Hello Advertisers/Bloggers,
This message is to notify you about important changes we have made at SponsoredReviews.com. Due to the newly released “Revised
Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising” (.pdf) by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), we have updated our system to allow advertisers to require in-post disclosures on all of their paid posts. With this option selected, our system will automatically look for our in-post disclosure badges upon the blogger submitting a completed post.
Advertisers who are concerned about the revised guidelines should utilize the in-post disclosure system to insure compliance (If you are concerned about the search engines using the disclosure badges to track down your paid posts, please read below about how our badges our signature free). However it is important to note that in-post disclosure is not required by the FTC. Bloggers can also include a Site Wide disclosure that clearly states that they do paid posts. In addition the guidelines only refer to endorsements/testimonials, articles that do not make endorsements should not raise any flags, for that reason we now have new “Post Type” options for Advertisers. We highly recommend utilizing the “Article” or “Content Rewrite” options and asking bloggers to write an article about a subject related to your industry versus asking them to write a “review”.
New Disclosure Options
- No Preference
It is up to the blogger to decide how they disclose, the advertiser does not have a preference.
- In-Post Required
Blogger must use the disclosure badge/image selected by the advertiser in their post. Our system will check for the disclosure badge upon the blogger submitting the completed post.
- Site Wide Only
Advertiser does not want In-Post disclosure but having a site wide disclosure on the blogger’s site is acceptable. A Site wide disclosure is a written statement that the blogger accepts compensation to write reviews.
- No Disclosure Needed - Not a Review
If the post is not a review and will not endorse the advertiser than the advertiser can request non in post disclosure. As always the blogger’s still have the option to do Sitewide disclosures on their blogs.
New Post Types
For a long time we have had Advertisers requesting the ability to select what type of post they want the Blogger to write. Many advertisers do not want reviews they simply want an article about a particular topic (containing their links), or they want a blogger to simply repost content (Such as a Press Release) exactly as they have it written. The great thing about articles is that if they are not an endorsement of your company/service/website but are simply educational than there arent as many concerns about FTC rules and disclosures methods, although we would still suggest requiring in-post disclosure if you have any concerns about the new FTC regulations. Read below to learn about how our disclosure badges are “Signature Free” and will not allow search engines to automatically devalue your paid posts.
Here are a list of the new post types:
- Article
If you choose “article” as your post type you are asking the blogger to write an article about whatever subject you request. For example you could ask bloggers to write an article about a keyword/subject related to your business. Articles are a great option for those concerned about FTC regulations regarding endorsements in blog posts. Instead of writing a review about your company they are simply writing an article about a particular subject and including links to your site (without endorsing your company/website).
- Content Rewrite
A content rewrite is where you provide an article (or some other type of content) that you want the blogger to rewrite and post on their blog. The advantage of having a blogger rewrite a piece of content versus writing it from scratch is that you will get higher quality articles since the blogger is given better direction. It is much easier for a blogger to rewrite an article then it is to write one from scratch, especially for topics that they may not be familiar with.
- Content Repost
A content repost is where you provide an Article/Press Release/Advertisement (or some other type of content) that you want the blogger to repost on their blogs exactly as it was written (Make sure that the content contains your required links). This is especially good for distributing press releases or promotions where it is important that the content be worded correctly. It however is not recommended for SEO link building since duplicating content on every blog that re-posts your content will reduce the effectiveness of the links coming from those posts.
Questions and Answers
Q: Do I have to require In-Post Disclosure Badges on all of my paid posts.
A: No, You do not have to require In-Post Disclosures via our system. Bloggers can do site wide disclosures at their descretion. In addition, if you are selecting a post type such as “Article” and you are not asking the blogger to endorse your website there shouldnt be any issues with FTC rules.
Q: Wont the disclosure badges make it easy for the search engines and/or my competitors to track down my paid posts?
A: Our disclosure badges use a random source URL created by TinyURL. The src url of the image is different for every paid post it is used on, so there are no signatures left that can be used to track down your posts.
