Blog badge or free advertising? | Bloggers Lair | Yakezie Forums

Hi Pauline,

I have seen this before in the hypnotherapy niche. It is like a mutually beneficial thing. You get to show off that you have won a quality award and they get a link. This award could probably help your reputation, and might increase sales, signups etc. a little. If they do it right, then they should only give this "award" to sites that are of a high quality, not just to anyone.

It's up to you as to whether you think it is worth it for your blog. A blog like Problogger is never going to go with this in a million years, cos like you said it is taking up advertising space and for a huge blog it would be very costly. For a small blog that doesn't get much advertising dollars, it might be worth it for a while. However I would definitely remove it once I got bigger though.

Pauline,

In this case, the primary benefit to you isn't linkjuice. It's social recognition. Even if the award is totally bogus, readers visiting your site aren't going to snoop around to figure out the quality of the award. They are going to say "hey, look, RPI is considered a top blog in the PF niche, this author must know what they are talking about." It makes you a bigger authority in the eyes of your readers, meaning they are more likely going to act on your recommendations, on things such as affiliate products.

I would tend to agree with Andrea. I put up the badge initially, but have since taken it down My site really has nothing to do with college and while I think it may give me some validity to a casual visitor the end result is just them getting free advertising on my site.  Additionally, looking over the original email that was sent to me and it was somewhat deceitful. If it's for someone/something I am involved with then I'll place the badge, but not for some random stranger.

i didn't bother at all and fully agree with Pauline and Andrea.

Maria

Yup I'm with all of the above. Like John, I also initially put it up, probably b/c my blog is so boring and generic right now she needed a little bling lol but after a day I removed it when I realized how silly it all seemed and like John and Andrea, although I do speak of some student-related topics I don't think I fit the college/pf-blogging niche. 

sooverthis said:

Plus they're getting a huge PageRank benefit from the badges.

Even more than the pagerank benefit, they are getting an Authority benefit in the eyes of google which in turn powers up their individual pages (and the top domain) which helps them to rank for very competitive terms like "Accredited Online Colleges" 

Its really pretty smart… I noticed these a year or so ago and looked in to how they did it for one of my other sites, but I was too lazy to do it.  

I also received the nomination and access to the badge. I did put the badge up on my site and will leave it up for a time, I think… as I haven't been nominated for anything up to now, and I am working to connect with readers outside the personal finance niche. At this time, I think I'm OK with having something to show for having a decent blog. It's like a status thing – and if others outside the PF niche perceive it as a bonus, then so be it. 

While I don't have a huge student following, and I don't cover a lot in regard to student loans, etc. – I did write a post that touched on the topic… who knows, maybe the student population will "discover" my blog. ;) 

I will likely take it down in a couple weeks. 

I did put it up. It did seem kind of odd, but I thought readers who were not bloggers might take me more seriously. I think after reading this, I will take it down. That's a good marketing trick to make you think you won an award. 

Hey Kim your website like is missing an "s" in your signature footer.

Post edited 12:23 pm – December 25, 2012 by Sustainable PF

MyJourneytoMillions said:

Search the old forums.  This was a HUGE thing like a year or two ago.  Everyone was "winning awards" which don't mean shit just so that the award giver can get a link back when some new blogger put up their badge.  Once bloggers figured out what was going on is when guest posts became HUGE.  

 

Regardless, link juice is pretty much the only commodity most bloggers have – guard it/commoditize it, but don't just give it away.  

Agree 100%. These sites usually target smaller blogs/sites who frankly haven't quite learned the "game" in its entirety.  There isn't a lot of social recognition on small sites due to the lower number of visitors.  IMHO this is 100% about getting back links to improve Domain Authority, mozRank and Page Rank benefits.