Blog Advertising Dilemma

filed under Business of Blogging · 3 comments in the original

Yesterday, I received an e-mail from a regular visitor of the site. For the most part, this reader has a great deal to say, though she remains anonymous preferring to initiate conversation outside of the blog (which is totally fine with me). The reader posed an interesting question:

okay, so i read your blog about advertising on blogs... and it occured to me that blogs are one of the most perfect places to advertise. They are usually a niche market, people interested in one specific topic. I guess if you don't mind making a couple of bucks off all the writing, research and time you spend on your blog it's aight. The only thing i'd be worried about of course, is: are you "selling out" if you advertise on the blog? wouldn't it make your blog seem just a little bit less credible, more skewed to the advertisers you place there? If i was making money off my ads i certainly wouldn't want to piss off the advetiser and have them yank their ads from my site.

This is really the long-debated issue of ethics in journalism, the proverbial separation of church and state. Opinions vary considerably, so I'll share my understanding and approach to the situation.

As I mentioned yesterday, time is money. Anyone who's tried to balance running their own business, comforting clients, and spending quality time with their families and friends can certainly attest to the need for the 25-hour day. That being said, earning income from the things you love is, as best I can tell, the preferred way to spend one's time. For most bloggers, the upkeep and maintenance of a blog is largely a labor of love. Unfortunately, the blogging world has not evolved to the point that it, in general, can provide enough income to support anyone except a college student on a full-ride.

So therein lays the rub. To move focus to one task over another requires a compromise of some sort. For most, blogging has ulterior motives as well. Some blog for fame, others blog for reputation, and some even blog for research. The "things" - and by things I mean those intangibles - provide a soft value to the author. For many, this soft value can be converted to hard currency. Many a blogger has received work or other forms of engagement as a result of being spotted in the blogosphere. Today, however, that audience still remains small.

So this still leaves many in need of income. Many individuals have turned to blog advertising as it is a relatively painless revenue stream to create. This advertising has taken essentially 2 form factors: sponsorship and Google. Sponsored blogs dedicate space to a suite of suitors that desire the eyeballs of the readership. Google ads are starting to litter blogs everywhere, applying contextual advertising that adorns the content.

So which is the lesser of the two evils, assuming blog advertising is a "sell out". On the one hand, the Sponsorship seems to, for me at least, hold far greater dominance and presence. A site that is "sponsored" seems to indicate that some entity is paying for the content to be there. Many raise the issue about selective authoring, the process by which the blog author may choose to speak favorably of the sponsor to curry favor. I am sure this is potentially an issue; however, I'm going out on a limb and going to say that ego will prevent that (unless the check is very large).

Blogging is still a predominantly personal endeavour (not referring to topics but tone). In such, the blog is more an extension of the author than it is a newspaper, which depends on the content and advertiser cocktail to endure. That being so, it seems people will write what they want, when they want. One might argue, in fact, that the sponsorship has potentially dangerous potential for the sponsor. Imagine a scenario where a site is branded for a sponsor and the author decides to act against the interests of the sponsor in one way or another. From most of the contracts I have heard of, the sponsor is NOT provided editorial control of the content, simply allocated screenestate.

This is going to change in the future, however. I can see a blogosphere where blogs are initiated BY the sponsor. In this scenario, the sponsor will hire celebrity bloggers to put their names, and effective weight, behind a blog. This can be likened to the high-level transfer of executives and CEOs in the Fortune 500. A sponsor may start a new blog that is industry-specific or business-specific and enlist the author as a hired editor. In this case, the author DOES work for the sponsor. Will we be able to discern the difference? I'd like to think so, but can see how it will be difficult.

Google-ad blogs provides the other head to the monster. Truth be told, Google ads seem less offensive, provide a constant variety, and generally remain relevant - all factors to their overwhelming success. Someone using this ad stream, unless they have a significantly popular blog with a click-happy audience, is NOT making a tremendous killing off of blog advertising.

Psychologically, I don't attribute much in either direction to a blog that makes use of Google ads. Here are the reasons:

They change. The fact that the ads constantly changes tells me that the author is NOT selecting them of their own volition. Clearly, the ads are served by a third-party at will.
They're small. Though they have the potential to take over a site if used too much, they are still small and stealthy. It's easy to overlook them if you aren't trying too hard.
They're ugly. There I said it. Truth be told, they never match the site well, they stand out like a sore thumb and, in reality, I "know" they weren't a part of the original design.
They're branded. The ads mention that Google served them. Sure other ad networks blog their own, but the sheer pervasiveness of these things makes me more aware of the Google ad network than any other.

Now, do I know more than your average web surfer? Probably. The question really is how much more and how much people value these ads in the context of the content. I think the "sell out" mentality sets in proportional to the number of or size of mentions from the sponsor or advertiser. A site with one mention in the right column is far less suspicious than a site with ads interspersed between every paragraph. Warblogging.com shows how well disguised blog advertising can be, whereas PC Magazine provides a great example of a highly suspicious mixture.

To conclude, I don't think the issue is ever really about the author selling out, as realistically business is business and expenses need to be managed. The tricker, finer detail is actually related to how the author implements that compromise and how effectively they manage user perception and impact.