BlogKits Matches Writers To Advertisers
Natali Del Conte
50 comments »
A company called BlogKits launched on Monday with the goal of helping to monetize the blogosphere. The company matches smaller-potato blogs to advertisers and provides a risk-free way for both to work together.
When most people begin blogging, it is not with the purpose of making a million dollars. It is because they have thoughts swimming around their head that they want to express in a public forum. But maintaining a blog takes money and I’d wager most new bloggers don’t know the best way to find advertisers to support their site.
One option is Google’s AdSense, which is a contextual pay-per-click model. Another is BlogKits, which only charges advertisers if someone actually makes a purchase. So if you’re reading a blog and you decide to click on the eBay ad, eBay will pay the blogger a percentage of your transaction. If no one ever clicks or buys anything from eBay through your site, neither you nor eBay will ever exchange money.
BlogKits costs bloggers nothing. They need only register their site.
“The reason this works in our model is because there are 50+ million bloggers out there according Technorati, 99 percent of which are what I call ‘low-traffic bloggers,’ or ‘real bloggers’ - people who are getting maybe 100 visits to their blog per day,” said Jim Kukral, founder of BlogKits. “That’s our target. These are people who started a blog because they want to write, NOT to learn how to be an expert marketer. We help them keep blogging, taking the confusion and difficult parts out of the whole ordeal, so hopefully they can concentrate on writing excellent content instead of worrying about making money.”
BlogKits is owned and funded by the Forge Corporation, a marketing firm, which is why the company has connections with such high-level advertisers in just its first week of business. Some advertisers already working with them include eBay, Starbucks, Buy.com, and StubHub. Kukral said that the company has already signed up a few thousand bloggers.
“The best is getting that email from them saying they have had AdSense on their blog for the past six months and made $10 total, then saying, ‘I’ve had the BlogKits ad on my site for three days and made $10 in commissions,’” Kukral said.
Good idea, however it doesn’t sound much more than a blog-centric affiliate network.
Any Internet marketer will know this to be true.
Interesting. How does maintaining a blog site require money? Does this mean after you get to level of traffic/popularity? Because I’ve got a WordPress blog that is free, I bought an $8 domain name and redirected it to the site - so far, I haven’t need to make a dime on it, but it’s new so I don’t know how it works when you’re at the point of high traffic. The CEO of the company, though, says they’re targeting lower traffic bloggers - do these blogs have large expenses, like hosting costs?
No less, it’s great to see alternatives to AdSense. These guys sound like they’ve got the contacts and experience to really offer something to bloggers. Very cool.
Oh yeah…more pennies on top of the pennies from Adsense…wow!
Well…tell you what lets wait and see….
“Interesting. How does maintaining a blog site require money? Does this mean after you get to level of traffic/popularity?” - Pat
I would imagine so Pat….people to administrate website, people to write…etc…makes for a more professional setup.
http://www.jollyjo.org
Looks like they simply signed up for an affilate program that allows sub-affiliates. Clever way to get a lot of sub-affiliates but nothing earthshaking. Bloggers take notice- you can do better just signing up for affiliate networks on your own.
This post is much too positive - after all it’s about a service with waaay to many open questions. My No. 1 question at the moment: they don’t mention anything about how and when they will actually pay you.
Then of course, there seems to be no way to exclude advertisements you don’t want on your site, the terms of service are very vague about how they determine if clicks were fraudulent and it’s the publisher’s (*my*) responsibility to prove that they were not (how do I prove that, ever… unless I am the one who clicked, in which case the click *was* fraudulent) etc. etc. etc.
If this post had appeared on any other blog, I would have suspected a pay per post “review”…
sounds a bit like performancing
As some of you pointed out, there’s already some cut by being under someone else’s affiliate program.
To make money from blogging, you need to work directly with a source.
I’m curious how the application is going to track sales. If they are sub affiliate of some other larger affiliate program, how do you know if you will get your cut. Can I select what ads appear on my web site? Who will send me the check?
The concept is similar to a service (primocart.com) I came across the other day. They work directly with vendors to help them setup a ecommerce store front. From what I read about them, vendors on this solution can opt products to be listed on a global marketplace.
What I really like about the Primocart’s demo is that the customer never leaves the blogger’s web site and does not affect the existing layout of a blog.
Blogkit, their idea is interesting but there is some questions remains that I’m leary of if.
I guess you could compare this to comissionjunction.com and other affiliate networks, but tailored to bloggers if you cut the fat.
Wait a minute, someone tell me the difference between this and an affiliate program. Yes, it also does sound a bit llike a performancing - who have just introduced a similar type program called “Network Ads”. This post is way to positive like someone else earlier said — there is a general feeling around the blogger’s world that there are already too many ad generated type posts, links and affiliated links on their blogs. Not too sure whether this is a good idea as it is easier said that done to have people click the link to purchase something. One of my preferences for buying something is that I will never buy it through someone else’s blog — I have many friends and blogging buddies that feel the same way. Great… lets all put yet another pointless ad link to clutter our already overpopulated blog.
