My Fashion Juice

Dear Readers,

I’m sure that most of you know that advertising in the web is a business. It’s not always free. Of course, there are the social networking sites that you can use to promote such links and ads. You can use Twitter, Facebook, Multiply or MySpace among many others. As for bloggers like me, we have that extra media to promote our own ads, be it to sell our own items or to promote invites to sample sale websites where we earn referral credits when someone we invite buys the first time. But that doesn’t mean that we’re extra special. See the thing is, I invest a lot of time and effort in building this blog, not to mention that I also pay for web hosting and domain name. I’ve invested years in updating this blog on a daily basis and promoting it to family and friends and social networking sites in order to reach the traffic that I have right now. So you see, it’s not actually free. In fact, if you use eBay for example, to sell an item, there is a listing fee, right? If you want to advertise at a magazine or newspaper, you will definitely have to pay. So why am I saying this?

Well, I just want to reiterate that my Comments Section is only for – what the word means in its most basic sense – commenting purposes. As much as possible, I don’t allow advertising in my comments section. There are times however that I DO ALLOW them if the comment was in tune with the topic of the post and if the link was just to share a website or a blog or to share another great item that is connected to my post. But if it’s entirely different from the topic being discussed or if the link is conflicting with my own, then I actually delete them. But why? For example, if my post is about the Gucci sale – and I’m talking about legitimate and authentic Gucci boutique sale, then I get a comment stating “Buy designer replica bags at this website…”, I will definitely remove that comment because it’s obviously SPAM and I don’t tolerate advertising illegal replica bags in this website.

Another example when I do delete a comment or a link is when some readers post a link with their invitation to sample sale websites like Gilt Groupe for example. Well the thing is, all of my long-time readers already know that I do advertise Gilt Groupe and other sample sale websites here to earn shopping credits. You can read my most recent post about it HERE. To allow other people to advertise their own links would be conflicting with mine. I hope that you do understand that this is my website. It’s just like saying this is my own Magazine or News Paper and I’m not going to allow other people to advertise their links for free especially if it conflicts with my own. Not that I’m being mean or selfish or greedy but if any other magazine or newspaper will do that, then they might as well close because they will just go bankrupt. It’s like putting my efforts, time and money to vain. If anyone can advertise at a magazine for free, how will they earn? While I’m not a big magazine or publishing company, the shopping credits and advertising fees I earn compensate for years of hard work done for this blog/website. And besides, I’m not at all being greedy or selfish because I still do allow certain links or ads in the comments to be published (as I mentioned previously). Those who regularly visit MFJ know this pretty well.

So why all of a sudden talk about this? Well someone sent me a comment recently stating I’m being unfair, greedy and selfish. Well, I don’t want to explain any further so I’ll just share with you the conversation:

On January 14, 2010 a certain reader left this comment in a post where I was promoting Gilt Groupe’s sale including my invite to the sample sale website.

Reader:

Hey everyone! If you need a gilt groupe invitation, feel free to use this invite. Enjoy the savings!

MFJ:

Sorry <reader’s name>, I don’t promote advertisement here if it’s conflicting with mine. Sorry I have to remove your invite link and replace with mine. Sorry.

It was only today, July 20, 2010 that the reader responded.

Reader:

Fashion Juice,

Way to have a monopoly on the gilt groupe website invite, by deleting my invite. That is actually unfair, and I would strongly encourage views of this page to google other methods of getting a Gilt groupe invite, rather than using yours.

P.S.

It amazes me that people can be so selfish these days. It should be known that a $25 dollar credit is given to people who refer invites to Gilt Groupe. And you say you don’t promote advertisements…if it conflicts with yours. Doesn’t make sense at all. Isn’t greed a sin? Keep that in mind.

THIS IS MFJ’s RESPONSE:

I apologize if you find that I’m being so unfair by deleting your invite. To be fair, I just deleted your comment and mine all in all. The thing is, this is my website and I use it not only to share information but also for profit. After all, I invest time, money and a lot of effort on building this website and updating it on a regular basis. That being said, it is where I promote invites to sample sale websites as well – not only to share the sales but also to earn credit. So I hope you understand that publishing your invite is conflicting to my website. This is not a public website where people can just advertise. I hope you understand. A great example would be this: let’s say MyFashionJuice.com is a department store selling this certain brand of bag, what you did was to put an ad or banner at the display window of the department store stating that you’re selling that too and that customers can just go buy it from you. This way, you get the commission. I don’t think that any department store will allow that. I’m sure that they will also do the same by removing the banner or ad in their display window. It’s just a matter of respect and I hope you understand that. It would have been better if you actually asked permission first and we would have talked about it via email.

And by the way, if you have read my other posts in my blog, you would know that I tell my readers that I get shopping credits from these sample sale websites all the time. One of my latest posts stating this even show my earnings from Gilt Groupe and you can read it here. I shared it to encourage other people and bloggers to promote their own links at their own websites or at their various accounts in social networking sites. It’s just too wrong to try to promote it at someone else’s personal website especially if that person is promoting his/her own invitation as well, moreover at the post where the person is promoting the invite to the same sample sale site.

I replied to your comment before in a very nice way… I even said sorry that I cannot publish your invite because it’s conflicting with my invite. You don’t have to say I’m greedy or that you’re going to encourage other users to just look for a Gilt invite through Google. I responded to you in a very objective manner so I hope that you can be objective and nice about it too.