Open For Business

January 26, 2011

When I started blogging six years ago it was simply a personal journal to update far away relations about our family happenings. I did that for a few years until it became apparent to me that the internet was exploding with mama bloggers (among others) sharing tales of home life, mothering, and personal growth with the world at a large through their personal blogs.  

I was hooked. I felt less isolated as a homemaker and mama to young children. I felt like I belonged. This was good.

Then I noticed something else happening on these blogs - paid advertising. Sometimes it made sense, a link to a product or service that the blogger used and recommended. And other times it was downright dumb if not annoying or offensive.  

I steered clear of that path for a long time because... I had no choice. (You can find that story in Why I Blog). And even if I did have a choice I don't like to follow trends - clothing, blogging, decorating or otherwise. I want to do my own thing and I don't want to compromise my values.  

And so it was that FIMBY has remained paid advertising free. Until now.

I have thought long and hard about this decision.

I am decidedly anti-consumerism in mindset. Not that I don't consume, I do. We're all consumers, if even from a food chain perspective alone. Recall those little circle diagrams of the bug eating the microorganism, the frog eating the bug, the fox eating the frog - or something like that. Anything that eats energy, and doesn't make their own from the sun, is a consumer.

I'm happy eating plants but I don't want to be the kind of consumer who mindlessly purchases goods and services giving no thought to the condition of the person(s) who made that product, the environmental impact, and otherwise overall message of that item.

In other words, I want to be a mindful consumer. Not that everything we buy always meets the highest of standards but we are moving in that direction. 

I rail against being called a "consumer" instead of citizen, person, mother etc... Like somehow my personhood depends on my consumption of goods. And don't even get me started on issues like Gross Domestic Product or that the "good life" means unfettered growth and a host of other economic pills I refuse to swallow.  

So you can see how I don't want FIMBY to contribute to consumerism or be another blog overrun with ads, sponsorships and affiliate links.

This is not to say I haven't promoted things here before. I have.

I've promoted small businesses, published book reviews and given support for companies, causes, and ideas I value. I've linked to innumerable blogs which in turn have advertising that earns those bloggers money. I've shown my support in this way not because I was paid to, but because I believed in those things I was promoting.

We recommend products and services to people all the time. Friends who want to know what shoes to buy (this grew into Toe Salad), what type of pressure cooker I use, and where I buy my bulk beans.

And if the advertising I do on FIMBY reflects that type of exchange, I'm comfortable with that.

Because of our change of circumstance in moving back to Canada I can now reap a benefit from recommending a product or service that a) I endorse or b) think might be useful to my readers.

Tell it straight: I can make money from what I advertise here.

So I will.

Does this mean FIMBY will become a product orientated blog with a disproporiate amount of reviews, affliate links and obnoxious, in your face advertising? Over. My. Dead. Body.

I've done my time establishing myself a person you can trust, or at least a person whose opinion can't be bought. And I've laid out fairly clearly in this post and others like it that I'm not a money grabbing, values-bereft blogger who is trying to make a quick buck.

What does this all mean?

• I am going to start using affiliate advertising with Amazon and other on-line retailers I use and recommend. What's affiliate advertising? Most simply explained, if I link to a retailer I'm affiliated with and you click there and purchase something I will make a pittance from that transaction. But a lot of pittance adds up. 
• As the year progresses and more opportunities come available for our family (yay for moving!!) I may open up FIMBY to partnerships and other paid advertising.
• Our goal is to eventually advertise our own products, services and resources that will contribute to our family's livelihood. 

If you are someone who might want to advertise here I should mention FIMBY readership is growing all the time and I think it will grow even more as I write about our move and new life adventure.

Thank you again so much for reading. FIMBY has been a place to watch little dreams come true and watch big dreams unfold. This change is part of that picture.

To read my complete advertising shpiel please see my page for Advertisting Partners.