Transparency in Blogging & Influencer Industry
When I re-launched this site after a few months’ hiatus, I wanted to do things differently. As mentioned previously, the influencer culture was rising quickly at the time, yet it was missing a key component: social responsibility. This puzzled me. From my perspective, having a voice, and the privilege of sharing it, requires honesty and full disclosure. Yet, many of us were doing no such thing. What’s more, we weren’t being held accountable for failing to do so.
This is why, over the past couple of weeks, we’ve been working on introducing Disclosure & Transparency Guidelines that clearly outline our business practices for our partners and readers. These will work to provide a clear understanding of what our business practices are, and how they are conducted, including an explanation of partnerships, gifted products, compensated experiences, and the content we produce. The intent behind this is to ensure that you can trust what you’re reading, and thereafter make an educated choice as to how you will interact with my writing and the content published on our social media channels.
“Until the industry becomes regulated under consumer laws, it is our individual duty to our readers to be open.”
In that vein, I want you to know, first and foremost, I love writing this site—the business aspect of it is secondary. I feel privileged that WLG has given me a career, as well as an opportunity to start an agency. These two avenues have given me a unique perspective of how influencers interact with brands, and vice versa.
In the name of full disclosure, my primary source of personal income is my salary from the agency. Meanwhile, the majority of the income from the site goes towards maintenance and creative fees, like photography and editing. It’s important for me to give back to the site and the people who work alongside me.
I hope that, in some small way, this will open a dialogue within a landscape where sponsorship and compensations are, at times, viewed as taboo.
With Love…
Marta