The who, what, where and WHY??

Throughout this thesis, I will attempt prove whether blogs are considered a valid form of advertising. The outcome of this statement can have tremendous value for media buyers and planners as well as creatives in the industry. Blogs are not similar to any form of traditional advertising, and for this reason they are often overlooked when planning a campaign or media buy. They are part of a new era of social networking, a world existing purely online. Blogs are a new medium, and for the most part, are relatively unexplored. Without understanding this new medium, those in the industry put themselves and the products that they represent at a disadvantage. Blogs provide advertisers with an excellent opportunity to reach a devoted audience niche. As well as track responses to the advertising.

 

A new American Advertising Federation study on "Digital Media Trends" reports that 58% of "advertising industry leaders" said that they personally are "struggling simply to manage existing online efforts, let alone stay ahead of the curve.(Ochman, 2006)" This paper will attempt to show; the value of this medium, what its strengths are, and where its weaknesses lie for those in the advertising industry. Also of value to clients and creatives alike is how blogs originated, what they consist of today and where they are projected to go in the future.

 

The internet has expanded exponentially, every product and company and person needs to have his or her own website to survive. In turn, people are looking for a more personal internet experience. Blogs connect people with similar interests and cultural backgrounds; the perfect haven for targeted marketing. The problem with traditional internet advertising is the lack of personal connection the consumer feels towards banner ads and pop ups. Blogs give the customer targeted ads in a non-threatening environment. Blogs already have the reader’s attention and can deliver ad material that is relevant and interesting to the consumer. This devoted customer is something that few other methods of advertising can deliver. As a blog gets more popular it develops a devoted fan base, readers that come back daily looking for new material and as a result develop a relationship with the blogger. The relationship strengthens and continues to grow as both the reader and the blogger receive what they want out of the relationship. Even though many times bloggers and readers will never meet in real life, they build the foundation of a normal ‘real-life’ friendship including trust and accountability, the perfect base for advertising that targets specific niches and as a result resonates with the consumer.

So what do we have here?

The term blog is a combination of the terms web and log. Blogs are a personal website with content displayed in reverse-chronological order making it easy for the reader to see new posts. Blogging has been around since the early days of the Internet and has evolved along with changing technology, awareness, and cultural norms. Users can add text, pictures, videos, and animations to their ‘posts’. A post is constructed and then published on the site for anyone who visits the URL to see.

 

Blogging is a form of new media, and one that is far from reaching its potential. Quantity and quality of blogs are rising and audience members have limitless topics to choose from. In the United States alone, there are over 20 million bloggers, with 1.7 million profiting from the work, and 452,000 of those using blogging as their primary source of income (Penn, 2009). There are mass amounts of people looking to use advertising on their blogs as a way to support their love of writing. Bloggers are looking for the right products and services to pass along to their readers, and advertisers are only at the cusp of what they can offer to these devoted influencers.

 

Companies worldwide are looking for creative, high impact and accountable marketing; on the smallest budget possible. With concerns over the recession and its impact on marketing, a poll of 17,000 subscribers of Online Marketing Blog was run to discover intentions for digital marketing tactics in 2009. Poll respondents cast 1,559 votes for their top three digital marketing tactics (from a list of 45) for 2009. Blogging was at the top of the list with 34% of respondents planning to develop a presence on blogs, Micro-blogging i.e. Twitter was a close second having a response rate of 29%. Out of the top ten rated marketing tactics, six fell into the category of Social Media Marketing which includes pay per click advertising (14%) and blogger relations (12%)(Oden, 2009). The statistics show that blogging has not yet reached its potential, and it will continue to grow as more industry professionals take the plunge into the blogging world. Clients and creatives are only at the cusp of what social media can do for their product. Blogging presents a medium that conquers the two main downfalls of traditional advertising –reaching a specific target market and figuring out what that market is responding positively too.

