I’ll start off by saying that in my previous life as a VP of sales for a leading online publisher, I sold at least hundreds of campaigns with an advertorial component; an advertorial being an article that was sponsored by an advertiser. The bulk of our business was in traditional display ads, but there were a lot of instances where throwing in an editorial component sealed the deal. We were a business, we faced competition for readers and advertisers. We were the upstarts. It worked. We’re not talking rogue advertisers here. We’re talking major league clients in health, automotive, film, video games and alcohol. You name it, we closed it. But, that did not mean that every client embraced the idea. Advertising in content is risky because users are smarter.
As I began writing this, one show ended on TV and another one began, the one starting was a paid program for… as the announcer announced that it was a paid program, my wife grabbed the remote and changed channels.
How fitting.
Anyway, at my old gig, when we offered advertorial, the formula was simple: say the client was a hair loss pill, we’d write a 1,000-word article on hair loss, include all of the facts, the medical reasoning why the occurence happens, the myths, the impact on one’s state of mind. Then, we’d outline all options: so doing nothing, getting a transplant, applying lotions - both medical and not - and pills. Then, and only then, we’d say that company x had a pill on the market. I’d even try to mention the names of the pill’s competitors (I’d convince the client to let this slide by hyperlinking to the client’s site only for example, though sometimes we’d link to many). We’d also point out at the beginning and end that the article was brought to you in part by the client.
The key thing though, is that we only offered such advertorials on topics that
a) we would have written anyway;
b) we’d ensure that it was informational and not commercial and
c) provided a complete picture of all of the choices there.
This year we’ve seen some innovation in the areas of monetization of blogs.
Contestant #1: PayPerPost
Perhaps not the first, but one to gain some attention in the arena meshing monetizing the space by introducing paid placement was Payperpost. As a user, I found the idea offensive. It’s one thing for some publishers to write content because Ad Sense allows rich keywords to generate alongside the content; those are publishers in the business of making money. It’s quite another thing for a blogger to write something because someone is paying them to do so. I tend to dislike people who claim absolute truths on any matter, but if you need a clarification on why such an idea is lame and has a limited shelf life, you should not be blogging. Forget the ethical business aspect of it, as a reader, you cannot even begin to pay attention to such nonsense. The reason why this is beyond useless is that it’s a straight-up product review, and not like the hair loss pill example, an add-on to something informational and informartive. In other words, if you are only writing something because you are being paid to do so, it’s an exercise in futility. What made Payperpost the target of much criticism is that they did not enforce bloggers to actually admit / disclose the paid relationship. Indeed, that’s just unethical, be it in the blogosphere or traditional publishing space.
Contestant #2: ReviewMe
The second company coming along and strutting their stuff is ReviewMe, arguably less offensive in nature but even dumber. The only difference between ReviewMe and Payperpost is that ReviewMe discloses who is getting paid, by whom. While this is admittedly one notch less offensive as a reader, the fact remains that the instance I see you are getting paid to write something as a product placement or review feature, it loses a lot of credibility.
Sure, ReviewMe does not force a blogger to write something positive, but if the review turns out to be positive, does a reader really trust it? If it’s negative, would that blogger get more business down the road? You’re smart, what do you think?
A Question of Credibility
What exasperates this, really, is not the fact that someone is paying someone else for editorial, it’s that at a time when those who are turning to blogging technology and marketing to get their ideas out there, it hurts the community quite a bit and gives cynics and critics a hell of a bull’s eye to hammer away that bloggers are a bunch of amateurs who have no place alongside established and well-read authors (who join the blogosphere themselves).
ReviewMe: Give Me the Shovel, Stop Digging
The geniuses at ReviewMe took it one step further and even bragged about shelling out $25K to other bloggers to write about them. Is that not pathetic? I mean if you can only pay people to write editorials about you, you might as well put up a desperate sign on your main page. What you are telling people is that unless you asked others to whore themselves, you would not be written about. Sure, the smartest bloke in the room will argue that paying $25K for a bunch of bloggers to link to you might be worth it, but what you might make on the $25K in SEO you lose in PR. And not all PR is good PR (that’s what your PR “guru” says when the Street is laughing at you and your stock is taking a hit). Judging by the site’s jump in traffic, the short term result seems like it was a solid marketing idea, but whether you realize it or not, you are essentially asking critics to put the spotlight on why your business model will prove hollow. In other words, just because some bloggers think it’s a neat concept (cause you’re paying them, mind you!) does not mean that marketers at large will too. They will find it someone sheepish: having a random blogger write something about your product because you are paying them is a turn-off to any sane marketer.
All the say, the larger blogs (or blog networks) would never accept such offers to write on ReviewMe, so it’s the little guys who fall for the prey to write something along the lines of how great Review Me is (case in point here, here, here and here - all four bloggers and blog posts hold little credibility after reading them, mind you). When you consider that a small blog might make a couple of bucks per month, having ReviewMe offer them $50-250 for a review of them or one of their client’s products will be tempting, and that will harm the blogger more than anything else.
[Added later: This blogger writes about ReviewMe, is not getting paid for it… but then mentions that he’s a pre-approved ReviewMe blogger for ReviewMe’s clients - if that’s what he means by “I’m a pre-approved blogger for ReviewMe”… hmm. How credible is your review of ReviewMe mate? That’s the inherent problem with the model.]
Bear in mind, the site’s called ReviewMe, not “describe something and then mention related advertisers.” The advertorial example outlined above worked because people came to the site for information to begin with, we gave it to them, and then for those who were interested, we’d offer some options. And, we disclosed the fact that there was an ad attached. But having a blogger review a product does not make that valuable per se: 1% of bloggers might have some expertise or credibility to make that review valuable, and once readers know it’s paid for, the reader loses interest and the product’s appeal takes a hit. If there is a marketer out there who thinks this will help their brand, they deserve to be in the accounting department.
Bottom Line
I wish both companies great success. Prove me and other naysayers wrong. That’s the beauty of the Web. But by paying people to write about your company, you are really adding insult to injury.
After all, when you are driving and see a car accident, you might slow down to see what the crowd is looking at, but sooner or later, you keep on driving realizing that there’s greener pastures out there and the sight of roadkill ain’t pretty.
There is a lot of nonsense attached to the Web 2.0 hype, but these examples will hopefully end up in the annals of the Web alongside these gems.
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