Are Pay-To-Play Blog Hops Good For Bloggers?
Tomorrow the blogosphere is going to light up with over 400 blog posts announcing the Coupon Cabin “25 Dayz of Crazy Giveawayz.” This sort of large scale giveaway event isn’t terribly surprising – but the fact that bloggers have to pay $5 to enter the contest, however, IS rather unusual.
Pay-to-play has entered the blogosphere.
In addition, bloggers participating in the contest hop had to find their own $25 or higher value prize giveaways – and make sure that the products they give away aren’t in direct competition with Coupon Cabin.
Once a blogger has rounded up a prize, paid the $5, and begun referring blogging friends to ALSO do the same, they can potentially receive $20 per referred blogger. However, the referred blogger also has to meet the exact requirements, including paying the $5. From the document with posting instructions for the contest:
A qualifying referral is any blog, not your own, that has listed you as their referrer that not only completely signs up (ie- fills out the form, sends payment, joins FB [Facebook] group), but also actively participates in the event by having a giveaway go up at the time specified (Nov 1st at midnight, but must be LIVE by 9am EST) and stay up until the event end time specified (Nov 25 at 11:59pm EST).
In addition, the bloggers I’ve spoken with that are part of this contest hop have no way whatsoever to verify that the bloggers they’ve referred actually mention them during the sign-up process, making it difficult to track participants on the bloggers end.
People who enter the giveaways on any of the 400 different contests can win a range of prizes from a MacBook Air, an iPad2, high value gift cards, and more. In addition, the bloggers hosting the contests are also eligible for a second set of these prizes.
There isn’t anything inherently wrong or illegal in any aspect of this contest. However.
This is a remarkably brilliant linking strategy, meaning that Coupon Cabin will suddenly get over 400 inbound links to its home page for hardly any money. Assuming the two sets of prizes amount to about $5000, each link is only costing about $12.50 (and it’s likely these will be permalinks that are not no-followed).
Great deal for Coupon Cabin.
But it’s a horrible deal for the bloggers.
When I spoke with a representative at Coupon Cabin, she stated that they are NOT receiving the $5 entry fees; those are going directly to the three bloggers organizing the contest hop: Simply Stacie, Makobi Scribe, and Sassy Mama in LA. She also assured me that they were not providing any other fee to the administrating blogging – which is terrible for the bloggers running the contest. When I asked the Coupon Cabin’s rep what she thought the bloggers participating were getting out of the contest, she said, “I really don’t know.”
Jennifer of Makobi Scribe said when I asked why they charge a fee:
To hold a hop, you spend literally days working on it. Not only do you have to make the linky the first time, you need to redo it when it goes live linking each blog to its individual post so it is easier for the entrants to find it. We also update the title to reflect the prize amount. This takes about 4 hours per one hundred bloggers. Also, we field questions, tons of questions, day in and day out for months before the event. After the event goes live, we not only pay to have it promoted, we spend more hours promoting it ourselves. Sometimes we retweet and Facebook post everyone else’s giveaways.
Another issue that has come up repeatedly about these blog hops is some elements of the contest asking for a “like” on a Facebook page as a way to enter the contest, which many view as a violation of Facebook’s terms of service. Yolanda of Sassy Mama in LA addressed this in her response to me:
I stand by my article that I wrote for Latina Bloggers and I want to address the fact that I believe, their [sic] are key words in rules 3 & 4 that are overlooked and can be ambiguous. I think this is smart on Facebook’s part because they leave it up to everyone’s interpretation without excluding anyone. But then it puts people, like us, at odds against each other. It is my belief, that rules 3 & 4 have key words such as “cannot be an AUTOMATIC entry”- rule 3 and “OTHER THAN”= rule 4 in which Facebook pretty much says this is ok as long as you don’t use our platform for the entry. The term “Liking A Page” is technically incorrect, as it is actually called “Becoming a Fan” which is not what Facebook includes as their native tools. Their Native Tools are “Liking” a status/pic, commenting on a status/pic, etc… which in Rule 4 is clear that it is not allowed. Rule 3, however, says that “the act of liking a Page or Check in in [sic] to a Place cannot automatically register or enter a promotion participant”. You gotta ask yourself, what does Automatically register mean? To me, it means as soon as I click the “Like” button to fan a page, I am entered therefore that is not a valid method of entry. I would have to perform an additional step, such as go to a blog or Rafflecopter form and submit my information stating that I did the requested step, and thus Facebook is not recording my information and using it as an entry automatically but rather I would have to go elsewhere to manually input my actual entry.
The bottom line of the Facebook Guideline is to protect User Privacy on their end. They did not do this to exclude business, brand and bloggers from having promotions to increase their fan base. They did it so that when a user enters something, they can’t hold Facebook liable for divulging their info to someone else to win a prize…so they make you take a few additional steps to use them solely.
