Brands, Sometimes You're So Stupid

Dear brand,

You’re so fucking stupid, and short-sighted, and clearly the person making the decisions is either a man or someone under the age of 29. Or maybe, you’re bought out by private equity where all they care about is quick profits, not the long game.

My blog is 22 years old. I still make thousands a month in affiliate revenue on articles I wrote a decade ago and haven’t touched since. I am a full-time content creator, have been since 2017. I am the sole breadwinner for my family thanks to an idea to look busy at a job I got in 2005 where I was underutilized. I have made six figures annually for over a decade from this idea, and even with AI and Google updates killing the blogosphere, I still am here and still thriving.

Some brands see my value. They continue to offer me gifting, exclusive promo codes, increase my commissions, and pay me to write about them. They see the return on investment. I rank Page 1 on search engines, I show up in AI searches, my reviews are referenced on Reddit, and I make them a lot of sales while also making them look good.

Hell, even when I write a negative review I still make them money. There’s a certain facial toning device I wrote a negative review about YEARS ago, and I still sell a couple of them every month from that article. Cha-ching, and I’m totally honest and transparent with my audience. I value their trust over the value of what you could pay me.

That’s why when you refuse to do a blog post and instead ask for a Reel, I decline. When you offer gifting and no payment, and refuse to have anyone but me do the review, I decline. When you offer me a rate based on my Instagram audience size, and not my site traffic or even my social media engagement numbers, I decline. Because I know, if I bought your item and wrote the review I’d get my money back tenfold and I wouldn’t have to adhere to your terms. And I know if I had one of my community members get the gifting, I’d pay them even though you’re not paying me, and I’d still get my money back tenfold if not from affiliate revenue, from ad revenue.

I get it; your boss, or your boss’ boss is saying they want X number of over-40 or over-50 or plus size or whatever content creators to make Reels that you can hopefully whitelist and maybe even use in perpetuity. You need certain metrics, you have a certain goal, a plan. That’s fine… I don’t need to be part of that goal or plan. Because it has nothing to do with my goals and plans.

I don’t care about gaining followers on Instagram. I don’t care about being a well-known face or name. I don’t feel I have “made it” if I work with some dream brand. I care about having the quality of life I desire: my own schedule, my bills paid, and my sleep undisturbed from selling out or losing the trust of the community I have built.

I don’t need you. I have built a business style that doesn’t require paid partnerships. Those are a nice-to-have, not a need-to-pay-the-bills. I didn’t do this on purpose; it happened during the 2010-2014 blog boom, when I went from unique to a dime a dozen and not nearly as strategic. A hobby blogger who found success, I was suddenly competing against women a decade younger, several sizes smaller, and coming into the game with industry know-how, financial backing, and expert skills in Photoshop. My brand partnerships dwindled as companies went to the new and shiny and I learned how to pivot.

And during Lockdown, I again learned how to pivot. And I keep pivoting, twirling like a ballerina, but not losing my footing.

I’ve seen brands like you come and go. You’ve put a lot into advertising and influencer partnerships, you’ve gotten some press, and within five years I’m going through my archives redirecting and drafting content about you because you’ve shuttered. Or maybe you saw success, grew really big and got bought out or went public and now the gossip on Threads, TikTok, and Reddit is that something has changed… your quality is down, your customer service is shit, your selection isn’t what made them fans in the first place.

Either way, I’m still here, and I’ll make profit writing about you on my terms, or writing about how you used to be awesome or just used to be. In the words of Vivian Ward, “Big mistake. Huge.”

But what do I know? I’m some chubby middle-aged blogger in the suburbs who only has 35K followers on Instagram.

Sincerely,
Alison