Sponsorship guidelines

My final blog post on blogging in this impromptu mini-series is a list of guidelines I came up with for blog sponsorship. I've been thinking of these for a while as personal rules to help me navigate the blog advertising waters, but I wanted reader accountability on what to expect when/if I ever have blog sponsors.

My main motivation for writing these is that I want to be extremely careful to not let sponsorship dominate my content. The frustration expressed in my blogging philosophy is not directed towards people that have blog sponsorship/advertising, but those that let the advertising take priority over content. I want to guard against that happening here.

For the record, I think making money from a blog is incredibly validating for a writer and is in many cases mutually beneficial for company, blogger, and readers. I fully support it.

Latte Love Sponsorship Guidelines

1. I will always disclose when links are affiliate (i.e. I receive a small percentage of income on products purchased through my link)
2. I will give honest reviews for courtesy products with full disclosure, but not more than two per month.
3. In a product review, I will link to a site homepage and/or to the specific product I'm reviewing, but I will not post multiple or unrelated links or keywords are required in the post. 
4. For giveaways, I will limit the amount of comment entries to two. [I do this only because as a blog reader, I hate having to comment 5x with tweet, Facebook, google friend connect, etc for both the blogger and the product]
5. I will not require my readers to do more than one of the follow in order to enter a giveaway: "like" a company Facebook page, follow company on Twitter, subscribe to their email list, but I will suggest it.
6. I will not require my giveaway entrants to follow me on Twitter or Facebook, subscribe to my blog, etc. 
7. I will not write monthly "intro to my new blog sponsors" posts
8. I will only review a product/hold a giveaway/let you buy ad space if the product or service a company offers is relevant to me/my blog (e.g. No giveaways for children's stuff because I'm not a mom/don't have a mommy blog)
9. I will only hold a giveaway/sell ad space if the product or service a company is offering is something I would recommend or use. (I am willing to review a company's product in order to determine whether I could hold a giveaway or offer ad space.)

I welcome any questions or comments, but would ask that you not copy and paste these as your own sponsorship guidelines, but think through the issues thoughtfully and come up with a list of your own!

p.s. While still on the topic of blogging - you all should take a look at Jenny's new series: Bloggy Thursdays