Sponsored Blog Posts?

[seointern]

We are looking at working with http://www.socialspark.com/ which is a Blog Sponsorship Network. How does Google treat the sites that work with advertisers like this?

• Do they treat these the same as selling links?

• If we add a no-follow link would this cause us any problems?

• Are we ok working with them, or should we consider looking into something entirely different?

With the Panda updates, we're looking into additional ways to work with advertisers. We're trying to thin down the affiliate type banners on the side & focus more on the content side. What guidelines does Google have for working with advertisers that wouldn't hurt us in our rankings?

Thanks,

BJ

[inhouseninja]

Ohh.  I get it now.

I really don't see how that would be violating Google's ToS.  You're doing reviews of products on your blog and you're linking out to the brands / products you review?  You're getting paid to do this?  I think as long as you're getting paid to do real, objective reviews I don't see how Google would care.    I think you have a reasonable defense if anything ever came up, but I doubt it would.  Google shouldn't pick on your site as long as you don't do anything silly.

[seointern]

Daniel: haha...you must have a real issue with any type of Advertising? Do you see any issues that would be raised with Google & a sites rankings?

Let me rephrase my question as I don't feel it's been addressed yet...

We own a blog & are looking for additional ways to monetize our site. Social Spark is a Blog Sponsorship Network & pays bloggers to write about different products. I'm aware that they are using the 'No Follow' tag.

My question is if we would have any issues with Google & our organic rankings if we were compensated for posts, that pass no link value? Or is Google an all knowing power that has an issue with this & will drop your rankings just because they can? Or is there another angle that I need reconsider?

[inhouseninja]

The best way to go about this is to actually do interesting tests and blog posts by people and bloggers in your niche.  One great way to drum up honest feedback is to send a blogger a sample of your product AND a sample of the competitions product and let them decide what product is better.  Either way you will get your backlinks and you will get honest feedback on how to make your product and service better.

I'm sure there are TONS of bloggers and forums that would love to review your service or product.

[DanielFreedman]

Yuck. Very slick. And very wrong, wrong, wrong.

This sort of thing makes me want to puke. But I guess it's the cranky old journalist in me coming out. Your mileage may vary.

But here's how i see it: a rotten-to-the-core pay for play scheme.

The site goes on and on about its high ethical standards -- never an encouraging sign. The fact that the payoffs are disclosed doesn't cure the conflict. It just publicizes them.

The site says the opinions expressed are honestly held. But it also gives advertisers pre-publication censorship rights  in the name of correcting  factual errors ( which is conveniently left undefined. )

I'd stay away. As far as I can see, no law or regulation is being violated. But there is still too much risk of blowback: a real reporter writing a real story about the really dubious tactic of making payoffs for content.

P.S. The site says this about no follow:

Search Friendly Links

Each sponsored link in SocialSpark automatically carries the NoFollow attribute so as not to affect search engine rankings. This is designed to protect Publishers and advertisers from search engine penalties based on paid linking. Publishers and Advertisers participating in the marketplace agree not to circumvent this practice and manually remove the “nofollow” attribute.