blogging lessons

So if you follow me on twitter, you might’ve heard a little about this story I have for today. On Friday I had a sponsored guest post up on the blog. During the week I had been emailing with the person about the post and we had agreed on a price and a day for the post. I’ve done this with companies in the past with no issues and I ask just that I receive payment within 24 hours after the post is up.

So on Friday, I emailed when the post was live. No response. I then emailed several more times in the next 24 hours, to verify that the post looked ok and to check on payment. No response. Nothing. Isn’t it funny when someone wants you to do something for them and they email you repeatedly, but then they suddenly disappear when it’s time to pay? Sigh. So on Saturday I removed the post but I feel like the damage is done. They got free advertising and I wasted a day of posting with something I didn’t personally write ugh.

I will be up front here and say that I don’t make much money on my blog but it is nice to make cash sometimes. We all know that blogging takes up a lot of time so getting a little cashola every now and then is nice! I mostly work with legit companies who have a network with bloggers and set payment terms. These arrangements work out well and I get to write the post in my own voice. So even though it’s clearly a sponsored post, it’s a good balance since it’s still “me.” I get a lot of emails from random companies/people asking to write a post for my blog. After telling them I want money they usually just disappear. Nice, huh? However, a few times we’ve negotiated and I do the post and get paid. It’s a win/win. But being trusting can sometimes bite you in the ass and that’s what happened to me this time. Annoying but lesson learned.

I try to balance my sponsored posts since I know that isn’t what people want to read constantly. As I said, getting paid is nice but my blog is really just a hobby and I like connecting with my readers. And if I just have random sponsored posts constantly, you all won’t want to come back as much. Blah. So I’m going to be pickier about my sponsored posts and make sure to work with legit companies. I’ll still have sponsored posts so don’t get mad about that, but I’m going to make sure they still reflect me. Because I like you guys and I want you to like me and my blog and come back here and read and be my best bloggy friends forever and ever. Make sense?

So life is all about lessons and I learned another blogging lesson. What lessons (blogging or otherwise) have you learned lately? Also how was the weekend? We spent a day in Cleveland for a little get away so I’ll share about that soon!

The post blogging lessons appeared first on Jade & Oak.