– Jarrod Hunt
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It’s never been easier to purchase posts on over 31,000 blogs with our newest release. Thousands of advertisers have purchased hundreds of thousands of posts from relevant blogs since our last major update.
This release (Version 2.5) includes the following major upgrades… and lots of small ones:
* Filter templates in “incoming bids:” and “find bloggers” screens.
o Allows you to save your filters for later use.
* Language Filtering
o All blogs have had their languages updated
o Allows advertisers to find blogs in specific languages
* Streamlined search interfaces for “find bloggers” and “incoming bid” screens
o Now its easier than ever to find blogs
* New pre-filtering for bids (in opportunities) by Pagerank (To reduce number of unneeded bids)
* In-Line Blog rejections via Ajax (Requested by many advertisers to make it easier to sort through and purchase reviews)
* Rotating Help Tips system (Gives Help tips on key pages)
There are lots of great features coming up in the next version, if there is a feature you need please contact us via our webform and put “Feature Request” in the subject.
SponsoredReviews Team
– Jarrod Hunt
No Comments
Hello Advertisers,
We are happy to announce the launch of our newest feature LinkSets
LinkSets allow you to create an unlimited number of URL/Link Text combinations inside of your opportunities. The LinkSets system will then automatically handle assigning those links to bloggers as you purchase reviews.
LinkSets will allow you to do the following:
- Easily Build Links to Dozens/Hundreds of URL’s on your site
- Easily rotate though Link Text in order to focus on more keywords
- Build a specific number of Links to a given URL or Link Text automatically
Click here for additional instructions and FAQ’s
If you haven’t used our system in a while your missing out. We have been busy adding new features and tons of new bloggers.
- Over 23,000 Registered Bloggers ready to Link to your Sites!
- New Filters to Quickly find the Best Bloggers, including: Google Pagerank, Google Cache, Compete Estimated Traffic, Yahoo Backlinks, Country etc.. etc..
- New Favoriting and Tagging system Helps you find your favorite bloggers quickly.
- Over 10,000 user ratings to help you find the best blogs
– Jarrod Hunt
No Comments
Apart from being descriptive, images will make your posts live and more appealing to readers. This will improve your traffic and the user experience. Advertisers might also get encouraged to order a sponsored review on your blog if they know that you will include pictures and examples from the product.
So far so good. Extracting images from the web and adding them smoothly to posts without making your site look like MySpace is not a simple task, however. Below you will find tips and resources for this purpose.
Good Ol’ Printscreen
This is the most basic method. It will not produce outstanding results, but it might be helpful if you are using the Internet from another terminal or if somehow you are not able to access other tools.
Most personal computers come with a “PrtSc” key on the upper right part of the keyboard. Whenever you press that key your computer will save a digital copy of your screen on the cache.
The next step is to open an image editing software (Paint will suffice) and paste the copy of the screen. Just edit the image properly, save it as a new file and you are done.
Notice that you can also “print” only the active window on your screen by holding Alt while you use the “PrtSc” key.
The Paid Software
Snagit is the standard when it comes to screen capturing software. It allows you to take screenshots of specific regions and scrolling web pages. It also includes several advanced features like video capture, special effects and image editing.
You can try the software for 30 days, and if you like it you will need to spend $39 for a single user license. Is it worth it, you might ask? Yes if you have a professional website or if you are planning to make money via your blog. If you blog for hobby probably you can get away with free tools.
The Free Alternative
I can’t blame you if you don’t want to spend 40 bucks for an image capturing software. While a free alternative will not provide all the features you would find inside Snagit, it will probably get the job done anyway.
Screen Hunter 5 is a screen capturing software that comes in three versions: Pro, Plus and Free. The first one costs $29, the second $19 and the third one, as you probably guessed, costs nothing.
Notice that the free version is not a trial one like Snagit. You can use unlimitedly both for personal and business uses. The only drawback is that it does not come with advanced features.
The software allows you to capture rectangular areas, active windows or full screens. It also comes with extra tools like color picker and delayed captures.
Trademark & Copyright Issues
Suppose you are writing a post about a certain company. Can you use that company’s logo in your article? Most of the times, yes.
