Thank you all so much for your comments on yesterday’s post. I was actually surprised to see how many people could relate to many of my “lessons learned,” and it once again reminded me of WHY I put up such personal posts (trust me, I always hesitate pushing the publish button).
As you can clearly tell from the title of today’s post, I’m letting you all know that I’m no longer an Ellie Ambassador. I thought I’d take today as an opportunity to explain why.
If you know me, you know I’m the type of person that likes to see the silver lining; I’m the type of person that puts a lot of faith in other people and always believes the best in them. That is why it took me so long to make this decision.
A few months ago Lindsay chose to leave PV.Body at a time of high controversy with the company. Although I understood and respected her reasons, I personally hadn’t experienced enough of the “bad” to make that kind of decision. Well, after learning more about the company from Heather’s post, and then my own personal experiences over the past two months, I finally ended my business relationship with Ellie yesterday.
As an ambassador, I received (well, was supposed to receive) a couple free outfits that I would review for my readers, and then for any of you that signed up I got a small commission from that sale. Sounds pretty good, right? Well, after finally getting my March outfit this past week, I hit my last straw. The bottom line is: I realized that this service is not something I would personally pay for and therefore I could not suggest to you all to do the same.
In my e-mail to Ellie, I gave them my reasons for leaving in hopes that it will help them improve in the future. My biggest two reasons were timeliness – I never received my replacement February outfit and just received my March outfit last week; and quality – I honestly felt that the quality of their clothing was barely worth the subscription price and definitely not worth what they are charging for purchase on their site.
Thankfully, my contact at Ellie was incredibly kind in her response to my e-mail, which made me feel much better and still confident in my decision to say good-bye. Although it’s been a frustrating experience, I’m so glad that I was an Ellie Ambassador because I learned a lot.
I learned how important it is to only promote the best to my readers and only associate myself and my “brand” with companies that I truly believe in.
I learned how to let go of something I really wanted when I realized it just wasn’t working.
I learned how to end a business relationship (I have a hard time letting go of things).
I learned that I should do my research when promoting a brand.
I learned that all of my actions and choices have consequences and that I need to do my best to keep the respect of my readers and peers.
This week is full of lessons, isn’t it?
Molly did want you all to know that she’s a little sad she won’t get to check out the outfits anymore.
But I’m sure she’ll be fine.
Have you ever had to end a relationship that wasn’t working for you?
What do you think about bloggers promoting products and how they should handle it?