How Do I Make Money From Blogging - Affiliate Links, Brand Collaborations, etc.


It seems a little crazy the amount of opportunities that are coming to bloggers these days- from books to make up lines- and although I am not receiving anything in this league I do work with brands on occasion.  So I wanted to write this post to be completely transparent with my readers, as well as complying with the law on how I make money from my blog!  

One of the reasons that bloggers can sometimes get a bad reputation as "sell outs" is because we can be a bit secretive on how we make money.  Some bloggers or YouTubers don't like to disclose when a post is sponsored and it can come across as a sneaky- and I worry that readers might think less of content creators because of this.  

I'm not here to make any judgements about how others run their blogs, this post is all about me (how Princess of me) and relating to the terms that I use in relation to making money from my blog and how this affects you as readers.  

At the end of the day I totally support creators making money from their work for a number of reasons, but that's a separate post.  However I do think that we have a responsibility to do this legally and ethically.  

HMRC
Firstly, as I am making money from my blog I have registered this with the HMRC- which is the responsibility of the blogger to do so.  

Affiliate Links
I occasionally use affiliate links in my posts and videos, I use two types depending on the merchant site I am linking to.  I get a tiny amount of money when you either click on my link or buy through my link.  

Obviously I post non-affiliated links most of the time, and I don't unnecessarily post links to items I don't actually like/have bought!  Plus, all my links are obviously different from the normal text in a fancy pants different colour!

Reviews
Items are sometimes sent to me, when I accept an item to be sent to me this does not guarantee the inclusion of the item in any way on Liquid Grain.  If I choose to review it or include on any platforms it is completely my choice and I will represent my own views and opinions honestly. 

Sponsorships
Here is where it can get a little complicated for bloggers, we hear the words "collaboration" and "brand collaboration" being thrown around a lot, but what does it mean?  So here is where the differences are for me. 

A sponsored post is when a brand or company has approached me to write a post on a topic or a theme for a fee.  The posts will be dsclosed with: "Sponsored by-----" or "In collaboration with----".  I will only ever work with brands on concepts that I actually like!  Importantlly the brand has no input on what my post or video will actually contain and I retain all editorial control.

Ad
If I work with a brand who wishes to have editorial control over content - either by supplying their own content or to alter my content- this will be clearly bee marked as AD or #AD.  This disclosure will be clearly visible in the content. 

So that's how I do it, I'm sure this will develop as I do in my relations with brands but I think it's important to be transparent in this.  I will also be including a link to this page in my upper tab bar.

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