Trademarks protect companies from people or organizations that use their logo in order to deceive customers. For example, an SEO consultant can not use Google’s logo on it is webpage because it would lead visitors to think that somehow he is involved with Google.
If you are writing a post about Google, however, you have the right to use its logo for the purpose of criticism, comment or news reporting. This is called “nominative fair use.”
The same does not apply to images within the website of companies, though. These are protected by copyright, and you can only use them under explicit permission from the author or owner.
The law is not clear about screenshots. Some people argue that you should be able to take screenshots or software and websites without infringing copyright, as long as it is for the purpose of criticism, comment or news reporting. The argument states that such usage would fall under the “fair use” principle.
When in doubt, seek legal advice from an attorney.
Finding Images on the Internet
Some times you will need to find images for your posts through out the Internet. Fortunately there are several websites that stock royalty free and images and photographies. Below you will find links to some useful ones.
Positioning the Images
Now you have the tools and the resources for getting images. What about placing them efficiently on your posts? There are basically two methods for positioning images within blog posts: using CSS and using HMTL attributes.
CSS formatting offers more flexibility, and it is the preferred method. In order to align an image via CSS you will need to create a special class on your CSS file. Wordpress users usually have this file names stylesheet.css. Once you located the file just add something like this:
img.alignright {
float:right;
padding:5px;
border:1px solid #999999;
}
This code will create the class for all your images that are supposed to be aligned on the right. As you can see we have added both padding and a solid border (you can customize this elements as needed). Whenever you want to align an image using that format you just need to call the class within the img tag, which will look like this:
<img class="alignright" src="http://www.domain.com/testimage.gif" />
The second option involves HTML attributes, but it should be considered only if you are not able to use CSS because the align=”right” and align=”left” attributes will be deprecated from XHTML markup.
In order to use these attributes, just add them inside the img tag:
<img align="right" src="http://www.domain.com/testimage.gif" />
Finally, remember that images above the fold will give more visibility to your posts. A catchy image might convince an otherwise reluctant reader to investigate the rest of your content.
– Daniel Scocco
6 Comments
There is nothing worse than an otherwise witty blog post marked by several spelling errors (especially if you are getting paid to write it…). Sure, people will still be able to understand the overall meaning of your words, but your credibility might get damaged along the way.
Luckily, technology comes at our aid. Below you will find a list of resources and tools that can be used to spell check your articles, emails, websites and more.
Browsers
- Firefox 2.0: Ever posted a comment on a blog only to find out that you had written “embarasment” instead of “embarrassment?” The latest release of the Mozilla house comes with an in-built spell checker that works inside web forms; very useful for active Internet users.
- Firefox 1.5: If you have a fetish with Firefox 1.5 and are reluctant to upgrade it to the newest version, no worries! There is an extension called SpellBound that will add the spell checking functionality to your browser.
- Internet Explorer: There is no reason to use Internet Explorer. Firefox is faster, more flexible and more reliable. But this is not the central topic of this article, so if you (still) are an Internet Explorer user, you can use an extension called IESpell.
Online Tools
- SpellChecker.net: The site is not so fast, but it gets the job done when it comes to spell checking. The service also includes a “Grammar Checker,” but I am not sure how reliable it is considering that it did not correct sentences like “He are my friend” and “I go there last year.”
- Orangoo: The site is pretty fast and the corrections are done in the same window (as opposed to being displayed in pop-ups like with SpellChecker.net). Another advantage is that it supports 28 different languages.
Website Spell Checkers
- Spell checking your website could be a good idea. If you don’t have time or patience to carry it out on your own, you can use an online service.TextTrust.com is a company that will spell check your website for you. It offers a free trial version where results are emailed to you within one business day. Additional services are charged.
Open Source Software
- OpenOffice.org: Microsoft Word comes with a nice spell checker, but this certainly doesn’t justify the hundred bucks that you’ll need to spend for it. OpenOffice.org is one of the best alternatives around. While the spreadsheet utility might not be as good as Excel, the word processor offers virtually all the features you’ll ever need.
