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ShoeMoney和SEOmoz的巨大区别、为什么你要相信博客链接

ShoeMoney和SEOmoz的巨大区别、为什么你要相信博客链接
       我相信大多人都会认为Jeremy Shoemaker和我的博客和商业形式有什么不同。私下里我和Jeremy是很好的朋友,他也是我非常尊重的人,但是他的博客就另当别论了。有时他对话题的处理和呈现的方法和我想的大相径庭。举个例子——他的一篇帖子,事项公布和形势猜想
       “事实上我每次看见有人在博客里或者谈话中夹杂产品的内容时,他们一定在这些谈话中获利了。即使他们没有直接的支付对产品的介绍,我觉得他们一定希望用户能发现有用信息或者甚至连产品拥有者也愿意看见这些信息并支付这种间接的广告费用……
所以,简单的来说,我的布告政策是:你要设想我提到的所有的产品的信息正在被支付或者准备被支付。
我觉得这些博客的布告政策太过高调而显得愚蠢。所有人都以一两种方式获得支付。”
好的,先说明我对Jeremy的关于博客布告政策和一些加载广告信息的博客的观点表示
赞同。我在SEO的世界里不是一个做广告的粉丝,也不是博客圈里的广告粉丝。该怎么写博客由博客自己决定;该阅读什么内容的博客同理也由浏览者自己决定。所以我花了很长时间思考Jeremy的文章,然后留下了些许评论。
       在过去的几个月里,SEOmoz写了一些好东西,它们是关于Eric Enge, SMX conference, Keycompete, Text-Link-Brokers, Reddit, the Googlers和其他一些。知道吗,这些文章没有kickbacks(不良反馈),没有payments(支付),没有under-the-table favors(多加溺爱)。我们在SMX上说话并没有被支付酬劳(事实上,我们为了掩盖这个还进行了支付)。我们没有从Keycompete获得过任何kickbacks甚至一个免费的账户。我们和TLB有业务关系,他们曾经给我们的网站做过几个月的主机,但是带宽需求太大我们不得不更换到更大的超级主机,然后——布告公布。如果当时有人认为SEOmoz从我们使用的公司获得利润或者不良反馈的话我绝对会对此惊讶万分。就连我最喜爱的也是最津津乐道的索引工具都没有为我们带来任何东西,除了通常的免费的再销售者账户和拥有大批量客户的折扣。当我链接到它们时,我从来都没有使用会员链接或者用它们来跟踪流量。我喜欢它们的服务;并且我在真诚的分享我的经验;我的故事说完了。
       我们给推荐名录上的卖主提供认可的服务,我每天都将这个名录发给对它感兴趣的团体。但是,你知道吗,真正有人来付佣金时,我都拒绝了他们。下面是我最近的一个拒绝信:
       您的条件实在是太诱人了,比我想象的还有好,只是我不能接受这份合同。如果我们从这些推荐人那里赚钱的话,我们就很难继续公平公正的对顾客给出建议,让他们去选择哪家更好一些。不过您可以去纽约的Mysery GuestI a drink上寻找:)
       所以,有时免费的饮料从技术上来讲就是一个不良的反馈,你明白我的话。在这点上我的观点是坚定的——如果你要推荐服务因为你收到了被推荐者的报酬,那么你就在伤害你的用户。我当然知道PPC,并且我认为如果你能够提供真诚的服务,正面的、反面的,积极的、消极的反馈,并获得报酬是非常好的。我甚至认为Google和其他的引擎应该收录这些链接——公布者信任的无跟踪链接,所以这全看搜索引擎对公布者的信任程度了,我有点离题了。
       真正使我对Jeremy的帖子感到失望的是评论部分:
       我不得不同意你的观点。我开始用你的方法来思考和感受了。
       这就像他们在讨论性一样!我们都用一两种方法来支付!
       我认为这很愚蠢,当一个人把记号做在会员链接的旁边好像读者都傻到不能猜测出这些儿标记广告会给作者带来经济回报一样!
       上帝保佑。博客不再是一个12岁的EMO GIRL写的她的诗歌了!博客有自己的媒体出路并且和其他网络事物一样具有高商业价值。人们应该洗洗脑了。
       我不得不赞同Jeremy。每个人或多或少的都能从莫个地方赚点钱。不管是在博客里还是在网站上。
       不能苟同……博客应该是针对大众公开的。
       在70多个评论里,有30到40个都是赞同Jeremy的博客应该有权愚弄自己的读者添加盈利型的链接和内容。幸运的是,还有小部分人和我的想法一致:
       我早就对此进行了预想,而且这就是为什么我从不关心你的推荐!你就是想赚钱,不是为了我们读者!
