27/08: More On Blog Comments and Credibility

In addition to this blog I also own another site with DoFollow enabled, although it is basically commercial in nature and, some would argue, not really a blog at all. It uses Wordpress however, and comments are enabled on the majority of posts.

This morning I found a comment awaiting moderation which was a blatant advertisement. OK, nothing really new about that, but the advertisement was for something in direct competition with the paid and affiliate content of the site. Do people really imagine that such a comment is going to be approved? It wasn't even a comment, there was no effort to remark on the post itself (which was informing visitors of new additions to our directory) just a blatant advertisement.

So, here's yet another little lesson for people who think this type of comment form hijacking is acceptable or even worth the effort.

In principle I agree with Andy Beard when it comes to self promotion and affiliate links in comments. If you have something useful to say or a service to offer, I will consider an affiliate link in a comment carefully. If it doesn't compete with something that I am promoting myself, or something that customers pay me for, it might well get through, which I think is a reasonable stance.

Look at it this way - there are many advertisers who pay good money to advertise on blogs and it is important for a blogger to strike a balance, both for credibility and financial reasons. Let's assume that an advertiser is paying $25 weekly for an advertisement - it doesn't really matter what the fee is - but they think it's worth a slice of their budget so you have two happy parties, publisher and advertiser. The advertiser soon notices however that people are "fly by commenting" and getting for free what he is paying for, maybe even more. As a result, you lose an advertiser and gain what? A lot of spurious comments leeching link juice from you and probably not even leaving you the option of commenting on their sites which are invariably not even blogs.

This is clearly not very smart!

On the subject of paid advertising I'll say this. During the past couple of weeks I have turned away several hundred dollars worth of advertising revenue (and it did hurt a little, yes). That's great I hear people say, you're lucky you can afford to! The thing is I can't - and I can - in (nearly) equal measure. Like most bloggers, the opportunity to bring in revenue is welcomed, but sometimes you have to think about what you're giving in return, and just how it will affect the issue of "perceived value". We've all seen bloggers who will post about every single offer they get from the paid blogging services and that's their perogative, but, how many free blogs have you seen that contain a post about dog grooming, followed by one about Caribbean cruises and another about a dieting fad? I'm sure they are grateful for the $10 per post but it is surely short sighted if you want a blog to which people will return and look forward to reading and one that will be at least somewhat attractive to future advertisers.

I can honestly say that the last ten offers I received were declined - either because of irrelevance or very low payment offers, or both. Don't I need the money? Doesn't every little help? Not always, and this is my point. For every suspect paid post I make, and for every minimum payment offer I accept, I have to weigh up the effect on my blog and the likelihood of attracting more serious and long term advertisers. $10 now or a recurring weekly, monthly or yearly payment?

In addition to the sponsored posting offers, I also negotiated my way out of a couple of long term advertising deals, again because the money on offer was not consistent with what existing advertisers pay me. Sure, they were up front offers and would have meant a good pay day for me, but they wanted high profile space for a year to two years and were trying to take advantage of the fact that this is a relatively new domain. What is a good offer for that space now, (and this wasn't that great) may be an appalling one a year down the road, and you find yourself stuck with something bringing in no money and a space you could sell for a whole lot more than the amount you sold out for. Tough to decide for any blogger, but I was firm on this occasion and think I was right. It's an age old ploy - appear to be offering great money, pay in advance, a few hundred bucks, watch the blogger salivate steal a great deal, a few years of advertising for pennies a week. Of course, it can backfire on the buyer, but if you are determined to be in the blogging arena for the long term, you need to be consistent and credible. A quick pay day might not always be the best move, although I certainly appreciate the excitement for new bloggers when you first get offered some form of financial recompense for your blog. It's a great feeling, and by all means enjoy it to the full, but thinking long term is important and could see you rewarded far more if you are prepared to be patient.

If you are going to monetize a blog, I would agree with what JohnChow said - go all out. If people are offended by ads on your blog, it won't make any difference if it's one ad or ten. All I would add is to remember that striking a balance is important too.   

Credibility is made up of a number of ingredients of course but the sooner you grasp the basic concepts, the better. I did read somewhere a one line comment on a blog from someone, to the effect that he deleted all URL's from comments on his blog unless they were from "regular visitors", but happily inserted his own URL into a DoFollow blog - I'm sure I'm not the only one who would have deleted that particular URL whilst smiling inwardly at the oh so ironic justification for doing so. 

Getting back to my friend, the drive by commenter/advertiser, you sir, will have to try harder.  I'm just debating whether to delete your comment or mark it as spam.........then again you could always consider my very reasonable advertising rates.

 TCH