Advertisers are willing to pay bloggers who write about their website, products or services.
And the model has been immensely successful in the blogging circles. PayPerPost alone has an army of 15,500 bloggers who are open to writing sponsored posts on their blogs.
Today, Blogging Guru Darren Rowse has asked an interesting and a very relevant question on his blog - Do You Read Paid Review Posts?
The story is flooded with comments and a huge majority of readers have admitted that they don't read blog posts that have been paid for. Some of Darren's readers have completely dropped blogs from their RSS readers that accept sponsored reviews.
It clearly indicates that sponsored posts may help in bringing more backlinks for advertisers but not for the blogger who's writing them. And paid blogging could backfire in some cases as readers, already struggling with RSS Information Overload, may unsubscribe from your blog forever.
What is your take on sponsored posts ? Do you read stories for which the blogger was paid money by the advertiser ?
To be honest, I don't like reading paid reviews. It's OK if a blogger is writing sponsored posts once in a while but if he's doing that too often, I unsubscribe from that blog altogether.
Related: Paid Blogging Could Harm Your Google Rank
In LA Times, Jason Calacanis says "PayPerPost versus authentic blogging is like comparing prostitution with making love to someone you care for deeply."
Reader Comments
If a blogger can exclude that post from his feed then it shouldn't be a problem. With wordpress you can do that. With blogger you can post that review on a later date so that RSS subscribers don't get to see it.
Written on 9/3/07 5:46 PM
I don't respect a blogger who takes money for reviewing a product or a service. Period.
Reading such a blog can be compared to watching teleshopping network programme over an interesting programme in NDTV sprinkled with appealing ads.
I sincerely hope you aren't taking money from M$ for promoting windows vista in excess :-) or from mybloglog for that matter :-) Amit, do you?
Written on 9/3/07 7:01 PM
Prakash - Am I covering Vista too much on DI :) Be rest assured that MSFT isn't paying me.
The same goes for Yahoo! MyBlogLog. Why do you think so.
Written on 9/3/07 8:37 PM
Amit: The key question is whether people prefer reading posts that are great or posts that suck -- regardless of whether they are sponsored. Or, worded another way, would you stop reading great/insightful posts just because they were sponsored? Quality content is the primary goal for readers, with motivation as a secondary factor -- particularly if a business model allows a blogger to focus on more/better blogging.
Also, it still surprises how many people equate sponsored consumer generated media with reviews, when it's just a subset of what's possible. I left the following comment over at ProBlogger and it's relevant to the questions you posed here.
--
As an investor in PPP, I read sponsored posts quite regularly and find that the blogger and the topic make all the difference in the world. Blogger’s who recognize that quality is the common ground for everyone (blogger, sponsor, audience), write great posts sponsored or not.
The topic also makes a huge difference, given that reviews are just a subset of what is possible with consumer generated media. As I learned that sponsored blogging isn’t just about product reviews it opened my eyes to what is possible.
For example, I’ve seen sponsored bloggers write very entertaining “horror stories” about the last time they dumped their cell carrier — not as a review of cell carriers, but as fun content sponsored by a call center software company who helps address customer churn. PPP has used sponsored posts to prompt entertaining user-generated “PPP vs. ?” videos, wacky recruitment videos, and even PayPerDili to gain valuable user-generated due diligence on potential partners — in a matter of hours instead of weeks. Also, as a means of video distribution across blogs, sponsored blogging has created great viewership for trailers such as SpeedTV’s “Pinks” about drag-racing for pinkslips — multiplying domain-centric/YouTube.com viewership by orders of magnitude.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen plenty of great sponsored reviews, but reviews are just the tip of the iceberg when you unleash the creative talent of the masses. As an audience, would we rather watch one $100,000 Nike commercial or choose from 1,000 user-generated (for $100/each) Nike videos with their own humor, perspective or commentary? I prefer the latter and that’s what sponsored blogging models like PayPerPost unlock…
Written on 9/3/07 9:29 PM
Amit,
I dont mind the odd paid post, as long as it is clearly mentioned who is sponsoring the post. Then I can make the choice of ignoring the post altogether or reading it.
Some bloggers have the sneaky habbit of not mentioning the sponsor. In such cases, especially if you have read the blog for some time, you can make out changes in style which are made to accomodate the sponsor and the credibility of the whole blog reduces significantly.
Written on 9/3/07 11:38 PM
Comparing bloggers who write for getting paid and professional bloggers(the ones who actually care about RSS) is like comparing Sergey Brin with a webmaster next door..
Do you think the fact that people might unsubscribe their RSS feeds is going to deter somebody from writing paid posts? No..fact is that, only those who dont make much money out of their blog otherwise take to writing paid posts..
And if the advertiser is only happy with the backlink, then it's a win-win situation...
Written on 9/3/07 11:46 PM
yes i read paid reviews if they are of my interest, but with the time bloggers are writing anything i.e. for paid reviews and are diverting from their premier topic. If the blog is reviewing the product in its domain i will surely read but if there are too many different products are involved i will stop reading that blog at all.
Written on 11/3/07 12:22 AM
Yes i think you are right sir ,People visit or read our blogs to know and learn something new from us , they are not here for buy products , I realized my mistake last month and stopped blogging for them .
Written on 11/3/07 7:40 AM
In general, i don't read paid reviews. Moreover, i stopped visiting blogs that do too many of those paid reviews.
However, the other side of the coin is that bloggers usually invest lot of their time updating their blogs, and i believe that we, as their customers, need to show tolerance fro them doing a side kick from time to time...
My 2 cents.
Written on 11/3/07 9:20 PM
Hey, nice thought provoking post. If you look at print journalism, there are advertorials (paid for) and reviews (usually not paid for).
People do not trust advertorials too much. If I was to read a review, say on a new camera being tested, and I knew that a blogger ahs not just been given the camera to test by the company but also money, I'd be wary.
I review websites and people and events on my advertising and marketing blog but since I do not take money for it, I am free to write whatever opinion and observations I have.
As long as the reader knows what is paid for and what is not, both are okay imho.
farrukh
Copywriter, journalist, advertising blogger
Written on 14/3/07 1:48 AM