I wonder if Facebook would also agree that their Terms of Service are “open to interpretation.”
I completely agree that bloggers doing this kind of marketing strategy and consulting should be getting paid for their work – but not by the other bloggers. A better plan, in my opinion, would be to ask the contest sponsor (in this case, Coupon Cabin) to provide the fee so bloggers aren’t required to pay to enter. Then it becomes an opt-in only issue (with bloggers still giving advertising away for free, however that’s a different blog post). When I asked about this, Jennifer offered this explanation.
I have held and participated in many hops charging between a $5 to $25 admin fee such as Blogmania, A Blogtastic Extravaganza, Blog Bash, etc. The main reason is because bloggers do not often follow through and the $5 admin fee ensures that they are serious about the hop. On almost every hop I have held for free over 1/2 drops out or does not put a post up. This rate is reduced to 1/4 (which is still a lot) when they pay a $5 fee.
What do you think? Is this unethical? Or is this a fun promotional event that benefits everyone involved?
My thoughts on this were all over twitter today. I’m too exhausted to think straight after all that. However I do applaude that almost everyone involved in this emailed or tweeted me without too much snark.
Bottom line? I still don’t think this is an ethical practice and I will still stand firmly on the side of the bloggers scratching their head trying to put their head around this entire concept and who it ultimately benefits.
throwing bloghops is hard work. I have done it. I have had to follow through with people that have not wrote…… filling in missing cracks. IT SUCKS…..but I would never use blog hops to make money….nor would I ever use it to advertise for a client that seems to be using you. Seems like CouponCabin is not really understanding the VALUE of what is going, the bloggers need to realize they have value, and the company should know how it this looks so very bad for them. What happens if something goes wrong with a giveaway? What happens if someone is awarded the same prize twice, or someone never receives their prize. Just the fact that Facebook could be misinterpreted and this is an issue makes me say YIKES! Shaky ground to me……so shaky I dont think my computer would stay on my desk. I would “hop” away and not go near this one. Blog hops use to bring communities together. This is kind of sad to see all the way around.
I personally did one of these in September, with another big “deal” site. We all paid $5, got our own sponsor and linked up. In fact, it was hosted by these same 3 blogs. I approached a company I liked, made a pitch, and they sponsored a $50 gc! Go me, right? Wrong! I was completely embarrassed at the participation level, which was actually much LOWER than other giveaways I had done just by myself. Readers don’t want to scroll thru 100 or 400 blogs and do thousands of likes, to win $50. I had actually enrolled in this one too, then withdrew a few weeks ago because, quite honestly, I came to my senses. Look, I have no problem with these particular bloggers being paid for their time. But like you said, they should be being paid by CC, not some struggling mom-blogger who is trying to make a buck, and is just wants more followers in hopes of increasing her page views.
Shame on the 3 host blogs for not getting a fee. I was a bit bitter, because I did their September event, and I though, “jeesh–they have a big name sponsor AND they collected $5 from each of us?”
As the saying goes, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice……….
I think anyone who spends time doing all the work required to enter these giveaways, knowing how miniscule the odds of winning will be, is a fool. Yet there seem to be plenty of fools out there gagging for the chance to like 100s of low-quality Facebook pages for some reason.
I think, too, that a lot of the blame for arguments and confusion over Facebook TOS should be placed directly at the feet of Facebook. Their TOS are poorly written at best, confusing to most, and deliberately ambiguous at worst. More people need to be calling Facebook out, not only for their bad TOS, but also for their failure to clarify the rules and punish those who don’t follow them.
I question the statement that there is nothing inherently illegal in this. There’s the whole question about giveaways as sweepstakes and whether or not they are meeting state/federal guidelines. But that aside, there the giveaway for those participating in the hop – which requires a $5 entry fee. That becomes a raffle, which I know for a fact is not legal for the general population. There is a reason why contests always say “no purchase necessary.” Do I think it’s unethical? Yeah. Do I question why bloggers would deal with this? Definitely. But I also respect that just because we’re all called “bloggers” doesn’t mean we all want the same things, have the same skills/ambitions, or need to follow the same paths.
Sorry but there’s no way I’d be a part of something like that. When I first read the teaser it sounded like an MLM marketing opportunity; you know the kind that end up with very little value except to those at the top of the MLM food chain. This seems as bad as buying Twitter followers. I agree with Emily, this doesn’t seem very ethical at all and as someone who does blogger outreach, I’d be leery of working with any blogger who thinks this is an authentic way of being part of the blogosphere.
The admin fee is fine $5 is totally reasonable for the kind of traffic a hop can generate. The linking thing might bite Coupon Cabin hard though. Google is VERY clear that links in promoted or sponsored posts must be “no follow”
@Nikki_S,
MLM is the first thing that crossed my mind also. Specifically, a pyramid scheme. I pay $5 to get in. Then, I must find X amount of people to join for $5 each. Once I (or they) get the required number of people, I cash out.
