From Outsourcing News comes this post and post snippet:

Now, I find it interesting to hear of a few recent job postings over the past while that are seeking bloggers to write a 300-400 word post for $10? Come on, give me a break! This is what I call Blackhat blogging – Hiring a blogger with pennies to write content simply for SEO purposes for your business. My personal opinion is that it is not a good business practice and is diluting the blogosphere with junk content. Now, I am not sure of the company’s intent, but it would seem too not look favorably upon a business who hires bloggers for pennies just to fill content, without consideration of the impact it may have on their business and reputation as a whole.
Source: Blogger for Hire – A Good Business Practice or Not? | Outsourcing News in Internet Marketing

First I will acknowledge that some people hire others to set up splogs (spam blogs) for purely SEO and Adsense reasons.  Yes, this is bad.  Splogs like these often steal content from other blogs to boost their post numbers and SEO value.  Not good.  However, there are a large number of businesses, large and small, they outsource their blogging to folks like us because they don’t have the capabilities to do it themselves.  Maybe they don’t have the people to do it (numbers), maybe they don’t feel that they can write “well enough”, maybe they just feel that setting up and maintaining a blog is beyond their technical capabilities.  For whatever the reason they seek out folks like Jim and I (and our cadre of pro-bloggers) to help.

While our clients are looking for an SEO boost, since that is a huge benefit of blogs, they are also looking for the benefit of becoming a resource to people looking for information in their niche.  Pets, frieght, gadgets.  The goal is content.  The goal is offering value to readers.  That isn’t black hat SEO, that’s good SEO.

If you’re wondering how our bloggers work with our clients, it’s actually very simple.  We get content direction from the client about what they’d like to see on the blog, our bloggers find it, our bloggers post it.  Pretty simple.  Sometimes a client would like a bit of news or an announcement posted, no problem.  Our bloggers, though, are independant writers.  They write about the topic.  They write to make the blog interesting and actract readers.  Yeah, it really is that simple.

Jim is fielding calls from companies daily.  Companies looking to add blogs to their online media mix, but unsure if they have the skills.  Jim, with deft skills, talks about everything I’ve said above.  Too good to be true?  Our clients don’t think so, they’re too busy being happy and driving their business.

Robert Scoble says he can judge what the buzz will be in the blogosphere by counting the taps on a keyboard at an event. Adobe is presenting some very cool things, and the tapping is furious from Robert’s description. Why is it that I am blowing taps for Adobe? They are missing the best and most influential of times in the blogosphere for a company and especially in an area of new products or applications. Here is a cutting edge technology company that is rolling out some exciting stuff and what are they doing to capitalize?

I can tell you what they are not doing, they are not having a conversation with the influential people in their industry. Sure they are presenting some cool things and people like Tim O’Reilly, Robert Scoble, and others are all madly discussing the new apps and talking about it, but from the Adobe side I get nothing but crickets chirping. Where is the Adobe blogger? If they are truly in competition with Microsoft, how about competing? Put a company evangelist on a blog and let the blogger talk to all of the people now linking to the rest of the discussion. Adobe may be getting excellent marks for their new and latest in technology but I give them an F in showing that they are truly in the market of discussing their products. Robert you have my persmission to give them my email to fix this little problem.

UPDATE: (3/1 11:42 a.m.) It seems I may owe the Adobe people an apology for initmating that they don’t have a blog. As Robert points out and as John said in the comments, there are 1 or 2 people that blog for the company. I wanted to clear up the point I was making. I wanted to get a company voice talking about the Engage meeting. I tried to find it in their blogs. I wanted to see if they not only invited all the cool kids to come and take a look but whether they had a blog I could merely click on that would take me right to the company’s corporate blog discussing the event. Sure, I can read the recaps of an employee’s blog of what he found interesting about the Engage meeting, but where is the communication from Adobe? If I have to do some kind of crime scene investigation to uncover the company message, what kind of communication is that? I am far too lazy for that much work. Am I to assume that John speaks for the company on this issue? Perhaps not since his tagline on his blog tells me, “I’m employed by Adobe Systems but my views are my own.” Where Adobe’s views? Did I miss it?

UPDATE 2: (3/1 12:10 p.m.) After searching for a while longer I did find one lone article by Ted Patrick. The good news? It only took less than 12 hours to find it.

Tags: Robert Scoble, Tim O’Reilly, Adobe, Microsoft, Blog Evangelist

My partner Tris has been serving up softballs all week with his recent posts about the PayPerView and ReviewMe models of online marketing. I actually get the purpose behind these models and although I think they are skewed and largely off track with relation to online marketing for companies, I have been following them closely for obvious reasons. Our model at Bloggers For Hire is not far from that model and I want not to have to deal with “guilt by association” or suffer collateral damage as a result of their bad publicity and unpopular way of promoting companies through the use of blogs.

Since the PayPerPost model and ReviewMe models launched, I have kept very close track of the buzz surrounding the businesses and what is being said both good and bad. In fact, I think I may be more versed in their companies than many of their own people and many of their customers. Those customers I have found for the most part, understand exactly what these services offer, and the benefit of paying for “reviews” or mentions of their products and services. In fact we have had many potential customers come to us and ask when they can begin the review process and get bloggers to begin “viral campaigns” on their behalf. I have to cringe and merely give them my elevator pitch about what business blogging is and how blog marketing is really not a shortcut to online marketing success. They move along and open their wallet for the quick fix.

I have noticed that the client’s using the PayPerPost model and that of ReviewMe are of the early adopter style. By that I mean these companies are the first on the wagon to tout the benefits of online marketing, but for whatever reason, they have decided to go about it in the easy and cheap ( not necessarily inexpensive) way of doing business. You already know these types. These are the companies that are being sent directly to the spam folder in your email application. The people selling that saving grace mortgage, and those stock deals, and that perfect gift for that loved one. Many of them are the people involved in the tech industry and they know the value of links. They have spent a fortune on SEO and understand all their is to know about SEM. These are the people that are paying bloggers for their reviews. I have visited each of the advertisers for quite some time and have come to the bitter conclusion that all of these advertisers lack is one thing, a blog of their own. Of course, their is an exception, I did go to Stockwise.com (sorry you didnt earn a link here unless you are actually listening and can come and ask for one) and they had a blog! My excitement was soon curbed because in order to read the blog I needed to sign up for their blog and provide private information. A tactic that spells disaster for me. If I wanted to give you my private information, I would have opened my wallet and told you to take what you needed.

These companies are like those that are out for the quick fix, that band aid that will show some return on their marketing investment right up front. This tactic allows them to go to the people that have the purse strings and can show some immediate benefit through links gained and people talking about their product. Talking about their product and linking based upon the amount of money they want to spend to accomplish the task. To me this is all backwards, but then again my father always taught me that their was the right way and a wrong way to do something, and if you did not do it right the first time, you’ll have to eventually do it again. He of course was a craftsman and took pride in his work, and believed that shortcutting only cheapened the end result.

I think this is a great service for the little blogger. It circumvents the need for a large volume of your traffic to make money. I can see the way the business works, and they have customers lined up as well as consumer generated content waiting to be bought. If these companies really had an idea about the power of blogging, the amount that they are spending now would only be the investment in long term results. Obviously, the power of blogging escapes them as they don’t have their own blogs. Do they understand the power? Sure they do, but it’s always easier to get a quick fix than earning it and doing it the proper way.

Tags: PayPerPost, ReviewMe, SEO, SEM, Links, Blog Marketing, Business Blogging, Blogging Campaigns, Blog Advertising, Blog Revenue, Bloggers For Hire