Advertising via blogs – Explained step by step

The face of advertising is changing at an unprecedented rate. Television viewers are jaded, wary, sophisticated and armed with DVRs, allowing them to skip advertisements altogether.Print newspapers are cutting back on size and publication frequency.Magazine advertising is expensive. How is a company to get the information about their products in front of potential customers?According to the Blog Herald, as of July 2008 there were somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 million blogs worldwide.The blogosphere has become a global community where people choose to get information, make new friends, socialize, and buy products.Online sales continue to grow, and more and more people search the internet for product information.Yet, advertising on blogs is an underdeveloped venue. Connecting advertisers to bloggers has been difficult.Not only is there a communication gap, but determining pricing and payment methods has been problematic.There are a number of compelling reasons why advertising on blogs makes a lot of sense.PermanenceText, pictures, and links on blogs are relatively permanent. With few exceptions once a blog post has been made it will always be available to be found and read by people searching the internet.Global ReachThe blogosphere is a truly global neighborhood. Your product or service will be seen around the world for a fraction of the cost that large corporations spend on international marketing.ExposureAdvertisers often think that if no one clicks on an internet link that the advertisement was ineffective. However, the name of the game is to imprint your brand in the minds of people. It is known that people need to see a brand or product an average of eight times before they consider a purchase. Clicks matter, but exposure is a prerequisite.Blog have readers, and every one of those readers will see your brand. Related to exposure is search engine optimization , SEO. This means whether an individual searching for a product will find your brand or someone else’s.One aspect of SEO is backlinks; how many places on the internet link back to your website. The more links there are, the more likely it is that a consumer will find your site. Blog articles provide you with links.CostBlog advertising is the least expensive form of advertising there is.PermanencyWhile some internet advertising exists for limited time periods, blog articles remain, virtually forever. Anyone searching for your company, product or service will find a long list of blog articles about you, with links leading directly to your company web site.NetworkingBlogs are the basis of internet communities. Blogs develop a core group of faithful readers. A blog may also be a part of one or several groups focused on particular topics. If your product or service is discussed in an article and its subsequent comments, people are likely to remember. This is viral marketing in a pure form.CredibilitySophisticated and distrustful consumers are no longer swayed by corporate claims. They want to know what real people have experienced. Blogs are written by ordinary humans that potential customers relate to.AccessIt is estimated that consumers spend as much as 85% of their dollars on line. When you advertise via blog articles, readers are one click away from your on-line store and making a purchase in mere minutes.How does Paying Post enter into this equation? Paying Post is the broker between companies and bloggers. Marketers need a trustworthy way to appraise which blogs have readership and post regularly. Bloggers want to know that they can be assured of being paid for a service performed, and they need ways to connect with companies who want their products reviewed.Paying Post also serves as a quality control clearinghouse. Once a blog is approved the writer will be shown offers from companies looking for product reviews. When a blogger accepts an offer she will write an article. This article is reviewed by Paying Post for approval.It must meet criteria such as good spelling, grammar, punctuation, use of requirements from the company such as links, images, keywords, etc. If the article is acceptable it is posted on the writer’s blog. Only then is the payment transferred to the writer. An advertiser is assured that the resulting text is acceptable, and a writer is assured of payment for a job completed.Registration is completely free for both advertisers and bloggers. Paying Post will charge a commission fee on whatever price an advertiser pays to a blogger. You will never be charged unless a successful advertisement is posted.At blogadvertisingstore.com the first step to take is to register an account. This is very easy to do. Click on the Registration tab in the menus. This will bring up the choice of whether to register as an advertiser or a blogger; select Advertiser. You will be prompted to enter a username, real name, email address, and the email associated with a PayPal account. There is a text verification box to assure that the registration is being done by a human being.Once you are registered as an advertiser you will be presented with two different types of opportunities. These are Text and Photo, or a Press Release. In either case you can post an open order that all bloggers will be able to see, or you may browse the directory of approved bloggers and make specific offers to blogs that appeal to you.Text and PhotoIn this type of advertising you provide a blogger with an overview of what you want the topic to be. You may provide part of the text and photos, which the blogger incorporates into a review in her own words, with backlinks to your company.Press ReleaseThis is copy provided by you. Bloggers who find your product interesting and newsworthy may post your press release, with backlinks to your company.Select one of these, and you will be taken to an input screen. You will need to add money from a PayPal account in order to post an order. This demonstrates your good faith to Paying Post, essentially holding the funds in escrow until a successful advertising post is created.You will see a series of blue category bars. There is a small + sign at the right edge of each. When this is clicked it will expand the fields for that category.Opportunity Detailsdescribe your product and tell the writer the length, tone, and category of the article and time limits of the offer.Disclosure Settingsthe default is no. If you select yes, text or a button will be created to disclose to readers that the article was sponsored.Targeting and Pricingset the price you are willing to pay for a post, the number of such posts you are looking for, and filter the offer to blogs associated with particular platforms, categories or geographic regions.Linkingif you want backlinks, choose yes. This will reveal entry fields to accept link(s) to your company and or product web site.Imagesagain, choosing yes reveals fields to enter the URLs for images to be used.Further Advertisingthis provides options such as bold, highlighting, or graphic banners.Once you add funds, this information will be posted in the Marketplace where writers who are eager to blog about your product for a reasonable fee will be able to find your offer. You are on your way to internet advertising success!