I know there are a lot of amateurs and writers who abuse the system, but it is nice to see that the pro blogging community mature. I recently saw a client come up at PayPerPost who wanted bloggers to ‘say’ they saved a lot of money last Christmas by shopping at their website. That client’s post hung on the opportunity board for three days.
If you are unfamiliar with pro blogging, hanging on the board for 15 minutes without being snatched up would have been impressive. Most posts are taken before the average blogger can click the assignment and type in the verification code – which I can usually so in less than 4 seconds.
The ethical problem is one that is interesting. No one cares if a newspaper lies to increase readership. Everyone turns a blind eye when a magazine chooses their lead story ‘after’ they find out who their big advertiser is this month. And, no one complains when their television show is intruded on to post several minutes of ads in a row.
The information in this article has been compiled from information shared by the pro bloggers at http://www.divanetworking.blogspot.com
Disclosure Policy
I have full disclosure at the bottom of every page on my blogs:
This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation. The compensation received will never influence the content, topics or posts made in this blog. All advertising is in the form of advertisements generated by a third party ad network. The owner of this blog is compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. Even though the owner(s) of this blog receives compensation for our posts or advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers' own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question. This blog does contain content which might present a conflict of interest. This content may not always be identified.
This disclosure statement tells people the full scope of what my readers can expect.
The Content
The ethics of whether a company wants to sponsor a blog in exchange for a link is not the issue. The issue is bloggers who lie, write adcopy, and blatant advertising that misleads the readers. Whether there are no-follow codes in the blog – or not – doesn’t change the fact that the blogger is being paid to write that blog post.
There is nothing difference between a link in a blog post, and a link in a Google ad bar in the side column of a blog, except that Google ads hi-jack the reader and takes them away from the blogger’s site.
The content should be honest, relevant to the blog, give ‘real’ information to the reader, and not be misrepresented.
The Advertiser
The advertiser has certain expectations. Removing a blog post is not ethical. Some agencies permit their bloggers to remove posts after one year. Some even allow the use of no-follow links. Trying to trick the advertisers and their clients is unethical.
One way to overcome the advertiser problem is to sign with an agency which forces bloggers to accept posts. There are agents that let bloggers pick and choose which opportunities they feel comfortable blogging about.
Subscribers
The bloggers and agencies sometimes forget the subscribers when they are negotiating the aspects of ethical and moral blogging. It is unethical to write a splog. A splog is created to sell and promote a product. A legit blog promises readers that they will read about a certain topic or niche, and keeps that promise. They do not try to trick them, or use deceptive tactics to make sales.
One overlooked aspects of subscribers is the percentage of paid posts vs. organic posts. The minimum should be 30% paid posts. However, readers prefer a 50/50 balance. This means that to selection of 10 paid posts a week, then the subscribers will receive up to 50 posts a week through their RSS subscriptions. It can be considered unethical to spam the subscribers. Again, it all depends on how the information is sent to members.
A blogger who posts 50 or more articles a week should use a feed instead of sending emails to the subscribers inbox. Spamming anyone, even if they opt in, is unethical, and possibly illegal.
Conclusion
Honoring the moral and legal ethics of pro blogging does not decrease the chances of making a good living as a pro blogger. Just think of yourself as a digital newspaper. Keep the information insightful, honest, and cutting edge. Respect other bloggers, the clients and the readers.
Earn a good reputation – and you’ll easily make $1000 - $2000 a month. To learn more, and meet other bloggers who earn this much money each month – ethically – then visit www.divanetworking.com
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Debate: The Ethics of Pro Blogging
How to: Write a Sponsored Blog Post
I’ve been in the professional blogging niche since the beginning. That first year was frustrating for both bloggers and clients. In many cases the clients expected us to write posts praising the company, even lie if needed. They thought they were paying for testimonials. However, professional bloggers are not freelance writers. A ghostwriter might write fake testimonials, but they are not expected to put their in their publications and trick their readers into believing that the blogger loves the company.
