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Gettin in the Advertising Game: Princess Lasertron + You = <3

Posted on 02. Apr, 2013 by Princess Lasertron.

I’ve been buying ads on Passionfruit Ads for Hello Holiday since we launched, and I really think it’s cool how the founder, Jason, built a platform for bloggers to accept advertising that’s both easy and well-designed. For what it’s worth, he’s also an amazing customer service representative and I’ve enjoyed many a friendly convo with him for no reason at all.

So I decided to try using Passionfruit Ads as a blogger rather than just as an advertiser, and so far I really like it. Omaha-based wedding consultancy Signature Ceremonies already went in on a large ad, and I’m going to fuss with the code on the sidebar tonight to get all of them to line up and look a lot more pleasing. (I’m also messing with my blog header again, on that subject.)

With prices ranging from the cost of a case of Diet Coke (literally) up to $60 including a featured post, I’m going to use the proceeds from all of my ads to fund the extended trip I want to take with Alice to Berlin. If you’d like to promote your small business, blog, project, or just put something up to be weird or whatever, that’s cool–I’ll approve the ads that I feel are relevant to my interests and then they’ll each go up automatically. I explain more about these details on the sponsorship page.

I know ads are a hot-button issue for a lot of blog readers. I’ve read tons of forum posts and endless comment threads debating the ethics of accepting money from advertisers, how content goes downhill, how bloggers become “shills” for anyone that will throw them a buck…to that I say, whatever. I haven’t run ads on my site for a few years now, and when I found the Passionfruit app I got excited about the potential it represented for me. I’m excited to have an incredibly easy way to offer more visibility for small businesses and I’m excited to put the money toward a major travel goal I’ve had my entire adult life. I also can’t ignore how social media has changed the landscape for advertising–sidebar ads aren’t necessarily the best way to gain traction for a new brand anymore, but forming relationships with bloggers who can promote you through their networks on Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, Vine, Instagram, etc. etc. etc., is where the value really is. For those brands I really love and want to support, that’s something I’m happy to do. I’m a member of the handmade/small biz community too and I think advertising is important for the development of small business. Whether that’s “ethical” or not isn’t the conversation to be having. The dialogue I have inside my head when I have an advertising opportunity is “Is this a good business?” “Do I believe in their mission and want to help them with their growth?” If so, then of course it’s ethical.

I’ll always do my best as a writer and keep sharing things about my family, my work, my bouquets and clients, and my community, and once in a while there might be a sponsored post in there. Whether you like or dislike my content, it’s not going to change–I’ll just keep being my likable/dislikable self.

Also the photos had nothing to do with ads, I just wanted to add something pretty to break up the potentially boring content of this post.

Dress: She’s my Sunshine Shift Dress; Shoes: Seychelles Ampersand Heels; all from Hello Holiday

xx
meg

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Not a Bad Gig: Outfit photos at the office

Posted on 20. Mar, 2013 by Princess Lasertron.

We just got a whole bunch of these polka-dot dresses with both halter and regular straps in at Hello Holiday, and they’re making me re-think my shift dress uniform (it’s day 201 for that, by the way). Now that I am in the retail business, the spring clothes arriving is the biggest signifier of the changing seasons, and although we still have the thermostat cranked up at the office, the sunshine streaming in through the windows is enough to melt away the snow and the memories of scraping it off my car! I love spring. It’s the best time of the year when you live in a region with four seasons.

I started doing my hair in hot rollers really often, and my hairdresser suggested cutting a few layers into my signature bob haircut. I really like the look and it’s so easy to do–I just take five or ten minutes in the bathroom with the roller set when I get to work, let them cool while I answer e-mail, then take them out and give everything a little tousle. I’m getting better at it with practice!

My business partner’s name is Sarah Lorsung Tvrdik.Â It’s kind of a doozy of a name, and her last name is often misspelled by others as “Turdick.”Â She made me laugh for these photos by going “Nice to meet you, I’m Turd Tvrdik,” and I couldn’t stop cracking up. Maybe not that funny of a story but I will always laugh every time she does that. She keeps joking that she’s gonna do it at market when introduce ourselves to vendors–in case we need to seem any more immature than we already do. I love laughing. I love having a partner that I laugh with all day. That’s the most important thing to me in any relationship–business or personal.