Considerations On Paid Posting
Sep 11th, 07Bloggers today have new doors opening up to them all the time. Take for example paid posting - to earn money from sites which sponsor reviews. While some agencies like ReviewMe do not allow advertisers to require a positive review by bloggers, a debate wages over whether the whole enterprise is a good idea. Critics say there can be no honest review when it’s a paid review.
PayPerPost, for example, operates on a system where bloggers have to submit their post for approval. Examining this a little - if a blogger wrote up an opinion of a product or service which cast an unsavory light on a company’s image, do you think that company is likely to approve it? Would you? Getting right down to it, how can a paid review be trusted if only positive ones pass the gauntlet?
While advertisers and paid posting agencies stand to clean house, I have to wonder how this industry affects the other parties involved - publishers and consumers. Bloggers have typically taken the stance of passionate hobbyists - offering insight on everything from gadgetry to gourmet cooking. Do paid bloggers freely write the same honest product/service reviews as they would without the cash? Are loyal readers getting duped into buying something they may not have without those hard-core reviews - disclosure aside?
Additionally, bloggers have to consider whether they’re willing to risk tarnishing their reputations, or alienating their readership by embracing a non-sustainable venture. What I mean is, this kind of income seems like a shot in the arm and nothing more. Here’s why…
The paid posting phenomenon works something like this: a retailer, affiliate, or service site may be looking to build PageRank via advertising. A blogger reviews a product or service, gets paid a paltry fee, and the advertiser in turn stands to reap long-term benefits (the PR).
Participating bloggers receive no further compensation once the entry is published. Furthermore, once PR has been established for an advertiser, they may never need to repeat the process. Bare minimum, perhaps only once a year. Essentially the publisher’s service is unlikely to be in demand again. Even if a company did require continual services, there would be a horde of publishers vying for the opportunity.
Although it may sound like I frown on paid posting as an industry, I don’t. Based on my knowledge of it, I’m just on the fence. I think, at least, it’s an avenue worth exploring. Have you participated in paid reviews, or seen any measure of success with it? Has it affected your readership either way? I’d love to hear someone else’s take on this.
“Have you participated in paid reviews, or seen any measure of success with it?”
I’ve written some paid reviews through ReviewMe.
The market was heating up toward the end of last year and first part of this year but has since way cooled off, probably in part due to Google saying they were taking a harder look at sites which didn’t put nofollow on advertising links.
I’m thinking RM also got hit hard because of the fact that they kept a rather steep 50% of the cost of the reviews and other programs came out allowing bloggers to sell reviews direct and keep most or all the money to themselves.
For our main blog it was $250 per review from the advertiser and I’ve never changed the price, which meant ReviewMe was making the same as me without having to actually review anything except that I wrote a review that was 200+ words and had a link to the reviewed site.
I put the disclosure for the review in bold text at the very beginning of these reviews, which is where I feel this should always be in any post like this.
Being up front with readers is the best policy.
I felt like that way readers could choose to jump off right away if they discounted the credibility of the review posts. I also made sure the review posts weren’t the only posts made that day, and tried to be sure there wasn’t more than one paid review post per day.
Also important note: I only reviewed products/services/sites that came through which would be something I would have reviewed and written about naturally. If it wasn’t something I was legitimately interested in and fit the blog, then I declined the request. And at $250 for each review, yes, I did decline writing several reviews.
I’m comfortable challening anybody to compare the hundreds of normal, non-paid reviews written over the last 4+ years to the ones that were paid for (and always disclosed up front) and see if there is any unnatural bias. I disagree with the notion that just because somebody is paid to do something that they can’t provide an honest service. Then that puts all the paid journalists at odds immediately, because, what do you know, they are paid writers.
With that said, I haven’t been able to take it that far with the PayPerPost stuff yet. It just sounds … cheap to me. I know what the value of a single link inside one post is at our blogs, not to mention the permanent archiving and the PPP math doesn’t seem right. I’m not begrudging others for using these services and I’m not totally against the concept of trying it someday, somewhere, but I haven’t pulled the trigger yet.
But from a reader perspective I don’t get a warm and fuzzy feeling when I see that a post is paid for and I’m less impressed with blogs that have the big PayPerPost button in their sidebar.
I usually skip paid posts as a reader and I feel cheated when the disclosure isn’t up front at the beginning of these posts clearly mark, so my advice to anybody that does do paid reviews or paid posts is to be extremely picky about the frequency and amount and as with any post don’t waste your readers time.
Blog readers don’t enjoy being pitched, they want to share in a conversation and feel like the author is trying to bring them some real value. I certainly don’t read blog posts thinking: hey, I want this guy/gal to sell me something.
So my advice is simple: if you do decide to do paid reviews/posts, then make those reviews valuable to both the advertiser and readers or don’t do them at all. If you can’t provide this value with a deal then arguably the most powerful word in our language ‘no’ is the right answer.
Sep 11, 07 | 4:50 pmGreat points TDavid and thank you so much for the valuable insight. Sounds like you have some solid guidelines in place for when and how you publish paid reviews - and I agree. Being upfront, writing only about things that relate to your site, etc… all important in establishing and/or maintaining credibility with readers.
I agree about badges in the sidebar too. Whether or not it’s the best way to let advertisers know of a blogger’s availability for paid posting, I don’t know, but they seem a little tacky.
As for comparing paid and non-paid reviews - could make for an interesting study eh? ;)
Sep 11, 07 | 8:26 pmI haven’t tried anything like this with any ofmy blogs and I don’t plan on trying it. Although I haven’t been faced with the temptation as of yet.
Some good words there David. I find myself agreeing with most of what you said.
Sep 13, 07 | 1:06 amWell, I participated in some paid review things on one of my blog and fortunately I didn’t have any negative impact on readership. The reason for maintaining a balance between both ends, i.e. paid reviews and readership for me was simple that I didn’t go for each and every review offered, instead I reviewed sites and resources I felt my readers will be interested in and that worked!
Sep 21, 07 | 1:14 pm