This winds up profiting the first few people who join, but later people get caught paying the entry fee and being unable to find people to join. It makes sense, if you do the math. If you started with 1 person and just had to get 2 people to join to cash out, you’d run out of people in the world 33 iterations. (You’d likely run out of people willing to join before that, but even if everyone wanted to join, there just wouldn’t be enough people.)
Personally, I’m not going to join any blog hop or campaign that requires me to pay them to participate.
I am a blogger participating in this event and some of this info is a bit surprising to me. However, like the saying says – “there are always two sides to every story and the truth is usually somewhere in the middle”…
I am used to paying an admin fee to participate in giveaways and having hosted some of my own, I do know a lot of time and work goes into promoting, planning, organizing and administrating events.
There are some things I’m a bit concerned about with how the giveaway has ended up working, but I’ve paid my $, secured a prize and am going to participate and promote my giveaway and the event just as I would any other event. I hope we ALL end up benefiting from it, if not, I will just consider this a way to reward my readers with another great giveaway / prize on my own blog.
I would like to add that I take offense @ Amy B.’s comment about “low quality” Facebook pages. I can’t speak for all 400 of the participating blogs, but I am personally familiar with about 75-100 of them. Myself and those other bloggers that I am familiar with work VERY hard to provide quality content to our readers and spend tons of time working to make our blogs the best they can be. Don’t judge a book by it’s cover or lump us all into the same category…
Again with this tired line about Facebook’s TOS being “vague” and “open to interpretation”? I am SO SICK of hearing this. The bottom line is that you CANNOT offer an extra entry (or mandatory entry) for liking a Facebook page. You just can’t. But don’t take my word for it – a giveaway blogger posted the direct response she got from a Facebook account exec when she asked. http://www.leslielovesveggies.net/2011/10/liking-on-facebook-facebook-guidelines-say-no-i-have-confirmation.html
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I can totally understand wanting more likes on your page, but don’t do it black hat style. Personally I’m just waiting for Facebook to make an example of someone. When a few people think they’re “above” the rules, everyone suffers.
I totally see where you are coming from. I am participating in the event tomorrow, and I hope to see TONS of traffic over the next 25 days. I hope that’s not wishful thinking! That’s the main reason I’m part of it, and I do understand that the hosts spend TONS of time on hosting. So, the $5 doesn’t bother me. However, you bring up a good point that this is really cheap advertising for CouponCabin. I think they probably feel like they’re getting away with it and laughing at us all right now!
I would like to know how many bloggers I referred as we went along so I’m not blindsided and possibly disagreeing when I find out how many I got, but I wasn’t going to sit out on the biggest event to hit the blogosphere, that’s for sure.
If the bloggers who paid to participate are also eligible for prizes that portion of the hop is an illegal lottery. Entry into a contest can not be based on if you paid to participate.
As for the Facebook stuff, I stopped offering that as an option for entry in my giveaways because it is so vague. Who can tell what they really mean? And let’s face it. People who like you to enter a contest aren’t real fans. They’ll either unlike you or hide you when the contest is over.
I think that 5 Minutes for Mom has been very successful in their Annual Blog Party. I have put my blog in it many years and never been charged! And it has always been great for my blog too!
Way too complicated for me. LOL
I entered this event because I really like doing reviews and giveaways but I don’t have a ton of traffic and I thought maybe this would help me pull in some readers who appreciate giveaways. I contacted a sponsor I enjoyed working with in the past, secured my giveaway and started planning. I had no idea what to expect from this.
From the beginning the vibe surrounding it just left me with a weird feeling. The more I learned about it, the less I wanted to be involved. When the required text was revealed and there were 300+ words I knew I couldn’t do it.
How could I write a post to promote my sponsor that also included that much text about another company? I contacted my sponsor, let her know what I was thinking and she agreed that it didn’t seem like something her company wanted to be involved with so I moved her review and giveaway to another date.
$5 is no big deal to me. Paying another company for the privilege of promoting another company for which I am not guaranteed anything is something that doesn’t sit well with me. Doing it at the expense of losing a sponsor is something I can’t live with. I’ll eat the $5 and let the person who referred me know that I am bowing out and she won’t be seeing that $20.
It was tough to make that call. It was difficult to approach my sponsor and tell her I wanted to back out knowing that she could pull the plug on my giveaway. I feared the blogger in charge of the Facebook page would have some choice words for me when I announced I was backing out. I wondered if I was over thinking it.
In the end I feel good about this decision.
It saddens me deeply that so many people think that paying $5 to be in and then find a prize and then push tons of buttons is fun. The worst is that this is just a new way to buy stats. Spike the number of visits to the site and more followers in a short amount of time cannot be seen as anything else.
