Marketers Give Thumbs-Up to Brogan-Style Blogging
I’ve spent a lot of time recently thinking about the pitfalls of affiliate marketing and big-picture alternatives to affiliate advertising on marketing blogs. I’ve had some incredible conversations about it with people like Chris Brogan, Stanford Smith, Nanci Murdock and Marjorie Clayman on this blog, and you can see them in the comments sections of the most recent posts on this blog.
But I wanted to tell you about some of the other conversations I’ve had with marketers you might never have heard of. These are some of my connections on LinkedIn, who responded to a very simple question: In general, do you trust the opinions of marketing bloggers who use affiliate advertising?
The answers ranged from very simple…
“A blogger who uses affiliate advertising is only using the blog as a way to make money. Skip it and move on.”
- Dave Maskin, www.WireNames.com
“I consider the source.”
- Christine Hueber, www.ChristineHueber.com
…to more complex…
“The fact is that among people that blog, the amount of knowledge on a subject varies widely, regardless of whether they blog for money or for fun. The other variables are honesty and integrity. If a blogger has knowledge, honesty and integrity, I will trust them.”
- Hector Bravo, Earth Science Systems LLC
…but the simple fact of the matter is that people are very divided on the issue.
As Hector points out, there are a lot of variables to trust, and affiliate marketing may have little to do with how a person determines trustworthiness. This thought is echoed by some of his peers:
“No one has an issue with a person that puts a ton of hours into a blog site getting a little back. If you are delivering value to your readers they, generally, won’t have any problem continuing to support you. If it comes to [sic] often or too heavy handed, they will flee.”
-Noel Larson, Definition Branding & Marketing
To some, this heavy-handedness is relatively commonplace:
“I trust [marketing bloggers who post affiliate ads] about as much as I trust magazines where a full page ad for a product is on the page adjacent to a product review of that product. The issue of ‘journalistic integrity’ has been alive and well since the birth of advertising and the blogosphere is really blurring the lines.
…
“It’s a relevant question as there is a very popular blogger right now who is waaay overdoing the affiliate links in my opinion (on some posts they are more prominent than his content). The fact that he is also extremely defensive about his affiliate links tells me they don’t sit right with him either, but he seems to keep adding them.”
- Robert Cooper, PlusROI Online Marketing Inc.
Now, this isn’t to say that bloggers shouldn’t use affiliate marketing tactics. In some cases, the practice is acceptable. The key issue seems to be disclosure:
“That said, when there is full disclosure and it’s a product that the blogger uses themselves I don’t see anything wrong with it.”
- Robert Cooper
“As Robert (Cooper) has mentioned, you need to review the site as a whole. Pretty much as you would look at a bricks and mortar shop and decide, based on that, whether it’s somewhere you’d feel comfortable going into to shop.
“There should be a disclosure page that states the affiliate relationships the blogger has, and how they deal with requests from product owners/manufacturers to review their products.
“It should also state the blogger’s own practices in their reviews – i.e. whether or not they use the product and, if not, then why.
“In addition, many professional bloggers (me included) re-state an affiliate relationship (if it exists) in the first few paragraphs of any product they review.”
- Martin Malden, Web Services Consultant
In fact, some marketers even think that affiliate relationships are necessary to sustain thought leadership:
“Great bloggers always produce quality articles / product reviews and are very upfront about affiliation. I have no problem with them being paid for the work they put in their post, it is in fact the only sustainable way to get quality content in blogs.” (Emphasis added. -ed.)
- Christophe Primault, AppDoubler
(It’s worth noting that I vehemently disagree with Christophe here. I think I’m doing a pretty good job of sustaining quality content without affiliate relationships. But maybe that’s just hubris. You decide.) 
So what’s the take-away here? I suppose if we can take anything away, it’s this: affiliate marketing isn’t inherently evil. Not many people will trust you less for using your blog to generate affiliate income, as long as you are open and honest about your relationship. The ethics of posting affiliate links trumps the ethics of establishing an affiliate relationship (as backwards as that sounds).
