I’m going to write a post soon that will lay out my very blunt opinion on the usefulness of sponsor type posts. I admit I am a little naive when it comes to criticizing things like this because I haven’t ever tried to monetize a blog before. However, to me as a reader, I don’t see any benefit of these posts whatsoever.
One type of sponsor posts that comes to mind are the ones from Daily Blog Tips. In this June sponsor post, Daniel thanks the readers:
As usual, I would like to thank the readers on the first place.
The next sentence gets to business:
Secondly, Daily Blog Tips has 2 Sponsorship spots open for July, if you are interested just head to the Contact page and send me an email, I will get back to you as soon as possible.
As a reader, what do you think of such posts?
Please respond as I’d like to use your feedback for a follow-up post.
I personally don’t like them.
Doubting that the sponsors actually read the blogs they sponsor would it probably make more sense sending them an email thanking them. Or calling them if you want to make it more personal.
The real purpose I guess is attracting new sponsors. The question is if they are reading though. Since I don’t have advertising on my blog (although I plan to at some point) have I no idea how finding sponsors works, but I would guess you go looking for them rather than hoping they find you. If they read do they surely not need to see you thanking sponsors for them to be interested in sponsoring.
Thanking the readers is a nice gesture, but when it is for keeping the sponsors happy does have an odd tone to it don’t you think? If you want to thank your readers by other means than posting even more good stuff for them to read should it be by making the post about them.
Darren Rowse just put up a post asking people what they think about his blog and thus telling everyone he cares and know they are the ones who help him make the most of his ventures. Not the sponsors who I am sure are happy about anything that makes everyone else happy as that probably will make them happy as well.
At the end of the day will any decent sponsor check the ROI and when calculating that I doubt that an impersonal thank you post makes the slightest difference.
Thanks Jan,
Your feedback is very much appreciated and will help a great deal with the post I have planned.
I don’t mind seeing such posts, because I understand the reasons behind (I would also like to have more sponsors and for as long as possible on my blog). And we could look at such posts as being a disclosure of the fact that some of those links in the sidebar are sponsored (somehow like disclosing an affiliate link). We could read between the lines: “dear readers, please be aware that I have some advantages from these guys here, the links in my sidebar are not my best choice of X or Y product or service, so please don’t associate my blog and my name with them. I cannot tell you this directly without offending those guys, so I choose to deliberately thank them publicly, but you have to understand my post as a warning to you”.
Do you think such an interpretation would be possible?
I understand the reason for those posts. People need to pay the bills and thanking the people and organizations that make that possible is one way to help create good relationships with sponsors. That being said, I usually don’t read those posts. I see the title and move on. I am sure people know that those posts are not the real content of a blog and they certainly don’t bring in any traffic.
I agree with LGR – I just don’t read such posts.
Although, just like Ronald, I’ve never monetized my blog before. However I doubt that I’ll ever write thank you sponsors posts on my blog if i do get ones.
I think that a link below those sponsor ads saying smth like “find advertising rules here” should be sufficient in attracting new sponsors and laying out all the rules on a separate page.
Personally I don’t like them. It’s like watching your favorite show on cable when a commercial comes on. Wasn’t “paid programming” supposed to get rid of that? I have nothing against sponsored posts if they provide value. I do it all the time. But to just post and say “We’d like to thank our sponsors…” doesn’t seem to do anyone any good. Are we going to buy a product or service after reading a post like that? I doubt it. But if the goal is to have an excuse to give them a good link, I’d say just put a little effort into it. My 2 cents.
I do sponsored posts and I will never thank a sponsor. The post itself is thanks enough. It would be different if I wasn’t getting paid for a post from a sponsor, but then they wouldn’t be a sponsor would they?
I don’t have a problem with them. About the only site that I know uses this type of post is Lifehacker, and it’s once a week. To me, it’s a way for them to be open and honest (especially in the case of LH were they have rotating ads) about their sponsors. On my blog, I would just make mention of them when they signed on, or just a generic post that I’ve added sponsorship to my blog.
As it is, I already have TextLinkAds on there, and I have the little banner image up for that.
Sephyroth
http://www.sephyroth.net