It has been a very busy time here at Bloggers For Hire as we have been working hard on getting some blogging campaigns underway for clients.  These companies show the type of diversity we have in the work that we perform and each company had a special request when filling their needs.

Our first company I wanted to showcase was a long time client and forward thinker as it relates to blogging and business.  Omar Solis has always appreciated the hard work it takes to be a blogger and looks to Bloggers For Hire for help and assistance.  This week we launch the content for Fronteras.org.  This blog was a difficult proposition as it requires a blogger that can be bi-lingual and understand the issues related to immigration. 

Our next company is another client that understands the power of blogging and how it can increase sales and traffic to a site.  David Krug, and Log Homes Journal has joined on as a client of Bloggers For Hire and the blogger here will be discussing items related to the log home industry and other issues related to home ownership of log homes.

Finally, our last client is a completely new campaign and a very exciting one because of what they are going to allow us to do with their site, the blog and its campaign and goal.  Conventions.net is a company launched today with a brand new website and One By One Media and Bloggers For Hire will be the voice for the company behind Convention Insider.  I myself will take on the responsibilities of blogging and the best part is I get to discuss the ins and outs of that experience here on Bloggers For Hire.  You can follow along in real time as I chronicle the experience of being a professional blogger and running a blogging campaign for a client. I would like to personally thank Randy Goldberg the vision behind Conventions.net for the opportunity to share the experience with you here on our company blog.

Be sure to subscribe here and there for great examples of companies that understand the power of blogging and have given us the opportunity to represent them in their venture. As you can see we can fulfill a very diverse base of companies.

If you think you’re stumbled on posts here on Blog Professional, you have because Sticky Blogs is stealing the content from here.  We are in the process of sending Cease and Desist orders.  But want the best part?  The site makes it look like they are helping us.  Rich Benvin has the unmitigated gaul to say Bloggers For Hire is a contributor to the site.

Gee, Jim and I haven’t seen a cheque from them for the ad revenue.  Gee, we weren’t asked if our content could be re-published.

So Rich, just cut it out.  Take the site down.

Like yesterday.

They call him their Community Evangelist.  After only a year of experience, Mario Sundar has now taken over the position as a professional blogger with LinkedIn.  One year sounds like a very short period of time to become the lead blogger for a company such as LinkedIn, but in real world time, one year is basically a veteran.  Mario was brought into the blogosphere by another blogging evangelist and a blogger I have been reading for a long time, Jeremiah Owyang.  Jeremiah is also a lead blog evangelist for PodTech.  Jeremiah states:

What’s his mission? watch his video
I informally interviewed Mario on video, you can watch as he explains his purpose as a Customer Evangelist, Congrats Mario and congratulations LinkedIn, you’ll now have a better connection with customers, communicate more effectively and continue to put a human face on your company, you couldn’t have picked anyone more friendly and genuine than Mario.

Perhaps not more friendly, but they could have picked someone more Genuine [okay I agree that was shameless, but I couldn't resist].  I can see this position becoming more of a regular job for the likes of the early adopters, especially in the tech area and the other areas of companies that have a better handle on online marketing and advertising.  Once the position becomes tested over time, it will become certainly more mainstream.  Now is the time to practice your craft of blogging, so that more opportunities can be found by veteran bloggers!  Good Luck Mario, and thanks for preaching the blogging gospel Jeremiah.

Tags: Community Evangelist, Professional Blogger, Mario Sundar, Jeremiah Owyang, PodTech, Genuine, online marketing, online advertising, hiring bloggers, business blogging, LinkedIn

One of our star bloggers was asking me about putting his typing speed on his resume.  As is the case with all of our bloggers, they seem to have a better handle on the social media than most, so he not only made it part of his resume, he decided to show the typing test in real time on You Tube!  This is the look of a true professional blogger at work.

Crazy as that seems, once you start multi-tasking and putting in time with IM, Skype, email, blogging, and the rest of the social media, it doesn’t seem like we can type fast enough.

Tags: Professional Blogging, Professional Blogger, Typing, Social Media, You Tube

Jeremy Wright today posted about the idea of whether the industry of professional blogging is paying bloggers enough. Jeremy follows that up with another article that explains his frustration and his idea that the answer is no, we are not paying bloggers enough. Jeremy asks a good question, “Does anyone pay bloggers enough.”