- AbiWord: If you want to use only a word processor and not the complete Office suite you can try AbiWord. It is a light software, and apart from the spell checker it also comes with a grammar checker.
- LanguageTool: This is an open source grammar checker. Basically it will catch grammar errors that would pass the spell checker, like repeating two words or using “a” before a word starting with a vowel sound. The interesting thing is that you can add custom “rules” for special mistakes that you are looking for.
Paid Software
- As-U-Type: This spell checker apparently works at Operational System level, meaning that once you install it you will be able to use it inside all applications. Apart from functioning as a real time spell checker, the software will also learn your typing habits and automatically correct common mistakes. There is a free trial version which works for 30 days, and the full software costs $39.
Bottom line: Do not forget that running that spell checker is not enough, you will still need to proofread your work!
– Daniel Scocco
14 Comments
I think that Conan O’Brien’s skit “if they mated” is one of the most genius pieces of entertainment available for your late night viewing pleasure. I couldn’t help but think… what if SEO’s mated. So I went on a flavorful trip full of adventure, candy cains and lolly pops to find out what this would entail. See below for a glimpse into the life of future couples in SEO and their offspring! I just want to point out this is strictly for fun!!
Read the rest of this entry »
– Joe Whyte
39 Comments
Building a brand from scratch is not an easy thing to do, especially if you are in a market that is very competitive. How does one start to rise above the noise to distinguish themselves as a heavy hitter? What techniques and tricks can you use to reach your brand awareness goals? Below I have outlined some of the most effective ways to build your brand using online marketing techniques.
Video Marketing:
1. Create videos that research proves will do well on the sites you are marketing to. Usually funny videos and tutorials tend to do well.
2. Decide what video marketing stance you are going to approach with your video marketing: Cut the video and add branding before something funny or interesting happens to redirect the viewer to your site. Or allow the entire video shown to allow for more viewers and impressions.
3. Initiate streaming rich media ads on videos.
4.Purchase pre-roll or post-roll ads on videos.
5. Distribute your video across these multiple video sharing sites.
Conversational Marketing
6. Leverage sites like Sponsored Reviews in order to create a viral buzz online regarding your brand.
7. Join as many forums as you can adequately sustain a quality contributor.
8. Get to know who the industry voice is for your niche and post comments on there blogs.
9. Contribute to online groups like google groups and myspace groups.
10. Market yourself by adding a blog.
11. Use advanced techniques to gain RSS subscribers for maximum exposure.
Pay Per Click
12. If you have a larger budget create an account on the top tier pay per click networks, Google, MSN and Yahoo!.
13. If you have a smaller ad budget go with Google and some tier 2 and tier 3 networks.
14. A great way to get branding is to get those impressions. Try giving 3rd tier networks a try but know that conversions may be lower on 3rd tier networks.
15. Utilize keycompete to get a good base on competitor PPC advertising.
16. Do extensive keyword research to find optimal exposure and converting keywords.
17. Try to find niches and keyword markets to target that are not as heavily competitive but are highly trafficked so your cost per click will be way down.
18. Mind your ad quality.
Social Media Marketing
19. Stay as ethical as you possibly can.
20. To successfully leverage your social media for online marketing you need to really be active in your communities, ergo is best to have power accounts on a few social media sites rather then trying to manage many of them across multiple networks. Find your niche.
21. Initiate social bookmarking campaigns online.
22. Create content to support edits in wikipedia.
Email Marketing
23. Team with companies with double opt in lists
24. Sponsor mailing lists with companies who have a wide subscriber base.
25. Try to leverage DBA lists
26. Setup a network of sites geared towards lead generation. By capturing these leads you can use them for yourself or sell them to leading lead brokers.
Mobile Search Marketing
27. Create a click to call campaign
28. Develop a mobile version of your site.
29. Include jump links below your content as normal navigation on a mobile search page can cause problems when viewing on mobile devices.
Search Engine Optimization
30. Optimize all title tags and meta data according to your rev mix.
31. If you are having problems ranking internal pages for there given keyword terms consider developing an effective silo.
