Service Mixes Ads in Blog Chatter 

A new service would break down the walls between blogs' editorial and advertising content by matching up marketers and bloggers in a manner reminiscent of magazine advertorials.

The service, called Blogversations, is ostensibly designed as a way for bloggers to get paid to do what they've always done: carry on open-ended discussions with their readers about whatever they want to talk about. The difference is that Blogversations wants to find marketers willing to pay to sponsor the discussions.

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The sponsored discussions can "help marketers engage tuned-out consumers," said Umair Haque, one of the developers of Blogversations, which is based in London. "They let bloggers retain control of what they have to say. They give readers interesting, thought-provoking discussion to take part in."

In return for hooking up bloggers and advertisers, Blogversations gets a cut of the payment. Haque did not specify what size cut his company would receive but said that blogs with large readerships could conceivably be paid four figures for a sponsored conversation.

Blogversations comes along at a time when many people are up in arms about the increasingly blurry lines between editorial and advertising content online. Earlier this month, an online publisher criticized the popular blog Fark, saying it asked publishers to pay for prominent placement on its site. Also raising eyebrows in the media industry is a new service called IntelliTxt, which allows news sites to include paid-for links associated with keywords in stories.

There are some who are concerned that Blogversations will have a deleterious effect on the legitimacy of blog discussions. Although the company contends that marketers will not be able to tell bloggers what to say, only which topics to talk about, some feel the service is taking blogs down the wrong path.

"It's difficult to control the line between editorial and advertorials," said Rafat Ali of paidContent.org, a site covering the online media business. "If someone's paying you, it's very difficult to be objective about the whole thing."

Jeff Jarvis, who writes the blog BuzzMachine, feels the same way.

In "my judgment, this goes over the line," Jarvis wrote on his site. "It calls into question the blogger's credibility (would she be talking about this if she weren't paid to talk about this?). And it is contrary to the essence and appeal of blogs: I talk about what I want to talk about. Love it or leave it, read it or not, sponsor it or not, that's what bloggers do."

To Haque, though, there's no reason to be alarmed. Indeed, he argued that sponsored discussions can be a good thing for blogs and their readers.

"Ads are often costs that people are forced to pay in order to access content," he said. "Many traditional models start from this assumption. But what if, instead, ads are benefits? What if they engage people? ... We're not saying, 'Sell your blog space.' We're saying, 'Sell your insights, opinions and power to start discussion.'"

If that's the case, Ali thinks advertisers may find themselves regretting they gave a blogger money to talk about an issue without any attendant control over the content of the discussion.

"The fact of the matter is that it's very difficult to control what the blogger wants to write," Ali said. Conceivably, a blogger could accept the marketer's money and then use the discussion as an opportunity to bash the advertiser.

For his part, Haque said that would be bad business.

"That is a risk, but remember, obvious pointless abuse means the blogger probably won't get more sponsors," Haque said. "On the other hand, real criticism leads to great discussions."

Another problem for Blogversations could be the reaction of the blogosphere, which is famous for its attacks on anything that undercuts the veracity of blogs, bloggers and blogging.

But Haque thinks the blogosphere is a self-correcting space that can take care of itself.

"The great thing about the blogosphere is that it is a meritocracy," he said. "If we are pushing people to sell out, the blogosphere will know. Fast. It would be a pretty bad move for us. Lots of sponsors but no bloggers. So we don't want the (bloggers) to sell out. We want marketers to buy in."

Haque also believes it's unlikely Blogversations will be instrumental in breaking down the wall between blogs' editorial content and ads.

"I think it will be pretty transparent if a blogger who's pro-open source suddenly changes his opinion on a discussion sponsored by Microsoft. We don't want to break that wall. The power of blogs is the editorial."

Still, observers of online media like Ali aren't too bullish on the prospects for a model like that of Blogversations.

"There are too many human factors involved," Ali said. "It's an interesting experiment, but I don't think it will last very long."

Blogversations began offering its service this week. It has yet to match up any bloggers with marketers.

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More stories written by Daniel Terdiman