My response is absolutely not! I added to the comments on Jeremy’s post and I am going to reprint it here because this is a very important topic that should be discussed by anyone that is in the professional blog ranks, or companies that are paying bloggers.

Speaking not as a network owner or President, I think that my business too at One By One Media and Bloggers For Hire sometimes gets called out for our payment practices. We pay our bloggers top dollar and usually more than a network and more than they can earn with ads. With that said, our work is farther and fewer between than just the every day advertising earner through adsense or as a network blogger. I do see that we have similar problems with pay and it is a self correcting market at this point. As the need for bloggers increases, it will soon be a better paying position, but as long as we have 67 million of them to choose from and they all are doing it for free and would love to get a little bit for their effort, we will have the problems faced right now about “not paying enough”. If I can get a quality blogger and pay them $500 a month or if I can find the same blogger at $100 a month, which would I choose as a business owner? Bloggers often sell themselves short because they don’t understand the market. For us business owners in this market it makes it tough, so we have to add other value add items like management of the blog, web analytics and other things that bloggers perform as experts, but we cannot charge for these things because there are bloggers out there doing it for free. Sooner or later, as this becomes more of a mainstream position, the ones that stick it out now and offer what others are not offering will benefit from an industry correction, but until then, we have to hold on and do what we can to be profitable and hope it comes soon.

The market for professional bloggers will eventually change. Their will be your major league players and those that are warming up in the minors. Some bloggers will be more able to leverage their ability than others. Some bloggers will have a higher reputation in the industry and will be able to make themselves free agents to the highest bidder. It will be capitalism at its finest. This in turn will cause a ripple affect (or is it effect?) that will make a difference to everyone in the market. As the top players get better pay, the bottom tier bloggers can also ask for more as the market shifts. Are bloggers being paid enough? No. Is this a trend that will continue? No. Bloggers need to gain the confidence that their abilities are requiring top dollar. Companies wanting to have the best of the best will begin paying a premium for those bloggers. this will have the trickle down economics that will benefit everyone.

Tags: Jeremy Wright, Professional Bloggers, Blogger Salaries, Blog Networks, Business Blogging, Bloggers For Hire, One By One Media

Getting noticed in your niche or in your expertise can be difficult.  There are over 60 million blogs out there today and getting your voice heard among the noise can be a difficult thing to accomplish.  One of the things that has worked for me as a no lose tool is making many comments on lots of blog posts.  This is a must if you want to get your blog noticed by the influential people in your niche. 

If you have been around in your niche long enough, you will know who the people are that get the most traffic to their blog and the people that seem to have all of the commenters and all of the traffic.  If you are in the niche of blogs about something not real popular it won’t be hard to find those who stand out in the crowd.  If the niche you are trying to enter is a blog about gadgets or photography or some other very popular niche, it may not be as easy to pick out the influencers.  Technorati can help with finding the top bloggers within a certain area and could be used for that purpose.

Now that you have found the top dogs in your niche. It’s time to hang out and see what they do and what they say.  Why are they an influential A-list blogger?  What expertise are they providing?  As you get a sense of their blogging and their blog personality, it’s time to become part of the group.  It’s time to leave a comment.

I’m not talking about the comment that says "Good point", and then moves on to the next article.  I mean to actually engage in what the writer has stated or at least lend some of your own wisdom to their ideas.  This in turn will get their attention.  I can’t think of a single blogger that I have talked to that does not like getting comments on their written articles.  They love the feedback.  Even the top A-listers within the most popular niches enjoy reading the comments.  Many of them will respond to a comment right away if what you have said is at all lending to their ideas or creating more need for conversation within their thoughts.  Your comments can be a calling card to get you noticed.  Commenting on blog sites is almost as important as having one of the top dogs in your niche send a link to your site.  Commenting begins a relationship with the blogger and over time, they come to rely on your thoughts.  Before long, although not overnight, you become expected to provide your thoughts, and people will be more than happy to come to your own blog to get your wisdom first hand.  Now the hard part occurs, having good content there at your blog when they do arrive.