       “不公开”政策最终将会成为一个大问题,如果你停止认可以获得收入。更糟的是,如果你没有尝试过或者根本就不喜欢这个产品,那么情况会更糟。
       我最喜欢的评论来自Noah Robinson:
       天啦,这么说,你已经决定如果价钱合适你将会出售你的思想和观点;其实没有必要做特殊的你在哪里受到影响的公布,因为你不可能出淤泥而不染。
       但是阅读你的博客的人们,在过去,或者往前推一推,应该了解你的言论是有偏见的,因为你要赚钱。你在这儿不是帮助别人的,你是来让别人误认为你是在帮助他们的,而结果,你却让别人受到损失,因为你的帮助不是真心的。
       从根本上来说你正在毁掉你栽了多年的诚信和权威之树。
       我希望你能重新考虑一下……
       我非常赞同Noah。看了他的这篇帖子后,我好像对Jeremy的任何产品、服务、网站的建议都嗤之以鼻了。我不是说他的博客不再有价值了,但是有了这种舞弊的行为,我们怎么才能判断他的产品推荐是好是坏呢?我们怎样才能知道他不是在密室里隐藏消费者的尸骸呢?
       如果有人付费让你在博客上广告产品或服务,或者你想在博客里添加会员链接,或者你想推荐产品和服务,不管是通过什么方法来盈利,那就去做!我并没说这样做是不对的!我也不是想把SEOmoz吹捧成伟大的神人。我只是想知道,你做了没有?给我事实,我才能判断你的建议是否是有价值的。
       下面有是可能的两种情况:
1
·你清楚的告诉读者哪些产品和服务的推荐是付费的。
·此时读者会想,这个产品的推荐是付费了的,但是我信任ShoeMoney的人;他们曾在过去给过我好的建议,现在他们只不过是想赚点小钱。呵呵,我都站到哪一边去了啊!
·读者对推荐的产品进行观察并交易。
2
·你没有告诉读者任何付费推荐的信息。
·你的读者看了后会想:哦,ShoeMoney是真的对这个产品的生产商有好感,我得去看看这个产品。
·读者此时对产品有很好的印象并可能进行交易。
·可是,之后他们通过某种渠道发现,你们对自己提供的推荐信息进行过赔偿。
·读者感到被欺骗,也许他们进行的交易还不错,但是你的信用扫地,将来你哪来的信誉可言呢?他们怎能相信如果产品服务出了问题,你们还是诚信的吗?为什么要相信你的话呢?
           所以,如果Jeremy能够用这篇帖子告诉他的读者,Shoemoney.com和他推荐的服务都可能是付费行为,那么万事大吉。对此我很冷静。但是,他却向前跨了一步,并且对大家说没有人能在博客的任何地方公布他们的付费情况。使我烦恼的不是这些话语,而是那些听从了这个建议的人们。结果会想我上面提到的第二种情况一样。
           SEOmoz最近也在额外付费的内容、重新设计的主页、广告包含物等上实行自己的货币政策。我们不仅贴出真心的好博客,而且会将博客作为我们营销中的重要部分。我不是说我们的博客是100%的无私的,不包含商业行为的。我是说在SEOmoz和SearchEngineLand、SEO-Scoop、MarketingPilgrim之间是有区别的一种是以吸引流量、建立信任为目的提供建议和推荐,并间接的从会员和广告中盈利;另一种则是不公布盈利模式的推荐,并以推荐产品和服务(有好有坏)盈利。很明显Jeremy不走这条路,他的博客确实提供了一些好的有价值的建议并且做了很多起令顾客满意的推荐交易,即使顾客需要付钱给他。但是,他建议其他人不要像他那么坦白。
       你是怎么想的呢?博客是否应该在读者面前隐藏商业获利行为的信息呢?SEOmoz的从无偏见的博客评论中获利方式和ShoeMoney的付费推荐信息博客的获利方式谁赚的更多呢?我是不是太伪善了?是否应该划出一条分界线?
