Using your blog to promote your affiliate campaigns can be like walking a tightrope. In order to do it correctly, you must learn how to monetize your blog without becoming a biased “flog” (fake blog); losing the trust of your readers and search engines alike.
According to comScore MediaMetrix (August 2008), blogs received 77.7 million unique visitors in the US, out of a total Internet audience of 188.9 million. Armed with the knowledge that traffic equals money, it’s easy to see why blogging is catching on – merchants and affiliate marketers alike.
Herein lies the trap.
Perhaps it’s simply a reflection of human society but wherever there is money to be made there’s always someone who will abuse it. The abuse of blogging has been seen in a phenomenon known as ‘astroturfing’ or fake blogging. These bogus blogs, or ‘flogs’, are not just the work of small-time marketers; companies such as Sony, Coke, L’Oreal and Walmart have all been outed as running a flog. The damage is irreparable and criticism from the blogosphere harsh.
How do I know if my blog is actually a flog? Worried that the blogging police will soon be knocking at your door? Review these three symptoms of a fake blog to find out.
You’re not transparent – You hide who you are and who you represent. You might even go as far as to have fake commenters on your blog. It’s important to remember the whole idea behind blogs – to give the little person a voice. A lack of transparency hides or obscures that voice.
You’re adding content that is pure fiction or staged – Have you ever written a product review post about a product you’d never used but pretended you had? It’s all too easy to just copy review content and post it as your own and add your affiliate link.
Your only goal is to monetize – It’s not wrong to monetize your blog. In fact you deserve to be compensated for the time and effort involved in crafting your wordy works of wonder. However, when monetization becomes the sole focus of your blog you run the risk of faking it. Problogger Jack Humphrey is guided by what he calls the ’90/10 rule’. Essentially this means he is providing valuable, free content 90% of the time, and the monetization takes care of itself.
Genuine blogs have staying power. While it might feel like hard work to maintain a genuine blog, the rewards make it worthwhile. Over time you will develop a loyal tribe of followers who appreciate and respect your unique and refreshing openness. If you’re a real person with a real voice, your blog is bound to resonate with readers as they sense that you are actually interested in them and not blogging simply to capture a click-through, a sale or an ad view.
Stay true and you’ll never have to worry about being called out for faking it.
Jason Dodd works as a technical copywriter for Affilorama.com, an online affiliate training portal that teaches you how to make money from affiliate marketing.
Download the entire FeedFront issue 7 here – http://www.scribd.com/doc/17376069/FeedFront-Magazine-Issue-7
FeedFront issue 7 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2009/08
