I usually just hit “spam” and never hear from them again. Other times I will quote them a price for buying advertising on my site.

It really annoys me when a big corporation like the Travel Channel asks me for a blog post, yet never in a million years would they return the favor. Their view of working with the blogging community is sort of a one way street: what can you do for me?

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Hear hear!

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“Would these companies contact the likes of the Guardian or Times, with this trash, no, they would not.”

I think they would. And i think they might have more success, too.

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Darren, I’m shocked by what you’re describing. I’m having a completely different experience here in Canada. I am finding the PR people who approach me are very respectful of what I’m doing–I think my disclosure statement helps a lot–and that they are open to us finding mutually satisfactory arrangements. I haven’t had the experience of being asked to load up my content with keywords or anything like what you’re describing. Since my site focusses only on Canada travel, I wonder if this is an example of cultural differences?

You know what would be helpful though, is an “industry standard” rate for blog posts. In the old days freelance writers knew what to charge per press release, or per word, or whatever. There’s not yet an established rate for blog-length editorial content or blog-style corporate projects. I’d be interested to know if you’ve been approached to do this kind of thing and what you think is an appropriate fee?

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Darren, I believe in mutual benefit. The situation which you describes appears to benefit the PR & SEO companies and their clients a lot more than the blogger, which isn’t right. Running two travel blogs is now my full time job, so I need to see a financial return for the time and effort I put into these travel blogs.

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I was actually offered money to publish those kinds of articles, and I also declined. I’m completely ok with advertising, but completely against advertorials.

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@julie – impossible to put together. and very un-Web 2.0.

too many blogs, too many writers, far too much difference in quality.

and who decides such an “industry standard”?

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Bloggers are seen as a cheap and quick way to get links.

Send an email to a group of them and half will write for no payment.

Why would pay when we can get the links and publicity for free?

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Derek, are you not bothered about the quality and ranking of the travel blogs on which you can get free links and publicity?

Bloggers, take heed, don’t be cheap especially if your are writing a quality travel content.

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The agency I work for has a spreadsheet of bloggers in different industries who we know will write about our clients without any form of compensation. The majority of our clients want us to simply increase the number of links.

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I run a website about Manchester, England and welcome the attention I get from organisations and PR firms who contact me to promote their events. My situation is slightly different in as much as they are mainly requests to promote arts and cultural events and I have been able to help in each and every case. This is because it adds value to the website for my visitors. Additionally, I do struggle to produce fresh content as often as I would like to and the information that is sent to me is very helpful. I have only once been asked by one major corporation to support their event and I did so for free. The article I wrote drove lots of traffic to my site and did not take long to produce. I have now have a contact in a large London based marketing firm who knows me. Although its debateable as to the value of this sort of contact, this sort of networking can be mutually beneficial if it works.

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As long as bloggers and other new media producers continue to wage price-wars, the marketers will continue to drop prices. Things are further confused by the value each type of media gives.

Are SEO links really the value in a well-written blog?
What happened to brand opportunities and display style advertising?
Are we teaching advertisers to look too closely at metrics and not enough at value?

I think it’s unfortunate that companies will throw tens of thousands at producing a radio ad and having it blast to an un-attentive audience then not spend that on a podcast. Hundreds of thousands on TV production and placement, but not give 1% of that to a successful video blogger.

While I understand the need to look at click-through ratings and PageRank, I also think the advertising market needs to remember that quality counts for a lot, and brands associated with good sites in their niche are likely to be remembered when it comes to their organic and paid search results.

So, Darren, I agree with your anger in people asking for free publicity — but it’s always been the way and does sometimes work in the publisher’s favour. I’m more concerned about the reductionist way we conceptualise online advertising as it will only lead to poor quality publications for the consumer as sites cannot pay for quality writers, photographers and designers with $5 linkbait invoices.

Disclaimer: We sometimes publish material from agencies, but they go through the same vetting and editorial process our other authors do. They must also identify themselves as company representatives in their biographies. Most requests are refused.

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Last week I received a nice email offering to pay $5 a month for a banner with six links in it. This was for a hotel comparison site in Australia but it came via the agency. I have seen this ad on many blogs and the same text links in the banner.

It is shocking that people sell themselves so short.

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Well it looks like the FTC is taking some moves to fix that problem – Jeff Jarvis writes a good piece on the pros and cons here: http://www.buzzmachine.com/2009/10/05/ftc-regulates-our-speech/

When done well, PR & SEO work well for everybody. But I do agree with Darren’s frustration (which I recognise from my time as a blogger) with lazy PR firms and SEO link builders who at best add no value, and at worst are simply spammers. – obviously this applies to none of the good people here!

