselves cost money and time to run, update, upgrade and protect. So if there is a way to monetize our online work, we go for it. We take part in affiliate marketing, conduct product reviews, and write sponsored posts. Moreover, we spend hours sharing what we write on all the social media platforms we belong to. We generate the sales at the price of writing less philosophy and poetry.
Therefore, the advertisers who are aware of the above offer bloggers offer well-deserved commissions and incentives for taking the time to write honest and trustworthy reviews on our blogs. Some other advertisers are increasing their brand awareness by going even further: They offer bloggers cash compensations per blog post, regardless of the sales generated, free products for review, prizes and other incentives. Because they know they’re worth it.
I’ve been lucky enough to come across such advertisers and I’ll remain their faithful promoter for as long as I can. While waiting for those big sales to roll in at Christmas time, I can still earn enough to pay for the costs of running my blog because periodically they offer $5 or $10 blog post bonuses. Those bonuses do come in handy when paying for a premium blog theme or an online service like Hoot Suite which I’d use for promoting my advertisers. So a big thank you to Craftsy, Tea Collection and Stelladot – to name just a few – for offering generous commissions, saleable products and services as well as non performance based blog post bonuses.
Community Question: Assuming you’re not making millions of your blog…who or what keeps you motivated?
Ally Campbell is the author of The Simple Life . She blogs about lifestyle, parenting, homemaking and everything in between. Connect with her on Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, Sverve, Twitter, and Tumblr.
Emma May 30, 2013 at 9:22 pm
Yep, bloggers have the power to influence consumers and they,re worth all the love brands can offer them.
Roxana June 1, 2013 at 8:12 pm
Oh yes you are right on spot!! We definitely need lots of time if we wanna make a living out of our passion, and, especially at the beginning, is very hard to make time for a blog that doesn’t bring any income, when most of us have to work another job for a living! These incentives do help alot, especially because we don’t have to do anything else but keep doing what we love doing!
Ally June 3, 2013 at 3:42 pm
Thanks for your comments Sue, Emma, Roxana. You’re validating my guess that bloggers do need brands’ substantial and reliable support in order to continue creating quality content. Those brands that understood that bloggers are their new best friends, are already seeing an increase in their site traffic, brand awareness and ultimately sales. As a blogger, my biggest hope is that my everyday top favorite brands will offer me sponsored opportunities to blog about them!! i.e: Philadelphia cream cheese: I do love you and use you a lot and when I do, I share the recipe with a pretty picture on my blog. I do not mention you, because any other cream cheese on the market does the job. You’re just my favorite! Sponsor me and I’ll make you everyone else’s favorite! Because I can.
Ally recently posted…Yoga Affiliate Programs
Linda Kinsman June 4, 2013 at 2:42 pm
I am motivated by my family and by comments from people on and offline indicating they enjoy my honest reviews. I enjoy being a part of the blogging community and find motivation from peers as well.
Linda Kinsman recently posted…Shorts Shopping: The Saga continues
Ally June 6, 2013 at 7:02 pm
Yes Linda, that’s also what I think blogging is all about, communicating and connecting with like minded people.
Ally recently posted…Hot Cocoa Chocolate Drink as It Should Be
Autumn B June 10, 2013 at 2:46 am
My family keeps me motivated! I know that I can help people as well as my family with the benefits of being a blogger/influenser. Wonderful article Ally! I couldn’t of said it better! I don’t make alot of money through my blog yet but I love what I do and I don’t plan on stopping any time soon! And YES a big Thanks to Craftsy, Tea Collection, Stelladot, Blurb and others! LOVE Those affiliates!
Autumn B recently posted…The Dogs Bark Bakery – 100% Natural Gourmet Dog Treats