Internet Marketing Tycoon

**picklezone** · 09-11-2006, 03:25 PM

Hello All --

New services to pay bloggers to blog about products or services are popping up -- see PayPerPost.com for an example.

Is this a smart way to get "Buzz Marketing" for your business, or a conflict of interest, and a deceptive practice? Public Relations companies have marketed this way for years -- I know of some people who were paid to sit in bars and talk up certain beers, for example.

What do you think of this? Please take the poll here, and post your thoughts.

My own take is that if such a paid blog post is added to a site that claims to "independently" review products and services, then the practice is deceptive. If, however, the site discloses that it sometimes reviews affiliated products, services, and companies, then this practice is a good way to advertise.

What do you think?

Yours -
Scott

**vangogh** · 09-11-2006, 08:32 PM

I can certainly understand why something like this would start, but I'm not sure if there's really any long term potential. So much about having a successful blog is building trust with your readers. Getting paid to advertise someone else's products under the guise of a review would slowly or quickly erode that trust. I would think any blogger who writes these kind of pay per posts will end up having a harder time selling anything on their own site and keeping readers.

It could depend though. If you only reviewed something you honestly checked out and disclosed you were getting paid you should be able to keep that trust. I think most people understand the need to pa the bills so if the pay per posts are on topic for your blog and you let people know about the getting paid part you can probably do ok.

Something tells me though unless you write a lot of these pay per posts the money won't be worth it. Just a hunch, but I'm thinking each post won't pay all that much.

**picklezone** · 09-12-2006, 03:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vangogh

Something tells me though unless you write a lot of these pay per posts the money won't be worth it. Just a hunch, but I'm thinking each post won't pay all that much.

Hello -

Thanks for your thoughts, and I agree that there is a trust issue here. Also you appear to be spot on about the number of posts required to make a living. A review of the service noted above shows that the average post pays around $7 US. At that rate you would have to do at least 200 posts a month to make any serious money. Not too hard for a fast typist/good writer, but would you want to endorse 200 different companies/services/products per month?

Yours -
Scott

**vangogh** · 09-12-2006, 07:29 PM

Scott, I had a feeling about the price. I don't blame someone for starting this and my gut tells me they'll make a decent business out of this at least for awhile. For bloggers I suppose if you can get a post done that meets their standards in 15 minutes you're not doing too bad.

A lot of people would be happy getting 2 accepted posts done in an hour.

I would think though if you can write quality posts you can ultimitaly make more than $7/per post writing about what you want to write about.

**picklezone** · 09-18-2006, 04:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vangogh

Scott, I had a feeling about the price. I don't blame someone for starting this and my gut tells me they'll make a decent business out of this at least for awhile. For bloggers I suppose if you can get a post done that meets their standards in 15 minutes you're not doing too bad.

A lot of people would be happy getting 2 accepted posts done in an hour.

I would think though if you can write quality posts you can ultimitaly make more than $7/per post writing about what you want to write about.

Hello Vangogh -

Good to hear back from you. Yes, I agree with your observations. I think we are at the melding (yes... "melding") point between traditional publishing and new media publishing (blogs). Writers with good skills should be able to find a way to get paid as the whole thing shakes out. Aren't blogs just another form of newsletter/ezine/magazine?

I wonder how many BlogMasters run ads (Google or other networks) on their blogs? This is like a newspaper with classified ads in it. We are publishers, and sooner or later, we have to pay the writers because content is king.

Yours - Scott

**vangogh** · 09-18-2006, 05:05 PM

I completely agree. While we often feel the internet has been here forever it's really in it's infancy and so much, particularly in regards to it as a marketing vehicle still needs to be worked out.

I think writers will always be needed both online and offline and there will be plenty of opportunites in either place.

**picklezone** · 10-01-2006, 02:02 PM

Hello -

We've had 120 views of this thread, but other than myself, only one person (Vangogh) has replied so far. Hmmmm. Maybe paid blogging just isn't a big deal?

By the way... there is a directory of pay for bloggers opportunities (and other ways to monetize your blogs) at: BlogMasters' Revenue Directory.

Yours - Scott