Sponsored Reviews?

So far, every review...as random as it is, hence the name of this blog....has been done on my own and I've received nothing for it. I wasn't attempting to; I simply wanted to review the product. Which is still the case, but here's the thing. I'm a broke blogger with little influence and a narrow area of what I can and do review. I have a hard time finding products that are worth covering and haven't been reviewed to death, I have an even harder time finding opportunities that at least have the benefit of a free product at the end, and I'm having a harder time still with finding my audience. I don't want a benefit every time, that's not why I created the blog. Over the years, I've received a couple of books as part of free giveaway programs within the book clubs I'm part of and I emailed Nailene for that nail review I gave a couple of years ago, but otherwise everything has been all things that I randomly purchased and decided to review afterward. I enter a lot of giveaways on the off chance that I win, so I can describe my experience with both the company and the product because I think that's just a more well-rounded review than explaining one or the other. I enter giveaways anyway though because I think I'm kind of addicted to them, review blog or not. LOL But that's beside the point. Excluding those two things, everything else is all me.

Lately, I've been considering taking on sponsored opportunities so that I can consistently expose myself to things that are worthy of a review. I'll admit that I don't really understand sponsored reviews, other than that a company pays you to review something that they send you, and most blog readers hate these kind of reviews with a blue burning passion. From what I do understand, I think that it's kind of a 50/50 thing--on one hand, when the review is sponsored, how do we know what is genuinely the blogger's thought on the product? Logically speaking, a company isn't going to send a blogger a product that they will then expose to their audience and the Internet for a scathing review. They're going to want a favorable review, but what if the product isn't good enough for one? The pressure of knowing that the company is looking for this review and positive exposure (and are paying the blogger to provide them that) would probably be enough to make the blogger roll over and give the company what they want, which robs the audience of an unbiased and honest perspective. In turn, this potentially jips the audience into spending their money. I understand the influence that more popular bloggers have on their readers and that's important. Our readers trust us to give them our honest opinions and guide them to the best products in the genre currently being reviewed. It would be stupid and manipulative to misuse that trust for the sake of a sponsored review and money.

However, with a sponsored review you get to increase your readers if the company decides to send you a product and you give a genuinely positive review, because they'll then display your review on their website. This gives blogs with few readers like mine some much needed exposure and hopefully a couple of loyal readers afterward. I honestly don't want a platform of 1M subscribers like some of my favorite YouTube personalities, and I don't want some 200 comments every time I post a blog. I guess that's a bit too much pressure for me to be 'on' and consistently crank out greatness on an ever-rising standard level. If I can get a small, loyal circle of people who enjoy reading my musings on a subject and have benefitted from it in some way, then I feel like the blog has accomplished its goal. Anyway, in some of these opportunities you get paid to review the products, and if your word is reliable then the opportunities and frequency you get to review their products grows, which benefits the blogger financially and in terms of audience. You also don't have to spend quite as much money if the companies don't mind sending you things to review. Not a bad trade-off.

My major question is if it's possible to participate in sponsored reviews and still provide an unbiased opinion on the product, whether it be good or bad. I wouldn't mind a sponsored review so that I can get a product and decide whether or not it would be worth my (or my readers') money, but at the same time I don't want to feel like a company is going to roll over on me if I don't give the best opinion on what they sent. I don't have much influence right now, but I hope to increase that and don't want a reputation for being dishonest because I choose to go with the money and have my posts sponsored. Many sponsored reviews kinda seem like a walking advertisement for the company and as a reader myself, I don't like that. If I'm posting something on my blog, I want to be able to say what I want and not worry about it. I can't do that if my review is sponsored by said company. So I'm kinda stuck.

I could use the exposure and the partnerships by different companies so that I have something to review and they have an unbiased review that they can possibly use on their site. If the review wasn't exactly favorable, if nothing more they have some suggestions for improvement on the product, which they can also use. It could potentially be a win-win situation. But I do know what it's like to be a reader or viewer and watch the content, the quality and the frequency of posts adjust over time as corporate and sponsored posts take over what was once a unique blog. I also know what it's like as a blogger, to watch the years go by and either have a blog that doesn't yet have its own identity or many readers to listen, regardless of post quality. I know what it feels like to put in hard work to create a good product and not have a platform on which to display it and no end benefit, either through comments, likes, payment or products. Neither of those situations are the most favorable in the world and because I understand what's on both sides of the fence, I feel a little lost on what to do.

I refuse to lose myself or the standard that I have set for this blog for the sake of a dollar. I also refuse, though, to blog for another five years and put in work with the design, the content and the quality of my posts only to remain in the same position. When the 10-yr anniversary of my blogging life comes around, I don't want to be in the same place I was when I starting blogging, at zero. I don't want to lose the randomness or the authenticity that I've tried to establish over the past 5 years that it's taken for the blog to finally come into its own. I also don't want to develop a bad reputation; I've spent many years reading blogs and reading the disillusionment of former readers as the blogger turns from doing something authentic to doing something generic and sponsored. I've seen too many comments about the blog losing its heart and subscriber as a result. I don't want that for this blog before I've even had a chance. I've just finally established a definitive idea for this blog and I'm happy with it. I'm hoping that readers will come but I don't want to ruin any opportunities before I've had the chance. Long story short, I'm not sure what to do. I don't want the blog to grow stagnant during the times where money is lean and I can't afford much, but I don't want to become a corporate mouthpiece, either. Ain't nobody got time for that. At all.

I guess there isn't much of a point to this post other than to say what was on my mind lately concerning the blog in general. I've got some ideas for posts that I'm still working on which should keep me busy for awhile, but after that well runs dry I have to consider some things so that I still have something to post. I just thought I'd let you all in on what I was thinking for a minute since I don't really get too personal on here. On the off chance that you were listening though, thank you. :-)