Click Through the Clutter

Blog advertising can be done in many different ways. Most common are click-through ads for topics that pertain to the content of the blog, placed in sidebars and banners. The leader in this category is AdSense, a ‘contextual’ advertising program where bloggers simply add a piece of code to their blogs that help Google analyze what the page is about so they can serve ads on that topic. For instance, a blog written by a stay at home mom may have ads for Crayola products or Pampers diapers appearing in the sidebar and banner. The blogger signs up for this service and is paid based on how many people click on these ads. With click-through rates in traditional online advertising dropping, inexpensive blog click-throughs are as high as 1%. Advertisers are starting to appreciate the influencer constituency on blogs, where the “distinct advertising value of these audiences isn't their eyeballs, it's their mouths. (Ochman, 2006)”

 

When an advertiser buys an online ad, they can be sure that the number of people that they pay for will see it. If they buy 1mm impressions for a client, they can be sure that 1mm people saw the advertisement. As well, on top of the 1mm who saw the ad, they can track that X per cent actually took action after seeing that ad and clicked through to the client’s site. With the right analytics package, we can also work out how many people, who saw the advertisement, ultimately bought the client’s product or service. Agencies that have the capacity to spend less of their clients’ money but that do more work to show that they are spending it in the right places, will ultimately benefit from their clients’ permission to spend more of their money.

It's not what you say, it's who says it

Sponsorship or product endorsement on blogs is gaining in popularity as it proves its effectiveness. Blog advertising expenditures have grown 300% in the past year(Ochman, 2006) ,according to Henry Copeland, president of blogads.com, and blog advertising is still obscenely cheap. In fact, companies can make a really big dent in the market for $25-$75K.

Bloggers can write individual posts on their personal blogs endorsing certain products they have tried. Some high profile bloggers are known as “influencers” and are sought out to sample new products and create buzz about them. This is where the relationship the reader forms with the blogger is most conducive to compelling and effective advertising.

 An elite form of bloggers is a selection of individuals chosen for their influencing power. They are the people who are always ahead of the curve, the early adaptors or influencers in the words of Malcolm Gladwell. The early adaptors fall in love with an item before it gets trendy, they are the ones who know the band before it is famous, or wear their hair a certain way before everyone seems to be doing it. They do not do this on purpose but just seem to always know what the next best thing will be first. Influencers are highly sought after by companies looking to become that next best thing, because, reasonably, if they spark the interest of an influencer they have a great chance at becoming the next trend or cannot live without item. Brands search out influencers to review their products and spread the awareness of a new product. Unfortunately, magazine ads and television spots can easily fall into the clutter that is the current marketplace. On the other hand, influencers speak to a dedicated group of readers, looking for the next cool item or accessory.

 For some blogging influencers such as Raymi, of www.raymitheminx.com, a devoted fan base looks to her choices to model their own. Her blog garners over 4000 hits per day, which is high in terms of dedicated readership. When asked about how readers react to the things she promotes on her blog she replied, “the only way I find out if the thing I plugged was successful is by comments feedback and emails saying I bought that thing or I did that thing, ate that, changed my hair. I can also tell by the some odd 50 blogs out there that mirror my brand. When I cut my hair they cut their hair, when I wear that thing, they wear that thing. It doesn’t happen overnight, it isn't immediate (though sometimes is) it comes in waves. Sometimes I don’t link to a brand but I mention it and people go out and get it for themselves, all you have to do is say it and they do it, so there's no numbers click throughs in that regard.” Unfortunately, Raymi does not get paid for what she promotes and as a result can not precisely know how many people follow her suggestions and reviews and actually purchase an item. Her place in the marketing mix as an influencer can be of huge value to a company.