 
       P.S.尽管如此,ShoeMoney还是我的常驻链接,Jeremy仍然使我的好友。但是,如果我们不能意见统一,那么就成了一个公开的布告了?
 
                                                                                                         Randfish
                                                                                                         2007-5-30
The Vast Ocean Between Shoemoney & SEOmoz and Why You Should Be Able To Trust Blog Links
Posted by randfish on Wed (5/30/07) at 10:40 PM Search Community
I don't think many would argue that Jeremy Schoemaker and I have very different styles of blogging and doing business. In person, Jeremy's always been a great friend and someone I really respect, but on his blog, things are different. I sometimes feel a great disconnect between the way he approaches topics and the way I'd wish to see them presented. Case in point - his post, Full Disclosure, Assume the Position:
In fact every time I see a blog post or basically anything including conversation I assume someone is benefiting from mentioning the product they are talking about. Even if they are not paid directly for reviewing or mentioning the product directly I assume they are hoping the users find the information useful or maybe even the product owner will see the review and pay them in the form of mentioning them back or advertising on there site...
...So basically my disclosure policy is you should assume I am getting paid for or will get paid for anything I ever mention...
...I think these blogger disclosure policies while noble and all that good stuff are extremely silly. Everyone gets paid one way or another.
OK, let me first say that I agree with Jeremy's opinion about blogger disclosure policies or some sort of blog organization that lords over bloggers with codes of conduct. I'm not a fan of it in the SEO world, and I'm not a fan of it in the blogosphere either. It's up to individual bloggers to decide and individual audiences to trust or reject what they read. That said, I'm having a really tough time getting my head around Jeremy's message, and I left a few comments to that effect.
Over the past few months, SEOmoz has written some nice things about Eric Enge, the SMX conference, Keycompete, Text-Link-Brokers, Reddit, the Googlers and dozens of others. Guess what - no kickbacks, no payments, no under-the-table favors. We're not being paid to speak at SMX (in fact, we're paying to send a mozzer to cover it). We receive no kickbacks or even a free acount from Keycompete. We had a relationship with TLB where they hosted our site for a couple months, but the bandwidth got too much and we switched to Superb Hosting and guess what - full disclosure. I would be absolutely shocked to hear that someone thought SEOmoz received benefits or kickbacks from the companies we use. Even Indextools, which I love, and am very fond of talking about, doesn't give us anything beyond the usual free account for re-sellers and discounts for having many clients with them. When I link to them, I never use an affiliate link or have them track that traffic. I like their service; I share my experiences honestly; end of story.
We support a huge endorsement of vendors on the recommended list - a list that I send several interested parties to every day. Guess what, when someone does try to give us a commission for those referrals, I always say no. Here's my exact response to one recently:
... that's an incredibly sweet offer, and much as I'd love to accept, I simply can't. If we took money from the referrals, it would be very tough for me to continue to give potential clients unbiased advice about who to choose. But, you can definitely buy Mystery Guest and I a drink in New York :)
OK, so maybe free drinks are technically a kickback, but you get the idea. My opinion on this is unshakeable - if you are recommending services because you've been paid to recommend them, you're doing your audience a disservice. I understand the Pay-Per-Post concept and I think it's fine if you get paid, offer an honest review and provide both pros and cons, positive and negative feedback. I even think Google & the other engines should be counting those links - the publisher has given them trust by providing a non-no-followed link, so it's really up to the engines to decide how much they trust the publisher (and how much others do), but I'm getting off-topic.
What really makes me upset about Jeremy's post are the comments. Just read:
I have to agree with you shoe. I tend to think/feel the same exact way.
Its like what they say about sex! we all pay one way or another!
I think it’s stupid when someone puts a marker next to affiliate links as if the reader isn’t astute enough to realize that the writer will be benefiting… money makes the world go round.
Amen. Blogging isn’t about 12 year old emo girls publishing their poetry anymore, it’s its own media outlet and is just as commercial as any other. People need to get that through their heads.
I would have to agree with you Jeremy. Everyone benefits somewhere, somehow. Even in blogging or a website.
Couldn’t agree more on this… blogging is all about getting publicity.
Seriously, out of about 70 comments, 30-40 are folks relentlessly agreeing with Jeremy's position that bloggers are perfectly within their rights to dupe their audiences about their motivations for writing or linking to content/tools/services/companies/etc. Luckily, there are a few folks whose thinking more closely matches my own:
I had already assumed that and that’s the reason I don’t take any of your recommendations seriously! It’s all about putting money in YOUR pocket, not ours.