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This news spotted by Jeremy Head (travelblather.com) about commercial relationships between companies and bloggers now being banned. Haven’t dug deeper into the enforcement mechanisms or legal frameworks but it seems appropriate to your rant yesterday.

http://blogs.forrester.com/marketing/2009/10/the-end-of-marketerblogger-relationships.html

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I hear your frustration and you are right to kick back. But, the statement “These PR and SEO agencies get paid a lot of money from their clients” is not always true. One of the biggest challenges agencies have is educating clients. Many clients believe SEO and now Blogging/PR/SEO is a cheap method to generate lots of business, completing ignoring the fact that to achieve success in paid search or natural search requires time and money all the way down the chain.

You are right to push back to the agency, but don’t tar them all with the ‘loaded’ brush – the smart ones will work with you to find a solution that works for every person in the chain.

For reference, I worked in agencies for years, running social media campaigns.

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If I were looking a travel company or hotel and looking to hire a SEO or PR company and pay a huge fee to them to market our brand, I would be shocked and annoyed to think they would approach the blogging world to do it for free. You should see what some of these companies charge!

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Actually I’m not that shocked really. Content is often lifted and plagiarised on the web. Could be why we use our own copywriter. Good topic though Darren.

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Darren…. it’s time to rethink the relationship between bloggers, their audiences and economics. My take: It’s time for bloggers to start working with Destination Marketing Organizations, Visitor and Convention Bureaus, regional tourism marketing organizations and requesting a high rate of pay for valuable content.

Dropped a few thoughts on my blog about this before reading your post.

A good conversation.

Thomas Power’s link on disclosing marketer/blogger relationships is a non-issue the way I see it. Getting the stories out is what matters. Newspapers have been paying their team of reporters for years and the credibility or value in the stories produced is widely accepted. Bloggers are simply the multimedia travel writers of the day and good content should be rewarded.

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Todd, I have approached European DMOs on numerous occasions and am sometimes ignored. Yet my blog Europe a la Carte, which has good ranking, focuses on the best places to visit in Europe. So Darren, I haven’t been waiting for DMOs to call, I’ve been knocking at their door but some still need a wake up call.

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“So, Darren, I agree with your anger in people asking for free publicity — but it’s always been the way and does sometimes work in the publisher’s favour.” …continued…

I fully agree that you should push back on all crap content, but sometimes the material is good. I also think people should be willing to pay for publicity and certainly for SEO. Here’s a case where a story worked in our favour:

We were approached by an agency working on behalf of a tourism board in the States. They had a couple of good angles they wanted to explore with us and see if it would fit with our editorial direction. They knew our market (and love of wine) and we ended up with a good story on Western Colorado’s wine country that we wouldn’t have got from any of our current paid or guest authors. The post got a few comments, which is a good sign to us, and was popular on stumbleupon and twitter.

For this one example, we’ve pushed back dozens of requests with sub-standard writing; over-zealous or off-target linking; or people who have written well, but refuse to acknowledge they have a commercial stake in the post. What do people think? Should we have charged the visitors’ bureau when they are already paying an expert writer’s paycheck? I certainly don’t charge bloggers for guest posts, and they link to their own pages when appropriate.

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@ Todd Am I reading you correctly: you’re suggesting location-specific bloggers syndicate their posts to a DMO’s site for a fee? Or that the DMO should pay to provide articles on a blog?

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Craig, My perspective is along the lines of Spotted by Locals. Employment and engagement of bloggers at the local level is what I advocate for. Sort of like having a local columnist for a city newspaper. The question of DMO’s paying per post…. no, I don’t think this is a good idea.

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Very funny,
Hiya Darren allow me a smirk please… I’m a travel agent based in a European country and got to your website with a link to one of your previous blogs about travel agent fees for quotes. I was very impressed with the quality of the responses, so much so that I’ve bookmarked your link (hope you don’t mind)…
now to explain my mirth…
it sucks, doesn’t it when you think you’re doing a good job of whatever your job is and then comes along someone who thinks that your time and effort is free to take for their advantage… your feelings and reactions are legitimate and believe me so are all the travel agent’s the world over… but never mind, the PRs and SEO agencies will go where they get the cheapest deal, to bloggers who
“are partly to blame. Some will sell ad space and write fluffy review posts for the price of a bag of chips, so it’s assumed that we will all so the same. These PR and SEO agencies get paid a lot of money from their clients.”
Now I see you understand what is happening in the travel industry the world over…
Carry on blogging, with your foot in the other person’s shoe, it helps to understand

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