The three types of paid bloggers
So, last post I stated I had joined PayPerPost, and last week I did a sponsored review. This got me thinking, at what point does a review become a sellout?
Well I feel in the online blogging world we can classify bloggers into three types of reviewers: the greedy ones, the savvy ones, the “righteous” ones. What I want this post to do is explore each group of bloggers and let me explain what I mean by each title.
Greedy bloggers are those that purely blog for money. These are the bloggers that post lots of stories for money and have no connection with their audience. You will see their sites more than likely filled with advertising and reviews/sponsored posts. They exist purely to make money, and don’t enjoy what they are writing about. Honestly they may make it big in the short term but most will tire of what they do in the long run and be forced to switch fields (this is why so many new blogs fail, bloggers expect to come in and become rich for life, and it doesn’t work out).
“Righteous” bloggers are those that do not do any kind of paid review at all. They refuse to do it as they would be “selling out”. These bloggers are mostly stupid in my books. Unless your blogging for fun (if you are this doesn’t apply) then your wasting revenue. Honestly, if your goal is to earn with your blog you want to optimize your revenue stream. Many big bloggers make hundreds upon thousands per month with paid reviews. By being “righteous” you shut off this revenue stream. You may be high and mighty but others do both (keep their values in tact and earn) I call these the savvy bloggers.
Savvy bloggers are those that can balance the task of sticking to their values while still earning. These are the bloggers that blog about interesting things every once and a while and get paid to do it. They don’t abuse the system and only blog about paid reviews/posts but instead supplement their quality blog with a few good reviews. They earn money while maintaining a level of quality that people expect of them (they take, but not to much). I like to think myself as one of these people.
Blogging for money (sponsored reviews) can be quite fickle. But if your blogging about what you enjoy, no one should even know its sponsored (unless you say so). The key to earning from sponsored reviews is don’t be greedy and over saturate your blog with paid posts. The smart blogger finds an balance.
Liked this post? Get your daily dose, subscribe to our RSS feed!
Still, it must be hard for bloggers to find such sponsors for their blogs.
No, programs like Smorty, PayPerPost and many others are out there. Bloggers just need to utilize these tools, many do, and make a bit of cash with it. The trick is not to be greedy and still post quality content so you can still earn and your readers can still be happy.
I agree that there are various ways of making money online and that you need to be wise about which ones to use in order to get paid and still maintain your readership.
When I began doing sponsored reviews on some of my blogs I expected to encounter more “righteous bloggers”, as you call them. The odd thing is that most of my blog readers understand the desire to make money at this hobby of ours, and they’re fine with it so long as a blog doesn’t cross over into the “greedy blogger” territory.
Unfortunately, there are far, FAR too many ‘greedy bloggers’ out there whose entries read like one bad ad after another. Their traffic suffers and they don’t even seem to understand that while they’re working their tails off to get those $7 opps, they’d easily make four times that per entry if they’d just write decent content on a regular basis.
exactly, thats why most greedy bloggers fail. You have to be “savvy” and find the balance between the greed and on the other end of the spectrum, the “righteousness”. I couldn’t agree with you more.
Blogging, whether for money or not, is only valuable as a ‘product’ if you are focused and passionate about your subject. By the same token, I don’t personally find fault with anyone looking to make money online - even if it is ‘just for the money’. If you can’t separate the good from the bad, and are willing to read or write ‘bad’ blogs? Well, you may have too much time on your hands - or eventually you’ll figure it out and move on.
Good points Steve. But some people read mixed blogs because they are decent. If you’re smart about it you can find a balance of paid content and original content.