32. Develop search engine friendly html sitemap.
33 Develop quality internal linking structure.
34. Create optimized html source code.
35. Create optimized robots.txt
36. Create optimized XML sitemap.
Affiliate Marketing
37. Create accounts in the 2 major affiliate networks, link share and commission junction.
38. Evaluate your competitions affiliate program
39. If you do not have an affiliate option for your services or products then think about creating one because the chance to have others advertise your products and services is a great way to get exposure and build your branding.
40. Incentavize your affiliate deals to attract the affiliate and the consumers.
Banner Advertising
41. Examine potential sites demographics.
42. Get media break outs
43. Consider Portal Advertising
44. Weight your cost per acquisition model between the cost of CPM and CPC banner advertising.
Application Marketing
45. Create a marketing campaign on Instant messangers
Contextual Advertising
46. Initiate a PFI (pay for inclusion) campaign for in bound links with sites like Text Link Brokers.
47. Consider Pre Sale pages or Hosted Marketing packages.
On to offline Marketing
48. Clothing is one of the best ways to market a product and service on and offline. By creating clothing that is branded with your logo and services you can ad this clothing line to online shopping sites and having people wear your clothes with your branding obviously increases your brand awareness.
My last and final tip is to make sure that everything you do can be tracked and measured via an accurate web analytics system. If you can afford it I would recommend click tracks. If that is to expensive for you then you might consider web trends. Many of these tips can not only improve your online marketing success but can increase the value of your own site allowing you to be paid much more for your sponsored reviews..
– Joe Whyte
15 Comments
Our generation is starting to experience something for the very first time in history: information overload. The daily avalanche of e-mails, advertisings, blogs and the like are shortening people’s attention span. (By the way, sorry if I gave you false illusions, by now you probably realized that the title of the article refers to something else…).
How does this phenomenon affect your blog? Simply put, if you are lucky you will have people giving you 30 seconds of their time. Then question then becomes, “If you only have 30 seconds, would you rather show the reader some “real stuff” or lose yourself between ramblings and fluff talk?” I bet you said the former, and for that purpose below you will find 4 practical tips.
1. Write a short and effective introduction
Get to the point, quickly. There is nothing worse than an endless, boring introduction. The purpose of the intro is to capture the attention of the reader and to summarize your main argument throughout the article. Make sure your intros work in favor and not against yourself.
2. Remove words where pictures will suffice
Do you think you could remove a whole paragraph and replace it with an equally expressing picture? Go for it! Ever heard the saying “A picture is worth 1000 words?” Well, it is true.
3. Choose simple words
While writing the article, pay attention on the words you choose. If something big and fancy comes on the way, stop! Ask yourself, “is there any simpler word that would deliver the same meaning?”
4. Re-read the article removing unnecessary words and sentences
Once you have a first draft, go through the article again removing all the unnecessary words and sentences. Do not worry about butchering your article, the more concise it gets, the better.
– Daniel Scocco
5 Comments
I just had to link to this great little article from Scott over at Web-professor.net.
I’ve always been a fan of Scott’s writings. This little article has all the makings of a great post.
1. It is short and to the point.
2. It has a great short intro that makes you want to read it: “Six Things that can make me Totally Think you Really Really are an Idiot!”
3. It has a bit of controversy to it, as we have all probably made some of the mistakes he is talking about.
4. It is fun.
5. It is in an easy to read list format (cause we all love a great list).
Article: Really Really Bad Writing by Web-Professor
– Jarrod Hunt
No Comments
The vast majority of people start blogging out of curiosity. The idea of sharing their thoughts with others is appealing.
A small percentage of those people grow out of the curiosity stage, and decide to “Take it to the next level”.
Whether it be for money or just a bit of fame, it’s important to have a plan!
Here are a couple of suggestions for doing just that.
1. Define the Vision and the Mission
Despite the MBA fluff that you might hear out there, having a clear Vision and a Mission Statement is essential for any project or venture, blogs included. Don’t worry, you will not need to hire a consulting firm here. Just think about what you are trying to accomplish with your blog. The Vision is what you are aiming for (e.g., “My blog will be the most popular one on its niche” or “My blog will have the most active community around this topic”). You must believe in your Vision, otherwise it is just a dream.
