Tuesday's Thoughts

One of the ideas I have been fighting with is whether or not I want to commercialize any part of my blog.  As my regular readers will know, I currently have no ad nor do any product reviews or contests on my blog.  I absolutely have no problems with those that do.  My wife Heather's blog, www.ActingBalanced.com, has plenty of contests and reviews (some of which I write for her) - I just do not know if it is the right thing for my little space on the web.

Here are my pros,

There are legit products that would fit with my blog.  Educational tools, technology and daddy products would all fit well.

I enjoy testing products.  It goes with my research mind I guess.  I love finding out if the products will indeed do as advertised and then writing about them.

Finally, I would like to grow my blog and increase its readership and by going more commercial my blog will appeal to more people.

Here are my cons,

I already have an outlet for testing things on Heather's blog.  She has about five times my readership and does this on a regular basis.  She also does the post design and pitching for me.  All I have to do is really test the product and write up my results for her.

Most importantly, when I started this blog is was meant to be almost like a diary.  My version of Doogie Howser's diary.  One of the things I like about it is how personal it is.  You can really get to know me by surfing these pages.  Would commercializing the blog affect the way I approach writing on it?

So what do you all think?  Would you like to see me add some product testing, contests and the like or do you want me to keep the blog on its current path?  Personally, I lean towards leaving the blog on its current path but am open to suggestion.