Pavan Katepalli had his ‘aha’ moment about blogs when he was running his second startup, a search engine marketing service.
In trying to expand the online marketing presence of one his clients, he discovered that bloggers hold a lot of power in terms of directing traffic and boosting visits.
After selling the SEM company—his first startup, by the way, was hatched while he was a Rutger’s undergraduate—Pavan then went on to found BloggersCompete.
The idea is simple: advertisers initiate a contest for bloggers, suggesting general themes to write about. Bloggers get exposure by being part of the contest, and the winner or winners receive cash, while runner-ups get some non-cash swag or other prizes.
Pavan, who I spoke to last week, will reject advertisers who are “too spammy”, and submitted blog content must be approved.
Contests typically last about 2 weeks or so, and the prize money ranges up to a few hundred dollars.
Anything that puts cash into the hands of bloggers is something I can get behind. Could this be the start of a trend? I’ve been seeing more content monetization startups recently— Readability, for example, channels money directly from readers to bloggers.
BloggersCompete, like other new wave content distributors, turns the traditional publishing model on its head. Essentially, Pavan is a publisher, a virtual one without all the usual bureaucracy, thanks to a crowdsoured blogger workforce (which gets paid, unlike another well-known virtual publisher).
In case you’re thinking, “what about the new FTC guideline on disclosure for bloggers?”, I did ask Pavan how he handles this. Brief background: In 2009, the Federal Trade Commission began to require that social media practitioners disclose any conflict-of-interests in their writing
Pavan told me that bloggers merely have to reveal that they are participating in the contest.
So far he’s got a few advertisers and a growing list of bloggers. It’s a site I need to review again in a few months.
And if they offer a contest on net neutrality or favorite travel web sites or 3D printers, count this blogger in.
Related articles
- BloggersCompete
- Readability: Micro-pay the Blogger (technoverseblog.com)
- Comply With the FTC’s New Disclosure Rules With Amusing Icons (mashable.com)
