Image by Addictive Piccasso
Guest Post by Quail By Mail
–either on a commercial level or on a personal level. If you must advertise to get yourself noticed, here are some points to consider from someone who has recently seen it all: [Read more]
However, if you are going to be writing about what you love, you might as well make extra money if it’s only going to take a few extra steps.
Affiliate Programs can work, if you know how to use them. Personally, I’ve had my share of rage/resentment when it comes to affiliate programs, as I put an ‘ad’ up on my blog for months and only bring in a few cents. It took some time before I was able to figure out ways to make money off them, without comprising editorial content. [Read more]
I know I shouldn’t write in anger… and I’m ticked off right now. As many of you know, I write a fashion blog, called The Coveted, it’s a monetized blog. I don’t make much money, but still, There is adsense, and affiliates from eBay and Amazon, which are the only ones I seem to have the most control over, how and where I place them.
Today, I got an email from a PR person that stated:
Hi Jennine!We’d love to see this up on the site. Let me know what you think!
There was a 360px by 360px advert image attached noting a sale for a boutique I had covered in the past. I had mentioned them often because I really like what they carry, and I really believe in helping small business people. But this was a blatant request for advertising.
I said to the PR person, “That’s a great little invite… would you like to put it on my site? I would love to have up, but of course we’d have to work out some form of payment for the advert. “
She then replied that they don’t ‘pay for advertising’ that this was a notice for ‘editorial content.’
I see sale alerts all the time on fashion blogs. In a lot of ways it’s a great little service to the readers, informing them which boutiques are having sales, giving them a feeling that they are in the know, because of course, you are…
For some reason posting a sale alert in the body of my blog’s content is a little dicey. On one hand, The Coveted’s integrity is very important to me. Developing my ideas of what constitutes as viable editorial content is something that I have worked very hard at. On the other hand, it would be nice to have some kind of sale notification service for my readers… Daily Candy does it…
And finally, if I had three hands… the last bit, is, I’d like to get paid for what I do. Advertising is a fair way to get paid, and this kind of notification is definately falls in the ‘advertising’ category.
In the end, I told the PR Person, that I don’t think I can post the image she sent me as ‘editorial.’ Told her I loved the boutique, and that I post about them as often as I can… and when they get their new inventory, let me know, to see if there is anything good there.
What would you do if you were in my shoes?
Post written by Princess Poochie of Hello, Lover
Coming from the advertising/marketing industry, I continually evaluate how a brand speaks to their consumers through the messaging choices they make. And now as a blogger, I have been directing my eye more and more to the fashion arena. What’s more, as a female consumer, I am looking at these messages, not just to see the product attributes, but also to see if I agree with the more political message that the brand chooses to convey.
A big part of how a brand communicates with their consumers is through print media. Of course, nowadays more and more of that influence is coming from what the stars are wearing (or rather what the stylists have been paid to put them in). However, print (mainly magazine ads) is still one of the biggest media spends for luxury brands and their new campaigns are eagerly anticipated and dissected when they arrive (just see all the discussion over Miu Miu’s and Lanvin’s latest campaigns).
So, when I look at ads, I’m debating if I like the style of the item/collection, find the item covet-able and if I’m inspired by the fantasy that is being constructed. Do I aspire to live in the world that is in that ad and do I want to align myself with what that designer is all about.
I know that these huge companies are filled with marketing experts, so I’m often confused by the ads that I see. Do they really feel that women will be compelled by the message given in the ad and aspire to owning their products because of them?
For example, which of these three ads (ignoring the product and focusing just on the sub-text) do you find compelling?
Marc Jacobs
His ads are typically straightforward and product-centric. In his stark photography, he goes counter-culture and quirky by NOT putting a whole scene together. He’s saying he’s so hip and cool he doesn’t need to elaborate. And if you don’t get it, well, you’re not hip either. He knows you’re going to talk about him and allows you to create your own story. Even if you don’t “get it” you at least can evaluate the product on its own merits.
Guess
This is a Guess ad but could be any number of brands that use their models as mere props for a product. These bother me the most because they are not even trying to disguise the fact that their goal is to manipulate women into thinking they will be sexy if they buy the product. It isn’t empowering. I actually find it degrading and insulting. Do they think we are so easily led? Is an ad like this compelling to women or does it come off completely lacking in insight?
