26 replies to this topic

[ryan2]

Hi everyone -

Hoping for your thoughts and advice - is this a good this:

We're planning to advertise with a network of bloggers, who will write reviews about our website and what they thought of the offerings we have.

This will hopefully bring some sales, but the primary goal is SEO. We would get keywords and a link from high PR sites, and their blog on us would continue to exist long after the initial posting. I know PR isn't the final standard but I don't know a better way to judge our advertisers.

Here's a quote from a blog like that:

there is an <linked!>adolescent treatment center</l> called <company name>. They believe in treatment thru empowerment. They empower youth and their families with the knowledge, skills and support systems required to reclaim their lives and live free of chemical...

Any ideas for me?? Thanks! Ryan

[qwerty]

Will the posts be labeled as paid endorsements?

[Randy]

Wot Bob said.

If they're paid and not clearly labelled as such you and the blog posters could well be breaking the law. (Warning! It's a PDF from the FTC!)

[Jill]

This will hopefully bring some sales, but the primary goal is SEO.

The primary goal of anything should never be SEO as it will force you to always make the wrong decisions about your site.

[Scottie]

What good is SEO without sales? Isn't sales the ultimate goal? Or do you just want bragging rights for high ranking keyword phrases?

Remember, blog posts tend to scroll away and typically aren't well-linked- blogs are a chronological medium and not easy for people (or se's) to simply browse. They emphasize recent and older posts don't get much link love after they've scrolled off the home page.

If these are well-read blogs and relevant to your product, it sounds like a great strategy. An honest endorsement from a credible, popular blogger is a powerful thing.

If these are blogs-for-hire that no one really reads or links to and your "review" is canned copy that's automated to publish on a bunch of orphan blogs... well, you can probably figure out what that will be worth to you.

[OldWelshGuy]

This is a difficult one to answer really. But if it means getting your message in front of your potential customers through the use of blogs, then I see no problem.

[jehochman]

Bloggers that qualify can join the Google Adsense or the Yahoo Publishers' Network. Rather than advertising with a junior network that has all the problems of the major search engines, plus many more, wouldn't it make sense to just use the existing contextual networks?

Of course, if you can find a specific blog that targets your niche, you can go to the owner and buy advertising directly. This only makes sense if that blogger has enough ad "inventory" to sell that it's worth your time and trouble to do the deal and monitor the ROI to make sure you don't get taken for a ride.

As Randy said, advertisements that masquerade as other things tend to upset people because they view that as something akin to fraud. That's why the FTC has decided to crack down on surreptitious Word of Mouth (WOM) marketing. If you have a great product, the truth is good enough. Advertise and sponsor things.

[sassyt]

I agree with OldWelshguy... if the blog the review is going to be posted on is relevant to what you are offering, and has quality traffic, I don't really see any harm in it, other than the fact that I myself for example take paid posts with a ping of salt. I.e. I don't really view them are 'reliable sources of information'. But that might just be me. Why don't you try it out, see what feedback you get and then expand based on your experience?

[Martin C]

Printed magazines haven been reviewing new products for ages - rarely would they declare an interest, or having received an incentive, but I bet in many cases it would have been correct for them to do so.

Blogging is no different and if a blogger declares an interest then I see no reason why this should not be a legitimate form of marketing, especially if the blogger is prepared to sometimes give a bad review if the product/service deserves it.

I don't think it has any SEO value worth mentioning, but for the right type of service/product it could be very effective in viral marketing terms.

There are a number of companies I see deploying this method to good effect. Two examples, one being a new financial service and the other is a piece of new technology. They are effective in creating a buzz and in the case of the new technology a good way of getting manufactures to think about licensing the technology.

There are some products/services though that don't easily fit into the blogger categories so I don't think it is something that will work for everyone.

[goldjake]

I do print advertising and for automotive industry we always pay the magazine to review the product one way or another. They wont do a review unless you give them 3 months of magazine advertising. I think it sounds interesting.

[jehochman]

Phoney reviews aren't the way forward, and magazines are a dying industry. Why would you want to follow that old model?

How about making a great product so real live bloggers review it because it's popular and great?

[Martin C]

How about making a great product so real live bloggers review it because it's popular and great?

Nothing

But what is wrong making a great product and inviting bloggers to review it?

[qwerty]

But what is wrong making a great product and inviting bloggers to review it?

Absolutely nothing, if those bloggers include in their review the reason they're reviewing it, whether it's because they're just fans, they're friends of the owner, the owner asked them for their opinion, the owner paid them for their opinion, the owner offered them a laptop loaded with Vista...

[Martin C]

Well for the record - I think I already said I supported disclosure.

[ryan2]

Hey Randy, QWERTY - thanks for the heads up. I read the FTC article - which fortunately isn't what we're doing. Bloggers won't be writing "I used Ryan2's product and it cured my cancer!"

These bloggers will write, "I saw the site, and the prices are very low! Products look promising based on site content, etc etc" The statements will hold true for every single visitor who clicks through to our site, as it will be based on open information, not post-sale product.

But I'm concerned about your statement, Martin: "I don't think it has any SEO value worth mentioning" Scottie, you also said blogs lose value quickly, and are hard to search after time - but text links die out entirely in one month, and we'd get each one for the same price. These blogs have an avg PR 4. We have virtually 0 text links at the moment so we do need to get started.

Scottie, when I said SEO was the primary goal, I meant: Our primary expectation is sales from higher SEO ranking, not from direct click-throughs. My miscommunication. But ideally our advertising would simultaneously bring in many direct sales AND bring piles of sales from higher SEO rankings as well! Any other ideas on how to find or create double-edged ad venues like that?

Jill, you wrote: "The primary goal of anything should never be SEO as it will force you to always make the wrong decisions about your site." I assume you mean that reducing site quality with crammed keywords, stilted text and mazes of quasi-useless links will also reduce your conversion rates. Self-defeating, I agree, although I think there's a bit of give - would you agree? Is there also more to your comment - further reasons?

Thanks all for the fast responses. Ryan

Edited by ryan2, 06 March 2007 - 06:25 PM.