I have often brought up the fact that these same 3 bloggers are always hosting paid Blog Hops. These same 3 bloggers who have a gazillion page views, 12 Giveaways a day, affiliate links and tons of sponsors, charge Mommy bloggers for blog hops. But they are quickly defended by other bloggers that they are “Mavens” in their field, whatever that means. Their charging Mommy Bloggers to do the same things they always do. The way they stalk these blogs and social networking sites already, they don’t need money from us to do what their already doing. To change a link? Are they serious? It takes seconds. As I have stated before many “Mommy Bloggers” make NO money off of their blogs. They are shunned or turned down by sponsors because of lack of followers or page views, or Alexa rankings and just when they are trying to get themselves out there through these blog hops, they have to pay a non-refundable fee, not cool.
And as far as them putting out “quality content” they have others writing their reviews for them, so in essence Blogging by Proxy. Yeah that’s quality!
Great — the blogging version of Amway…
I love these types of hops – they drive a HUGE amount of traffic to my giveaway, give me a huge amount of exposure, and are a ton of fun!
It is acceptable for me, as a blogger, to charge money when I take time to write sponsored posts, to take time to host a giveaway for a company and promote it, to host a twitter party, etc. So, why, as a blogger, should you not get paid for the huge amount of hours that it takes to put together a blog hop like this? If you’ve ever been in one of the Facebook groups for a big blog hop event, they you know that people ask questions of the host bloggers NON STOP. They request to change things, add things, help with things, basic questions that are covered in the sign up rules, etc. Those ladies work their butts off to help everyone learn what they’re doing – and honestly, I guarantee that the amount of hours they take to put this whole thing together means that they are not making big bucks doing this. But they do deserve to be compensated for the work that they are doing – for the BLOGGERS.
For the Coupon Cabin event – I could never secure a sponsor to give away prizes like this on my own. I could never get the type of traffic that will come my way from this type of big event. So they are doing me a huge service – all I have to do is put together a giveaway like I normally would, add some verbiage announcing the Coupon Cabin sponsored prizes and how to win them, and link to some other fun giveaways. That’s it, just a few minutes more work than I would normally do. Yet due to the work of the host blogs, I will see 10 times more traffic than usual. That is totally worth the $5 bucks.
I think we should leave the decision to participate in these events up to the individual blogger. Seeing as how 400 are taking part in this particular event, I would say that you may be in a small percentile of people complaining.
Two additional points. How do you know that the lead bloggers haven’t been paid for their work? Did you address that in your interviews? I also think you are overlooking how participating blogs do benefit.. and its the reason they keep signing up. Its plain smart networking. They are receiving elevated traffic and potentially new readers all for the cost of a cup of coffee. Sounds like a score to me.
Having this info posted makes 401 blogs hosting easy and cheap advertisement for Coupon Cabin. Not too shabby if you ask me
Using Rafflecopter and asking someone to “like” a Facebook page and click “I did this” is not illegal or against Facebook TOS. It is a third-party application/entry method.
After reading more of the comments here, I have to address a few things:
Coupon Cabin offered up $5000 in prizes before knowing how many blogs would participate. And they offered to give the $20 gift cards to everyone for referring people. That’s A LOT for them to offer up, not knowing for sure what they’d get in return.
The service that each of the host bloggers give us is well worth the $5 bucks we each pay. They found a sponsor to also drive traffic back to US, and offer some amazing prizes to help US get more traffic, they put the whole thing together, answered all of our questions for weeks, and will finish going through all 400 blogs individually over the next 12 hours to ensure all giveaways are actually up, find each individual giveaway link, and add them to the linkys. They’ve done a great job. They deserve my five bucks. It doesn’t make sense for ONLY Coupon Cabin to pay – I’m getting a service too – more traffic.
Some of the comments left on this post are really mean, negative, and offensive. Amy B says that there are tiny chances to win – yes, I’ll get many more entries on this giveaway than my usual giveaways, but since it’s easy to hop around and enter multiple giveaways quickly, it increases your odds of winning. In the Retail Me Not giveaway, I won on 3 other blogs. And when she calls us all low quality pages, that’s hurtful. I don’t even if she’s visited any of our pages, but I work really hard on mine, and have a lot of interaction with my fans.
Techydad and others call this a MLM type thing, which I don’t get? Each of us blogs paid a fee, and that is an admin fee for the work they’ll do to run this for me, so all I do is write a post – they’ll drive tons of traffic to me. If I wanted to tell blogging friends about it, I’d get a $20 gift card if they signed up. I’m not required to refer people. Coupon Cabin wanted to give gift cards for referrals, to encourage people to join this event. How is that anything even close to a MLM?
