What does a sponsored post mean and why should you care? A sponsored post means that someone gave me money to blog about something. It does not mean someone purchased me or otherwise influenced me to blog positively about them. I'm not a sell out but I'm also not above making money off of this blog.
To make money off of this blog I have several options:
- Options
- Google AdSense
- Kontera Content Link
- ReviewMe
- Sponsored Reviews
- Pay-Per-Post
- BlogKits
- Direct Reviews
- http://www.text-link-ads.com/starter_kit.php?ref=37168
- Direct Link Ads
- Donations
- AuctionAds
I use ALL of the above options. I do not use all of them at the same time but I do use them.
Some of the above are passive in nature (Google AdSense, Kontera Content Link, AuctionAds, Text-Link-Ads) while the rest are more-or-less labor intensive and require direct work on my part.
If you are worried that an article I run is somehow influenced by advertising dollars, don't be. I'm a firm believer in speaking my mind and writing what I want. I also believe that advertisers do not want rosy articles written about them or their products. A rosy article will be ignored by most readers. I also do not write rants. What I try to do is write fair articles.
When I read a review for a product or service and see only good stuff I suspect that it is a puff piece and ignore it. If I see an article that is negative or just a rant I figure it to be written by an angry person and also ignore it. When I see an article that explores both the good and bad of a product I judge it to be more credible.
There are enough Yes-Men in the world, I will not be one of them.
When an article is sponsored I will include some mention of it either at the beginning or the end of the article. I may add a category for sponsored articles but not all sponsored pieces are sponsored by the product I am writing about.
Some companies just want to sponsor an article for a back-link. They don't care what the article is about they are only looking at the Page Rank the link will pass on to them. Others are just paying for buzz because they want you to know that they exist.
Let me lay this out as well: if a sponsored post appears on this blog it is something that I am generally interested in and the words used are my own.
I know Jez and I have gone back and forth on the subject of sponsored postings in the past and we both have our feelings about them and certain companies that work in that field, but I think we can both agree that sponsored postings are OK as long as you inform the reader that the posting has been sponsored in some way.