I’ve been meaning to blog about this for a couple of days, but last week was just not a good week in oh-so-many ways. It’s not that it was a bad week; it was just busy and there was that whole not sleeping thing. So, this didn’t get posted.
In the past, I have written posts here that included specific keywords with links to them for a company that I’m not going to name, and I have been compensated $5 per post where I have done this. I was able to make a nice chunk of change for very little effort and it all went into my mini emergency fund that I am still slowly building up to one month’s expenses. With all of the brouhaha regarding paid posts that took place after BlogHer last summer, I made sure to make a point of categorizing each of those posts with the name of the company, so that anyone reading them could easily figure out that yes, I was paid to put that link in, even though I tried very hard to write an honest-to-goodness post around it.
Well, the week before last, this company came out with a new disclosure policy. They said we could no longer tag or categorize posts as sponsored, or with the name of their company. We could, however, post a blanket disclosure policy in a sidebar and they even provided real examples. At the time, they owed me about $60 so I waited a couple of days until it hit my account. And then I wrote them a little note to say I couldn’t comply with their new policy.
This is my blog. No one tells me how I can or can’t tag MY posts on MY blog.
To be fair, they wrote me a nice note back and said they completely understood, thanked me for my past work and to get a hold of them if I ever changed my mind. That won’t be happening, but the acknowledgment was appreciated.
Of course, the downside of this is that I no longer have that little extra amount coming in. I wasn’t relying on that money, but I enjoyed the fact that it was helping me achieve that goal a little faster, not to mention the goals I’ve set beyond that one.
Still, all is not lost. I’ve already taken one step toward replacing some of that revenue and I’ll be brainstorming for ideas in the coming weeks. If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to pass them along! Just keep in mind that I work full time and go to school part time, so waiting tables on the weekend? Not an option. 
Val,
I have a suggestion that I’d like to share with you “off blog.”
Email me, as my recent crash/reload wiped out your email address ;-(
That sucks. However I’ve found that those sites seem to want to make every blog an advertising blog, and I’m not too keen on that.