Today’s Wall Street Journal includes an article discussing Apogee’s positive experience with Pay Per Post and similar programs like Sponsored Reviews.
Paid Posts Bring Traffic
In January, Apogee, an online marketing firm, began paying 20 bloggers a month around $10 each to write a review about Apogee’s blog. Traffic to their blog increased, and they decided to increase advertising through bloggers and now pays for approximately 100 posts a month. According to executive of the firm, have their site visits now come from blogs and the number of visitors who fill out online online-inquiries has multiplied 4-5 fold.
Keys to success
Apogee does not require positive posts. This benefits them for several reasons, one is that bloggers sometimes catch and reports problems with their site. The reaction of Mr. Combs of Apogee to this news? “It’s wonderful feedback, if you’re willing to go back and correct things.”
Part of Apogee’s success may also be due to their use of PPP’s “tack” system; Apogee restricts advertising opportunities to Posties with more than 2 tacks. They also give tacks and sometimes ban bloggers.
Posties should note: According to the Wall Street Journal, Apogee does not give tacks based on whether or not the blog post tone is positive. They consider blog traffic, and the amount of expertise a blogger brings to the subject.
Apogee encourages clients to pay for ads on blog posts .
Evidently, quite a few of Apogee’s clients have taken the advice and are now paying bloggers to advertise. The article closes with this interesesting observation:
Apogee explains to the clients that they’ll have limited control over what the bloggers say about them. Says Mr. Combs, “You have to face some pride-swallowing.”
For more information about Apogee and paid blog posts, read Paying Bloggers For Online Reviews Can Fan Fame