There’s been much conversation happening all over the Internet about blogger revenue, paid reviews and what not over the past few weeks. We were the topic of a recent post entitled: Bloggers and PR payola: is this the future?
Community rocks. I love how (most) everyone pulls together through this new landscape in an effort to determine the best way to navigate the ever changing “guidelines”. For us, this is not a discussion on monetization and revenue, we have built in alternative revenue streams to manage that aspect of our business.
We all have our individual business models, content guidelines and opinions on what makes the wheel turn during this new era of publishing. As Eden Spodek said, we have much to learn from each other.
A few weeks ago, we launched our paid reviews through our Mom Influencers. Did that ever stir the embers in the discussions. Thankfully, mostly everyone saw that we had the right intentions behind our program. No, we were not trying to make a buck. We were trying to build an integrity factor into the much debated process of blogger reviews.
Integrity is Everything. No, this is not about Commerce vs. Credibility. It is about protecting reviews from the bad apples for both the readers and the brands. IMO.
We feel that free products = payment for some bloggers who may have felt they had to say something nice because they received the product for free. Certainly our reviews were not tainted with this brush and nor were many other bloggers providing reviews with integrity.
However, some bloggers don’t necessarily row in the same boat. I have read terrible stories of bloggers scamming the system by not even testing the product for review, selling it for money, writing a “fake” review and moving on. (No, I will not post links because we are not in the business of pot stirring.)
We desperately wanted to create a program through our Mom Influencers that would hopefully try and avoid such nonsense. A program that created a win for both our readers AND the brands that wanted to share their story.
See, we feel there is a difference between an individual blog and a program that gathers a group of bloggers for the purposes of reviews. No longer is it simply our own integrity on the line but that of numerous other personalities, opinions and styles.
We wanted to find a way of publishing reviews through our network that put a stop to the nonsense. “Hey, we’re gonna pay you whether you actually like the product or not, so at least do your readers and the brand the decency of fully reviewing the product and sharing your honest thoughts.”
But apparently that has not landed so well throughout the community.
Some, although adamantly disagreeing with us, have supported us in trying to find a better way to manage the process. (We ♥ you, you know who you are!)
And some have just attacked us.
And yes — it hurt.
C’est la vie. We’re tough cookies.
We know in our hearts that we are trying to create content that serves the best interest of our readers and brands.
How do we continue providing product coverage with the general consensus being paid reviews = tainted content?
We simply can NOT put ourselves in the tainted content category. We won’t.
But what is the answer?
We are not a review blog. We are on online magazine that features relevant, engaging content on Everything Mom, not just products. We cannot take up a huge chunk of our editor’s time simply writing reviews. And not pay her for it.
One very smart gal told us that we can just say no. So that’s what we are going to do.
Say no. Unless it totally rocks.
Starting now, everything you see on EM is Editorial. Unless it’s not (marked with ADVERTISEMENT of ADVERTORIAL). That is what the community wants. We listened. We always listen. We learn, grow and create what the community wants.
We are going to replace our reviews category with a new column - Everything Fabulous. We are going to pay an editor to find what’s hot for moms and their families. In this sense, our editor is still getting compensated for her time, but the content is created from a place of service to our readers vs requests from brands.
Sure, brands can send our editor products, ideas or invite us to experience your story through an event. In fact we’d love to hear about products that might be useful to families. However, we will not “review” your product. We may feature it in our Everything Fabulous column, or we might even write a stand alone piece if we feel that would work better.
But there are no guarantees that products will be featured in our Everything Fabulous column.
We are no longer being run by requests for coverage. If brands want immediate coverage, or guaranteed coverage — we invite you to purchase advertising.
Plus, we will still have our Mom Influencers who focus on reviews. We will, however, remove anyone from the program who does not show as much integrity as we do for our editorial reviews. Include the good and the bad, put your full efforts into the review for the benefits or your readers etc. We need to respect our community and since they view paid reviews as tainted content, it does mean our Mom Influencers will no longer be paid. And just like us, our Mom Influencers can just-say-no.
Like social media, we’re young and trying to figure out what works best for you, our readers; the brands who want to speak to them and ourselves. This probably won’t be the last change as this is a growing and evolving environment, but we feel this is one step closer to meeting everyone’s needs. We hope going forward we can all continue to educate and support each other as we learn together.
Sound good? Disagree? We’re still listening, we’ll never stop.
