Having Integrity While Blogging
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A-List bloggers have been called into question about promoting all of the new services. Many are promoting a service or website regardless, just as long as it can make them some money. How is one to know if a website is going to make money or not if you’ve never made money with them before? How can you call Agloco a “money maker” if it hasn’t made you money?
Why I Didn’t Promote WidgetBucks
I already wrote about why I didn’t jump on the Blogrush and DealDotCom bandwagon. Just as several others did, I received a tip from Jim Kukral about the launch of WidgetBucks. I chose not to promote Widgetbucks and I’m glad I didn’t. Besides that it reminded me a lot of dealdotcom, there are a few other reasons. Andy Beard covered them very well in his review of Widgetbucks. He also chose not to promote it either.
Jim did a great job of promoting the website, the buzz was great, with the power of blogging. However doing such a great job I knew it would be very well covered and over-hyped.
Does a Blogger Need to be Careful What They Promote?
Blogging Experiment has started a great discussion about this topic. Problogger just mentioned the article and it has generated quite a few more responses now, over 30. I got in on the discussion very early and wrote several comments about what I thought.
I think bloggers should be careful on what they promote and how they do it. By offering a generic promotion that I’ve read elsewhere a dozen times is really a turnoff. By offering something unique or a different outlook on the program, I may be more persuaded to sign up under the referral link.
Most importantly you should be honest, don’t promise your readers that they will make money etc, before the website even launches (agoloco + dealdotcom) or before you’ve made money with them.
Honest and Integrity Blogging
With all of the drama going on and bloggers “selling out” to make a buck, I think reputation, honesty and integrity will become even more important.
On a closing note, “CheapGirl” one of our regular readers, recently wrote about Blog about your Blog in a different way that I’ve seen before.
“I really enjoy reading Matt’s posts. He’s very honest about what’s going on in the internet world of blogging.”
I’ll always do my best to make sure that stays true.
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9 Comments on this post
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Mike Pedersen Golf said:
There are a lot of good ‘ol boy blogger cliques, and they all jumped on the BlogRush bandwagon. In fact, that’s all they blogged about for days! Got very annoying.
October 4th, 2007 at 8:34 pm -
rodaniel said:
Y’know, I’m even a little finicky about the memes and other fluff. I know they can be kinda fun, but they’re just so much web junk food. Though it can be more challenging, I prefer to stick to posts that are a bit more substantive.
With regard to promotional widgets, yeah, it does diminish my opinion of a blog when I wander across a site that’s just dripping with gizmos from all of those sites like BlogRush, BlogCatalog, MyBlogLog, BlogSoc, etc. Nothing wrong with some of that, but many bloggers go way overboard.
There seems to be little thought given to the kind of traffic that these widgets are (maybe) going to bring in. Are those visitors going to convert to loyal regulars or subscribers or are they more likely to take one obligatory glance around your site and then bail, never to grace your door again?
I’m equally suspicious of linkbait things that are designed solely for the purpose of getting a link to your site under as many noses as possible. Are the scant few seconds on your site that the visitors that those links draw worth the potential hits to your rep? More often than not, I say, “Respectfully, no thanks.”
October 5th, 2007 at 4:35 pm -
Dane Cook said:
Hey bud, I use widgetbucks over at some of my sites now matt 🙂 And I haven’t earned a single damn cent! errr
October 7th, 2007 at 12:59 pm -
Jenny said:
I heard all kinds of bad things about the new traffic builders so I ignored it all.
October 8th, 2007 at 11:30 pm -
Dorset web design said:
I am wanting to blog over the internet but still with some privacy. For instance, i can place MySpace private. I am looking for a website of blogging. I only know Xanga, but i do not know how well it works. I only like to shar e my blogs with friends. What are other blog sites i can try?
June 1st, 2009 at 1:36 pm -
Komodo Dragon said:
I consider integrity to be the cornerstone of any venture I undertake. I want to be respected for my integrity so I try very hard to not budge on that front whenever possible.
April 8th, 2011 at 6:00 am
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