Bloggers - ethical sponsors/advertisers?

[Pariah]

I signed up with an affiliate/advertising company that received positive reviews from another blog-at-home-mom. However, the more links and ads I get to post on my blog to earn money per click with, the more I don't feel right about the products being advertised. I don't like advertising brands that I know use sweatshops or mainstream medicines that I wouldn't give my own child. I do want my blog to generate income and eventually be a profitable part of our media business (in addition to just blogging for the fun of it -- I do love it a lot), but I get that gross, nagging feeling that I'm not being honest with myself if I'm promoting such things.

I don't get enough hits -- yet -- that I have people filling up my inbox for advertising opportunities, but would it be wrong to ask for potential advertisers to apply for advertising space and (nicely, professionally) let it be known that I want advertisers who are in line with my values/ethics? I've seen one other blog that does this...I don't remember which one, or else I'd credit the really cool woman who writes the blog. I have to have it bookmarked somewhere because I really love what she has to say. Anyway, the point is that she has ads on her blog and has a little note saying that she reserves the right to approve/deny potential ads based on business practices/ethics/reflection of her values.

Thoughts? Opinions? BTDT?

[Kristine233]

I agree with you. I also have mroe respect for bloggers who do only put material on their site that they would personally use. Even ad and sponsors.  I think its not unreasonable to have some sort of screening process for advertisors. 

[dogmom327]

I think it's perfectly reasonable to have standards.  I work with a lot of natural food and living blogs and best I can tell most of them have criteria for who they work with.  It varies by person of course but there have been some interesting discussions over the last few months about whether even something like Google Ads is a good idea since you can't ultimately control which ads appear on your site.

[Pariah]

Thanks for the replies. I'm going to cut ties with my current ad sponsor and write up a little advertising blurb for my blog that explains these things. I appreciate the support and the fact that I'm not alone when it comes to this!