In other words, lots of people disagree with me. And that’s great! It means we can continue the conversation.
Are you put off by marketing bloggers who use affiliate links? Give us your thoughts by jotting a quick line in the comments section below.
Photo credit: dev null
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Random thoughts in not much of an order, as I’m splitting my attention here between writing this and writing for some magazine stuff that’s due.
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I don’t need affiliate money to keep the blog alive. I need it to spend on charities, steak dinners, and my mortgage.
The blog doesn’t cost a lot of money. Creating great content doesn’t cost me a penny.
Rent on my office costs money, I guess. Maybe the blog’s paying for that, too. Last month’s check from my top affiliate source paid my entire year’s office rent. Twice.
We all pay for what we get for free. We just usually pay for it in less-obvious ways. Everyone who complains about journalistic integrity is complaining about someone who doesn’t disclose relationships fully. Oh, and those relationships aren’t often very well disclosed in mainstream media.
Oh, and I’m not and never will be a journalist. I’m a reporter at best. I think journalists have an even harder level of disclosure required, but they also have an even harder level of reporting required. They like balance and stuff. Most writers/reporters just like giving opinions.
Blogs are more often op ed pieces than they are reporting (for the most part). We write a lot from our opinions.
Chris,
Thanks for coming back again. I was perplexed by the “sustainability” comment, too. Hopefully Christophe will take a minute to flesh out his idea a little bit more in a comment?
And I’m with you on the “journalist” comment. I think there are bloggers who could be considered journalists, but you and I are not among them. But are bloggers held to similar standards of ethics? Rather, do you think they should be?
Chris, congrats on the success you’ve had in the blog. We were in a couple of the same groups some years ago and it’s been inspiring to watch you and your biz grow.
That said, I gotta say that on occasion your blog looks more like a promotional vehicle first and a blog second. Again, you’re having a lot of success with it and it’s your right to do it however you like, but I think that in the long run you may be well served to take care that you don’t let the affiliate stuff and ads overwhelm your content.
Cheers,
Rob
Rob – that’s because it is. My blog is not just a free open book. It’s a place where I give you much more free content than I give you promotions, and it’s up to you to decide whether some of the things I promote are things you need or want.
I write about business communication and marketing, with a heavy emphasis of blogging and online communication. I sell a WordPress theme. Seems like that lines up.
I promote books that I read that I like. Seems reasonable. The books help shape my thoughts.
I promote courses that I’ve taken because I figure they’ll help people reach into the same information that I have used to do what I do.
Yes, I promote. Yes I sell things. I sell things that match my marketplace.
I also do it to show people how to achieve escape velocity.
The alternative is charging you for all the content I give away for free, as many people use said content to improve their business value. Make sense?
Right. Rob, the difference between my blog and Chris’s is that mine IS a “free open book”, as Chris put it. But neither of us can be considered a journalist. The question here, if I may be permitted to redirect the conversation, is whether bloggers like Chris and I should be held to the same ethical standards as journalists, and what the impact of those standards might be.
What do you think?
I choose NOT to be held to a journalist’s standards. I’m not a journalist. I also don’t choose to be a doctor or a lawyer.
I do, however, have standards and ethics and the sort of unspoken thing you’re saying here is that ads can’t be done ethically.
That’s all I have for now. Working on work. : )
I hope Chris comes back to comment further, but if other obligations prevent it, I hope someone else will pick up where he left off.
First, logically speaking, saying that a standard is a “journalist’s standard” does nothing to define that standard or its utility. Imagine that there is a strange object on a table, and I ask you, “What is that thing?” and you say, “It’s Jim’s.” Knowing who owns it does nothing to further our understanding of what the thing is. Similarly, if I ask you about the nature of an ethical standard, and you say, “That’s a journalistic standard,” that does very little to answer the question about what the standard is or whether or not it is relevant.
