Monetization: “Sponsored Conversations” - the next FAIL

Army Of Paid Bloggers Suddenly Promoting Online Payday Loans by Arthur Delaney from The Huffington Post

Bloggers be aware, “The Federal Trade Commission is considering updating its guidelines to indicate that the commission expects these kinds of testimonials to come with conspicuous disclosure of the paid relationship.”

Even more importantly, bloggers be warned, the social web is about authenticity and deviating from that authenticity with paid posts will likely come at a great cost to your blog’s viewership.

The internet is the new library. People view it as a public utility, there is too much information contained in it to study in a lifetime, and you only sometimes have to pay a small amount of money to get everything you want. So as a destination, if you don’t give them exactly what they want, they will go somewhere else.

Something I am continually trying to keep my finger on and address for our clients outside of the value of online promotion and branding is the ability to monetize a space that is viewed by its consumers in this way, and that is exactly what these blog writers tried to take advantage of with Payday Loans.

The cold hard fact is the age of the media mogul is coming to a close. The new channels for communicating content are too vast and there are too many people who wish to contribute content to the pile. There will always be compensation for quality but to make a career as an online contributor you need to establish value by providing continued authenticity, establish a loyal following, and creating strategic alliances with those who can pay the bills while allowing you to maintain the value of your brand.

P.S. - If Payday reached out to bloggers, provided information about their company, and paid for posts to be written based - POSITIVE or NEGATIVE - on the bloggers thoughts regarding the company then that would be acceptable to the blog’s viewership since the author is not compormising their opinion and would show confidence in Payday regarding it’s product.