Jeremy Wagstaff: Getting Paid for Doing Bad Things
I have recently received half a dozen offers of placing links in my blogs to reputable companies’ websites.
Think of it as product placement for the Internet. It’s been around a while, but I just figured out how it’s done, and it made me realise that the early dreams of a blogging utopia on the web are pretty much dead.
Here’s how this kind of product placement works. If I can persuade you to link to my product page in your blog, then my product will appear more popular and rise up Google’s search results accordingly. Simple.
An ad wouldn’t work. Google would see it was an ad and discount it. So one increasingly popular approach is for you to pay me to include a link in my blog. I mean, right in it: not as a link, or a ‘sponsored by’, but as a sentence, embedded, as it were, inside my copy.
I had some problem getting my head around this, so I’ll walk you through it. I add a sentence into my blog, and then turn one of the words in it into a link to the company’s website. For my trouble I get $150. The company, if it gets enough people like me to do this, will see their website rise up through the Google ranks.
This is what the Internet, and blogs, have become. A somewhat seedy enterprise where companies–and we’re talking reputable companies here–hire ad companies to hunt out people like me with blogs that are sufficiently popular, and vaguely related to their line of business, to insert a sentence and a link.
If you’re not sure what’s wrong with this, I’ll tell you.
First off, it’s dodgy. If Google finds out about it will not only discount the link in its calculations, but ban the website–my blog, in other words–from its index. Google doesn’t like any kind of mischief like this because it corrupts their search.
That’s why a) the blog needs to look vaguely related and b) it can’t just be any old sentence that includes the link. Google’s computers are sharp enough to spot nonsense.
That’s why kosher links are so valuable, and why there’s business in trying to persuade bloggers like me to break Google’s rules. If I get banned, my dreams of a profitable web business are gone. For the company and ad firm: nothing.
Second, it’s dodgy. It works on the assumption that all blog content is basically hack work and the people who write it are for sale. I think that’s why I loathe it so much. It clearly works: When I got back to one company that approached me, I was told the client’s request book had already been filled.
With every mercenary link sold they devalue the web.The only thing that might make my content valuable is that it’s authentic. It’s me. If I say I like something, I’m answerable for that. Not that people drop by to berate me much, but the principle is exactly the same as a journalistic one: Your byline is your bond and not a checkbook.
Posted by Jeremy Wagstaff on June 21, 2011 at 01:06 AM in Blogs, E-commerce,
The glass house
7:am in the near future. A day made of glass – made possible by Corning. Windows to a whole new world.
Humor in advertising : )
This commercial is a good example of humor in advertising. It comes under a list of my favourites titled: Wish I had worked on this. Good, simple concept, executed beautifully.
Take a look at the other commercials in this series at the link below.
Interesting cartoons on the AIRDA website
HOLIDAY SEASON is a cartoon plug we do on the AIRDA website. AIRDA is an acronym for the All India Resort Development Association.
AIRDA is an independent, non-profit advisory dedicated to the timeshare and vacation ownership industry. AIRDA offers resort developers a constructive platform to share ideas and strategies on the running and promotion of timeshare. It works with developers to cut a clean image in the industry and offer fair value on holiday packages to customers. AIRDA also plays the role of an advisor to customers interested in timeshare, with tips and guidelines on its website.
The cartoons we do for AIRDA have a little message related to timeshare, in terms of benefits, features and what to keep in mind before you make a buy-in decision.
You can click on this cartoon to see other images in the AIRDA gallery. Here’s the url for the website: http://www.airda.org
How to borrow “look & feel”
This slide presentation is a good example of adapting existing visual formats that are working well for you. We borrowed the “look & feel” of the AIRDA website and worked on an interesting template for their presentations.
This way, there’s some kind of similarity and consistency in visual formats that the organization uses. It also builds a level of familiarity around the visible face of the organization. Out here, we even brought in the cartoon character that we use on the AIRDA website, in the last frame of the presentation.
If you’d like a frame of reference, check out the AIRDA website: www.airda.org
Golfing in Bangalore
“Golfing in Bangalore” is actually a web portal. A new project of ours at Creative Network, with information on people, events, news, newsmakers and useful information on golf courses and facilities.
You’re probably wondering if you can get all this information through a simple web search? You could, but that will probably take you to newspaper archives and individual websites of golf courses. Today, what we need is a dedicated source for news and information about golfing in Bangalore.
Though our focus is on golfing activities in Bangalore, we plan to cover golf courses and events in Mysore, Ooty, Kodai and maybe Chennai and Hyderabad as well.
How to publish your next newsletter on Scribd
This is a good example of how you can publish newsletters on Scribd and make the transition from printed newsletters to digital publishing. For me, Scribd is the best thing to happen since sliced bread.
This link will point you in the direction of exploring Scribd and making good use of publishing your documents – even that book you’ve been planning to write.
http://support.scribd.com/home
(Please copy/paste this link in your browser window)
This document from Scribd has been used as an example and for the purpose of sharing information. The developers hold the related rights of document origin and ownership
Sowing the seeds for an ideas economy
There’s good news from The Economist. A whole new meeting ground that will incubate innovations, intelligent infrastructure and human potential. Just the setting, for a collaborative marketplace in an ideas economy.
From the vantage point of The Economist, innovative thinking and the advancement of good ideas can spur human progress. And this is really the objective behind a new series of events that brings together top thinkers from around the world. An event that will draw comment, debate and discussion on the most important ideas of our time.
Setting the ball rolling
“Innovation: Fresh thinking for the ideas economy,” is the theme for the inaugural event being held at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, on March 23 and 24.
Essentially seen as more than a discussion forum, the event has been planned and structured to fuse creativity with action. The multi-part, multimedia forum promises to be ground-breaking – opening new perspectives to innovation and innovative thinking.
There’s more on this at this link : mediapixels
Conversations with a Latte-Art Champion
Who is Scottie Callaghan?
Look up the winners of the World Latte Art Championship in 2006 and the Australian Barista Championship in 2007, and see who walked away with top honours. Today, the name “Scottie Callaghan” is known in the coffee hubs of the world as someone who really knows his beans.
Scottie has worked hard over the last eight years alongside some of Australia’s most reputed roasters, baristas and barista trainers – learning the art and the science of coffee that looks good, tastes good.
You can read more at this link: Coffee Break – Down Under
Recycling business cards
“Cards of Change” is a transit portal for people who get the pink slip. It was launched recently by a small team that left TBWA/Chiat/Day in Los Angeles, California. Tom Van Daele, former creative director at TBWA/Chiat/Day, and founder of Unknownlab, is behind this unique concept that puts people back on the re-hire radar.
I liked the branding around this exercise and how re-cycling your old card becomes the first step to a new tomorrow. When someone gets laid off, he usually has a stack of business cards that would normally go into the shredder. Tom’s advice to people is not to do that in a fit of anger and frustration. And that’s where “cardsofchange” comes in.
You can read more at this link: Cards on the Table