Via Spiga
This ad is my personal favorite. The woman in the ad is strong, classy and confident. I want to be like her, striding purposefully across the street. She’s sexy, not simpering. I can see the product in action and it looks amazing.
Fashion is becoming more and more political with the discussions around child-labor production, lack of quality control, and anorexia-inducing models. As consumers, I think it is important for us to consider all of these issues before purchasing because one of the strongest methods of communicating with these companies is through our wallets. You are what you wear is more true today than ever before.
Personally, my first experience with a blog network left a lot to be desired. I was confused, didn’t really know where to look to find out whether I was being paid fairly.They dictated the placement of their ads ‘above the fold’ even if they were mainly deodorant ads and dating survey ads. To top it off they gave poor customer service when inquired about why or how blog networks or advertising works.
That was just my experience. Honestly, I haven’t tried another network, although I am considering finding one to work with in the near future.
ProBlogger put together a comprehensive list of different ways blog networks pay their bloggers:
- Revenue Share - where the blogger earns an agreed upon percentage of their blog’s revenue (I’ve heard anything from 20% to 80% splits)
- Revenue Share of Certain Income Streams - where the blogger takes a % of one or two income streams and the network takes other income streams (for example a blogger might take 80% of AdSense revenue and the network takes the other 20% plus any other income from the blog). Another variation on this is where the blogger is allowed to use affiliate programs and the network takes advertising revenue.
- Traffic Payments - some networks pay purely on traffic levels - a CPM model (ie blogger is paid $X per 1000 page views)
- Flat Monthly Fees - the blogger is paid a certain amount per month if they reach certain posting goals.
- Payments Per Post - a flat fee per post (I’ve heard of anything from a few dollars up to hundreds of dollars per post - depending upon the blog, topic, blogger profile and post length)
So hopefully this helps in your search for the right network to link up with.
ProBlogger is not an IFB member… but its valuable blog to read if you are interested in monetizing your blog.
I’m still on administrative leave, but Patrica from Bobble Bee sent a great thought provoking article about advertising. Admittedly I myself often wonder these questions, and is the most compelling reason to start IFB:
When shopzilla contacted me months ago to place an ad in my blog it was a very happy day for me; I needed money at the time for milkshake chocolate’s expenses and it also gave me the chance I was craving for, getting paid for my time and ideas.They were very honest with me from the beginning and we discussed different wages until we got the deal.Months later they offered me to place ads “per click”; I would get paid regarding the “clicks” those ad-links would get from my readers.I thought it a good idea and placed those ads for a couple of months… until I realized I was advertising those companies (others than shopzilla) without getting paid. Then I decided to remove them.Since then I am still trying to figure out why these “per click” ads are so popular (google is a favourite) among bloggers who want or need to earn some money. Many of these bloggers are quite followed thus their traffic permits these ads to do “their job”.Those ads have the name of the company big and bold and so it gets stuck in our heads somehow. Therefore, companies are advertising in the blog without paying a penny. Aren’t those companies playing with the bloggers’ “hope” that someone will click?.I wonder how many people click those ads.They (the ads) are rather dull and uninteresting, we are reading a blog and don’t want to be bothered. The months I have them up not even one person did a single click.This is my opinion and the reason why I removed those “per click” ads. They’re not for me, thanks.>>> More on blog-sploitation* by the great Liberty London Girl.
Tricia From Bits & Bobbins, alerted me to this badge. It may not be for everybody, but some people blog for fun and love. And here’s a great way to say it… adfreeblog.org is a way to show you do not want corporate advertising on your blog. Which for some of us, the amount of money we make, it may or may not be a solid choice. It’s actually refreshing to know that your blog doesn’t necessarily need to be monetized.
Here is the agreement you have to follow if you are going to use the badge:
1. That I am opposed to the use of corporate advertising on blogs.
2. That I feel the use of corporate advertising on blogs devalues the medium.
3. That I do not accept money in return for advertising space on my blog.
signed,
the author
Submitted by Manolo’s Shoe Blog
By Fleur Britten
LONDON: Competition for tickets to London Fashion Week just got a whole lot tougher. Why? Because there is a brand new breed of fashionista being courted by designers: the fashion blogger.
