A few thoughts on commercialising the blog…

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about selling out. Whether I do it, how I do it etc etc…and I thought I’d share my thoughts with you.

Y’see this is a blog, not a business. I never started it with the intention of it paying for my sumptious lifestyle. I started it with the hope that someone, somewhere might be planning a trip to London and read about something we’ve done and think “yeah, that sounds OK”. Or “Crikey, I’m never going to Bracknell.” I’ve seen a lot of blogs lately that are run as businesses and fair play to those bloggers – they’ve found a way to make their blog pay. But it’s not really me. I can’t help feeling if I was charging people to advertise here, then I would have to write things which were responsible and helpful, as opposed to whatever tripe falls out of my head.

I am going to be writing for a living. I have no qualms about that. But it’s something separate from the blog and for now, I’d like to keep it that way. Selling the blog feels a little like selling my family (hence the picture at the top) and believe me, I wouldn’t get much for them. I would need the world’s most iron-clad refund policy if I was to do that.

That’s not to say I’m opposed to freebies. No, I love freebies, and as long as they’re in keeping with my style and principles, I’m happy to review things and post them here. That covers a whole bunch of stuff, but I’m pretty sure I won’t be advokating “Nestle’s Better-than-breastmilk Superformula” here. If I do, shoot me. But companies who sell nice things, small companies, brands I like…you’re all welcome here. So there may be more reviews. There may be more giveaways. But I’m fairly sure that 90% of the content on here will still be “My Adventures at the Peckham Pencil Museum with a Puking Child”

(Except for something I have planned for next month, where I’m gonna inexplicably go all Estate Agent on yo ass…bear with me. It might be a mid-blog crisis)

And you might be thinking “but there are weightloss ads all over the site already!”. Yeah, that’s WordPress, not me doing that. I did consider taking over that ad space but it seemed more trouble than it was worth. I may yet get my own, shiny domain name but I’m not planning on self-hosting any time soon. Maybe one day, but the point is nothing huge and visible is gonna change round here for a while. Unless I go through with my plan of making the pictures bigger. Then they would be both huge and visible….

I’m rambling now, and Eva is sleeping on the keyboard, ready to delete this whole post with a swipe of her baby hand so I’ll leave it there. Just one more thing for anyone who was concerned about my lack-of-toddler. I’m about to release LWATToddler version 2.0. With 100% more naughtiness. It’ll be a blast.