Should I pay for blog content?
I recently created a blog asking people to discuss their missed opportunities, hoping to spark more conversation. I am getting some traffic but no one ever posts anything. As a promotion, I starting offering a $25 dollar gift card to anyone who submits a story that we use.
Is this marketing idea worthwhile?
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What is your expected $ return for the traffic you're paying for? If you're paying for content, you might want to make sure it is quality content and not just ramblings from average Joe. – Henry The Hengineer 12 years ago
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What is point of creating discussion? What is your revenue ? – Venturesocially.Com 12 years ago
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Thanks for the input. My main source of revenue is going to come from a book, dealing with missed opportunities, that is being published and should be available in Nov. But I am trying to build a platform before it is released. – Keith 12 years ago
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2x$10 vouchers will probably get you the same quality content, but twice as much. And you have $5 left over. – Tom 12 years ago
2 Answers
Yes. I think that incentizing activity on your blog is a great idea. I often think of the phrase -- "No one tags a empty wall". Of course this isn't always true -- there is the tagger -- and the poster -- who like to be first. But it is much easier being the second or the third of the fourth.
So the question is, what is the appropriate incentive? Is $25? Seems like a lot at first blush to me -- but I don't know what that includes and I don't know your market. Most importantly I don't know your business model or advertising budget.
Perhaps there are other incentives that would work better?
Does your audience hit the demographic that really wants a iPad? Perhaps every post they make that is approved and used results in an entry into a drawing for an iPad?
Does your audience really like sports? Perhaps every post they make is a entry in a drawing for tickets to their favorite professional team?
Does your audience like to eat out? Then perhaps you could give one $25/gift card each day for a week to a random poster?
The key is that the promotion should tie into the content of your company in some way-- it should reinforce the value proposition of the site itself. And equally important is that the promotion needs to be properly supported with marketing. What good is it if no one knows about it? My assumption would be that decreasing from $25 to $20 and putting the $5 into PPC advertising promoting the opportunity would be even better.
Good Luck!
Give points instead of dollars. They're cheaper for you and seem to work well here.