What makes Bloggers better then Britney

Celebrities have been a part of the advertising mix since Michael Jordan slipped on a pair of Nikes. Celebrities are a sub class of our society, who in turn attract a devout fan base. We ask them what they eat for breakfast and who made the dress they are wearing. We want to know what they know, in hopes of attaining similar status –however unlikely that might be. We look up to them to be a part of their coolness, to have a little piece of what they have and advertisers know this. This in essence is what an influencer consists of, or rather what they used to consist of. In the days of new social media celebrities are being replaced by more approachable influencers, bloggers. Raymi, from www.raymitheminx.com weighs in on how celebrities are being replaced by bloggers, “people don’t care what celebrities have to say anymore, or trust them, or are swayed by their ad campaigns. We relate to real normal people and can pick and choose our own mini celebs i.e. bloggers. Bloggers are granted front rows at fashion week and journalists get 2nd or 3rd back - we are more relevant and get news out quicker and our opinions bear more clout, influence.”

For advertisers this means that they can stop paying thousands of dollars for thirty seconds of a basketball player slipping on a pair of shoes and instead can send their product to a prominent blogger and watch their sales curve rise. Raymi knows the power that attaching her name to a product to sell things, “blogging right now IS the most cost-effective and powerful form of advertising. This is because the product is shown but what's priceless about it is that blogger that is adored and followed attaches their name and image, their influence sells it.” The difference between celebrities and bloggers are that bloggers allow their readers into their lives every day. An emotion bond is formed between the reader and the blogger as the reader reads about their life everyday. Thousands of readers may visit the bloggers site everyday, more then they interact with their own real life friends. This bond is not to be underestimated, especially when trying to sell a product through an icon that reaches so many people on a personal level.  

Let's Talk..

Bloggers often review products and services without being contacted by the affiliated company. They pick up something in the grocery store, and try it in the stir-fry that they cook that night or find a sale and buy a pair of jeans. They come home, they blog about what they did that day, if they were satisfied with their purchase, what the perceived value was, if they would buy it again. For a reader, this is akin to their friend buying something and telling them about it, the pros and cons, an honest and frank discussion. There is no money in reviews like these for bloggers, as they freely choose to devote a post to a certain product. However, for the product, this can lead to more awareness, more hype and the consumer goes into the purchase knowing what to expect. Every product has some negative attributes (price, quality, availability) and consumers can weigh this into their purchase decision before they set foot in the store, and ultimately will be happier with their purchase. Happier customers, free advertising, is there a downside to unsolicited blog advertising? A negative review can have the same effects of an unhappy customer. Consumers are more likely to verbalize and pass on negative experiences and the same goes for online reviews. Online these experiences are amplified as thousands of people read them, and take these words to be truth. After all, they are from a source the reader trusts to tell them the positive as well as the negative.  In my own experience, I have read very few negative online reviews as most times if bloggers are taking the time out of their day and their readers day to read something, it is a positive experience they want to pass on to others. 

A Package!

When a company sends a blogger a product, they expect an open and honest review. A common myth about blog promotions is that the blogger will rip the product apart and create a negative association. This simply is not true if the appropriate product is given to the right blogger. Everyone enjoys getting free things and this is what a company can offer the blogger. In the following product review, Panty by Post sends blogger Zoeyjane of www.mommyismoody.com an example of what they offer customers when they sign up for their service. Her review is as follows… 

When Panty By Post offered to send me a sexy something in the mail to review, I was excited. I mean, come on, how exciting is it to get something naughty that wasn’t delivered by a potentially perverted UPS guy? Add to it the fact that underwears are my most favourite (and coveted) fashion staple and you’ve got me waiting by the mail box every morning with bated breath.

They send me these perfect-for-my-style bad boys:

Silky, lacy, sheer in the back, feminine and practically naked on the sides. I could walk down the street wearing these and mom jeans and still feel like my butt was the hottest thing, ever. These champagne panties made by Blush even got the good old single eyebrow raise from the volunteer.

The great thing about Panty by Post’s service is that what you get is a surprise.

When you sign up (or buy a subscription as a gift), you select your size and style, and then once a month for the duration of the subscription, there’s a surprise panty waiting in your mailbox in a super cute little box.