Understand The Purpose of the Sponsored Blog Post
At the same time, the bloggers tried a few dozen ways to include the client ethically. They added an add at the bottom of the page. A few bloggers tried making an abridged squeeze page which lead the reader through an article and then hit them with the ad. This was ‘hated’ by blog readers and lost countless subscribers.
The industry flagged twice. The blog ad agency, blogitive.com, was the first. They started to teach their bloggers how to improve their image. Bloggers started to demand an ethical form of writing posts that respected their clients as well as promoted the clients.
To understand this fully, you need to recognize the three players.
The Client: Wants links, advertising, or testimonials
The Agency: They bring together the bloggers and clients
The Blogger: Also known as the publisher
Each of these players has their own concerns, their own demands, and their own responsibilities to their clients.
What Is The Purpose of the Post?
The first step to writing a good sponsored post is to understand what the client wants. If they only want the link, then the blog post can be written with no regard to the client at all. The blogger just needs to include a few keywords that pertain to the page being linked to.
The blatant advertising post must review the client’s website and post neutral or positive elements of the website, product, or service. Many bloggers create a ‘tag system’ with their clients. They might write REVIEW in their subject line, or put a symbol such as * in the subject line, so their readers know this is a sponsored review. The blogger is upfront about the fact that they are advertising a product or website.
There are ways around adding ‘intrusive’ blog posts to a blog. The easiest is to only submit blogs that are so ‘targeted’ to a certain niche that other clients are not interested in posting links there. This works moderately well. The next way is to list with agents who let you pick and choose which posts you wish to accept. This is by far the best method.
How to Write a Sponsored Post
Writing a sponsored post is fairly easy.
The Intro needs to let the reader know that the post has a client and will be reviewed.
The Content needs to include two or three points of information that are important to your blog’s readers. This can usually be found in news sites etc.
The Ending is where I normally put the link, in the conclusion.
Do not: Write in a different style and vocabulary than the rest of the blog.
Do not: Try to sell or trick your readers by using ‘car salesman’ language
Do not: Write an article and then start selling at the bottom of the post, unless the intro suggested that the blog post is a review or advertising in the introduction.
Do not: Write lies in your post.
Do not: Copy and paste from free content articles, the company’s website.
Do not: Add tags to sponsored posts, or include them in your index/site map
How to Write a Good Post
One thing I do is to add a couple of posts before the sponsored posts on the same topic, even if I write these afterwards and change the time stamps.
Another thing I do is write the post as news, and to include news from non sponsored sources so that my readers do not see the difference.
Do: Find 2 keywords or keyword phrases on the client’s website that can be used in the post (this can be done by hitting the site in your browser and then clicking VIEW so you can see the meta tags. Use these keywords in your article.
Do: Try to make the sponsored review newsworthy
Do: Avoid any posts you cannot blog on with a clear conscious
Do: Add pictures to make the post look more like a real post and non intrusive
Do: Meet the client’s expectations in word count, number of links, focus and importance
These tips will help you meet all the ad agencies requirements for sponsored blogs. This 'check list' will almost eliminate the number of rejected posts, posts that you are not paid for, or banned/benched votes.
Definition of a Pro Blogger
This article is not designed to tell you how to make money online but what elements ‘define’ the pro blogger and to outline the basic steps to help people start their own professional blogging business.
I had a writer ask today what the difference between a freelance writer and a pro blogger was. There are many ways to make money as a blogger, and even earn a few hundred dollars a month as a blogger. This doesn’t make you a pro blogger.
The Blogs
The blog topics of a pro blogger are vital. Not all topics will earn money. News, technology, health, parenting, pets, and other ‘hot topics’ need to be researched well. The write must be able to write good content, on an ongoing basis.
To do this, pro bloggers must belong to the right newsletters, associations, and forum groups. This helps them gain cutting edge information that their readers need. They also need to learn the difference between a blog and a splog. Spam blogs, splogs, are artificially created weblogs which promote affiliated websites or increase the PageRank or backlink portfolio of affiliate websites, or artificially inflate paid ad impressions from visitors, and/or a link outlet to get new sites indexed.
