In recent years, blogging has become an industry in itself. Far from just being a space where someone can write and connect with like-minded individuals, brands and cultural/artistics events have recognised the potential for connections with blogs and their authors. Forging relationships with a community of bloggers means that there is more exposure for a brand, and also a chance for bloggers to get behind campaigns they feel mean something to them and their readers. So it is a natural progression for a platform such as e-buzzing to become a point of contact between brands and relevant bloggers. There are important ethics to consider when blogging about a brand or a campaign. E-buzzing is aware of the issues that can cloud the trust between bloggers and their readers – they expect transparency and honesty from the people who are part of their blogging platform, both blogger and client.
It is easy to feel wary in the murky world of the internet, particularly when there are advertisers who may want to pay for a space on your blog, or platforms which monetize your blog using ads. It is difficult to feel like such content can be part of a personalised blog, which may be your diary, journal or part of a community. You may not want to monetize your blog in this way and would rather be able to choose what you put on your blog and what you are interested in. Sometimes an article will pop up on your favourite blog that advertises something and you’re not sure whether to trust that opinion if it has been paid for. Maybe you’re stuck in a dilemma because you would like some extra money but feel obligated to give a good review for something which you don’t actually like. This is where blogging platforms such as ebuzzing step in – they act as a go between, listing all the articles you can take part in, leaving it up to you to pick and choose what most appeals to you. The genius is that you don’t have to take part in a campaign if you don’t want to, therefore keeping your blogging community and yourself happy.
With ebuzzing, writers get to do what they do best – write! Ebuzzing provides you with a few paragraphs and links and it is up to you to interpret the information and present it in a way that is in keeping with your blog and writing style. All posts need to be clearly marked as a sponsored post in order to maintain transparency and a strong sense of ethics. Occasionally, you may get a chance to write about a brand that inspires you but which you don’t get paid for – perhaps a charity or humanitarian cause you believe in. Using your blog in this way means that you build relationships with brands that you find inspiring, as opposed to random articles or ads you are not sure about.
When you want to take part in a campaign, you sign up and 72 hours to write it before submitting it to the e-buzzing team who will then check the article follows the criteria and information required by the brand. It is then validated and you need to publish the article on your blog. The money you receive for the article takes around 30 days to clear, then it is processed securely through PayPal. It is a secure and professional way to write articles, something that has helped me to feel more confident with article writing. It is a good way to both earn some money and become a better and more practised writer, as well as spreading the word about something interesting to the wider blogging community!
If I had the chance, I would love to take part in a campaign for Moleskine – their notebooks are brilliant. They are just the right size for me – they fall open flat without a need to bend the spine, the lined notebooks have lines just the right size for my writing, and the paper is perfect for fountain pens and ink. I would write an article and use twitter and facebook to get people interested in the brand – and since the notebooks have my stamp of approval, hopefully I would get more people feeling passionate about them! Social networking is often the best way to get people talking about brands. The limited edition notebooks are my particular obsession – at the moment they have a snoopy and friends edition and also a Pacman edition, whilst in April they have The Little Prince editions being released. It would be an honour to write about such wonderful notebooks and the ethos behind them!
If writing articles about brands that inspire you and events that enthuse you seems exciting, then you can register with ebuzzing now – just go to their website and set up an account. You can then set up what subjects you want to blog about and wait for your first campaigns to become available!
Cats and Chocolate 