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I met Paul Coggins at the London Blog Club the other month. He is the CEO for Ebuzzing UK, a different type of advertising network for bloggers. After having seen his presentation and checked out the site, I thought it would be interesting to do a quick Q&A with Paul and here goes (and by the way, this is NOT a sponsored post!). 

 

 

Ebuzzing is platform that brings advertiser and bloggers together. Our aim is to bring bloggers campaigns from advertisers which are relevant to their blog and for which they feel a natural affinity. We then pay bloggers for the creation of what we call “sponsored posts” and broadcasting of videos, always for products and services that bloggers genuinely like and want to recommend.

 

 

We have a huge focus on ethics. We truly only want bloggers to write about things they genuinely like and want to recommend. We are also an International company being part of Wikio.com, Europe’s number one blog ranking service. This gives us a huge insight into what is being said about brands in the social media space, and as a ranking service we are helping bloggers to increase their visits and readers.

 

 

We pay bloggers. We realise that writing a blog is hard work. Hard work deserves to be rewarded, and so for the time-consuming nature of having and maintaining a reputable blog, we offer financial reward.

 

 

We’ve worked with over 1,000 brands throughout Europe, such as Radisson, Coca-Cola, Intel, MTV, L'Oréal, MasterCard, Toyota, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, eBay, Canon, Diesel, Warner Bros, Philips.

 

                   

We’ve got two cracking campaigns at the moment, one for Lloyds TSB and Channel 4, promoting a photography competition, and another from AXA promoting road safety. 

 

 

We recently completed a campaign for Radisson Blu hotels. The premise was simple, encourage a bloggers readers to enter a competition, called, funnily enough “The greatest competition in the world” It was essentially a chance for readers of the blogs to win a night at any Radisson Blu hotel in the world for 365 days, to be taken over the next 5 years. A large number of travel bloggers wrote up the campaign, got paid, and their readership simply loved it.... as anyone would, it was a fantastic prize.

 

 

 

A realisation that if advertisers wish to get any level of scale with campaigns through blogs, then they need to pay bloggers. Everyone wants a piece of a bloggers highly engaged audience, but hard work, and quality content does not come free. Are bloggers the new celebrities, or are celebrities becoming the new bloggers.... I’m not sure.

 

 

That’s a big question. One could probably write a thesis on it. If one starts with the premise that social media, and by social media we are primarily thinking about twitter and facebook, is simply another form of communication then yes it could be seen to be “the new blogging”. It is in many ways an easier, more immediate, but arguably less engaging option. However I’d summise that every blogger is active on Facebook, and every blogger is or should be tweeting their posts, so use social media as a tool for your blogging, not as an alternative.

 

 

Aesthetics of a blog are crucial. When people look at blogs first appearances can be everything, and if a blog looks good then those viewing are far more likely to actually read the content. There are so many blogs out there now that bloggers have to capture their potential readers at first glance.

 

Write what interests you, and don’t feel bad when you get writers block... it happens to everyone. 

 

In terms of taking sponsored posts:

 

•     Never change your style for sponsored posts

•     Never display videos you wouldn’t just because they are sponsored

•     Always tweet your sponsored posts

•     Always answer comments just the way you would normally

•     Be true to your readers

 

 

I’ve been working in the online media space since 1997, helping to place some of the UK’s first online advertising on sites run by Carlton TV, now ITV.com. More recently I’ve led the marketing efforts for Get Me In, the fan to fan to fan ticket exchange that was acquired by Ticketmaster in 2008. It’s fair to say I’m an online marketing  fanatic, with a healthy... or unhealthly.... knowledge of everything digital, from seo, ppc, affiliates, email, and of course social marketing strategies. 

 

 

If you’re a regular blogger, with quality content, a reasonable audience and a desire to make some money from advertisers and brands that are relevant to you, please sign up your blog at Ebuzzing.com, and we will start that matching process of advertiser and blogger :-)

 

 

“Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you'd have preferred to talk.”  - Doug Larson

 

Prior joining ebuzzing, Paul Coggins held a number of senior management positions including sales & marketing Director at Get Me In, UK Sales Director at Zanox, one of the largest affiliate networks in the world and EMEA Business Development Director at RealNames. Be sure to connect with Paul on Twitter at @EbuzzingUK.