These citizen journalists are securing the scoops, attracting big-budget advertisers and amassing millions of readers - a kind of fashion people’s revolution.
“Up till now, the fashion industry has virtually been a mafia,” says Chris Cholette, blog-watcher and founder of the shopping portal fashionIQ.com. “It dictates what’s going to be fashionable. It’s like, ‘You have to wear blue boots this fall.’ Bloggers offer an alternative voice that says what people are really wearing, as opposed to what the industry says they are.”
Therein lies the attraction of blogs: “Bloggers are not bound by the same rules of objectivity as professional journalists,” says Derek Gordon, vice president of marketing for Technorati, the blog search engine, “so we’re seeing an explosion of candor. Opinion is their lingua franca and audiences are increasingly falling in love with that.”
Here’s an interesting article found at SFGate.com:
Blogging tough way to make money - but here’s how
Ilana DeBare
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Q:I’m thinking of starting a blog and am curious about selling advertising on it. Do bloggers make much money from ads? How would I go about selling ads on my site? I have a full-time job, so I don’t need to make a living off of this, but it would be great to bring in a few extra bucks.
-Brand-new blogger
A: From a business point of view, there are two reasons to start a blog. One is as a marketing tool to bring exposure, credibility and clientele to an existing business - for instance, using a blog about gardening to promote a local plant nursery.
The other reason - the one you’re considering - is to generate money through the blog itself. Rather than promoting a business, the blog is the business.
There certainly are some examples of blogs as successful businesses. High-profile blogs like Huffington Post and Daily Kos attract millions of readers and sell oodles of ads.
Some lesser-known blogs do well also: Steve Pavlina has a blog and Web site about personal growth called StevePavlina.com that generates more than $10,000 in ad revenue each month. And Tom Foremski publishes a blog called Silicon Valley Watcher that garners about $10,000 a month in corporate sponsorships.
But those are the exceptions. There are 103 million blogs in existence and 175,000 new ones created every day, according to Technorati, a San Francisco company that tracks blogs and offers a blog search engine.
Most of those 103 million blogs don’t even try to sell ads. And those that do accept ads - most commonly through Google’s AdSense program - typically make only a few dollars a month. click here to read more…
The pros & cons of affiliate marketing…
When I first began monetizing my blog, I first sent out an email approaching online boutiques about potential advertising. Many boutiques replied back saying that they have affiliate programs that bloggers can sign up for. What is an affliate program?
Here is what one retailer wrote to me:
We are actually moving away from [click] advertising… and are working through a commission based affiliate program instead. We’re working with [affiliate site] and would love to have you join. You can view details here [link to affiliate site], but a basic description is as follows:
Now, that seems alright does it? Fair enough that they make money from actual sales generated from your site right? Well, in a conversation I had with an online advertising sales person, said that advertising is about branding and exposure...“You’ll get clicks but clicks aren’t necessarily the most accurate way to gauge a program. How many times have you seen a car ad? You aren’t just going to click and buy a car, but it’s in the back of your mind so when you are ready to buy a car, that brand has already resonated in your head over time, doesn’t happen over night.”
So, advertising works by developing awareness, and how much is it worth it to companies to pay for the number of times it’s brand is exposed to you, the savvy consumer?
Affiliate programs do have their place, they are designed for people who want to open a virtual shoppe without having to invest in inventory, in order to make a lot of money, you have to spend time marketing and selling their products. That’s why they send you emails informing you of new inventory and sales. They want you to post about it in your blog, therefore blurring the line between editorial posts and advertisements.
It’s unfair to you because you may not be aware of what you are signing up for, in which case, you may host their advertisements for free without making any money. Whether or not it’s ethical to post editorial content that you may make money off of is really up for grabs at this point in the blogopshere. I personally feel uncomfortable about placing advertisements in my blog unless they are clearly marked.
If you do want to set up shop and make some cash selling for boutiques, this is a great way to start a shopping site without having to invest in inventory.
Pros & Cons of Earning Money from Affliate Programs
Online Business Basics : Working on Commision
Here is an excellent article about the different kinds of affiliate programs:
Why Buy the Cow?
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