In the last four months I have been blogging almost everyday and still feeling good about writing and sharing things that I care.
Most of the professional bloggers who I know in this part of the world are not writing for profit. They, we, do it mostly for PR. But don’t get me wrong, PR doesn’t necessary mean promotion nor marketing. It is about engaging peers inside the professional circle. I call it the professional socialization in a literate way.
Image by Geek&Poke
The latest CNNIC’s statistic shows that, as of Dec 2007, blogger population in China has reached 47 million, writing about 72 million blogs. If we do a math for the minimum, say 50 daily page views, generated by the 72 million blogs, the number of total page views could add up to at least several billions.
From a business stand point, the total page views that represent a sizable online ad inventory, could be monetized for a sensible economics in theory. And the common business models in this region remain either PPC-alike or CPM-based advertising.
A Florida’s company “IZEA,” formerly known as PayPerPost, has invented a business model that hires bloggers, a.k.a. the posties, to blog promotional content on behalf of advertisers in exchange for a fee. Blog posts published by the PayPerPost posties are required to comply with a full-disclosure policy when an advertiser’s product is mentioned in the blog content.
I don’t want to comment the advertising effect. Just because the blogger is paid to blog an advertiser sponsored topic, it doesn’t mean it is a bad thing. For an ideal effect of second opinion marketing, if a blog post can induce positive participatory reaction, that’s a good marketing outcome.
Whether or not there will be bias brought into the blog content? Well, living in the world surrounded by advertising, as long as the tag “advertiser sponsored” is clearly spelled out, we believe most of the receptions will be mediated by selective retention.
IZEA will also roll out a new social marketing network called “SocialSpark.” It is said to be a social network where advertisers meet bloggers. I am wondering if this will also be the demand meets with supply in the social blogosphere.
Thanks for visiting this weblog. I am a digital marketer based in Hong Kong. After founding a marketing consulting company, merged it with a trade show company, and completed my tenure in 2007, I am blogging my insight and commentary for marketing and entrepreneurial experience. Now I am the Managing Director of 
