Judge PayPerPost By Their Actions
Rohit Bhargava has an excellent blog, Influential Interactive Marketing. He consistently puts out high quality information that is supremely relevant to my research into blog marketing. So perhaps I should apologize for hijacking his thread on giving free stuff to bloggers.
I didn't mean for to lapse over into a complaint about PayPerPost, but in the conversations about undue influence and the difference between a paid shill and a honest opinion, their "unique" brand of marketing comes to mind.
Why don't I trust PayPerPost? In addition to their having a truly loathsome business model that convinces bloggers to devalue their websites, they tend to follow marketing practices that strengthen the argument against them.
Unfortunately, my comments at Rohit's blog brought out another misleading comment.
In response to the discussions about giving bloggers free stuff to get them to post on a product, a commenter named Mindcomet, with a link to Mindcomet.com said this.
This goes to the crux of complaints about PayPerPost. Someone stumbling on Rohit's blog, or casually reading his comments, wouldn't know that Mindcomet is affiliated with PayPerPost. The goal is to write authentic-sounding comments that can later be defended as full disclosure because, hey, they signed the post with a Mindcomet link.
I don't link them, because clearly PPP is just a link-baiting scam, and not true marketing. And I wonder if the mystery will ever be cleared up about KidDDynamite? (it's a fake blog). It's simple - astroturfing, fake blogs, fake comments, guerilla marketing where teens are paid to pimp products, and "fake" scandals are poor marketing. It's not just that they have the potential for backlash - they don't work.
When will corporations learn?
I didn't mean for to lapse over into a complaint about PayPerPost, but in the conversations about undue influence and the difference between a paid shill and a honest opinion, their "unique" brand of marketing comes to mind.
Why don't I trust PayPerPost? In addition to their having a truly loathsome business model that convinces bloggers to devalue their websites, they tend to follow marketing practices that strengthen the argument against them.
Unfortunately, my comments at Rohit's blog brought out another misleading comment.
In response to the discussions about giving bloggers free stuff to get them to post on a product, a commenter named Mindcomet, with a link to Mindcomet.com said this.
I totally agree with your thoughts on keeping your blog transparent and letting people know whether or not you are actually being compensated for your posts. One reason why I'm not against the PayPerPost model is because they are not only disclosing their affiliation with the company but they are also not swayed to take any particular tone. They are simply asked to write about a brand one way or another. Very good thoughts here.Seems pretty straightforward. Well written, no defensive tones - but the comment is written from the standpoint of an objective third party. There's just one problem. Mindcomet is the interactive agency behind PayPerPost. This commenter, although he signs it and provides a link back to Mindcomet, clearly is trying to pretend they are simply giving their opinion.
This goes to the crux of complaints about PayPerPost. Someone stumbling on Rohit's blog, or casually reading his comments, wouldn't know that Mindcomet is affiliated with PayPerPost. The goal is to write authentic-sounding comments that can later be defended as full disclosure because, hey, they signed the post with a Mindcomet link.
I don't link them, because clearly PPP is just a link-baiting scam, and not true marketing. And I wonder if the mystery will ever be cleared up about KidDDynamite? (it's a fake blog). It's simple - astroturfing, fake blogs, fake comments, guerilla marketing where teens are paid to pimp products, and "fake" scandals are poor marketing. It's not just that they have the potential for backlash - they don't work.
When will corporations learn?
posted by James Durbin @ 7:05 AM PERMALINK
1 Comments:
Hi Jim,
Thanks for commenting - and I don't think you hijacked the string ... some debate over this was to be expected! I think the real issue underlying this is that marketing directors at some brands are under so much pressure to drive a "buzz" on blogs that they are desperate to try anything. Without having a belief in the relevance of their marketing messages, and understanding better the world of advertising ... they resort to services like PayPerPost instead of focusing on telling a story worth passing along. It's basic marketing - but as long as marketers are measuring their success by the number of "blog hits" they get, business models like PayPerPost's will continue to have a market.
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