I Value My Time...

As a Mom, wife and blogger I value my time very much. I'm feeding children, changing diapers, potty training, doing yard work or writing my posts. I don't get much time for "me"--in fact it's so rare around here that I usually blog about getting a little time here and there for myself--it's that big of a deal.

I get pitches a lot--for anything that you can probably think of. I don't mind getting pitches--a majority of the time they ask me to review a product and/or have a giveaway. A majority of the time I won't hold a giveaway unless I review the product first, but there are circumstances in which I will.

I got a pitch a few days ago--first they got my blog name wrong. It was my old blog name which I changed back in November of 2009. Not a big deal, I'll let it slide. It was a pitch about a new product, etc...I replied back that I would love to do a review and possibly host a giveaway on my blog for this product. I would give the PR company my address and we could go from there.

They in turn wrote me back--still using old blog name after I gave the new one--and thanked me. They told me that they would try to get me the product to review...but they weren't sure if they could.

I wrote back and once again said I would love to do a product review. If that wasn't possible I do charge a small fee for my time to write about a product. If they were to pay me it would be a written advertisement--basically letting everyone know that there's this new product out there, the benefits, how it differs from the old product.

So, today rolls around and I get a reply that they do not pay for posts at this time. I was tempted to write back, that's wonderful--I don't work for free at this time...

Why should we, as bloggers, work for free? It takes time to write posts, get images, read press releases. I'm not going to take the time away from my family or myself to work for free. Sorry--I'm sure there are people who wouldn't mind, but I've been doing reviews/giveaways for awhile now and I have learned {the hard way...} how valuable my time is.

I guess you could say that I grew balls and stood up for myself. I have to admit--I kind of like it....

I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Do you give companies free advertising? What would you have done if this happened to you? And if it has happened before, what did you do? I can't wait to hear some thoughts on this topic!