Halloween Poncho and a Message to Brands

Poncho:  Gifted // Pants:  Loft // Shoes:  Doc Marten’s // Sunglasses:  Old Navy

I took a little break from my Halloween costumes (don’t worry my favorite is going live tomorrow), because I got this poncho for my birthday from my future mother in law.  I loved that it was Halloween themed.  She gets me something Halloween themed every year for my birthday.  This is how I decided to style it.

I also wanted to take a quick moment to state a few things for any brands reading this post.  The other day I had a company contact me asking to add a link or a banner to my page.  I used to do this in the beginning of my blogging days, up until I started blogging some more and realized that I just can’t do this anymore.  I politely declined and all they responded with was “reason?”  I responded with, I haven’t done paid product links or banners for quite some time.  My reasoning is because I don’t know the brand or the quality of their products.  I don’t want to promote a brand that I am unfamiliar with because I want to stay authentic to my readers.

Listen, I am always so happy when people reach out to me asking to work with me, I find it extremely flattering, however, at the same time, bloggers have this stereotype for not being honest just because they want to get paid.  I don’t want to be part of the stereotype.  I also don’t want to start adding advertisements to my sidebar because those ads tend to slow down my site.  I’m also already annoyed with the amount of things in my sidebar and am looking to clean it up a bit.

Yes, I accept sponsored posts, if I know that I can make it authentic and if it’s something I can stand behind.  Yes, I’ve gotten paid to blog about something, but my opinions are always honest and I tested out the product so I know if I can stand behind it or if I’m not a huge fan.  I hope that this brand understood my reasoning, and future brands will understand if I decline them.

I always want to stay true to myself and my readers/followers.  I promised myself this in the beginning that I would never “sell out” so to speak.  I just can’t lie to people just to get paid.

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 xoxo Monica

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