How I Respond to Sponsored Posts

WARNING: Huge blocks of text ahead as I ramble about feelings

I recently got another sponsored post request which basically spawned this entire post because of my reaction to it. When it comes to blogging, most of my reactions come out via text to my no-longer-a-blogger blogger friend and so she and I sat around talking about sponsored posts for awhile because I apparently had nothing better to do.

To be honest, only entering the world of fashion blogging six months ago, how sponsored posts work in this area of the blogosphere vs. the book blogging area still confuses me. On one hand is the group of people who are all like, “Bloggers should totally be paid to work with other companies. There’s nothing wrong with that at all.” But on the other hand you have that other group of people that sit there calling you a sell-out if you accept sponsored posts.

This confused me for awhile because, to be honest, the idea of any company wanting to work with me and actually pay me is jaw dropping because in the book blogging world you just get free books sometimes (which, for literary nerds like me, is pretty awesome). I wouldn’t say this makes me jump on every opportunity, though.

I mean, let’s face it. I’m not sponsoring a menswear line when I obviously don’t write about men’s fashion. Sorry. I’m flattered, but I’m going to sit here and scoff for the rest of my life because it’s so obvious you haven’t done your research on what I write or who my audience is (which would only be a downfall to the both of us were I to write that sponsored post).

But then every now and then I actually get an opportunity that I really like and get paid for somehow (whether it’s in a product or real, hard cash)?

To be honest, I sit there and fangirl a bit.

And I’m not writing this to say that sponsored posts are right or wrong. I think some are right and some are wrong and that it’s a bit of a gray area in blogging that you have to decide the answer for yourself. For myself? If I like what I’m promoting, I don’t see the problem in writing a sponsored post. This may not be the same for other people.

For me, I’m just excited that people actually like Style Me Gone enough for companies to actually approach me. While I don’t want to write just sponsored posts (I would call myself a sell-out then), I am very flattered when I am asked and I suppose that I need to thank all of you for that.

What do you consider a sell-out? How do you feel about sponsored posts? Let me know in the comments below!