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Blog badge or free advertising?

UserPost

5:12 am
December 21, 2012


Pauline

Member

posts 274

I recently received an email from ecollegefinder saying I was nominated for a top PF blog award. Nice, I thought. Then I won! Cool! Only to see that the "stiff competition" was to elect about 50 blogs just for the finance niche. In total there must be some 500 TOP websites in all categories. They ask that you publish this "great achievement" by placing a logo on your site. With a link back to them. In a premium advertising space where they would have to pay tens or hundreds of dollars to be featured. Nice way to get a free link or am I being paranoid? I see lots of you made the list and a few have published the badge, do you think it benefits you?

                                                        Pauline @ Reach Financial Independence

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6:32 am
December 21, 2012


jonrhodesuk

UK

Member

posts 277

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.

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8:05 am
December 21, 2012


Pauline

Member

posts 274

The blogs that were awarded are quality blogs, most of them I know and follow. But is it a quality award that 50 of us made the list? I would happily put a badge like Plutus Awards that had people vote, then select half a dozen finalists, and only one winner, but those guys only seem to have selected people who accepted the nomination as winners. No votes, no social promotion, just a list of blogs on their page. As small as my blog may be, I think they benefit more from a badge on my front page than I do with a link on their overpopulated list.

                                                        Pauline @ Reach Financial Independence

Yakezie Member Site: 

Reach Financial Independence 

Email:  tdmpauline *at* gmail *dot* com

I am also on Twitter and Facebook

8:33 am
December 21, 2012


Edward Antrobus

Fort Collins, CO

Member

posts 1008

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'm looking for editors, beta-readers, and some demographic research for my upcoming novel, Once Upon a Saturn Moon. If you like reading soft sci-fi thrillers, maybe with a touch of romance thrown in, you can find more information at http://seampublishing.com/once…..aturn-moon

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8:43 am
December 21, 2012


sooverthis

Kentucky

Moderator

posts 1041

I totally agree with you, Pauline. Most of the time, those badges are only promoting the sites they link back to. I'm happy to put up badges for Yakezie and other communities where I participate, but I didn't bother with the college finder one because (1) I've never heard of them and (2) it didn't exactly seem like a real award. My blog has nothing whatsoever to do with college – why would I be a finalist in any type of contest?

It's actually really smart of them – "Hey, we'll just make a random list of blogs and get them all to put up this badge that links back to us." It's doubtful that anyone will find your site through their list, but it's very likely that your visitors might click through to them. Plus they're getting a huge PageRank benefit from the badges.

Take Money Crashers or WiseBread, for example. They each have a great list of PF blogs and you can tell they have actually put effort into it. But neither of them ask you to put up a badge! Sure, there's one available, but no one is emailing you going, "HEY, PUT UP OUR BADGE." I think most of those things are scammy and I don't put badges on my site unless I get a real award from an established authority.

 

 

 

9:25 am
December 21, 2012


FrugalRules

Member

posts 161

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.

3:45 pm
December 21, 2012


First Million is the Hardest

Buffalo, NY

Member

posts 119

I think Andrea has it right. I got the same email and just ignored it mostly because I had never heard of ecollegefinder and it generally just seemed kind of spammy to me. 

3:54 pm
December 21, 2012


maria@moneyprinciple

Manchester, UK

Member

posts 679

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

Maria

4:43 pm
December 21, 2012


My Personal Finance Journey

Member

posts 3159

I did not put up the badge. 

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6:21 pm
December 21, 2012


Catherine (Plunged in Debt)

Member

posts 23

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. 

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7:29 pm
December 21, 2012


Lance at Money Life and More

Member

posts 160

I "won this award" as well. They've been pushing me to post the badge and i've been promptly ignoring them. Thanks for the award, but I see no reason to link to it.

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9:46 am
December 22, 2012


BeforeYouInvest

Member

posts 54

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.  

12:43 pm
December 22, 2012


Pauline

Member

posts 274

It is really smart indeed, thank you guys for your feedback, I'll pass on giving them free advertising and link juice.

                                                        Pauline @ Reach Financial Independence

Yakezie Member Site: 

Reach Financial Independence 

Email:  tdmpauline *at* gmail *dot* com

I am also on Twitter and Facebook

1:31 pm
December 22, 2012


Lisa @ Thriftability

Southern California, USA

Member

posts 46

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. 

Lisa Weber, aka Ms. Thriftability

Thriftability.com
  

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Twitter: @Thriftability  |  Thriftability on Pinterest

1:56 pm
December 22, 2012


Edward Antrobus

Fort Collins, CO

Member

posts 1008

I'm starting to feel like I'm the only one who didn't get nominated. :( Pity, because I would have posted the badge!

 I'm looking for editors, beta-readers, and some demographic research for my upcoming novel, Once Upon a Saturn Moon. If you like reading soft sci-fi thrillers, maybe with a touch of romance thrown in, you can find more information at http://seampublishing.com/once…..aturn-moon

If You Can Read, You Can Cookhttp://www.ifyoucanread.com | Think you can't cook? If you can read this sentence, then you can.

SEAM Publishinghttp://www.seampublishing.com | eBook formatting and publishing service

8:43 am
December 23, 2012


Kim@Eyesonthedollar

Member

posts 7

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. 

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3:17 pm
December 23, 2012


Pauline

Member

posts 274

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

                                                        Pauline @ Reach Financial Independence

Yakezie Member Site: 

Reach Financial Independence 

Email:  tdmpauline *at* gmail *dot* com

I am also on Twitter and Facebook

3:17 pm
December 23, 2012


Pauline

Member

posts 274

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

                                                        Pauline @ Reach Financial Independence

Yakezie Member Site: 

Reach Financial Independence 

Email:  tdmpauline *at* gmail *dot* com

I am also on Twitter and Facebook

11:29 am
December 25, 2012


MyJourneytoMillions

Member

posts 1012

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.  

12:22 pm
December 25, 2012


Sustainable PF

Member

posts 2759

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.

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