If you've read my blog for a while, whether it's here at the blog or through a feed reader, you may wonder why I offer things like "Comment for a Review" and "Comment for a Stumble" without asking for anything in return.

If you've read my blog and paid attention to a few things I may have mentioned in passing, and understand that I don't need more money than my retirement pension provides, you may wonder why I bother to write sponsored posts or accept any kind of advertising at all.

Whether you've read my blog before or not, I'll explain why I do these things.

First and foremost, it breaks the monotony of blogging for me. Although I enjoy writing on a frequent basis, doing the same thing over and over again can get quite boring. When I get bored with the things that I write about, whether it's personal or otherwise, it reflects in the way I write. Longtime readers can spot it in an instant. The quantity may be the same but the quality is lacking.

I see a lot of people offering links for reviews to their blogs or vice-versa and other favor-swapping deals. I've found myself caught up in all that craziness at times. Linking to an article on another blog should be done when that article has relevance to what you're writing about and should never require anything in return. If you link to other blogs on a regular basis, other bloggers are going to link to you eventually anyway. They may not be the blogs that you linked to in the first place, but that's okay. This is why I've been doing "drive-bys" for a long time and recently joined in on the viral link thing. I already know in advance that many of those bloggers will link back to me without me having to write anything to encourage it.

I started accepting advertising (Google AdSense) for the sole purpose of paying for my hosting account. I've learned that AdSense may pay well on some blogs, but not on mine. I just don't get those kinds of readers. So… I started doing sponsored posts as a means to build up those funds quicker and discovered something in the process. I like to write sponsored posts and it doesn't matter how much they're worth.

I frequently read articles in which a blogger writes that he or she doesn't have anything to write about (usually in a roundabout way). I also frequently read articles which explain what to do when you have nothing to write about. I think blogging monotony plays a big part in all of it and people don't even realize it.

Do you find yourself in a rut sometimes? What do you do to break the monotony?