Tips for paid bloggers - from an advertiser

I've been paying bloggers to review products/services now for almost a year. I've also written the occasional sponsored post myself. I've used some of the popular platforms, such as PayPerPost and Linkworth, and I've contacted bloggers individually. Some reviews have been great 'link juice', they've brought traffic and leads, generated buzz, and even aided search ranking positions! Others, however, have been utter crap, and it's quite obvious that some bloggers are just out to make a quick buck.

Because of those bloggers, I've put together a list of my annoyances as an advertiser. These are not rules, you can do what you want, if you feel like taking the money and putting forth a minimal amount of effort, then that's your prerogative. However, taking these suggestions will add quality and value to your blog, which of course will benefit in long run. You'll receive better feedback/rating/tack from the advertiser, and in turn you'll qualify for more and better posting opportunities in the future. You'll also maintain greater relevancy on your blog, which search engines will reward with more traffic, and this of course makes you more valuable to advertisers.

OK, enough said, on with the tips...

Maintain Relevance

If I'm selecting bloggers individually, I can pick and choose the blogs I'd like a review on. However, if I'm using a platform like PayPerPost, I select the category of blogs that qualifies for the opportunity. Unfortunately, it's up to each blogger to indicate the topics they write about. Why is this unfortunate?

Well, several times now I've run opportunities for tech bloggers. And yet somehow, a percentage of those taking the opportunity invariably ends up being a work-at-home mom with a blog about "life, family, health and stuff". And yet, somehow, in between the posts about the baby's new teeth, she's managed to squeak in a sponsored technical post. Simply because in the PayPerPost registration process, she indicated that she also writes about technical things. if opp is for tech, I don't want posts from a mom's site who happens to write about technology!

Simply put - if your blog does not primarily revolve around a particular theme, do not take opportunities to write about that theme for money! It's not search friendly, your visitors won't care about the post/review, and you can bet that the advertiser will feel they've wasted their money.

Don't Be Lazy

I try to give bloggers the links and point-form concepts that I'd like written about in a post. Of course, how and what they choose to write is entirely up to them, and how they feel about the product or service.

What ticks me off though, is when it's very obvious that the information I linked to really hasn't been read. In fact, the blogger may not even have visited the site, they've just taken my few points, reworded and added what little they know about the subject! This is unacceptable, it's lazy, and if I wanted that I'd give you an article to post on your blog. At least check out the page/article/service that you're linking to, so that you can provide an honest appraisal!

If you don't really know much about the exact topic, it's not the end of the world. It's easy to do a bit of research, and form and opinion. However, it's obvious when you a) don't know what you're talking about, or b) have just copied and pasted from the Wikipedia or some other source.

So please, put at least a little bit of work into understanding the topic. After all, I'm paying you for your opinion, not for your ability to hit "Ctrl+c" and "Ctrl+v".

Disclosure is Fine, But...

It is totally acceptable - and sometimes preferable - that you indicate in the post that it's sponsored. However, don't file the post under a 'sponsored' category! If I want tech bloggers who write about gadgets to review new iPhone killer, I want that post to be categorized with other tech gadget posts! Fine, yes, embed a badge or an image or a phrase indicating sponsorship. But for goodness' sake don't banish the entire post off to some lonely corner of your blog as though it's of less value than the rest of your content!

Conclusion

Anyhow, as stated before, you don't have to take any of these recommendations. You can continue to do the bare minimum. But as paid blogging grows (PayPerPost alone has over 30,000 bloggers) the only way for you to stand out is to offer real value to advertisers.