Spam blogs content is often either inauthentic text or merely stolen from other websites. These blogs contain a high number of links to sites associated with the splog creator.
A blog owner can link to their other blogs, but they usually change the links, keep the numbers down, and include elements that make the blog ‘legit.’
- A legit blog has no more than 30% paid blog posts.
- Any duplicate or free content articles start with about 100% original content.
- The blog has feed and RSS tools for subscribers.
- The blog discusses a topic – does not promote a product, affiliate, or service.
- They have their own domain
Many people post an RSS feed in a blogger blog, and call it their own blog. They then post ads around it, and use it to promote their own products.
The Promotion
The pro blogger will invest money and time into promoting their blogs. They will work to get their Page Rank up including:
- Buying targeted traffic
- Building RSS and Feeds
- Submit to Search Engines
- Comment on PR6 and above blogs
- They ping to all the search engines by posting daily
- They social networks
- Work at Digg, Tehcnorati, blogcatalogue
- And promote the blog – not a third party product
- May ‘not’ buy directory links as this will lower their Google Page Rank
Most legit blogs have a Page Rank higher than PR3 or PR4. They need Pr4 minimum to make money. They will use promotion tools to get PR5 or higher. No blogger with less than PR5 can hope to earn a good income.
Generating Revenue
There are three ways to generate income: Paid Posts, Pay Per Click Ads, Affiliate campaigns. Successful income generation in all three of these depends on PageRank5 or higher and high traffic numbers.
The average PPC payment for a blog with a Page Rank of PR3 is 2%, while the PPC payment for a PR6 is 10 – 30%. This is quite a difference.
The average Paid Per Post earning for a PR3 blog is $5 a post. The average PPP earning for a PR6 blog is $45.
This is why bloggers work hard to get PR5 and higher on their blogs. It is a full time job. They work a minimum of 40 hours a week at their job. There is nothing ‘part time’ or ‘passive income’ in this business.
Importance of Blogs
Many people might think someone who manages 30 – 50 blogs is clogging the Internet. This is not true. I have dozens of subscribers to my RSS feeds and subscriptions who comment regularly on my blogs. I design my pro blogs as news feeds, or as free online courses. This gives my readers more information.
I also include a full disclosure that tells people that I do earn money through the blog. This disclosure statement is at the bottom of each page ( check out http://www.healthafter40.blogspot.com ) I also do not try to ‘hide’ my paid posts. I also sign with advertising agencies that let me pick and choose the ads I want to post on my blogs.
I never try to hide the fact that a paid post is sponsored. I make sure the title ‘alerts’ my readers that the following post is sponsored. They can then choose to read it or not. My subscribers respect this, and most of them do not object to the fact that I am paid for giving them free content.
Definition of a Pro Blogger
This tutorial is based on the efforts and practices of the pro bloggers at http://www.divanetworking.blogspot.com who support each other and work as pro bloggers. It is designed to help amateur bloggers see what they are doing wrong, and how they can improve their income generations, Page Rank, and find friends and allies among other pro bloggers.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Add This - Let Your Visitors Promote You
The add this tool is one of the best social networking tools on the internet. It hooks visitors up with all the major social networking tools. There are two ways to use this tool. The first method is to use a widget in the side bar. This is the easiest way for wordpress and blogger blogs. Both of these will plug the widget right into the sidebar.
The second method is to imbed the tool into the bottom of the post. This is relatively easy if you follow the rules in the Add This website's page. However, do not post the code the website gives you. Instead, post the following code - it will work for all blogs. (you can test out that it will tag your blog by trying it out yourself
Blog Post Button If you want to include the button below each post, select 'Template' --> 'Edit HTML', then copy-and-paste the code below into the template, right after the
If you can't find the tag, copy the template code into a text editor (e.g. Notepad, etc), and search for the 'post-footer' string. You might also want to save a copy of the original template before changing it.
It also tracks who is bookmarking your posts, which ones, and how often. You can use this information to see what types of articles your visitors find most interesting.
There is a drop down version of the Add This button available, but this might not work on all browsers.