They have everyday and bridal collections, various cuts and colours and simple S-M-L sizes for you to choose from when you’re selecting either a 1, 2, 3, 6 or 12 month package.

From Panty by Post’s website:

We believe that beauty radiates from within. Like the first sip of your favourite glass of red wine or a particular song that connects you to a feeling, what we wear underneath speaks words on the surface. Let our panties tell your stories.

I want more! I want en entire collection of French panties. Size small, thank you. PS. My birthday is December 10th, if you really want an occasion to buy me something hot.

The review is simple, honest and directly tells the customer why this product is relevant to them. When the blogger outlines why the product is beneficial to them, the reader will also be able to see this point of view. The product becomes more personal, more of a friendly recommendation instead of one of a hundred different ads in a magazine. All for a much lower price then buying ad space in a newspaper, magazine, television or ambient.

For another example of a blogger receiving a package to review: Raymi gets a package from O.B. tampons. 

The proof is in the numbers...

As blog advertising is a relatively new medium there are limited sources giving out information on the return on investment. As well, one must keep in mind that simply measuring click-throughs is not an accurate representation of the whole package that blog advertising offers a client. Leaving a positive impression on a customer and a helpful recommendation is impossible to measure on the Internet.

 To clarify, a clickthrough is the number of times a link is clicked, and the visitor is re-directed to a new web page, it tracks the ISP number in order to count each unique visitor to the site. A referral counts the number of unique visitors who arrive at this new page, starting out on one specific page. Referrals track visitors coming to the advertised site from the blog or website that featured the product, reviewed it or simply had an advertisement on their page. Using tracking sites such as statcounter a blogger can know where a person entered their site, what site they came from, what they clicked on when they arrived, how long they visited for and even the specific ISP of the reader. These site are valuable for bloggers as well as advertisers because they can track specific moves readers make and give a form of feedback for what is attracting the most attention.

 The following example looks at a technology review blog, two news sites, a forum, and a portal that all carried the same banner advertising on their site. These sites were the top five highest contributors to referrals for the advertiser. Of the total traffic resulting from the advertising News site A sent in 39.05%, News site B sent in 23.88%, Technology review blog 19.33%, the forum site sent only 11.56% and the portal 6.19%. In order to gain a better understanding of these numbers it is important to keep in mind that not all sites have the same amount of traffic. For example, News site A had 192 times more monthly page views then the technology blog, so even though the technology blog had half of the amount of referrals this is still a good rate for the blog as they have significantly less readers.

 Once the readers are re-directed to the new site it is important to look at the number of pages they view and how much time they spend on the site. This tells the advertiser the quality of the people that are being referred from the advertisement. The more pages they view and the longer they stay on the site means the advertising led to a better match from the advertising to the consumer, or more matches of targeted customers.

Page Views per Visit

News site A - 2.17 page views

News site B - 2.06 page views

Forum - 1.78 page views

Portal - 2.64 page views

Technology Blog - 6.12 page views

 

Average Time on Site

News Site A - 2.24 minutes

News Site B - 2:38 minutes

Forum - 1:35 minutes

Portal - 3:07 minutes

Technology Blog - 10:17 minutes

 The technology blog drives more quality traffic because the readers actually use the referred site more. The figures above shows us 3 to 5 times more site usage by visitors coming from the technology blog.

 Bounce rates indicate the percentage of people leaving the referred site right away. The lower the bounce rates means the visitors are sticking to the site. When a visitor leaves the site right away, it could mean they accidentally clicked on the ad or were mislead to what they would gain from following the link. This can also be described as targeted traffic.

Bounce Rates

News Site A - 60%

News Site B - 60%

Forum - 75%

Portal - 56%

Technology Blog - 34%

 

How much money was actually spent by the advertiser on all five of the outlets for their advertising is unknown. From the limited data available, the blog received 2% of the total ad spending. Only including raw number to track the return on investment for this advertising they gained 19% of high quality traffic for only 2% of their budget. This is a fantastic return, especially for the quality of the readers who were referred to the new web site. This method of advertising lets the advertiser easily track where their dollars are best spent and what methods are working better then others. They can adjust and easily rearrange where they are spending their money to cater to the best return on investment. This is rarely found in other forms of advertising. 

