How did you decide to monetize your blog?

[OrganicSister]

I'm sort of at a crossroads with my blog. I've talked to a good friend of mine who makes big bucks off her blogs and websites. She's been talking to me for awhile about monetizing mine.

Well, we finally chatted in detail about what that would require. I feel it may be something I can handle but I'm not sure it's what I want to do. Right now I enjoy my little "space". I enjoying what I do and enjoy writing about it. I enjoy doing it for me and enjoy when others happen to find enjoyment in it as well.

It would be nice if my hobby paid for itself. But I'm struggling with the idea of "Selling out". She's talking sponsors, paid advertisers, reviews etc. A certain amount of time each day "promoting" myself. I'm not sure I can do all that and stay true to myself.

For those of you that have gone this route (and decided either way) did you struggle with the decision? How did you come to decide? What things affected your decision?

And if you did decide to monetize, do you regret your decision for any reason? Do you feel you lost any genuineness?

Any advice or ideas to help me grapple with this decision is appreciated!

[3pink1blue]

monetizing came about on its own. I have not sold out at all - my writing is still exactly the same and about all the same things as before. I only review products that I genuinely like - for instance, right now I have a giveaway going of free organic beauty products. I'd never review, say, a mainstream parenting site or something.

Initially I spent an hour or so a day using social marketing. Once I had feeds set up and felt comfortable, I was able to reduce that to 10-ish minutes a day. If you are really interested in monetizing, I have one sposnor looking for more ad space. They sell organic and natural skin care and are great to work with. Let me know and I'll fwd you the info.

PS - I'm following you on twitter- twitter.com/ninjamomma