I just feel like this is so negative, and really snarky and catty towards other bloggers. I love being a part of big events, meeting new people, partnering with some great companies, and the new traffic that comes my way. Yes, many people will “like” my page just to enter a giveaway. BUT – I think I offer great content, which will make them want to stick around. It’s the same as a department store having a huge clearance event – yes, people are stopping in JUST for the sale, but hopefully they’ll like what they see and come back again.
I think that there is a lot more to this event than the way it’s being presented here. I’m disappointed to see Babble write something that really is kind of mean-spirited. And I wish people would think twice before posting such mean comments about other bloggers.
I am participating in the blog hop tomorrow and can’t wait to run my giveaway! I run a very new blog and enjoy offering fans with the best deals/giveaways! I think the comment from Amy was very uncalled for. Just because blogs are smaller doesn’t mean they are bad to follow. Blogging is not a full time job for many of us. If joining a large giveaway gives you 5 new fans then whats wrong with that? I do this because I love it not to make money.
5 months ago there were no “admin fees” for any of these hops, except Blogmania which was also just a very select, and maybe invite only, group. Then all of a sudden one or two of the larger blogs that see blogging as a way to earn income began charging the fees, in addition to charging fees for just about everything a blogger would normally just do– mention other blog events on their blogs, tweet about a post, tell their readers to vote for someone in a contest etc. Smaller bloggers started seeing this as a way to earn potential cash on the side and before you knew it every blog in blogland is starting their own hop with their own admin fee.
The number of hops this holiday season is more than twice what it was last year, and I want to say about 80% are charging fees. I don’t agree with it at all and won’t be doing any fee based hops. Each blogger that participates promotes a lot themselves and asks and invests just as much time as the hosts.
Thank you so much NerdMom for your support of our annual Ultimate Blog Party at 5 Minutes for Mom.
While I never want to publicly criticize other bloggers methods and opinions, you can all be VERY assured that never would we charge bloggers to participate in our blog party.
I am sitting here confused by this approach. The revenue should be coming from the advertisers not the participants! The participants, page views, exposure, etc are the products delivered to the hosts and the advertisers. Charging participants is crazy to me. It does bear some resemblance to MLM where, while there are products involved, the real revenue comes from the sign ups, etc.
TECHYDAD the people entering the giveaway (potential prize winners) do not pay money to try and win there for it is not a raffle. The bloggers who list their prizes in the giveaway they have to pay an entry fee to be able to participate.
I got sucked into this giveaway by a co blogger of mine… I am not particularly happy with this giveaway or how it was run. I don’t like the fact that there are 400 bloggers in it. Because I will not get the traffic I was promised when I signed up. Basically I paid, I found the prize and I have to generate all the traffic to get people to enter the giveaway. I was told this was to generate traffic and followers for me, which other bigger giveaways have done. This one seems to be for the financial benefit of the three founders. The rest of us are left to fend for ourselves. I have participated in other giveaways of a lesser scale and they were great. I will not ever sign up for one that these three run again. It is a fiasco. 400 bloggers??? WHY? My guess is they made 5.00 a piece times 400 the prizes do not justify that amount…. as far as the time they spent… I did not get one email or notification of anything they did. I had to search out all the information I needed on my own. As a first timer on this type of giveaway that was confusing and misleading. I would rather take my prize and do it on my own because that is how it is anyway.
How much do I have to pay to have “days” spelled without a “z”?
I am curious to see if the bloggers who participated feel that it was worth it when all is said and done. Giveaways are a lot of work in and of themselves and this just seems way too complicated for me. I would never pay to be a part of something like this, nor would I do it for free.
@Amused – Yes, it is against the TOS. To quote a Facebook rep – “This is against our guidelines. Per the clause below, you cannot use any native tool of facebook as a method of entry. Therefore, you cannot have users like the page to get bonus entries, there is no way for you to track that nor pull a full list of your facebook fans anyways.” The section about using third party apps refers to running a contest ON Facebook. It does not cover blog giveaways or Rafflecopter.
Again with the “drive traffic” argument. If all you want is traffic, by all means, join in this type of event. It’s another great, artificial way to bump your stats. But if you want engaged, committed followers and REAL influence, you don’t get it from buying hits. And I’ll stand by my low-quality statement. Bloggers who fall for this type of thing are rarely producing high-quality work. Instead they’re too busy writing reviews of the same product everyone else is, adding yet another ugly badge or ad on their sidebar and cramming keywords for SEO.
I asked in the comments on the FB page one day how much extra traffic I should expect from this (I have never participated in an event like this) and almost every person said they really couldn’t tell because they are always participating in these giveaway events. If there is no spike in traffic, how do you know the event is actually doing anything? I can get past the $5 fee- fine, admin fee whatever. I will not sponsor someone for free when there is no return on my time and investment.
