What if I told you that, starting 1 December, I will be paid US$800 per month for 3 months to write 1 blog post per week about a company called Marqui. Would you think I was "tainting" the blogosphere? Would you accuse me of being a sellout? Would you doubt my integrity? Hmm, well that's the sort of controversy I'm walking right into the middle of. Yes, I was one of the 15 bloggers chosen to participate in the Marqui Blogosphere Program. So let me be totally upfront with you about what this is about, my reasons for doing it and how I will carry this off.
1. The money. OK, $800 p/mth isn't 'give up the day job' levels. But it's nothing to be sneezed at either, especially when you consider it's in US dollars and not New Zealand dollars.
2. I actually do think this is a "social experiment", as Marc Canter has called it, and I like the idea of being part of such an experiment. This is the first time a group of bloggers has been paid upfront to write about a product. Will it work? Will the 15 bloggers who participate be run out of the blogosphere or virtually lynched in some other manner? Will it raise my profile? Will I lose readers? Will it get media coverage here in New Zealand and lead to a job offer by a progressive kiwi company looking for someone to introduce them to blogs and RSS? These are among the interesting questions that I'm curious to find the answers to. I honestly have no clue how this experiment is going to pan out. Time will tell.
3. I trust Marc Canter (the man who got us this gig). He's got a lot of history in the computer business, he's a very smart guy and I trust his instincts. I've read his blog for two years now and I spoke to him on the phone at length a couple of times back in March, when I interviewed him. So I know him to a certain degree and I'm also familiar with several of the other 14 bloggers chosen for this experiment. That social networking connection is an important part of this for me.
4. Marqui's software is a kind of Content Management System. I know a lot about Content Management Systems, both from my day job as a Web Producer and as a regular topic in my weblog. As the byline to my blog suggests, I regard myself as a Web Analyst and I would dearly love to do it as a living. So the Marqui project is a good opportunity for me to practise my analysis skills, by analyzing Marqui's CMS product and writing up my findings.
I will write one post per week about Marqui and those posts will be CLEARLY MARKED as advertising (actually I prefer to think of it as a sponsorship arrangement, but meh...). I will even differentiate the Marqui posts in my RSS feed, so that readers are absolutely clear that I am being paid to write about Marqui in those particular posts. You'll also notice a Marqui image in the right side of my blog, which is a requirement of the program.
Regarding the ethical issues. None of my other posts will be paid for, so I personally don't see how my integrity will be affected by this. But I realise these are grey areas in the blogosphere right now. So I have no problem with people debating whether the Marqui program is "tainting" the blogosphere and whether it affects bloggers integrity. It may be that this experiment helps flesh out those issues about monetizing the blogosphere. I hope it does, but please remember to play the ball, not the man.
Also remember to Think. I'm a big believer in reading things critically. I try to analyze the facts and the context of each piece of content, then make my judgement on its value or merit. What I'm saying (in a preachy way), is that I would prefer you see how the experiment pans out before you make sweeping judgements about it or about me. That's certainly what I intend to do.
So, what more can I say. I am going to be blogging for dollars, once a week, over the course of the next three months. Is it a good idea? You can have your say if you like in the comments to this post, but for me there's only one way to find out...
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What I'm curious about is what you will talk about for 3 months. It seems to me that it would be easier to write one or two articles about it Marqui, than the 12 required ones. What makes Marqui so interesting that you will devote 200-500 words per week to it?
Posted by: d | November 30, 2004 1:58 AM
Congratulations! I envy you. That's some sweet dough.
Posted by: Andrew | November 30, 2004 2:01 AM
Congrats!
Posted by: Seb | November 30, 2004 2:17 AM
Good for you! It's all up front, and you're being paid for a service. I can't see anything wrong with that.
Posted by: Harold Jarche | November 30, 2004 2:54 AM
I think it's selling out a bit, but we've all got our price and $200/entry is probably better than my price... so good luck with it. If this catches on though, I wonder if I'm going to have to stop reading blogs that advertise, as it's a lot of effort to switch between modes of "this post is written honestly" and "this post is written for money". Nevertheless, it's interesting to watch for now.
Posted by: Erik Benson | November 30, 2004 3:31 AM
Very intriguing. It will be interesting to see how this shakes out for the blogosphere (is this a sustainable model?), and for Marqui (what's the value of having influential people discuss your product?).
