It’s no secret I’m a supporter of monetizing our blogs. Like John Reese, I think individual bloggers are the ones who decide the content of their blogs.
I also know that in search engines will be trying to distinguish paid-for-links from links that are placed only because someone feels enthusiastic about a site. That means if you are involved in paid posting, you will need to think about how search engines will learn to diagnose which links appear in paid articles and which ones are posted absolutely, positively, entirely for free.
To that end, I have compiled a list of ten features that I think scream “This is a paid-to-post link:”
- Links to exactly one domain name in nearly every article.
- No zero link articles; no multilink articles.
- No links to newspaper articles or blogs in any article posted.
- No real images in post. (Image either a tracking image or in tinyurl.)
- Very commercial topic.
- No adsense in blog post at site that normally runs adsense in blog posts.
- Lots of posts on car insurance, mortgages, loans, travel and detox!
- No identifiable focus for the blog.
- Javascript blogrolling rolls on sidebar that is shared with many other blogs in a rag-tag assortment of niches.
- Blog shows icons or displays a large fraction of these: My blog log, digg, blogcatalog, fuel my blog, U comment/I follow tag, I disclose tag, review me tag, PayPerPost tag or payU2blog tag.
Mind you some these features will appear on non-paid to post blogs. But if your blog shares more than 8 out of 10 of these features, I can guarantee you that Google will figure out many of the links are mostly paid for!
If I had any readers at this two week old blog, I’d ask you: What symptoms do you think scream “these links are paid for?”
I think using the word Sponsored or Sponsor as your form of disclosure. I used to use the words “brought to you buy”-but Google just has to start looking for the word “sponsor(ed)” & when it shows up in every other post on your blog-you’re toast!
I agree with Robyn. I just cringe when I see that. And I find your number 10 pretty interesting, too. I’ve been thinking these same things, and pondering cleaning up a bot in my icon use. I do like the bloglog and blogcatalog, but I am concerned about the banners for the companies I write for. I’ve always considered tagging posts as “sponsored” to be tacky, and lately find myself avoiding opportunities to post if I have to include a mandatory disclosure of any sort. My sitewide policy is enough, I think.
Good post. I agree with most of your points but #9 and #10 can be found (well not the paid post badges) on many blogs that do not do paid posts.
When I started blogging I found some memes that helped draw traffic to my site, and gave me sites to visit (made a lot of blogging friends that way too) and joined them - Blogging chicks, Blogger chicks, Wordless Wednesday, Thursday Thirteen, Photo Hunters etc … they all require that you have their blogrolls on your site. Now, since I’m involved with a lot of these groups my blogrolls are on separate pages but I fall into that “a lot of blogrolls on site” category.
I also run several blogrolls (I am Canadian, Toronto Bloggers, Fabulous photoblogs, Green Thumb Sunday and The Do Follow Bloggers blogroll) so yeah .. I’ve got a lot of blogrolls!
There are lots of blogroll memes or groups out there for stay at home moms, female bloggers and for particular niches. So it depends on what the blog is about or who writes it as to what kind of blogrolls you might find on the site.
Another way that I started to get some traffic in the beginning was through some of the traffic engines like Blogexplosion, Blogmad, Blogazoo, Blogsoldiers and Blog Advance … so I have some of their badges in my sidebar. Lots of bloggers have some or all of these in their sidebars. Mine are rolled up into menus now.
I’ve used the notable plugin on my sites pretty much since I started blogging too .. so I have links to Digg, redit, Blogmarks del.ic.ious and so on under my posts.
Plus, I’ve been a member of Mybloglog longer than I’ve been doing paid blogging. Same with sites like stumbleupon, myspace, facebook and so on. I guess I’m generally a very social blogger. I’ve been a do follow blogger for about a year.
The only things I’ve signed up for since I started doing paid blogging pretty much full time have been blogcatalog, Bumpzee (that’s a fantastic site!) and fuel my blog.
Most of my paid blogging badges are rolled up in a menu, but of course my Disclosure badge is fairly prominent on my sites.
I just wrote all this to point out that many bloggers get involved with the social sites in order to promote their sites and meet other bloggers and I’d say that many of them don’t do paid blogging. It’s just that these social sites- mybloglog and blogcatalog are discussed quite often in the postie circle that we follow so we see them quite often on blogs that do paid posts because we probably spend a good portion of time visiting fellow paid posting bloggers.
do like the bloglog and blogcatalog, but I am concerned about the banners for the companies I write for. I’ve always considered tagging posts as “sponsored” to be tacky, and lately find myself avoiding opportunities to post if I have to include a mandatory disclosure of any sort.
I think another way google can tell is based on how related the link is to your website. For example, a link about fishing on a website about medical terms would be a red flag.
Thanks for the info,
Team BrandFiesta! - get paid to post