Do Paid Posts Equal Link-Selling? The Latest PR Dilemma for Bloggers
November 23rd 2007 22:27
Google Cleans House: Makes Unprecedented PR Cuts
Much has been written lately about the recent dramatic decrease in the Google page rank of a number of blogs--many of which are quite influential members of the blogosphere which have long enjoyed high PR. There's been a great deal of speculation as to why these blogs have fallen out of favor--or at least have been somewhat devalued--in the estimation of Google; and many believe that they are being penalized for so-called link-selling.
The Heart of the Issue: Is Google Right to Lower Blog PR for Sponsored Posts?
The question of whether Google has in fact lowered the PR of these blogs because of paid posting, and if so, what should be done about it is an incredibly intriguing one; and, were it not so critical to the success of the affected bloggers, it would be a fascinating intellectual exercise to ponder and speculate about the issue. But, I personally would much rather get to the heart of the matter. As I see it, the point isn't whether or not we bloggers need to stop writing sponsored content containing links to the sponsors' websites or begin hiding the fact that we do write such content in order to protect ourselves from the wrath of Google (as many are advising us to do), but whether or not Google is right in the first place to lower a blog's PR for writing sponsored content (if this is indeed the reason for the recent PR penalties).
The Real Question: Does Sponsored Content Equal Link-Selling?
The real question is, "Does sponsored content constitute link-selling?" I would submit to you that it doesn't. Writing ad copy--and being paid to do so--has always been a legitimate and respected way for a writer to earn income; and today it's no different, despite the fact that links have now become a natural part of that ad copy. With the advent of the internet and the resultant necessity for the modern business to develop a web presence, company websites have simply become the norm. It naturally follows, then, that any ad copy written today--whether online or off, whether posted to a website or a blog--would contain a link to the company's website. That's a given. It goes without saying--or at least it should.
My View: Irrelevant, Disembodied Links vs. Relevant Content-Rich Posts That Include Links
In my view, link-selling would be offering to post disembodied links to a website or blog--links which have nothing to do with their surrounding content--at a price-per-link. I do not consider carefully-placed links, which are seamlessly integrated into the body of a well-written review, opinion, or even outright advertisement about a company, website, product, or service, to be paid links. But, of course, that's just my view.
What do you think?
Eagerly awaiting your thoughts,
Jeanne
Note: I should add here that the views expressed above represent my opinion where blogs which have a main purpose other than advertising are concerned. These views do not extend to blogs which have been created for the sole purpose of earning money through advertising, but only to blogs which contain a significant amount of other helpful, quality content which is merely supplemented by sponsored posts.
This is not a sponsored post.
Did this post strike a chord with you? Have anything to add? Please feel free to comment!
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Comment by Sonya 1
Freelance Tips
Writing Words
I think this is a tricky one, and I still have not made up my mind about PayPerPost etc.
From the writer's perspective, sponsored posts are a good thing, no doubt about it. I am not so sure about the consumer side, though. At the end of the day, the purpose of sponsored posts is for the sponsor to come up higher in search engine results. I am not sure that these sponsors would get as many inbound links if they did not pay bloggers to review them. If you had a loyal customer base among bloggers, there would be no need to pay for reviews. If you sponsor posts, you tweak search engine results. That Google penalizes the bloggers rather than the sponsors must be connected to Google's own advertising business, I suppose.
I have to say that I have never tried any of the sponsored blogging services, and I may be wide off the mark here. And I certainly don't want to berate any writer who writes sponsored content - we all have to make money somehow.
Sonya
Comment by Jeanne Dininni
Writer's Notes
Thanks so much for your thoughtful feedback on this issue! It is a complex one, isn't it?
There's no doubt that search results are impacted by the links found in sponsored posts. Yet, don't we all attempt to "tweak" search results through various methods of acquiring backlinks to our sites?
As far as the consumer side is concerned, it is a balancing act to attempt to provide sponsored content that is valuable to readers; yet I don't believe it's impossible to do. Of course, not every sponsored post will interest every reader; but then again not every post that we write on our blogs will address the needs of every reader anyway--though we do our best to make our content as widely applicable as possible.
I think one way we can tell how well we're doing in addressing the needs of our readers through our sponsored content is to assess some of the factors that indicate how much interest these posts have received.
For example, I currently have one sponsored post in my blog's top ten most popular posts list and one that isn't sponsored but could have been, based on its content; and they've been there for a few weeks. The sponsored post is currently in fourth place, and the other (which is about a paid posting company) is in eighth. This is a good indicator that these posts have met a need or have at least stirred interest among my blog's readers.
At Orble, we can also tell how well we've chosen and written our sponsored posts by how popular they are on the Orble home page, as well as the home page of our blog's category. One of my sponsored posts made it to #6 of All Posts at Orble, and a number of them have made it to #1 in the Orble Writing category. That's another way we can tell how we're doing as far as our readers are concerned.
