Thanks for weighing in, I’ve decided not to do any sponsored posts

  
Last week I was approached by a company to write blog posts about their product. I would write one post a month for five months, and send out 8 tweets per month. They would send me the idea for the posts/tweets, and then I could write whatever I wanted to after that. They wouldn’t even see, much less approve, the posts before I put them live. Plus, I’m already a customer, so it didn’t feel too yucky at the outset. And for this, they would write me a check. 

I decided immediately that IF I did this, I would donate the money they gave me to charity. I think I decided that to make myself feel a little bit better about the experience. Kind of talking myself into it.

I was struggling with the decision – and that should have been the first sign I shouldn’t do it – so I decided to run a Twitter poll to see what my friends thought of the idea. The results were impressive in favor of doing it, which surprised me. At that point I was leaning heavily toward doing it.

And then two things happened. First, I decided to write a blog post about a new product a friend of mine created (Atlanta Stacks) and then immediately after publishing it, another friend of mine reached out and asked if that was the sponsored post. That made me realize, once I made this move, people would always wonder if I was writing on behalf of another company. 

Then, a few friends reached out personally and told me they thought it was a bad idea. Those personal discussions really changed my mind on the idea. Slippery slope, etc.

So that’s it, I’m done with the idea of writing sponsored posts. I’m happy to say I’ve never done it and don’t ever expect to. There might be other ways for advertising to find its way onto the site one day, but it won’t be in the form of me writing blog posts for a company. Unless Tesla calls, I might make an exception then ;)