Heather and I have been running this blog for just over a year now (in case you haven’t seen our birthday post, now you know!), and it has been such a wonderful experience for us. During that time, I graduated pharmacy school and started a residency program, Heather started a wonderful job, and we have continued to grow and enjoy each other as friends and blog partners. We’ve been able to establish a blog about living frugally and spending wisely, and proven that you don’t have to be a mommy-blogger to do it. (Not that we don’t love you guys too, but we are a rare breed in the money-saving blogosphere!) However, now that we are 1 year old we felt that it was time for us to transition towards “monetizing” the blog. While we love what we do here at Saving Money & Living Life, we also need to keep it a viable part of our day.
What does this mean for you?
The first thing that Heather and I agreed about when it came to making these changes was that we didn’t want to leave our readers uninformed. Whenever we have made changes to the blog in the past it has always been important to us to have open lines of communication, because without you guys, this wouldn’t be possible. Here are a few things that you may notice in the next week or two:
1. Sponsored posts: In the past, Heather and I have done reviews and giveaways for products that we have received from companies that we love and believe in. Other than receiving the actual product to try and one to give away to our readers, we have never received financial compensation for these posts. While some bloggers have strong feelings against sponsored posts, we feel like we are already participating in a form of them through samples and reviews and are open to expanding into sponsored posts. Other than a few posts a month though, sponsored posts will not become a daily feature on this blog. We never want content like this to become a majority of what we post, so we have decided to be selective and keep this type of activity to a minimum. That doesn’t mean that you’ll never see them, but you won’t be seeing them often. We will however continue to host giveaways for products on a regular basis as it is something that benefits our readers and gives them the opportunity to try new things from companies that we trust.
2. Advertising: Heather and I have always been incredibly selective on the advertising that we allow on our blog, whether in posts or ad boxes. We turn down the majority of offers that we receive because we feel that they are either irrelevant or inappropriate for our readers, no matter what the price offered is. In the future however, we will be adopting a more open-door policy for advertisers and full-time sponsors, and instead of automatically denying every offer we receive we will review them together and decide on whether or not they would fit here at Saving Money & Living Life. This may result in a few more ads being seen in the sidebar, but don’t fret- Heather and I dislike clutter and will never allow this blog to become nothing more than a flashing billboard for random companies and products.
Lastly, regarding the two items mentioned above, Heather and I have one last thing that we felt was important for everyone to know. We will never advertise, promote, or accept sponsorship for a product that we are not familiar with, have not used ourselves, or find irrelevant to the readers here. While it is important for us to find ways to make keeping this blog running financially feasible, it is even more important to maintain our integrity and trust with our readers.
Thank you again for your constant support and encouragement- we are so thankful for each and every one of you. We look forward to the next year here at Saving Money & Living Life!
