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11:19 am
May 27, 2011
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Sustainable PF
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Post edited 11:21 am – May 27, 2011 by Sustainable PF
I've been getting a lot more companies emailing us telling me they have productXYZ and that they are happy to share more information with us, even get us an interview with importantPersonABC. And most importantly our READERS might like their product.
So I respond, but cut to the chase with something like: "I am not entirely sure of the purpose of this email. If you care to have us promote a product and discuss advertising on our site, we will be happy to do so."
And always (thus far – 4 times this month) they come back with "We just thought you might want to mention productXYZ in a blog post as your readers may get value from it".
Just now I responded to such an inquiry:
"Hello,
This sounds like a product review or endorsement which
ultimately becomes a form of advertising for the product owner. We
receive requests like this frequently enough that we view them as
product advertising disguised as promotion for reader value by the
product owner.
Our policy is to not engage in such activity lest we become
bombarded with similar requests (4 this month and we have never referred
to products we did not use ourselves – e.g. CompanyGHIJKL thought we
might like to mention their new product, just yesterday). Our response
is always steady: if you care to advertise we will discuss this with
you. Otherwise, all the best with your product."
Now, i'm not sure if they think bloggers are blissfully unaware or not. If they truly think they are helping our readers (unlikely). If it smells like an AD and looks like and AD … whaddya think it is?
I'd like to just delete these thinly veiled ADS disguised as "gifts" but I do not like to leave any potential advertising opportunity ignored.
Do you get similar requests? How do you handle them?
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11:28 am
May 27, 2011
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JT_McGee
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Yeah definitely an ad. I'd be willing to publish something like that, depending on the company. I mean, if Amazon came to me and offered up a half-hour interview with Jeff Bezos (never gonna happen) I'd spam that post all over the place.
As far as I see it, it's your blog, so if you're not already 100% about the product (or even if you are) you should definitely ask for cash in exchange for posting it. Just out of curiosity, is it a PR firm? PR people are so used to getting whatever they want (they practically write every story in local newspapers) and they're pushy as all get out. Kind of like book reviews, in my opinion. "Here, we'll give you this book you're not at all interested about, and we'd like if you could then spend X amount of time writing about it." Yeah…no thanks.
Maybe you could add a "press release" section to your advertising one-sheet? Sounds like a press release, pretty much.
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11:30 am
May 27, 2011
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Jason@LiveRealNow
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Depending on my mood, I either delete it, because PR carpet bombs are normal, or I treat it like the precious "guest posters" who want a sponsored post and wouldn't dream of asking for compensation for it: I try to convert it to money. Usually, the first option is more efficient, but if even 1 out of 20 take you up on it, you're not doing too bad.
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11:46 am
May 27, 2011
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The College Investor
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I usually try to convert these into sponsored posts. I have had some success – maybe 1 out of every 10. And usually these people pay better than most sponsored post campaigns I've found.
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3:00 pm
May 27, 2011
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Sustainable PF
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spenz.com JT. Not a marketer but a person, likely on the development team, who is emailing bloggers.
They want to put their financial smart phone software for 18-30 yr olds out there.
"Okay, we've had lots of blogs wanting to recommend our product to their readers, thought you might be interested.
Have a great day."
I flat out told him:
"The blogging network I belong to views these as pretty obvious
advertising hopes on behalf of the requestor. I'll be sure to do an online search for
the product to see which blogs bit – but you'll find with Yakezie, the
largest PF blog network you'll find, this is considered an ad request.
If you care to treat it as such we can discuss sponsored posts by
yourself, paid reviews by our site or others or other forms of
advertising available."
The way I figure it – if he's not biting on admitting this is an advertising inquiry and not a "favour" i'll be blunt in response. I don't like people thinking i'm stupid. And i'm tiring of these requests i've been getting of late.
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3:05 pm
May 27, 2011
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My Personal Finance Journey
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I get these about once a day. I usually respond to try to drum up interest in advertising, but it almost never works.
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3:29 pm
May 27, 2011
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Suba @ Wealth Informatics
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After reading all the replies, I have a question. How do you guys figure what product you really do recommend for free and what you should charge? I mean, for example, I recommend mint.com. Should I not recommend them because I was not paid? I give links to several apps that I find useful. For all I know, I might recommend spenz.com one year down the road or using it for one week, I might tell that it is a mint.com look alike next week. So is this is the essence – If it is a new product it is always an ad? How do you draw a line?
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3:49 pm
May 27, 2011
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Buy Like Buffett
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I will recommend a product that I like for free. If it has helped me in some way I do not look for compensation. If it is a product I am unfamiliar with and will have to take time to review then I charge. I probably would have never come across the product in the first place.
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3:52 pm
May 27, 2011
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Sustainable PF
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Suba – if you use a product and like it I can't see issues discussing it, if you had time and inclination.
In my case in the last 2 days it has been this smart phone software (my phone is 8 yrs old and pay as you go – it sure isn't smart!) and the other for a financial advisory group who I had into my home about 2 yrs ago, who wanted 3% commission on every transaction – they're "big" too – but I don't and didn't and won't recommend their services and use up my time doing so. If they want to do a sponsored post to discuss their product i'd be open to that – some people could get use from them – but I have no interest spending my already too spread out time taking MY time to do these COMPANIES a favour.
Now, on the other hand – I really like my 2011 Subaru Outback. Love it. I've written about it in the past – 6 articles at almost 8000 words (about the whole import process). That was something I wanted to do. If they approached me further, well, I think i've given props to Subaru thru the ying-yang – if they wanted more based now, given we've had limited success – i'd ask for compensation. They want PR. They pay TV, radio, online and newspaper outlets hundreds of 1000s each year to advertise, why shouldn't we get a slice of that pie?
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5:51 am
May 28, 2011
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Glen Craig
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Companies will always put out PR emails and such. Use your own discretion on whether you want to mention a product or not. The purpose of PR is brand awareness, so they aren't looking to advertise for the most part.
If you like a product, then feel free to talk about it. Otherwise, don't sweat it and move on.
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2:32 pm
May 30, 2011
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Sandy @ yesiamcheap
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As your site grows you will get more and more general PR e-mail. It's normal! Just ignore the ones that you are not interested in and use the ones that you are for story ideas. PR e-mail are just sent out en masse to everyone on the list. I get a bunch every day. No need to respond.
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