The Central Question of Blog Advertising: Require Disclosure or Not?
One of the key issues that has arisen with the rise of advertising on blogs is whether or not advertisers who pay bloggers to post about their web site or service, require disclosure? Requiring disclosure would make it clear that the blog post was in fact an advertisement. The question that arises is, 'Is disclosure beneficial top bloggers and advertisers'? The answer to this question is yes.
Readers trust bloggers and their opinions. If they discover the blogger is being paid to post on their blogs and that essentially, their blog is littered with advertisements, they will leave the blog and not return in the future. Obviously, this is very bad for the blogger who just lost all credibility and probably a large percentage of his or her reader base. However, this also has a negative impact on the advertiser. If a blog has no traffic, then a blog post has little value in terms of generating buzz for the company's product or service. The link may still retain some SEO value even if the blog gets no traffic, but a major advantage of advertising on blogs is the amount of traffic it can provide.
Hence, disclosure is beneficial for both bloggers and advertisers and bloggers should protect themselves and require disclosure so that they do not risk their chance of losing their readership. Without readers, a blog is essentially worthless, and it is not worth it for an extra few bucks to risk the chance of losing your readers, who you spent hours of work trying to attract. Most major advertisers know that disclosure is important so if you have a quality blog with traffic, requiring disclosure often attracts the higher paying more established businesses as to them, the blog seems more 'legitimate', over than a blog that was just created and a blogger who will accept any amount for an advertisement. Hence, it is strongly recommended that both bloggers and advertisers require disclosure when advertising on blogs.
Author: Robert Palmer
Author Bio:
About The Author: William Wynn a Fashion Designer and Manufacturer of apparel for over 15 years. So stop by and visit me at www.plussizefigure.com for more great clothing.
