ReviewMe has added a new product: Advertorials. Bloggers can now be paid to publish editorial length advertisements written by advertisers in the content section of their blog.
Darren at Problogger asks his readers: “What do you think about advertorials on blogs?”
My main reactions are: advertorials were inevitable; they are no less ethical than other forms of advertising, but both bloggers and advertisers should be be cautious about using them to excess.
In other words: Advertorials share the features of all advertising.
Having said that, I think there is more to say on each point. So, I’ll address ethics, impact on traffic, dangers for the advertiser and why I’m not suprised ReviewMe is the company that launched this service.
Ethics of Advertorials
Advertorials should be clearly marked as such, preferably in the blog content. To do otherwise is unethical; readers should know ads are ads.
Interestingly, because the authorship is clear, Phillip Lessen of Blogscoped thinks the sponsor written advertorial may be more ethical than having the individual blogger write the review, and there is something to be said for that point of view.
If they are marked as ads, I don’t see this as ethically different from magazines or the types of commercials we used to hear from Paul Harvey during his program. Blog advertorials are is also not ethical different from the types of commercials that were carried during the days of black and white tv where the host read the sponsors message, nor are they different from the ads we see in ubiquitous free “Advertizer” type newspapers.
Yet, it appear that some see blogs as a venue that are too pure to go commercial. Kenny at hate the grind see the advertorials as “selling out and taking commercialization to a whole new level”.
Well, I don’t quite know what “selling out” means, but whatever it may mean, newspapers, radio and tv all “sold out” long ago. If a consumer doesn’t like this can stop consuming those media.
That’s not a matter of ethics; that’s just the free market at work.
Effect of Advertorials on Blog Traffic
Because some consumers don’t like advertorials, some visitors will stop visiting blogs that run too much advertising. After all, some don’t watch television due to the commercials. (May I grin?)
The main danger of advertorials is they run in the “content” section of the blog. As such, some bloggers will be tempted to displace the real content of their blogs. As a blogger, you need to be aware that if you run too many advertorials in proportion to interesting content, no one will visit your blog. The same would happen on television. But please, do not kid yourself and believe that your non-stop advertising is interesting. It’s not.
Advertisers pay good money to place ads along side content that interests readers; they know that other ads aren’t “interesting content”.
ROI of Advertorials?
Now for advice to advertisers: Writing your own material will not assure good return on investment. If the advertisers craft poor material (and some will), or place them on inappropriate or poorly trafficked blogs (which they will), the advertiser will waste their advertising dollars.
In fact, advertisers may find this form of advertising is less effective than the poorest of blogger authored advertorial. Why?
Because as horrified as you may be by any individual blogger’s writing style, which, omg!!!, may include smiley faces, ellipses …., poor grammar, mis-spellings or constant use of “LOL”, a blogger’s fan-base likes that blogger’s writing!
So, advertisers beware: ReviewMe may be giving you want you demand; it may not turn out to be what you hoped for.
Suprised at ReviewMe?
On another matter, I’m not at all surprised ReviewMe made this move.
After all, ReviewMe already permits the host blogger to let a guest blogger write the ReviewMe blogger written advertorial/review. This is not the case for programs like Pay Per Post which insist on single author blogs.
Bloggers do take advantage of ReviewMe’s latitude. Guest bloggers seem to write many of the ReviewMe reviews at JohnChow’s blog. I would imagine many advertisers might prefer to write their own advertorial rather than paying for a review be written by the guest blogger. After all, if you aren’t going to have the main blogger associated with your product in the readers mind, why lose control of the message?
Final Analysis
In blog advertorials have arrived. They are an option some advertisers will want; there is no law against them and ReviewMe has jumped in to fill that niche.
It remains to be seen how many bloggers will wish to run advertorials and whether or not they will work. Some bloggers will be happy to do run advertorials — if the price is right. For some bloggers, that price will not be very high.
I can tell you right now: If someone is willing to offer me $1000 to run an advertorial for knitting yarn on my knitting blog, and I am given editorial discretion to reject the article if it’s unsuitable, I will be happy to run a well crafter advertorial. If it’s nice knitting yarn, might do run the advertorial for as little as $50 plus enough free samples to share with my knitting group.
Advertorials are here to stay.