I’ll be very interested to see what kind of numbers this brings to the bloggers in the end. I’m sure CouponCabin will come out just fine.
Amy B. if you have nothing nice to say then don’t say anything at all. You don’t know the reasons why others decide to join these. I have not done one that is paid but I do not look down upon others that do. Judging people as meanly as you do does not say much about you.
@The Slacker Mom, you should be able to easily tell how many hits you get to a particular post as well as where the traffic came from. If you have held giveaways, you would also be able to tell whether you got double the normal response or not. There are plenty of indicators as well as ways to obtain solid proof of traffic – if you are truly interested in doing so.
The traffic the participating bloggers are going to see is going to be temporary. I would say at least 90% of the traffic they will have is going to be from sweepers. As a former sweeper I can tell you that they will not be actually reading much of the posts and they will do all the extra entries just to win the prize with no intention on ever visiting again unless another big giveaway is offered. If that’s the kind of readership these bloggers want, then go for it!
When I first heard about this particular blog hop I had mixed feelings. My first thought was, damn, why didn’t I think of this? What a great way to make money! But then my conscience kicked in and my second thought was that it was just a pathetic way for seasoned bloggers to take advantage of newer bloggers that just don’t know better. I truly think it’s just sad.
Oh, there is so much wrong here, I don’t know where to start. First off, per FTC and state regulations, it seems there can be no way for it to be legal for bloggers (or consumers) to have to pay in order to have a chance to win a prize. That’s consideration, and it pushes the promotion into lottery territory, and only states have the authority to run lotteries (often called raffles by those who don’t know better). I recently wrote about the legal issues of giveaways here: http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com/digital-marketing/sweepstakes-contests-bloggers/ and though this is blatant self-promotion, I really think it’s a must-read for all bloggers who do giveaways. (As do the hundreds of people who have shared it on Facebook and Twitter….)
Next, although I don’t know the particulars so I’m totally making assumptions here: this feels like a case of a brand (Coupon Cabin) who made friends with some bloggers who then developed a cool promotion which would allow them to work for a major brand and get paid to do so. Which I totally admire and appreciate, for bloggers should get paid for their work. However, can you imagine a digital or social media agency creating such a thing? “Hi, I’m Edelman Digital, you blogger should pay us for the privilege of entering a blog hop, okay?” If I were Coupon Cabin I’d pull back this promo, stat, and hook up with a solid digital or social agency (um, yes…I own one, so slightly biased here) that not only knows the rules but understands how to charge the client (in this case Coupon Cabin) appropriately so that the burden is not borne by the bloggers. And if the client can’t afford the agency fees….they should do it themselves or not do it at all. It’s a cost of doing business.
Of course Coupon Cabin will get a lot of traffic from this, as will the bloggers, most likely. But stuff like this drags down the entire blogging industry when it makes it look like all bloggers care about is money and brand relationships. I’d like to see more bloggers who are driven by storytelling, resource creation and true relationship building and fewer bloggers who think that the world of blogging is about giveaways and reviews.
It’s a raffle for the blog participants which can be illegal in some states.
Anyone forget about Google’s policy on paid advertising links. The $5 “admin” fee could be skewed as paying for a link since part of the conditions of the post include a link back to the blog hop/Coupon Cabin.
Personally, I think Google should take a look at their practice and their search links to see if it’s within their policy. It’s not fair to the rest of us who work to get our blogs discovered through natural organic search.
Participant links to Coupon Cabin will probably be normal links w/out the “nofollow” attribute (likely because the participant blogger hasn’t thought about it or is aware of this). Anyone know if the blog hop linky will have “nofollow” links or if it’s hosted by a 3rd party service like Mr. Linky? If it’s hosted by a 3rd party tool then it’s a script based code which offers no link juice back to the participants so their page rank is only flowing one way…back to the Coupon Cabin and the big 3.
This is nothing but a ploy for Coupon Cabin and the 3 big bloggers to score well in search rankings and to increase their numbers. If anyone thinks there’s another reason behind it, they’re crazy. If the big 3 were so into helping their fellow mom bloggers, then they wouldn’t charge an “admin” fee!
Participants should also keep in mind, many of the entrants who enter these giveaways will never be back to their site, unless the participating blogger is offering stellar content. When a person is entering 400+ giveaways, they’re not interested in finding a new blog to read. They’re interested in winning and the odds of winning.
While a blogger might end up with a couple of followers/subscribers who don’t unsubscribe/unfollow when the contest is over, is it really worth all the work, free advertising given to Coupon Cabin and the big 3, plus $5 of the blogger’s own hard earned money?
If a blogger is interested in increasing their traffic then they need to do some serious research into the right way to do so they not only get numbers but an engaged following. Mommy blogging is becoming a business so it’s smart for women to put their business hats on when looking at partnerships and getting real facts on how a partnership benefits both sites. It seems the benefits of this blog hop benefits one side more than the other and it’s not the participating bloggers!