Non-disclosure mainly becomes a problem if you end up endorsing something in order to get paid for it. It gets worse if it is a product that you have never really tried, or didn’t even like.
My favorite comes from Noah Robinson:
Wow, so basically, you’ve decided that (a) your thoughts and ideas posted are for sale for any price you deem worthy; ( b) there’s no reason to make specific disclosures about whether you’re influenced here or there cause you’re ALWAYS influenced...
...But anyone that reads your blog, in the past, or moving forward, should know that your statements are most likely biased in some way to make you more money. You’re not here to help others, you’re here to make others think you’re helping them, while simultaneously, making money off that advice…even if it’s not the best advice that would help others.
Basically you’ve undercut the very authority and credibility that you’ve worked so hard to build up.
I think you ought to reconsider this one…
I'm with Noah. It seems like after this post, it would be very hard for me to take Jeremy's advice about any product, service or website seriously. I'm not suggesting his blog is no longer valuable, but with such clearly corrupt editorial practices, how could we judge whether he really thought a service was good or not? How could we know whether he isn't hiding a contributor's skeletons in the closet?
If you've been paid to blog about a product or service, or you want to throw an affiliate link into your blog or if you even want to recommend services that provide you a commission, by all means, go for it! I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, and I certainly am not trying to tout SEOmoz as some great and mighty ethical angel casting the first stone. I'm just saying - tell me about it. Give me the truth so I can judge for myself if your advice is valuable and helpful.
There's two possible scenarios here - #1:
·                     You write about a product/service and tell your readers that you've been paid to do so
·                     They think - hmmm, well it's a paid review, but I trust that Shoemoney guy; he's given me good advice in the past and if he wants to make a few bucks, hey, who am I to stand in the way?
·                     They check out the referral and give it a fair shake
Then, there's scenario #2:
·                     You write about a product/service and make no disclosure about any financial benefit you might receive
·                     Your readers see it and think - wow, Shoemoney really likes that company, I should check them out
·                     The reader has a favorable opinion and perhaps buys services
·                     Later, they discover through one channel or another, that you were compensated for your review
·                     They feel betrayed. Maybe the service is fine, but their trust is now lost - how can they take your advice at face value again in the future? How do they know you'll be honest with them if something goes wrong with the company's services? Why should they believe what you say?
Now look, if Jeremy's making this post just to tell his audience that Shoemoney.com and all the products he might recommend should be considered paid reviews, OK. I'm cool with that. But, he's going a step further and saying that no one, anywhere, on any blog, should have to disclose money they earn from writing about a company. It's not the ethics of it that bug me, it's the potential outcome for those who might take that advice. It's the scenario #2 situation I just described.
SEOmoz itself has recently been taken to task for our monetization strategies with the premium content, re-design of the homepage, inclusion of ads, etc. We certainly blog not only out of the goodness of our hearts, but as a significant part of our marketing strategy. I'm not arguing here the blogs must be 100% altruistic with no business side benefits in order to be trusted. I'm saying there's a world of difference between a blog like SEOmoz or SearchEngineLand or SEO-Scoop or MarketingPilgrim where the best possible advice is offered in the hopes of attracting traffic, building trust and gaining from the indirect benefits of premium membership or advertising vs. the undisclosed sums exchanging hands in order to get a recommendation or promotion of a service that may or may not be any good (even in the eyes of the reviewer). Jeremy's obviouslyl not going this route - his blog does provide valuable advice and I think that he often times does give a fair & balanced shake to the services he reviews, even when they have paid him. But, he's suggesting that others don't even have to be that forthright.
What do you think? Is it really OK for bloggers to hide their financial benefits from their audiences? Is it true that SEOmoz is benefiting just as much from our supposedly "unbiased" blogging as Shoemoney does from his paid blogging and I'm being hypocritical? Should there be a boundary?
p.s. Despite this, Shoemoney's staying in my regular reading list and Jeremy will certainly remain a friend. But, hey, if we can't disagree, then that becomes a disclosure problem itself? :)
 
(翻译:Skywalker 编辑:Levi)
原载: 蓝杉seo团队博客
版权所有,转载时必须以链接形式注明作者和原始出处及本声明。

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