Tags: product reviews
I think you’ve found an excellent approach. I believe in transparency and people getting paid fairly. So win-win!
Now who wouldn’t want to read a column called “Everything Fabulous?”
Fabulous!
Well said. It’s your site and you make the rules based on what you perceive your readership wants. I don’t feel good about people attacking you for your opinions. We’re grown-ups and we can disagree without resorting to personal attacks to get our points across.
What I told my PR colleagues today was that these discussions reinforce the fact that each blogger should be treated individually and not part of a homogeneous group. I hope some bloggers found out that us PR people aren’t all cut from the same cloth either.
D
@David Jones - I know everyone has their opinion, but some tweets were a little unkind, or maybe I am too sensitive. Mostly everyone was wonderful, including yourself and I am so thankful for the community and you opening the space to have this conversation! For sure each blogger / property needs to be treated as an individual and thank you for spreading that message.
@coffee with julie - thank you, it is a work in progress!
@Mom101 - Fabulous!
Golly, I gotta get threaded comments here. ;P
Good for you Michelle. You’ve landed on pretty much the model we have always used at http://www.SavvyMom.ca and it’s definitely worked for us in terms of being able to be crystal clear about what is advertising/paid content and what is editorial/uninfluencable (pretty much most of it).
@Sarah at SavvyMom — Thanks, Sarah. It is such a tough call because we were receiving so many requests (as do you) and our editor was reviewing many of the products (and she wasn’t paid for that). Now we have a column vs reviews, and our editor’s salary now includes time to write about products that she feels our readers need to know about.
Win all the way around.
Michelle, Thank you for encouraging me to write a post on this topic in the first place and thank you for your kind words.
You’ve done an excellent job of putting your stake in the ground, letting readers, writers and companies know where you and Everything Mom stands. Although you’ll probably still receive requests to review products from people who don’t read your policies first, the community including savvier people doing outreach will.
I’m interested in seeing how your new approach is going in about 3 months time.
Sorry you’ve had to take some unkind hits for the team.
Cheers,
Eden
You have created a great resource here at Everything Mom, and I think you are doing a great job trying to balance the needs and wants of all parties involved. Kudos to you for trying to find a clear path through it all. All you can do is listen to what your community wants, and balance it against the values of what you are trying to build.
I love this site. I love the authentic, caring, generous spirits who dwell here. And I’ll second the comment above: Who wouldn’t want to read a column that is called “Everything Fabulous”?
Jen
@Eden - thanks for taking the time to write the post! I value your opinions and was keen to hear your stance on it. Glad to know you…
@littlemissmocha - you are too sweet! I am so full of gratitude for what you call the “authentic, caring, generous spirits who dwell here” (like yourself!) - I love you all and thank you everyone for being part of Everything.
*sniff*
Very few people have the courage to make such a statement, I applaud you for A-publicly debating it B- Making the right choice
We always tell our clients: If social media does not work for you, you should change your product.
Not every brand is sell-able through social media, this is a fact and brands need to live with it.
Social Media influencers like Eeverythingmom have a role to protect the entegrity of consumer influence and consumer choice.
And brands have a role to protect the consumer status of big bloggers, and never allow them to loose their credibility for a short lived win.
The social media consumer movement is bigger than me, you, brand A, brand B, Agency A and Agency B. We must respect it, because as I said in one of my blogs, in today’s world, consumers can bite back, and if they don’t like the taste, tell everyone they know
Your biggest asset in today’s media world is: CREDIBILITY
Protect it by being genuine and honest, and it will grow, give advise that benefit consumers not brands, unless brands work for the benefit of consumers (yes you can quote me
)
Your above post is a clear indication that your credibility, and heart are in the right place
Good luck and keep up the good work
@Duri - Absolutely and I thank you for sharing wonderful conversation about this to come to a place of answers.
Credibility is Everything!
Hi Michelle! I think blogging and Web 2.0 is here to stay - users want to have a say in your web content and this is now a necessity in business. That said, when you mention “Commerce vs. Credibility,” I say it is commerce AND credibility, because if your bloggers are off the mark or unscrupulous, the weight of their words is lost and reflects poorly on the website in question. I also think that bloggers who try products know that the companies soliciting their input value constructive criticism even more than blowing smoke. So thank you for providing such an excellent website with great content and great bloggers. I value the honesty and won’t ever fault you for that!