Like it or not, that’s my take on this whole pay to participate in a blog hop non-sense!
@Dawn I know there are ways to see- I was asking because everyone seemed to have lots of experience with these events and I had never participated before. I was trying to get an idea of what I should expect but they all said they had no way of knowing. I’m a total stat stalker so I found that unbelievable that although everyone said it was a big traffic boost they couldn’t tell from their day to day. If the point is to drive traffic, I want to see some numbers jump!
Do you have any idea how much WORK it is to organize a giveaway, much less with FOUR HUNDRED bloggers? lol I mean seriously. And it’s not like a gun was put to anyone’s head to participate. I’m not sure how it is unusual??
@Anne, I participate in these events because I love joining events that my friends are in. We get to promote each other in a fun way and give our readers something to look forward to (PRIZES!!:)). My blog is VERY high quality and even when I do not participate in giveaways, I get thousands of views each day. My comment que is so back logged that I don’t know if I’ll ever get to respond to them all. I LOVE MY READERS and they love me. It sounds like you’re a bit jealous.
I’m not familiar with the law in Canada or Florida, but without even touching on the lottery issues, this is far from compliant with California’s laws on sweepstakes. If the possibility of losing a FB page doesn’t concern these bloggers, does a misdemeanor and a fine that far outweighs the money collected for admin fees?
And, Sadie, you don’t know my stats and I am not remotely jealous of giveaway bloggers. I’ve built my reputation and my company on my content, my brand and a solid understanding of social media platforms. Bloggers don’t get to make the rules as they go and then claim jealousy when someone calls them out for being wrong. Take the constructive criticism and get better at your job.
@Sadie – Either you have me confused with another commenter, or you’re reading things into my comments that just aren’t there. A few thoughts. 1) If you feel the need to automatically go on the defensive, that tells me that you aren’t so secure. 2) I don’t care how you drive traffic to your blog, as long as you’re doing it above board. Breaking the law and violating both Google and Facebook’s TOS is NOT above board. That’s what I have an issue with.
My 2 cents… this is NOT a good way to run a campaign for anyone involved.
I wanted to add a few things. First, when I read this essay, I felt very validated in making my decision to withdraw from the event and I shared it with a (private) fb group of about 150 bloggers. The conversation was good, some withdrew from the event (that was not my goal by posting) and others defended their position to participate. It quickly grew to about 200 comments……….and then was deleted by the group owner. It was so eye-roll-worthy that I just deleted myself from the group. Not a matter of “taking my toys and going home” but rather a case of “I belong to way too many fb groups, and if this one isn’t even going to let us have intelligent conversation, then it’s not for me.” However, that group was all deal bloggers, and this is one thing we agree upon–this is something that is a part of our blog genre.
I can’t help but sense a bit of animosity, not just in these comments, but in other blog groups that I’m a part of–from the non-deal-bloggers, as far as this giveaway practice we participate in. Personally I don’t see the difference–if a sponsor pays you to run a giveaway, you do so and maybe require (even as optional) a Twitter follow, an email sign up or a FB like. So deal bloggers band together, self sponsor and do the same thing–hope to gain followers. It’s annoying for some to get on their high horse about this, because at the end of the day–is there really a big difference between asking for a fb like vs a blog comment? Aren’t they both just designed to increase page views? Quite frankly the “but you’re violating FB’s terms of service” argument is getting old. If fb was really that concerned about it, they could have VERY EASILY found blog pages (I can think of about 400 that would be super easy to find) to shut down for violating the terms, and make an example of them. The very fact that this practice has gone on for years, with not a peep from fb about it, except some guidelines, tells me that they don’t really care.
This cash/gift card giveaway meme is somewhat expected amongst our readers. If yours don’t like it, don’t do it. But don’t insult us.
@Lisa – So you’re saying it’s okay to break the rules if there’s a very low chance of getting punished? I’m sorry, but I find that to be very unethical. “Integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is watching.”
No Anne, I truly don’t believe I’m doing the wrong thing. If it was the wrong thing, I’m confident Facebook would have handled it by now. And, just to err on the side of caution, I never make a fb like a mandatory entry and tell all my sponsors that too, prior to setting anything up. Quite frankly, I don’t understand why so many bloggers obsess over it.
You don’t need to judge me, thanks. You don’t know anything about me except the few hundred words I’ve put here. You can keep your character assessments to yourself, as will I.
Is this the Lisa that started the thread on the FB page? I was wondering where you went! I’m in that group and I too thought it was kind of eye-roll worthy but I’m there to learn what I can from these women- not necessarily about deal blogging because I have no interest in that, but just about another bit of blogging in general. I think any group should be able to have a debate without having to get a hand-slap from the moderator- we are all adults after all!
