For seven years, twindly remained proudly unsponsored. My main reason for that was that I wanted to be as independent as possible. Let’s talk about the future, because I want to be transparent with you.

I loved to dance outside of blogging-as-a-business as long as possible, generally having fun, and telling you what was on my mind: what product is garbage, what’s great, and not falling into the trap of sponsored posts. It’s always useful to remember that whenever a transaction takes place, a creator is then on the business side. No shade in that, we all have to eat.

But: isn’t it super boring to wake up and see reviews of one specific product plastered over the whole social media landscape? Boring, right, to see all your fave creators cover that palette or that sunscreen? Yup. So, I was happy to stay outside of that as long as possible.

This year, that changed a bit: I accepted two (yup, two) sponsorships where brands sent me products without any strings attached (it was Beyer & Söhne and Skin1004). I reviewed some, skipped some others, and generally did what I always did: gave you the key points of a product’s performance as I experienced it.

I’ve long thought how best to monetize the blog though, because yup, I also do have to eat, and I do spend ridiculous amounts of time on it. So, there’s two ways: go the Patreon/Substack route where YOU pay for the content you want to read, or let brands pay for the content you want to read.

Options

The first, not gonna lie, was always more appealing for me, coming from journalism – you pay for your paper and mags, too, don’t you? But then, most of the blog’s traffic comes from google and are people looking for a specific answer to their problems, and I love that I can help them. That wouldn’t be possible if I’d go the paywall route, though.

The second I have changed my mind on. Let’s talk affiliate links first. I’ve used affiliate links and codes myself when I wanted to support creators I like, and imo it’s a good way. I won’t get rich with that kind of money, but you save some, I gain some, nothing’s changed with my content at all but for a link at the end of the post. Use it, don’t use it: it’s there, and I’ll always mark it clearly. I will slowly introduce them to posts, and you’ll always find them clearly marked.

Maybes

Third, sponsored posts. There’s nothing definitive planned yet, but I will do them when the stars align and do like a brand and their products and it fits the blog’s profile. (Even better when it’s a brand I use anyway.) If it’s trash, well, bummer for them, because I WILL say that. Which is absolutely possible and smaller creators do it all the time. I mean, have you seen Angelica and Theresa absolutely drag brands?! Which also has coloured my decision. You can absolutely keep your integrity if you want to. You can also lose it and make loads of money.

Fourth, excepting products as PR. Yes, a possibility, and one I’ve done already. I want to do that sparingly, though, because, IMO, it absolutely makes a difference if I rely on PR and tell you a $100 serum is absolutely amazing, or if I actually do buy the bulk of my products myself.

Going forward

This won’t ever be a site where you see sponsored post after sponsored post. Because that’s so incredibly boring for you and me. I love browsing around and find products myself and tell you about them, and that’s absolutely not going to change.