Abstract

Key Findings

• Sponsored blogging is a nascent, but growing, advertising vehicle with the potential to represent a substantial share of Internet advertising spending. It has the potential to be a $2 billion market - 5% of online ad spending - by 2011.
• Sponsored blog posts are a unique online advertising vehicle in that they provide for more text and context than pay-per-click ads or banner ads.
• Typical payments for sponsored blog posts are less than $10. But there are many things that bloggers and paid-blogging ad networks could do to increase that figure.
• As bloggers invest more time and emotion in their blogs, they start to look ways to make money from blogging.
• Bloggers walk a fine line between adhering to truth in advertising laws and maintaining a strong, trusting, readership base.

• Advertising Agencies: Sponsored blogging is a creative new medium - are you fully briefed so that you can brief your clients?

• Advertisers: Gain an understanding of the mechanics and considerations behind sponsored blogging, and what to look for when you are ready to spend.

• Paid Bloggers: Learn what steps you can take to increase the value of your blog and the amount you get paid for each post.

• Sponsored Blog Ad Networks: Specific steps can be taken to increase the average payment per blog post and provide better value to advertisers.

• Online Advertising Networks: Sponsored blogging threatens to encroach on pay-per-click and banner advertising spending. Are you positioned to defend or capture territory?

• Traditional Print Publishers: Understand the threat that sponsored blogging represents to your advertising revenue. Do you have a counter-strategy?

• Readership, Circulation and Traffic Auditors: What new products could you introduce that tap this growing advertising segment?

David Howard has over 20 years of experience in Information Technology, telecommunications and Internet marketing.

He was worked in product management, product marketing and strategic marketing roles for both NASDAQ 100 firms and early-stage start-ups, such as Cisco Systems, Alcatel S.A., UTStarcom, Ascend Communications and Assured Access Technologies (Acquired by Alcatel in 1999.) David’s expertise in Internet marketing and Internet applications is drawn on his recent projects with an Internet advertising behavioral targeting venture and a mobile text-message based advertising startup, as well as years of experience supporting, marketing and selling telecommunications infrastructure to telecom carriers to enable IPTV, VOIP and web-based Internet services.

David’s present area of focus is on emerging marketing and advertising approaches, and their impact on traditional mass media vehicles such as television and newspapers. This focus includes blog advertising and paid-blogging, citizen journalism, IPTV and IP multimedia, search engine marketing and web-user behavioral analysis with an emphasis on practical applications of technology and techniques to improve ROI and creative ways to monetize web traffic.

In partnership with a 35-year publishing industry veteran, David has formed Consultiq, a consultancy specializing in research and the development of value-creating strategies for enterprises looking to capitalize on new media and services. David is a public speaker, blogger, author and news contributor to www.Vator.TV, and co-chair of the Berkeley Venture Capital/Startup SIG for www.eBig.org. His articles have appeared in industry trade journals and publications such as the International Engineering Consortium’s Annual Review and he has presented on panels and at conferences worldwide. A believer in lifelong education, he continues to supplement his practice with executive development programs such as the Berkeley Executive Leadership and Venture Capital for Executives programs at the University of California at Berkeley, Haas School of Business and the Technology Marketing program at the Industrial Relations Center at the California Institute of Technology. David has an associate degree in Information Technology from Mohawk College

David is available to answer questions and offer related consulting and research. He may be contacted at DavidH@MindCommerce.com.