Natali,
So why would someone as a blogger go with BlogKits and not just go directly with EBay or some other company and become an affiliate? Basically they are getting the same CPA deal.
Keep up the good work!
Jose El Papi Chulo
I just tried to sign up but backed out because their sign up page asks for my social security number under a non-secure page! With this being the age of tremendous phishing and other less than legit stuff… one would be an idiot to risk putting that in on a non https page. Is that an oversight? It won’t take long for those phishing guys to come snoop by their site to get tonnes of SS#, if they have not done so already. Good luck to those 1000s already signed up.
What does smaller-potato blogs mean? I have never heard that phrase before. It is for blogs that receive less traffic than the big ones?
@ Adrian, but the CEO says that they’re targeting the smaller bloggers who just want to write, not the ones that want to set up professional shops, I thought….
I can see how a higher authority blog would of course have expenses such as paying writers, designers/developers, etc. but I don’t know that any ad service like AdSense, etc. makes you enough money to really cover that kind of stuff. I could be wrong
Hi, I’m Jim, Founder of BlogKits. I can answer any questions, which I will do right now, or contact me directly anytime, info on site. Thanks to TC for the coverage. Natali is a pro!
MartinE said: “Bloggers take notice- you can do better just signing up for affiliate networks on your own.”
No doubt, you could do that, and every blogger should try that, but two points. 1. Regular affiliate networks are confusing and restrictive and do not offer specific blog designed creative (banners/text ads). We built our ads to fit in blogs that are understated and not all flashy/blinky… based on years of blogger’s feedback. 2. Not everyone wants to learn how to be an expert marketer. Most bloggers start blogs to write, they don’t really want to spend time figuring out how to make money.
Holger said: “My No. 1 question at the moment: they don’t mention anything about how and when they will actually pay you.”
Every 30 days, by check or PayPal, your choice. We’ll also be adding a pay to debit card feature in 07 you can use if you wish.
“the terms of service are very vague about how they determine if clicks were fraudulent and it’s the publisher’s (*my*) responsibility to prove that they were not (how do I prove that, ever… unless I am the one who clicked, in which case the click *was* fraudulent)”
We’re a full tracking affiliate network running on a widely known and trusted system used by hundreds of other reliable networks. As a publisher/blogger, you have nothing to worry about with fraud, you get paid if someone buys and we track the commission and pay you. Clicks have nothing to do with it. We pay on sales.
Fashion said: “sounds a bit like performancing”
Actually, Performancing is a marketplace where you can sell spots on your blog, they just recently announced a beta that is similar to what we’re doing for low-traffic bloggers who can’t sell any ads. Nick Wilson has a good product over there, but it’s different.
Jay said: “I’m curious how the application is going to track sales. If they are sub affiliate of some other larger affiliate program, how do you know if you will get your cut. Can I select what ads appear on my web site? Who will send me the check?”
We track sales through our affiliate network OfferForge. Each blogger gets their own account, and we track when a click happens and follow it through to the sale, then assign the appropriate commission to the blogger, instantly. Right now for simplicity we pool ads together in categories, but you can select just one advertiser in the advanced settings if you wish. The checks come from ForgeCorporation.
“I guess you could compare this to comissionjunction.com and other affiliate networks, but tailored to bloggers if you cut the fat.”
Yes, exactly. A few more key differences though, can be seen here: https://www.blogkits.com/about_inanutshell.html
Techman said: “Wait a minute, someone tell me the difference between this and an affiliate program.”
See link above, big differences in ease of use and the delivery of banners/text.
Jose said: “So why would someone as a blogger go with BlogKits and not just go directly with EBay or some other company and become an affiliate? Basically they are getting the same CPA deal.”
I’ll take that Natali! See answers above. Better blog type creatives and ease of use for bloggers who don’t want to be marketers.
The Foo said: “I just tried to sign up but backed out because their sign up page asks for my social security number under a non-secure page! With this being the age of tremendous phishing and other less than legit stuff… one would be an idiot to risk putting that in on a non https page”
BlogKits.com is totally secure. If for some reason the page isn’t loading secure, go ahead and put in https: yourself, but you shouldn’t need to.
Allen said: “What does smaller-potato blogs mean? I have never heard that phrase before. It is for blogs that receive less traffic than the big ones?”
Technorati says there are 50 million blogs or so, give or take. We argue that 99% of those are generating 100 page views or way, way less than that a day. Those are regular people who blog and would like a way to earn from their blog, at least something. Maybe just enough to get a cup of coffee. This is an option for them.