And finally, we can get an idea which sponsored posts interest our readers by the votes and/or comments these posts receive. Sponsored posts may not always rank high in the vote/comment arena--though at times they do--but we can still combine all the above factors to get an idea of how well we're addressing the interests of our readers when we choose and attempt to make our sponsored posts relevant to their needs.
About the "loyal customer base" issue, few companies have such a large base of loyal customers that they don't need to use any advertising to get the word out about their product or service.
Thanks for your input!
Jeanne
Comment by Anonymous
The reason (as far as I can determine): I had written a few paid posts and sponsored reviews. Although I was very careful to select only those reviews that I thought fit in my niche and to provide my honest opinion as well as disclose that the reviews were sponsored, it was not enough.
At first I was upset, but then I realized that I receive hardly any money from sponsored reviews -- not really even enough to affect my business. I feel bad for those who were more dependent on such reviews.
My own opinion is similar to yours: I think that sponsored reviews are a legitimate way for a blogger to earn income. I do believe that the ethical way to present such reviews is to disclose them as being sponsored content.
What bothers me most is not that Google took such step: they had every right to do so since it's their search engine. The thing that bothers me is that they seemed to have applied the penalty so unevenly. Smaller, lesser known blogs seem to have been hit much harder than big name blogs.
Laura
WritingThoughts
Comment by Jeanne Dininni
Writer's Notes
Thanks for your thoughtful feedback! This is a very complex issue--more complex, I think, than we may realize. There seems to be something going on behind the scenes at Google that none of us fully understands at this point.
Not only have they, as you say, seemingly applied this penalty unevenly--and I only say "seemingly" because I'm not 100% certain that paid posting is the reason for the penalty--but they seem to have also penalized many blogs that don't post sponsored content at all (which only adds more weight to my question of whether or not it really is paid posting that has caused these PR cuts to begin with). The widespread assumption seems to be that paid posting is the cause of the cuts, when it may in fact be something else entirely.
I wasn't aware that your blog had gone from PR 3 to 4 and then to 2 and finally 0. That's a real shame, and I'm so sorry to hear it! One thing's for sure: This pretty much across-the-board PR cut is causing quite an uproar among bloggers, and many have lost a great deal of faith in Google as a result. (I'm curious to know over what time period all this happened, if you wouldn't mind sharing that info.)
I, too, am beginning to realize--and perhaps this is a good thing--that sponsored posts don't really pay enough to make all this worth it. While I will always stand by my principles where paid posting is concerned (for as long as I continue to engage in the practice), I'm coming to realize that the amount of money I earn writing paid posts generally doesn't compare to what I could make writing other types of paid content--which means that the time spent writing them would usually be far better spent writing an article or other type of web content.
I'm not sure where we go from here--and I'm sure many other bloggers feel the same way--but we'll just have to play it by ear and respond to the recent changes in the best way we know how--whatever that may be for each of us.
While you were writing this comment, I was busy writing another post about this issue, which you may want to check out when you have the time.
Thanks so much for your valuable feedback!
Jeanne
Comment by Anonymous
Sure, as far as I can tell the rating changes began during the last week of October. I went up to a 4. Then the next week I went down to a 2. Then, at the beginning of this week, I noticed that I was down to a 0.
The downranking to 0 seemed to coincide with the downranking of many other bloggers who did paid posts.
Laura
WritingThoughts
Comment by Jeanne Dininni
Writer's Notes
I didn't realize blog PRs were still fluctuating, as I believed the Google update to be over. Your experience seems very strange--not to mention unfair. Yet, my understanding is that many blogs have been penalized who have never sold a link, written a paid review, or done anything of that nature. So, something else must be going on.
I was just over at Andy Beard's blog reading various posts and comments about this phenomenon, and one of the theories postulated was that Google may be zeroing out PR in preparation for an across-the-board PR revamp (or "correction"). Only time will tell exactly what's going on, though. So, I guess we'll just have to wait and see. (Now, I'm wondering how much longer I'll see a PR 3 when I log into my blog at the beginning of the day.)
Thanks for your input!
Jeanne
P.S. Here's a link to one of the Andy Beard posts I spoke of: Zerorank - More Pagerank Carnage (Round 5).
Comment by tlcorbin-raginravensview
Comment by Jeanne Dininni
Writer's Notes
Google's managed to make millions WITHOUT the income stream "usurped" from them by us poor, underpaid bloggers! And it's little wonder, really, because I'm sure Google would never advertise as cheaply as we do! (Yet, I'm always grateful for the opportunity to make a few extra bucks here and there.)
Thanks for your input!
Jeanne