(Study available here, from Yuga Tech)

What is the experience like for the client?

Buying advertising can be an overwhelming and scary experience for some clients. They wonder if it will work, what media to buy, when, and most of all; which half of the advertising is working.

Blog advertising has the ability to calm most of these fears. First of all, it is relatively cheap in comparison to other forms of advertising. For a couple hundred dollars, clients can buy ad space in an environment where their target audience is known to be. They are presented with a list of sites that cater to their target market, places that their ideal audience goes in their free time, and has developed a relationship with the blogger. The rest of the process (who clicked on the ads, how often, how long did they stay at the new site, did it lead to a purchase) is available to the client to look at in a concrete form. There is no guessing at how many impressions the advertisement had, there are statistics showing how many visitors the hosting site had, how many of those visitors clicked on the advertisement, any element the client wishes to know can be laid out before them in numerical facts. Stephen Bach, creator of the Dude where’s my weapons? tee shirts, recounts his experience buying blog ads. He raves,

“The ad went live at the end of March, and within a few hours, not only were we getting hits, we were receiving actual on-line orders! The entire ad was a direct link to our site. Simply by clicking anywhere on the image or copy, the reader is immediately directed to http://www.dudewheres.com, by logging into blogads.com, we are able to track the number of page views, AND the number of ‘clicks’ (the number of readers who click on the link to our site.) In one week, over 650,000 people saw our ad, and over 6,600 visited the site (about a 1% ‘click-through’). Out of that 6,600, we sold to 2% in one week, all for a $300 investment. (Copeland, 2004)”

Looking Beyond the Clicks

There is a new school of thought that is beginning to look at online advertising as something much greater then click-throughs. Although traceable and completely honest to the client the click through does not encompass the entire market gain the client receives. The actual return on investment from online advertising is likely 25 to 35 percent higher than most marketers believe because of the hidden (non-trackable) value of branding. A case study by Jupiter Media Metrix shows that

“the actual number of customers driven to web sites by online advertising is greatly underestimated by traditional click-rate metrics. Furthermore, when brand advertising programs generate synergy across all marketing channels, that number can grow significantly beyond what can be tracked," said Rudy Grahn, an analyst at Jupiter. (Pastore, 2001)

 As with all advertising campaigns, the positive results of online advertising can be placed into two different categories 1) a rise in brand awareness 2) an increase in sales. Blog and internet advertising can directly measure sales that are derived from specific ads, but as with all advertising is it near impossible to measure an increase in brand awareness resulting from specific advertisements. Blog advertising does offer the client an attentive audience that if matched appropriately to the product is likely to resonate with the consumer. 

The dollars and Sense

What to pay for advertising on blogs is somewhat negotiable and relies on a combination of factors. Bloggers may sell the space on their sites for a flat rate, or it may be available to purchase on a cost per click basis. If the blogger offers a flat rate the price is determined by two factors, the specifications of the ad (where the ad will be placed on the web page, how big it is, and how long it will be there for) combined with how many page views the blogger brings in a month. Raymi offers standard format advertising space on her blog (4000+ hits per day) for $60 one week, $110 two weeks, $175 one month, $450 three months. The cost of advertising on personal blogs is determined by the blogger themselves, and for this reason, the price ranges from a few dollars to hundreds. Some of the factors that determine what the blogger will sell their space for depend on many different factors like site traffic, the bloggers niche, ad placement and visitor demographics. A 50% increase is common for ads that appear when the page is first loaded (similar theory to front page above the fold in newspaper advertising)(Agarwal, 2007). If a company is interested in blog advertising it is common practice to request statistics on the site.  Common statistics include; how many visitors the site gets per day, how many are returning visitors, and how long they stay at the site. These statistics determine the estimate for the advertising space and the company and blogger can negotiate from there. 

