All About You – be true to yourself
This week I’m delighted to be co-hosting the fabulous All About You link up, with the lovely Zaz from Mama and More and equally spiffing Hannah from Mums Days.
I can’t wait to read your posts and get to know you all better, but before we get to that I wanted to share a lesson with you that I learned recently.
A few weeks ago I was contacted by someone who was keen for me to run a sponsored post for them. I do post sponsored content from time to time, if the brand is relevant to me or my family or to you, my readers. As I always do, I outlined my terms and importantly the fact that I would be highlighting the post as sponsored. Disclosing that a post is paid for is best practice, it’s the guidelines from the ASA and CAP and failing to disclose can cause Google to downgrade your page rank. You knew that right? Nuff said.
Everything was agreed and after I’d edited the copy they approved me to publish. All good right? Wrong.
As soon as the post was ‘live’ they asked me to remove the word ‘sponsored’ or the post would have to come off my site. They also refused to pay me. Yep, even though I’d completed my side of the agreement and the work was already done.
What would you do?
I stuck to my guns. I refused to compromise my blog. I removed the post and I didn’t get paid.
I chalked it up to experience and vowed to share it as a ‘beware’ moment for other bloggers.
And most of all I learned a valuable lesson about staying true to myself and what I believe in.
#allaboutyou
It’s time to hear about YOU! Again, you are welcome to add a link to an Instagram image or links to up to three blog posts – we want to see and hear about YOU, about your style, your thoughts, your views, your feelings. Bring it on!
For Instagrammers, you’re welcome to add a #stopdropandselfie post or a shot you feel sums you up right now, or that reveals a bit of you. Just add the #AllAboutYouNow hashtag if you do, and a couple of words about you. If you feel like it go ahead and tag other friends to ask them if they want to take a second to share something #AllAboutYouNow.
You can link up to 3 posts to this linky, and please visit a couple of other linkers too to share some comment love, hit like on Instagram. Or Pin what you like. You know how this works!
** Here is the All About You badge! Please grab the code and add the badge to your post or sidebar, so that whenever we see it we will tweet your post out! **
*disclaimer – wherever I see the badge I do try to tweet it out, but some bloggers don’t seem to have their twitter handles or accounts easy to find, so I will when I can!*
Party rules
1. Please link posts specific to the theme of this party – this is your space to link up posts all about YOU, whether it’s style, fitness, food, concerts or sky-diving! You can link up to 3 posts.
2. Please link the URL of your specific AllAboutYou post, and please feature the badge or mention the linky, because it’s a nice thing to do ; ) We tweet out and comment on linked posts that do, and if you’re chosen as a featured post, we also pin it to the All About You Pinterest board!
3. Please comment on at least two other posts within the AllAboutYou link party – don’t just link-dump!
Feel free to tweet or share about the link party so that more people come along and join too, although this is by no means obligatory!
All About You community links:
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I’ve been approached by two companies recently who wanted to do a sponsored post without stating the fact it was sponsored too and I declined both. Integrity is a really strong part of blogging for me. I wish there were some standard guidelines for PR companies and bloggers. I’m so new to blogging so trying to work it all out. Maybe you could complain to the head of that PR department?
Brighton Mama recently posted…
Good for you. Have a read of the ASA and CAP websites and also take a look at BritMums which has some posts about sponsored posts too. People chose to disclose in many different ways – I think as long as you DO disclose then they way you choose to do it is a matter of personal choice. And I may well make that complaint…
I completely agree with you. I have been blogging for almost 6 years, and blogging has slowly become my profession too so I often write sponsored articles. I always disclose, and always let the clients know in advance. I think this has happened to me once or twice, and I remember how upset I was about it too. Unfortunately I do not think we can do much as paying a layer would be too expensive…
I actually did consult a lawyer and I’ve left my options open… but at the end of the day sometimes it’s just best to cut your losses and chalk these things up to experience!
I can’t believe they wasted your precious time like that! Sorry to hear you had this issue. Thanks for hosting, looking forward to having a read!x
Thanks lovely, no real harm done, chalked up to experience, just frustrating! Thanks for linking up x
Such a shame Michelle, what shoddy work from that PR, but I am sure that they are a rarity – most brands just say they don’t want to go ahead if they don’t want disclosure, and at least respect your time and your work. Good for you for sticking to your guns . So thrilled to have you for All About You this week!! Rocking it! xxx
Agreed – a one off I hope as most of the brands and PRs I work with are just lovely. And thank you for having me as a guest host – fab reads this week as always! x
Well done you! I’ve had a few of these situations recently where I haven’t been paid / been asked to removed any mention of there being sponsored content. Very frustrating!
I’m considering not doing any more sponsored posts but continuing with reviews and maybe sidebar adverts instead.
Urgh so frustrating and sad really. It did make me wonder whether to stop too but I have so many lovely clients and I don’t want to let one bad apple upset the whole cart!
I can’t believe that… but I bet it happens to bloggers all the time. Well done to sticking to your guns though. I imagine lots of PRs are pretty good, you were just seriously unlucky. Ps. I have linked up our fab no kids holiday in Vegas. I suppose it’s about me in the sense of where I loved being this year! If it’s not theme specific, sorry… Mine are pretty much all travel-related…
Yes I think I was unlucky – all the PRs I’ve dealt with have been fantastic, this was a freelancer. Lesson learnt! Thanks so much for linking up – travel is SUCH a big part of YOU!
It’s a shame to have to ‘learn the hard way’ but once bitten twice shy and all that. Well done for being true to yourself (being true to ourselves features heavily in my book btw!) Would you still like to do a review? xx
Hello lovely – yes you’re right but it was a good lesson to learn. And yes to that review! Email me at x
Well done, you can use other terms and images but do what is right for you-there is no law as far as I am aware but best practice guidelines and these differ. I’ve worked for Google and they don’t know what is next so you need to work out what feels right for you. I’ve linked up x
You’re so right Vicki, my integrity is incredibly important to me and I won’t compromise it for anyone. Thanks for linking up!
I feel the same, there are lots of ways to denote a paid post and retain integrity
this brand treated you unfairly and you should email their boss from the hr/ contact page on the website
Thanks honey and for all your advise on this x
Well done for sticking to your guns. PRs are very good but there are always the odd dodgy ones that will try to take you for a bit of a ride.
Thanks Tas! I’ve actually never had a problem with any PRs, this was a freelancer and to be honest quite unprofessional. Lesson learned!