Posted by: Justin Martenstein | November 30, 2004 3:51 AM
Just from a brief glance, Marqui looks like a pretty ordinary CMS. Your options seem to be to "hype it" and lose credibility or "can it" and never get another gig. I've known Marc since the late eighties and respect his passion and ability to network. But it was a long time before I profited from any of his ventures...
Posted by: Marius Coomans | November 30, 2004 5:45 AM
Congrats Richard. I hope it leads to big things for you. The whole blog/marketing thing always reminds me of the Cluetrain manifesto (markets are conversations etc.) as they are perhaps one of the best online demonstrations of their hypotheses. You're not selling out as long as you remember points 3, 4 and 5. (They've got the whole book online there too. It's worth a read.)
Posted by: Joseph Lindsay | November 30, 2004 5:52 AM
Thanks everyone for your comments.
To answer the two questions amongst the comments:
1) d asked "What makes Marqui so interesting that you will devote 200-500 words per week to it?"
Richard replies: There's no set level of words I need to write, so I may end up writing short posts. I guess that'll depend on whether there *is* anything interesting to say about the product/service. In another words, I don't know but I will find out along the way.
2. Marius said: "Your options seem to be to "hype it" and lose credibility or "can it" and never get another gig."
What I intend to do is analyze Marqui's product and write up my findings. Whether it turns out to be a thumbs up or thumbs down product, time will tell...
Posted by: Richard MacManus | November 30, 2004 7:41 AM
Congrats on the gig. I agree that you should jump in. I don't think readers will abandon you over this, especially since it's clearly marked as ads. (Please don't get so full of ads that it's not worth finding the content anymore!)
And I do think you're getting a chance to be part of a significant event, and even get to shape it. For the better I'm sure :)
Best wishes and continued success.
BobR MobileRead.com
Posted by: BobR | November 30, 2004 12:16 PM
IMHO you can get another gig even if you "can it", though probably not with Marqui...
Posted by: Seb | December 2, 2004 12:14 AM
Richard,
As a direct marketer who blogs, I am all for such an "experiment," and wish both you and your sponsor all the best. The success of the Marqui Blogosphere Program could bode well -- very well -- for all of us bloggers.
Bob Cargill
Posted by: Bob Cargill | December 2, 2004 5:08 AM
Richard, do you see yourself as a direct marketer? Or as an independent commentator?
In other respected media, there is a clear separation between editorial content and advertising. Writers pride themselves on their editorial independence and are paid by a publisher who maintains a firewall between advertising and editorial. In the blogosphere Google performs a credible intermediary role like that.
And yes, many commercial media have gone away from that "ideal". So we see television current affairs programs which are like down market magazines with a very fuzzy line between advertising and editorial (most of it paid for). That's fine as a marketing vehicle, but a journalist in those programs cannot have editorial independence.
Can the Blogosphere defy gravity?
Posted by: Marius Coomans | December 2, 2004 1:08 PM
Marius asked: "Richard, do you see yourself as a direct marketer? Or as an independent commentator?"
Richard replies: I certainly don't see myself as a Direct Marketer (no offence to those in that profession). But I also don't see myself as a journalist per se. Sometimes I do journalist-type stuff here - eg my interviews. But overall it's not that black and white / binary for me.
Actually, the ideal situation for me would be to be a writer or analyst for a formal publishing or analyst company, where there is that "firewall" you speak of. Because ideally I do want that separation of content from advertising that you talk about.
So yes I agree that I've sacrificed my "editorial independence" in any post I write that includes Marqui - perhaps even competitors to Marqui? Does that make me slightly uncomfortable because it's not my ideal? Sure it does. But this Experiment is in many respects (apart from the money!) a means to an end for me - as I mentioned in the original post, one ideal outcome for me would be to land a job as a Web Analyst.
So can the Blogosphere defy gravity, you ask? The short answer is: I don't know right now. This is part of the reason I'm doing this, to find out. The main reason, of course, is the money I'm being given. I wouldn't be doing it otherwise. But there are a lot of pros and cons about this and, returning to your questions, I don't know whether it will significantly harm my blog or not. I really hope it doesn't, but the jury is out for now. It's a risk and I'm monitoring it very closely.
Posted by: Richard MacManus | December 2, 2004 1:47 PM