By Flexo

The Federal Trade Commission has released an official opinion about word-of-mouth marketing, those endeavors where people endorse products or services and are paid to do so by the company. The FTC believes that these practices are deceptive and any affiliate relationship should be disclosed.

As of right now, this is an opinion and not the law. I do think this is the best practice. Outfits like PayPerPost don’t always require that the advertiser distinguish between real editorial and paid content. I think these types of advertising are damaging for bloggers who are trying to build a trustful readership; but, as we all know, many bloggers would rather collect as much coin as possible regardless of whether doing so entails slightly misleading the reader.

The Washington Post says:

The FTC said it would investigate cases where there is a relationship between the endorser of a product and the seller that is not disclosed and could affect the endorsement. The FTC staff said it would go after violators on a case-by-case basis. Consequences could include a cease-and-desist order, fines and civil penalties ranging from thousands of dollars to millions of dollars. Engle said the agency had not brought any cases against word-of-mouth marketers.

The FTC obviously isn’t going to go after thousands of bloggers and small-time website entrepreneurs. They might go after some of the big fish, if someone — say, a competitor — lodges a complaint.

Interestingly, Advertising Age seems to take a different point of view. Since the FTC’s opinion was less harsh than what the group that raised the issue to the organization was hoping for, AdAge feels this is the step in the right direction for the advertising industry:

The ruling could lead to increased spending in an area that’s already growing in popularity with marketers.

On Consumerism Commentary, I try to disclose whenever I use an affiliate link with “[aff]” after the link. I haven’t always been in the habit of doing this, but I will do so more often. I don’t participate in any programs like PayPerPost or ReviewMe, but I have participated in campaigns with the rest of the MoneyBlogNetwork which include traditional advertising as well as an editorial about a product or service.

By Flexo

This is meant to be tongue-in-cheek, sort of… but as a participant and observer as the blogosphere expanded exponentially over the last few years (and the general explosion of blogging since 1999), these things bug me. I don’t mean to offend anyone. They say rules are made to be broken, and I’ve broken most of these (let he who casts the first stone cast at me), so with no further ado, here they are, my top ten blogosphere pet peeves.

10. “If you like my blog, click my ads!” Aside from being against certain terms of service and leading to the devaluation of web advertising in general, there are better ways to make money than blogging if that’s what the goal is. Continue reading ‘Top 10 Blogosphere Pet Peeves’

By Flexo

For several months, I have been using Google AdSense’s Competitive Ad Filter to screen ads that may be objectional to my type of audience. Google officially suggests not using the filter to block low-paying ads, but Ads Black List says doing so can increase income significantly. I’m experimenting.

As of a few days ago, I’ve removed the 200 urls that I’ve been blacklisting recently. I’m willing to bet that most of the URLs would not have shown up in my ads anyway. Immediately, I noticed a lower eCPM. I think I’ll need to take more time and see how the results average out over a few weeks.

I will also try using Ads Black List’s automatically generated blacklist, which supposedly blocks low-paying ads based on my site’s genre and character.

By Flexo

Several weeks ago, I was approached by J.D. of Get Rich Slowly to write a guest post about by monthly financial statements. I wrote an article and it was posted at GRS on November 15. In the image below representing my traffic — green is the unique visitor count and purple is the page view count — you should see a small spike on that date.

The larger spike took place about one week later, mostly an effect of the article being picked up LifeHack.org. Most of the traffic was likely directed to the article at Get Rich Slowly rather than Consumerism Commentary.

There seems to be continuing interest in the article, so I will be reposting it, slightly re-edited, on my home blog. Here’s the original on Get Rich Slowly and here is How to Be the CFO of Your Own Life (to be posted later this morning) on Consumerism Commentary. Perhaps the repost will be picked up from some other heavily trafficked sites; I’ll follow up afterwards.

By Flexo

I never thought I could be making a living from blogging. And I’m not. But it is getting to the point where it’s starting to look like a distant probability. I love publishing on the Internet. I probably would love it more if it weren’t so easy; I like a challenge. Actually, it is challenging. It’s tough to keep up with my primary blog in a niche that is very quickly expanding. It’s difficult to find the right way to monetize the writing in a way that doesn’t piss off regular readers — but still rewards me for my tireless efforts.

I take a look at my finances at the end of each month. In November, my websites produced more income than my (admittedly mediocre) day job salary. These earnings have increased tenfold over the same time last year. What if they increase tenfold by the end of 2007? That may not be likely, but what if they double? A 50% increase would get me truthfully considering blogging full time.

Much depends on the world, as well. As blogs continue to rise in popularity, the activity is sure to draw more star writers. This will make it more difficult for independent voices to be heard. The mainstreamization threatens as blogs become even more commonplace. It might well be that if I haven’t “made it” by now as a professional blogger, it may never happen for me.

Defying the advice of motivational speakers, I’m not even sure if I want to be a professional blogger. I do really enjoy writing, but I’m not convinced what I say has much value besides vanity. Perhaps the ever-increasing readership of Consumerism Commentary shows that people do want to read… or perhaps my blogs are just showing up in search results more often.

By Flexo

It’s not that I have a lot of spare time. Actually, I have none. What I do have is a habit of starting blogs. This would be one of those. It’s late at night, and I’m feeding my blog start-up habit. If you’ve read the about page, you may already know that there is one thing about blogging that pisses me off when I’m reading a blog that’s not about blogging: finding a post about blogging.

The thing is that I’d like to write about blogging. I’ve been doing it for ages in various locations. A few years ago, I started a blog which has grown quite large. Not “A-List” by a long shot, but I’m kind of a leader within a niche community. I want that to grow. Just like I created Consumerism Commentary to keep me accountable for my finances, perhaps Meta Best Blog Win will keep me accountable for my blogging.

Hope to see you around.