Chris is wrong when he says that “the sort of unspoken thing you’re saying here is that ads can’t be done ethically.” That’s not at all what I’m saying. There’s nothing unethical about full disclosure of affiliate relationships. What is unethical is promoting those ads under the guise of thought leadership. If, for example, a blogger wrote about the need for purple widgets and sold purple widgets with that post, knowing full well that purple widgets aren’t as good as red or green widgets. And this is especially true if people come to your site to learn how to use widgets.
Now, journalistic integrity tells us that this kind of thing is bad (and also that it’s bad to give a shining review of purple widgets and run purple widget ads in the sidebar). I don’t think that’s such a bad standard to be held to. Call it a journalist’s standard, a garbage man’s standard or a Gordalian standard; whatever you call it, it sounds like it’s perfectly applicable.
Does that mean that it’s impossible to sell ads on your marketing blog without violating a code of ethics? Heck no! If you really believe that a book on Amazon is a good one, no one will fault you for putting up an affiliate link to it. (Every little bit helps, right?) If your goal in blogging is to make money, then by all means. Go. Do.
HOWEVER: If your goal is to be a thought leader, what I’m saying is that you can only damage your reputation as a thought leader by choosing to profit from the links that you publish. If you adhere to the “journalist’s” standard, this kind of thing isn’t a problem.
Chris and I have had this conversation before. Anyone else want to chime in?
Hey Matt, what is the point of your anti-affiliate crusade
Saying that affiliation is THE ONLY sustainable way to get quality content in blogs is clearly excessive and there are hundreds of amazing blogs that don´t do the affiliation game. I wanted to be provocative and that worked as you “vehemently disagreed”!
I am very much with Chris and he is clearly a great example of a balanced blogger with undoubted quality content that does not need affiliation money for his blog but does not mind getting some for his steaks!
BTW, all the professional online publications with articles written by “real” journalists have ads and affiliation links all over the place, maybe not in the article text but strategically placed somewhere that you can´t miss in between or next to the article. Nothing wrong with that, we all need to feed our families. Affiliation as long as it is relevant and supports quality ethical content is just fine.
Thanks for the discussion
Christophe,
Thanks for your comments. Online newspapers may post ads next to content, but I’m not sure what part of that the journalists control. What they CAN control is how they write reviews and what reviews they write, but that doesn’t seem to be relevant to your comment. Maybe I’m missing your point?
And I’ve said since we started this discussion that if you accept the idea that blogging with affiliate ads doesn’t hurt your credibility, then yes, Chris does a fantastic job of it. But I have yet to be convinced of the former premise. Make sense?
As for the point of my anti-affiliate crusade, you can read more about it here: http://www.mattshawblog.com/about/about-the-open-source-marketing-project/
Thanks again!
–Matt
I’ve tried to resist the urge to comment again but can’t help myself.
First off, I’m not trying to judge anyone’s business and there are many ways to be successful.
However, let’s look at a couple facts to help put things in perspective around this discussion:
1) It’s not about ethics. As long as a blogger discloses their relationships there’s nothing unethical about it.
2) It is about credibility. The less you have a vested interest in the products you write about, the more credibility you have when you write about them (i.e. there’s a very good reason Consumer Reports does not take ads).
For this reason, a blogger needs to look at their overall goals. If, as a blogger, someone’s goal is to make the most money possible (nothing wrong with that), then “affiliatizing” the heck out of your blog is a great strategy.
If, however, your most important goal as a blogger is to build the maximum possible trust and thought leadership, then having affiliate links is not likely a great strategy.
Cheers,
Rob
PS Matt – you’ll have to let me know what comment sign-in tool you’re using so I can find and change my dumb avatar. The pic is either part of a sea turtle or part of a manta ray from a trip to Maui but damned if I can see how to change it!
Rob,
Very well said. And don’t ever feel like you need to resist commenting — I’m happy to have you!
Avatars are managed by Gravatar. Go to Gravatar.com to change them. (Just did this myself; thanks for pointing it out.)
–Matt