 Advertising on blogs can have exceptional results. GMD Studios CEO Brian Clark, whose agency does work for Audi, stated that 29 percent of traffic to a site created as part of a recent Audi A3 campaign was generated by advertising on the BlogAds network. This 29 percent was achieved with just one-half of one percent (0.5%) of the overall media budget. (Hall, 2005) The advertising on blogs delivered Audi 29 percent of all responding yet took just on half of one percent of the budget to do so. When thinking about advertising as a means to promote your product it is important to include blog advertising in the media mix. This method is highly profitable, effective and extremely inexpensive for the return on investment. 

A click through break through

What makes an online campaign most successful is the same thing that makes every other campaign work. It needs to be relevant, attention grabbing, and interest holding. A fantastic example of using these elements in an online click through campaign was done to promote Karen Quinn’s new book Life In The Fast Lane. The ads were placed on blogs targeted to women, as the fiction book could be classified as ‘chick lit’. The funny one liner ads were placed in the sidebar of various blogs and led to a contest to encourage women to send in their experience of when they knew ‘they were living live in the fast lane’. The responses were sometimes turned into their own blog ads and the contest was an overwhelming success to gain publicity for the new book. “The one-liner entries describing women's life in the fast lane experiences fuel the ads on 20 blogs, where click thru rates as high as 1.7% are driving traffic to the contest. (Ochman, 2007)” The advertising was attention grabbing for the target market, the tone of voice resonated with the customer, which is what differentiated these ads from many of the others online. The ads were easily placed on blogs where the ‘chick lit’ loving target market would be sure to frequent. The ads were simple yet clever and most importantly spoke directly to the audience it was trying to capture. A rare example of an enjoyable banner advertisement.

Influencers in the City

Offering a blogger a free product or service to review has many benefits for both the blogger and the client. The blogger puts their influential stamp of approval on the product and the audience absorbs this. They can also answer questions the audience or readers may have had about the product that can only be answered by trying the product. It may also provide a way to promote the product or service to more people without having to pay for traditional advertising space. An example of this was when the hair care line Schwarzkopf Professional introduced Essensity In the City, a free hair styling and make up application to bloggers in the city of Toronto (the service was also available to non-bloggers, on a first come first serve basis). The bloggers were invited to visit the salon and have their hair washed and styled using the Essensity products as well as have their make up done by a professional. This was a great opportunity for Essensity to gain awareness about their new line of products as each blogger raved about how well the products worked. For example, Raymi plugged the products by saying, “This is good stuff. My hair has zero volume because the length pulls it down quite a bit plus my ramones/tiger lily part and the overall fineness. Point being, my hair has volume still today after sleeping on it thanks to this…and this line of product is the most as organic as possible thing out there, pretty natural, less harsh on the environment and on your hair.” The appointments booked up one day after the bloggers visited the salons, as there were so many positive responses from the readers. One of the other bloggers, who uses the screen name Sass at Zucket.com, blogged,

“You like?

Now your turn!

For EVERY MONDAY from now until October 26th, book your ESSENSITY appointment for a FREE WASH, DRY, STYLE, MAKE UP and PHOTOSHOOT.

Tell your girlfriends, it’ll be a treat. Cuz why not?

Y’know every Monday is a give a babe whiplash from phwoar-damn-girl-you-look-good day.

Tell ‘em zucket sent you for your pampering sesh.

Sass Does Essensity in the City

Raymi Does Essensity in the City

La Fin

In a society where online social media is becoming integral to each individual person, advertising must follow suit. In order to be relevant to the consumer, advertising must speak in the same medium as the customer is listening in. Advertising strives to be original, interactive, more then just a brand. Online blog advertising offers this and more to clients.

