Let’s Talk! Sponsored Blog Posts
Let’s Talk! is a new column here on BAKERY, where we want to talk with YOU about an important or controversial issue facing small businesses, social media, online marketing/PR, or blogging.
The first topic we’ll be addressing here is sponsored blog posts. Sponsored blog posts are posts that are paid for by advertisers. They may feature a product, an announcement, or just be a regular article with link(s) to the advertiser’s website.
So…let’s talk!
- Bloggers: Do you have sponsored posts on your blog? Why or why not? If you do then what practices do you implement with your sponsored posts, e.g., do you mark the posts as sponsored?
- Blog readers: Do you mind sponsored posts? Why or why not?
- Advertisers: Have you paid for a sponsored post before? What was the result?
I think sponsored blog posts are fine. There are some blogs that do not deal in advertisements and that is their right; but I feel if a blog accepts advertisements, they should be relevant. There is nothing worse than a blog bombarded with adverts that are useless and irrelevant.
If done well…sometimes I don’t even notice sponsored posts on blogs. I get e-mails about them, but haven’t posted them because they aren’t necessary relevant to the content on my site. I think if it will help your blog grow and looks good…go for it.
As a blogger I couldn’t see myself accepting money for my blog, simply because it is based on my opinions.
But as a reader I generally don’t mind it, I sometimes even welcome it! Though like previously stated, it must be relevant.
as a blog reader, i don’t really mind it as long as im not sifting through them to get to the content of the blog. some blogs have really big advertisements that take awhile to load and take up the beauty of their blog, leaving their blog less personalized.
As a blog reader, I tend not to read sponsored posts. I know that most bloggers try to be pretty independent on their reviews, but it feels to me like what it is: advertising.
As a blogger, I wouldn´t mind at all to earn a living through advertising but I´m not sure it would be via sponsored posts. When I talk about a product in one of my posts I like to think that I´m just telling my readers about it because I really enjoyed working or using that product, not because I was paid to do so.
Of course this is just how I feel and I think bloggers are totally in their right to write sponsored posts.
Hmmm… as a blog reader, I have to say that very occasional sponsored blog posts wouldn’t bother me IF it were clearly stated as such from the get-go. It WOULD bother me if I later found out that the blogger was occasionally writing sponsored blog posts and they were just slipped in every bow and then. It would be a breach of trust.
There’s definitely a right way and a wrong way, but I do think it’s best practice to make sure your readers know what’s going on and everything is in the open.
i believe with the new FTC regulations, anything you get paid to say HAS to be clearly stated as such. i remember a while back that Gwyneth Paltrow had some heat on her for posting all this great stuff about a hotel that clearly comped her.
I’m all for sponsored posts as long as its something I would have written about anyway. My whole thing with ads or pretty much anything I write is that if I would use it for my own wedding, its good enough for my readers.
Hey Vané — yes and no — this area is kind of cloudy with respect to the guidelines, but I would err on the side of caution and disclose.