I think where it gets tricky is that so many deal bloggers play fast and loose with the rules in order to keep up their numbers because that is what is important in their niche of blogging- getting the clicks, finding a way to eek out every cent from their blog. As someone who is *not* a deal blogger I try really hard to keep the integrity of my blog and that means following rules and keeping everything on the up and up and coming to terms with the fact that I’m not going to gain a thousand followers in he first month of blogging (or maybe ever!).
I dropped the event because I adore my sponsor and I wasn’t willing to risk losing them over this. When everything panned out it just didn’t fit and I am happy to walk away.
I’m at a point where I don’t have a “next goal” and I feel like I’m all over the place right now trying out new things- this opportunity was one of them.
I think this article and many of the comments echoed her are right- it’s not good for bloggers as a whole.
We tend to worry too much about what other bloggers are doing, how they are making money, ways they are getting traffic, etc.. If it’s unethical, they will ruin themselves. I think healthy conversations are great, but we have to be careful making accusations, even when we “think” we know the whole story.
While I am really a fan of each blogger doing it their own way, I will say that I personally see the 3 bloggers as “victims” here. I had heard of people charging to host a contest (understandable considering the work involved – even though I never do it) but being charged for doing it???
This is crazy to me that people are not seeing them being used by Coupon Cabin (wait is this the same company that is using Kate Gosselin as their ambassador?). Sure bloggers would jump through hoops but should they be made to. I see only 1 winner here and that is Coupon Cabin. When Melissa and Doug had that campaign asking people to get 200 likes in order to review a product, many bloggers were up for it. Challenging them in a post I wrote made them change that. I think this post is very valid in this discussion up. While I fully respect all bloggers, I do hope they get their worth. I am sure if Coupon Cabin had (rightfully) footed the bill the 3 bloggers doing the hard work (and boy I am sure these ladies are hard workers) would not have to resort expecting mom bloggers to pay.
Shame on Coupon Cabin for abusing the system to get traffic or for at least not paying upfront for what is a great deal they are getting. Links from 400 sites??? Sheesh – that may get you traffic but has sure lost you a lot of respect.
I have to post now. Now that the event has passed and I have had a chance to actually think about it all. Here are my thoughts:
#1- How dare any other blogger on here critique another? Just because review/deal bloggers blog about products and couponing does make it any less quality than any of your blogs? There are reasons these bloggers have tons of fans- cause people value what they post.
#2- I find it very funny that all you non-giveaway bloggers are trying to give a lesson on what is correct for a giveaway. How would you know? Giveaway bloggers who host giveaways all the time are pretty in the know about the rules. Those that don’t usually get taught in these large events by the more experienced ones.
#3- The facebook stuff? I was right. http://kontestapp.com/blog/comply-with-the-promotions-guidelines-on-facebook/
#4- My cohosts and I were attacked by the very community we are a part of. Completely undeserved. All you high and mighty content only bloggers are all about shooting down anything that doesn’t fit your mold. Guess what? There are MANY kinds of bloggers out there and we should ALL support each other, regardless of what kind of blog we are.
I am pretty well respected among my peers. I do lots of research and I try to see both sides to every story. I find it sad that Babble, who is considered a big, reputable site for bloggers, allowed this post to even be posted on their “Mom” section when it is ripping apart MANY mom bloggers. The writer herself was clearly biased in her own terms of what is valid blog content.
I am thinking who cares? If you don’t want to join and pay $5 you don’t have too! Which blogger has money in FB that they are a stickler for rules? Who cares what you blog about it’s your choice, your rules, if you want giveaways then you should do it, you are all taking this to seriously, it’s suppose to be sharing the things you love that would be interesting to others, and giveaways are always nice! I will say it is getting ridiculous to like 50 pages or FB fan as you say and 50 twitter accounts and GFC and google + and subscribing by email, and voting! You do not have to do this but if you want to win you have to because everyone else does but some of them it is becoming mandatory which I do not like, other than that I think we should all worry about our own blogs and what we are doing and not everone else’s blog and what they are doing, after all we did do this in grade school and I for one am way to old for that:)
I feel that the bloggers are paying for advertising. The giveaway event drives a lot of traffic to there site. For the amount they are paying they will get hundreds of hits and that will increase their opportunities to get paying advertisers on their site. As for Facebook. They have recently released a video explaining there rules. I haven’t watched it myself because I have never actually done a giveaway. (I am just a hobby blogger) but from what I understand as long as liking a page on facebook is not the mandatory entry it can be added as an optional entry.
I don’t know, this all sounds like a lot of work to me. I started a blog because I needed something that was just for me. All of the other stuff would ruin it for me and I would probably stop blogging if I had to worry about it.