 

Click through advertising offers clients trackable data for each ad space they buy. It can tell them how many people saw the ad, how many clicked on it, how interested it was, how long they stayed there. This sort of data is new to the advertising world. It was always known that half the advertising dollars were wasted, now we can track which half (and when it started to be a waste, and for what reason). This data opens up new worlds of exploring how consumers interact with online media, and the proof is in the numbers. Blog advertising offers effective clients the chance to put ad space in specific niche markets so it can be certain the target market will see the ad. Effective banner ads are few and far between but as more creatives are actually putting thought into creating them, the better they will become. The medium is new and the groundbreaking ads are on the horizon.

 

Bloggers offer clients the ability to take their product and showcase it in the hands of a trusted spokesperson. Bloggers build up a network of people with similar interests, and tastes. They become more then an abstract online persona, they become a trusted source of information. An influencer is someone a company always wants to spark the attention of and if that influencer has an online following they will be of great value. For the cost of one product a company can send the blogger their product and watch the hits to their website increase as well as the mind share of the customer. Once a product is in their hands they are just like every other customer, except their voice is louder and thousands of people tune in to read it. A blogger is not a spokesperson for any company, they are a customer and friend first. This is the reason their opinion is held with so much accountability.

 

At the moment, blogging is an inexpensive way to get your product into the hands of influencers. There is no set up and tear down, display costs, no fonts to analyze, or building permits to contend with. In the short term future I foresee bloggers becoming more aware of what they can offer to products and as a result would charge more. It is important to realize that high profile bloggers with many returning readers daily are not readily available, so in turn the demand for them is high. It takes years to build up a following of readers and because of this they are sought out by companies looking to give their product an edge.

 

As more people read blogs for pleasure it is likely they will get their own space on the internet to record their opinions. This may change the supply and demand ratio but I feel that these social networks are ideal for companies to market their product in. The more bloggers the bigger the networks will become and the more power they will have as a whole. Writing words on a screen has never been cheaper and yet the generation y demographic responds more to this then any high cost billboard.

 

I look forward to seeing where blog advertising goes as it currently lies far below the surface for many ad agencies. In order to make an impact on the customer, advertising is always looking to be relevant, interesting, and speak to the consumer on a level they are familiar with. Blogs offer these key ideals as a platform for any advertising. If there are customers who would be interested in your product in a magazine, they can be found online. And most likely in a higher concentration and the ability to network the product if it catches their attention. An ideal situation for any product or service.

Bibliography

Agarwal, Amit. "Blog Advertising Rates: How Much to Charge Direct Advertisers?" Labnol. Blogspot.com, 22 Mar. 2007. Web. 21 July 2009. . 

Copeland, Henry. "Blog advertising ROI." Blog Ads. 7 Apr. 2004. Web. 17 July 2009. . 

Hall, Steve. "Weblog Advertising Yields Audi Dramatic, Cost-Efficient Results." Ad Rants. 30 Sept. 2005. Web. 5 June 2009. . 

Ochman, B.L. "Blog Ads for Author Karen Quinn's Contest Develop a Following." What's Next Blog. 1 Jan. 2007. Web. 14 July 2009. . 

Ochman, B.L. "The Value of Blog Advertising." Marketing Profs. 1 Aug. 2006. Web. 4 Aug. 2009. . 

Odden, Lee. "Blogging Top Ranked Digital Marketing Tactic for 2009." Business Blog Consulting. Online Marketing Blog, 21 Apr. 2009. Web. 28 July 2009. . 

Pastore, Michael. "Advertising ROI Lies In Branding, Not Clicks Or Traffic." Clickz.com. ClickZ, 25 June 2001. Web. 3 Aug. 2009. . 

Penn, Mark. "America's Newest Profession: Bloggers for Hire." The Wall Street Journal Business. The Wall Street Journal, 21 Apr. 2009. Web. 2 June 2009. . 

Yuga. "Better ROI on Blog Advertising." Yuga Tech Blog. Yuga Tech, 15 Jan. 2008. Web. 4 July 2009. .