The Mission Statement is how you will arrive there. Suppose your Vision is to have the most popular “Make Money Online” blog on the Internet. The Mission Statement for such a blog could be: “We provide reliable and practical tips that will help our readers make money online.”
Remember: “When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.“
Related Links:
2. Set Goals
After defining the purpose of the blog you will need to lay down goals. Goals are extremely important to set priorities. They also enable you to monitor the performance and review the strategy along the way, if necessary.
First of all you will need long term, medium term and short term goals. Start with the yearly goal. Where do you want your blog to be one year from now? Then break it down: if you are to achieve that yearly goal, where will you need to be 3 months from now? This process will make it clear what you need to do on a daily basis in order to achieve your long term objectives.
Remember that goals must be both measurable and realistic. As a blogger you can use several parameters to set goals, including traffic, RSS subscribers, Technorati Rank, Google Pagerank and so on.
Related Links:
3. Check the Writing
Like it or not, people will judge your blog by the quality of your writing. Sure, design, promotion and other factors need to be taken into consideration, but writing quality arguably comes before them.
It is quite difficult to become a Shakespearesque writer overnight. But maybe that is not even necessary. If you are already confident on your writing skills, just hone them. Work some more on the articles to make sure they are polished and engaging.
If you are not quite confident on your writing skills, however, you will need to follow a different route. First of all, you can hire a professional writer to help you out. He can both write some of the content himself and edit yours.
If hiring someone is not an option, grab some grammar books and browse around the Internet for writing advice. At the very minimum you want to make sure that your articles do not contain grammatical or spelling mistakes.
Related Links:
4. Draw a Monetization Plan
You might not have the need to monetize your blog. Freelance professionals and consultants, for instance, can use a blog mainly as a marketing vehicle for their business. Most bloggers, however, will be interested in the money part. The possibility of generating a solid monthly income, in fact, is what motivates most people to take their blog to the next level in the first place.
Before cluttering your blog with multiple Adsense units and annoying Kontera text links, however, you should draw a basic plan for the monetization part.
In this plan you will need to evaluate when you will insert the ads, where you will display them, what the ads themselves will be, and how the whole monetization scheme will affect your readers.
Bear in mind that the user experience should not be compromised. Give the priority to your readers and not to some quick-money fix. The cents you will make are not worth losing a loyal visitor.
Related Links:
5. Design
As the Italians say, “anche l’occhio vuole la sua parte” (the eye wants his part too). You might have great content and outstanding writing skills, but if it is all wrapped with a messy design you will lose readers over the long run.
First of all the content must be readable. That means selecting good fonts, the proper line spacing and harmonic colors. Secondly, the overall template of the blog must be well structured. At this point you already know what you are aiming for with the blog, how you will monetize it and so on, so make sure that the design supports those objectives.
The bottom line is: if you are trying to build a professional, money-making blog you will probably need to hire a professional designer. And don’t point me to Steve Pavlina, he is the exception not the rule!
Related Links:
6. Develop a Promotion Strategy
There is a reason why companies and businesses all over the world spend billions in advertising. Now, while promoting your blog might be a little cheaper, you will still need to do it strategically.
What audience are you looking for? Where could you find them around the Internet? How could you attract them to your blog? Those are just some of the questions that you will need to ask yourself.
There are plenty of ways to promote a blog. Just think about social bookmarking sites, online forums, banners, text links, Google AdWords and so on. The key here is to experiment, analyze results, refine the strategy and repeat.
Related Links:
7. Execute
Alright, looks like you have everything carefully planned. You know what kind of blog you are aiming for, you have some goals in place, you know how to monetize and promote it, and you also know what design you need. Now what?
Now comes the hardest part, actually. Most projects do not fail due to a lack of vision or planning, they fail because there is no proper implementation of what was planned. In two words, get busy!
Related Links:
– Daniel Scocco
5 Comments
