Advertizing on your blog. It's a conundrum for me.

I have been approached several times about placing advertisements, doing reviews, or placing links on my blog. I'm really not that into the whole idea. Mostly, because if I put something on my blog I want to be sure it is something I can really get behind. Not whatever Google/whoever thinks would fit with my profile/keywords or however their algorithms figure this sort of thing out. If I put up a recipe it is because I've tried it out and think ya'll would enjoy it. If I talk about a product or a service it is because it worked or didn't work for me. If I espouse a cause it is because it means something to me.

So random emails like the one I received today tend to make me twitchy:
On Tue, Nov 9, 2010 at 8:07 AM, Sherry Williams wrote:
Dear Webmaster,

My name is Sherry, and my company Topspot-Promotions represents online sport sites in various domains. We are looking at reputable sites to offer them profitable opportunities to help promote some of my clients sites.

We would like to know if you are interested in working with us on this. For further details please don't hesitate to contact me.

Cheers,
Sherry Williams
Advertising Consultant
Business Development Department




I thought my response was politely appropriate:
Dear Sherry,

Thank you for the moniker of webmaster. I totally do not deserve it. No really I don't. Just ask my staff.

I am sure that your sport sites are very interested in doing promotions on blogs and other sorts of social media but my blog might not be the best place for that. You see, I'm not what one would call "sporty". In fact, anything that has to do with most sports is completely foreign to me. I, also, have a bit of an aversion to putting advertising on my blog. It would make me feel compelled to actually try the product first and that would be a problem for me (see non-sporty status above).

So thank you again for the whole webmaster thing and for thinking of me as a reputable site but I just don't think that I am right for your product.

Sincerely,
Michele
It's a Dog's Life 


I hope she wasn't offended but I really do have a vague rational for why I have taken this path. I don't have all that many readers, I do have the best bunch just not all that many, so why would these unnamed online sports sites want to advertise on my blog? There can't be that much profit in it for them. I'm pretty sure it has to do with how many sites link to them and all that other web jazz, that hurts my head to think about. Sorry promotion guys, I'm not that interested in helping you out. I don't know you. I do feel that I know my readers/followers so I am more than happy to link to them or do whatever I can to promote their blogs/products/causes (Friends: let me know if you what me to post something for you. I'd be happy to).

Another reason is I didn't start my blog with the hopes of making money (though I am never averse to making money). I started it for a course I was taking in social media then when I found out what great people there were out there and developed a group that I feel that I've come to know. I continued my blog to keep in touch with that group.

I am more than fond of all my blog friends and feel that we have connected in a way that we wouldn't have been able to with all our busy lives. I know some of my blog friends better then I know my neighbors. I know my blog friend Becky's neighbors better then I know my own neighbors. (Hey, Pretty Neighbor). This world is so big and so diverse that it is hard to know anyone anymore but social networking brings it down to a manageable size. It gives us all a chance to learn how others live, think and feel in a non-threatening way. Hopefully, it will make us all a bit more tolerant of each other but that maybe asking a lot. Maybe, it's my live and let live attitude (or as my children call it my hippie mentality) but I like how social media can be a great equalizer.

So while I have no problem with advertising products, organizations, causes, and people that I am invested in I do have a problem with doing it for products, organizations, cause, and people that I am not. I'm just trying to keep it real here.

I know I have talked about this issue before but it seems to rear it's ugly head every once in awhile. Probably, when my tolerance for bullshit is breached. I'm open to suggestions so if you have another angle on this I'd love to hear it.

Love,
M