Tags: Blog Comments, Blog Content, A-List Blogs, Blog Networking

It seems that the people at Performancing have decided to end the Performancing Partners advertising network.  I’m not sure of the reasons behind the decision to close down that operation, but with Nick Wilson leaving and Chris Garrett taking over at the helm, it could be that the ship is headed in a different direction.  I also know that with being a small operation and not having the proper funding, models like these are destined for hard times.  I can speculate that Chris is making some hard decisions based on the needs of Perfromancing and his ability to meet those needs.  Perhaps with the proper help, Performancing Partners would not have to end its run, but instead could be turned over to a company more apt to be able to handle the tough task of sales and other time consuming endeavors.  I would love to see someone come in and continue to offer the many professional bloggers at Performancing the same service.

Tags: Performancing, Nick Wilson, Chris Garrett, Ad Networks, Blogvertising

In my attempt to continue to see examples of disclosed paid content offered by product review companies such as ReviewMe and PayPerPost, I come across a well known professional blogger, and her attempt to be up front about her written post with full disclosure.  Arieanna at Blogging Help makes a first attempt at a ReviewMe.com post of a product or service she has reviewed.

This is not necessarily a product but more of a service or even a single blog post. It’s not necessarily clear to me what she is reviewing.  The review talks about a post she found on a site called Aviva Directory, that gives the reader 21 tips to successfully launch a blog.  She goes through the tips and adds her own wisdom and advice.  In fact, it’s unclear if she is actually promoting the ReviewMe.com advertiser or her own business as a blog consultant at blogging help.

As the advertiser that is paying for the review, I would not be as pleased with this approach.  I am not sure what is the purpose of the Aviva Directory, I’m not sure of their service and frankly I paid for a review that turned out to be a promotion of Arieanna and her own business. She states that it was a link brought to her attention and I’m not sure whether by a third party or the people at ReviewMe.com.  I need a little more background of the company and its service.

To her credit, Arieanna did not provide a link to ReviewMe.com. In her opening, she indicates that this is a ReviewMe.com review, and that it should be objective on her part because she would have written the review whether "paid or not" to write it. (Remind me not to send you in on any high dollar negotiations)  This is a completely different approach than I have previously seen to writing reviews for the company and being paid for your efforts. 

I’m curious if ReviewMe.com will be coming out with standard requirements that must be met in order to be fully paid for the post.  I would say that you would at least have to make clear what the product is and what the company offers.  At this point I’m somewhat confused.  Let us know how it turns out Arieanna and whether Review Me sends full payment or if they have any comment on the post.  I would also like to hear what if anything the people at Aviva Directory think of the review and whether this type of review is what they had in mind when offering to pay a blogger.

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My friend Ben, no he did not pay me to be his friend, submitted a review of a Data Deposit Box.  Yes, I am somehow contributing to the demise of the Internet by linking a ReviewMe.com review.  What I wanted to bring to light was the disclosure of Ben’s choice.  Unlike Darren Barefoot, Ben decided not to go with the "no follow" tag, but was clearly up front about his review and the payment he is receiving from the company.

This is a sponsored post, through the ReviewMe service. I accepted the review opportunity to get a feel for what it’s like, understand their service, and be able to explain my experience to you. It’s the first review request I’ve received, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised to get it. But make no mistake, Data Deposit Box paid me to write this (although they have absolutely no say in what I write.)

Since I know Ben and I appreciate his work, I wondered how the review he posted would tip the balance for me to click to see the product.  Actually, I got about half way through his review and it turns out the product is a little geeky for my taste and it lost my interest. No customer earned here.  The good news for the company Ben reviewed is it garnered my attention.  If only for a moment, I saw what Ben had written, and made a decision quickly and without further thought.  I would venture to say Ben has more than a few friends, and I would also gather that they are perhaps a little more geek leaning than am I, but if one or two click to see the product, a PPC or CPA campaign has just been launched. 

I continue to follow the PayPerPost.com model as well as its sister ReviewMe.com as they work their way into the mainstream marketing arena.  Thanks for the disclosure example Ben, and since you got paid for it, you buy coffee next time!

Tags: ReviewMe.com, Data Deposit Box, Darren Barefoot, PPC, CPA, PayPerPost.com, Blog Marketing, Blog Advertising

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