Last point: This has nothing to do with writing content to get paid, or reviews. We don’t do that.
From day one, they do have big names up there. I have signed up and lets see how it performs
It does take a lot to time and effots to maintain blogs and it does cost.
Time is money, apart from professional web hosting, etc
Nice concept, hope for the best.
Cheers!
Alpesh
Sounds pretty nice. I am gonna take a gander. I like these services and PayPerPost/ReviewMe b/c they give me fodder to write about.
I’ve seen similar services and use one from http://www.adsymphony.com. I wonder what makes this new and different from their service. For now, I’m stickikng with what I have.
Natili, go check out Commission Junction, Link Share, and countless others with dozens of companies waiting for us to join in. There are tons of ways to post affiliate/commissioned links, including Amazon. Nothing unique here except they put ‘blog’ in their name. Just one more company to give your social security number to and hope they keep it safe…
Natali,
you failed on your homework again. Blogkits has been around for at least 18 months, if not longer (and Jim longer than that). The program has been relaunched, not launched at this time. I guess collective memory of the past isn’t TechCrunch’s strong point. Just promise you wont write a post with “new thing called blog launched”
Hard to beat the ease of use and analytics of Google Adsense. I think an interesting market will be the contextual links that are embedded in the body of the blogs. Easy read and easy for the reader to click on keywords that of actual relevance rather than click on a Google Ads located in the sidebar.
http://davidchao.typepad.com
Duncan, It’s completely new, and original. I ran private consulting through the name before I sold it to Forge Corporation who funded it and turned it into a fully tracking network (which is never was), so it is new, totally. Give Natali a break, all that’s old is the name. lol
@Zatz, Take a look at our site and read it a bit. We’re different from CJ and Linkshare in many ways. Ease of use and blogger type creatives the two biggest.
This whole blog advertising is starting to get crowded. Hopefully one of these guys will step up and make it easy for the average blogger to get ads going. The only thing I dont like about PPP is that the advertiser can choose how they want the review, negative/positive. If they would just take that out then it would be a fine service, the SEO’s dont even care if its positive or negative anyways.
Anything new? Or it’s just another kind of affiliate network. But as most bloggers may not know much about Amazon’s affiliate, maybe this could be an easy way for bloggers.
Mike
http://www.hotcoding.com
Ok, I have been working with cpa ads since they began about 10 yrs ago so I thought I would take a look at this. I posted my thoughts and questions for Jim here:
http://www.centernetworks.com/blogkits-review
The net result is that I think what is posted above feels more like a press release than a review because I just don’t get it. Yes, there are a couple nice new formats for blogs, but other than that what else? I agree with Holger #5.
Jim, I hope we get a chance to chat so maybe I can become more positive about your service.
Let’s chat, anytime, sent you an email.
What’s new about this? The only difference between this service and an established network like Linkshare is that they focus their marketing on blogs rather than coupon sites.
Smaller blogs will make a lot more money from adsense ads than any affiliate relationship.
I’m glad I reread the article. I’m not a big fan of only being paid for real estate on my site if somebody makes a purchase. An advertiser’s site might not be set up properly or carry merchandise to motivate the buyer - yet the advertiser still gets a presence? I wouldn’t work that way, not with other options out there.
I think that part of the “genius” (for them) comes from looking at who this really targets, despite claiming the “small-potato” blogs. Who’s really the target market? The blogger themselves? Probably. Isn’t this a creative way for opt-in marketing, or at least a part of it?
Wouldn’t most people get excited about only wanting to blog and then having a company say something like, “we want to advertise on your site”? Everyone loves attention, especially bloggers.
And besides, the less traffic, the more likely that there is a relationship between the writer and the reader.
Whether it flies or not, I’ll give them one thing. They know their target market.
Very interesting Service* I first became interested in Earning Money Blogging when I read Eric Giguere’s Make Easy Money With Google Adsense http://www.memwg.com - one thing i’ve learned is Traffic is key for programs like AdSense*
I was also interested in Qmana which allows U to tailor the Ads that appear on your Blog & Jellyfish & others that catered to the Small Potato Long Tail portion of the Blogoshere*
Haven’t found the Magic Bullet yet*
I will pop over to BlogKits tho cuz i’m still a believer in Blogs creating a New Economy whereby anybody can Earn a few Decent Honest Dollars*
So in Addition to the Starbucks Cup of Coffee folks can Earn I’d like to seem them be able to Eat one of their Expensive Cakes or Desserts too!!
Cheers! Billy ;))
This seems like a good idea for bloggers with no intention of expanding their blog to thousands and millions of readers.
For those bloggers with the above ambitions, let’s network. I am craving a platform which can equally expose bloggers to a larger audience. I just don’t think it exists yet, and if it does, let me know.
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