Paid Bloggin’ : My Guidelines

Since I posted about Pay Per Post I’ve gotten a few emails from people asking for suggestions on how to make paid posting work for them and for any tips I may have to share. I’ve also gotten a couple emails questioning the validity of my entire blog due to the fact that I’ve done 4 paid posts *gasp* the horror. Here’s some of my thoughts on the topic. These aren’t rules that are set in stone but guidelines I hold myself to when I write in a paid post or non-paid review. Feel free to take what you will from them, I hope they help a few of you out and maybe show the haters what I’m really about here:

-Think about your readers when you are thinking about talking about a product or service. Is this something they will get actual use out of? If so then great…blog on! But don’t pop out random posts just for the sake of the money. You’ll loose the interest and possibly the respect of your readers very quickly. The things I showcase here (paid or not) are things that I really do like, enjoy and think that possibly some of you may enjoy them as well. The getting actual money in exchange for making my opinion public is just a little perk.

In my mind a product I want to recommend should be good enough to tell you about whether I’m getting paid for it or not. When it comes to paid reviews or posts think in these terms: If you weren’t getting paid for it would you still recommend the product? If not then you should let it go and not post about it.

A quick example to illustrate my point: I don’t think I’ve ever talked about golf on this blog. In fact I actually don’t dig golf at all, and don’t quote me but I’m pretty sure that well over half of you reading this don’t give two hoots about golf either. So it would be very strange for me to suddenly post about what kind of golfing products you should buy just because there’s money in it for me. It makes no sense; I don’t care about golf, you don’t care about golf so what the fuck bother posting about it for?

-Use your own writing “voice”. You know your usual bloggin’ style, that’s how you want to write your posts when it comes to paid posting. Readers will be able to pick out a paid post in a hot minute if you suddenly switch from your usual comfortable bloggin’ banter over to greasy salesman fast talk. Honestly think about what you are posting about. Do you really like it? Does it remind you of a story? Find a way to keep the style of writing in tact always always always.

Have fun with the posts, it doesn’t have to be a cut and dry “Here is this Widget, buy it here. It’s good. kthxbye.” Add some color and life into the post and make it enjoyable for your readers to take in.

I personally have made the rule that I won’t ever recommend something on AIS that I haven’t tried myself first. This has been my rule from day one on this blog, and trust me I have to pass on a lot of the opportunities that are offered to me because of it. And yaknow that’s just fine by me. I’m not going to try and tell you to go try or buy something unless I’ve put it through the paces first. I do this for two reasons, first being that I can actually back up my opinions (positive or negative) with an actual experience. Second is that I want to keep the respect of my readers. If I tell people that Product A is a super-duper thingy and I’ve personally never tried it and 15 of you go out and buy one then the item doesn’t even closely live up to the hype I give it then that’s 15 people who won’t belive me next time I tell them about something. The whole boy who cried wolf story if you will.

-Money changes things and gosh it can be down right addicting. It’s really easy to fall into the trap of wanting to get as much as you can as fast as you can. That’s perfectly natural for any person. However, try to keep a balance in your posting, unless you’re a review blog then try to take it easy. I like to keep my product reviews spaced out so that I don’t overwhelm people with nothing but stuff they should try. I don’t want the readers who come here for my “wit” (jury is still out on that by the way) to get turned off because every single post turns out to be me hawking something. Study your blog, and try to find a balance between what you’re currently doing and what you want to do with your reviewing or paid posting.

-Finally, (and mostly because I’m tired and need to go to bed) In my opinion it’s ok to make money with your blog within reason. I’ve seen people across both spectrums of the Bloggin’ for Money camp. Some people are 150% against it and some people are 150% for it. If you have made the personal decision to not participate in paid posting or reviewing then that is fine. If you have decided to try and make a little extra spending money with your blog then that’s fine too. There is nothing wrong with making money as long as you don’t sacrifice yourself, your writing or your readers in the process.

I look at my blog like a business, I’m in the business of writing my thoughts and ideas and sharing them with other people. Sure, I don’t get paid for it 99% of the time but when it comes down to it the whole idea of blogging is based around the most basic business structure out there. You have a product (your blog/writing), you want other people to use it (read it). Simple.

Playing devil’s advocate: Some people are self-assured enough to be completely ok with not having any readers at all, they could give two hoots if anyone ever visited their site at all, they don’t participate in traffic exchanges, they don’t post content that’s likely to be of any consequence to anyone but themselves. I admire those people for what they do, however, I choose to take a different route with my blog. I want people to read it, I want people to comment, I want that connection and interaction with the rest of the world. If I didn’t I’d bloody well get off the ‘net and just keep a paper diary…god knows it’d be cheaper. And I like the idea of picking up a spare couple bucks if I can.

Ok, so feel free to tear me a new asshole if you want…if you don’t agree with anything I say here that’s totally cool, I understand. If you have any other tips or ideas along these lines feel free to share as well! And of course if you have questions ask away! Have a great night y’all

This entry was posted on Monday, August 28th, 2006 at 10:18 pm and is filed under Blogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.