by Alicia Navarro

Online journalism has become a vast grey area created by the blend of black and white extremes of objective content and commercially-driven content.  We all want to be confident that what we read online is in fact as authentic and objective as possible, but we also know that everyone needs to pay the bills, which means that online content is likely to somehow have a degree of commercial influence.  While users may at first be sceptical that monetised content can be trusted, it is in fact possible to be ethical in this grey area.  Monetised content can be authentic, and with honesty and disclosure, publishers can retain the trust of their users and still make money.

Online journalists are increasingly pressured to bend to commercial pressures as it’s these advertisers that pay their salaries. The newspaper business has been in sharp decline both in print and online, and with ad revenues severely down all-around, newspapers and editorial web sites need a new way to make money.  As a result, online journalists are increasingly encouraged to write sensational content that drives page impressions to their banner and text ads, or commercial content that encourages readers to purchase from advertisers’ sites.

The nature of editorial content has also evolved over the past few years, with professional journalism suffering in the face of citizen journalism and blogging, as well as a seismic shift towards social media and crowd-sourcing for obtaining news and information. In the United States, Facebook has become more popular than Google.  Additionally, a recent study by PRWeek/PR Newswire revealed that 52% of bloggers consider themselves journalists, but only 20% of them receive the majority of their income from it.

With decreased readerships, lowered perceived value of professional journalism, and a plethora of competing options, the ability to rely on just banner advertising is nearly impossible for most editorial sites. This leads to temptations to accept pay-per-post and other paid sponsorship deals, and putting pressure on them to find ways to monetise their content ethically.

Can these competing demands be balanced? Some would say no; that the second you are paid by someone you can no longer be objective about what you write about them. However, most journalists and editors I have met care deeply about their content, and how it is perceived by their readers. They work hard to write content that is true to their audience, but where appropriate, focus on retailers and advertisers that they do objectively like and with whom they have commercial relationships.

Affiliate marketing is a particularly effective way to approach this balance. Editors write about products and retailers they like, and as most prominent retailers have affiliate programs, sites can earn affiliate commissions without having to approach the process in the same explicit commercial way as pay-per-post can be. Also, affiliate marketing is publisher-led, rather than advertiser-led in the way that pay-per-post can be, so editors are still in complete control of whom they write about and what they write about them, making it significantly more possible that they can write objectively on the subject.

If editors ever do get too tempted to wax lyrical about an advertiser who is paying them, the most powerful policing technique will be applied to them: reader loyalty. Readers are the best judge of the authenticity of an editor’s voice and won’t return to a site if they feel the content is overly commercial in its nature. It’s better to be honest about a product and not earn an affiliate commission but keep the loyalty of the reader, than get a sale but never get the reader back again; and editors can take one more step to take to ensure complete transparency with readers, and this is to disclose how they monetize their site.

Disclosure is key to building a loyal readership. Besides being part of the FTC guidelines for blogs and editorial content, it is also good practise to be honest to your readers about where your income comes from and how this might influence your objectivity. There are some great examples of how disclosure can be done in a way that is honest but won’t scare your reader base– check out Scott Jangro’s disclosure statement and Shawn Collins’ on his affiliate marketing blog AffiliateTip.

What this boils down to is that editors and bloggers have to take responsibility for the integrity of their content and for finding a balance between writing objectively and writing commercially. It is possible to navigate this grey area between objectivity and subjectivity; and moreover, it is necessary if we want quality content written by professional journalists or talented bloggers, and we don’t want to pay cash to read it.

Alicia is Skimlinks’ CEO and Co-Founder and you can find her on Twitter: @alicianavarro

With recent reports that the number of Facebook visitors has overtaken Google’s, there’s no doubt that fellow social media heavyweight Twitter is close behind.

Twitter is gaining an increasingly dedicated following which presents some interesting opportunities for you to monetise your Twitter activity without paying Twitter to advertise.  If you’re ready to start earning from your tweets, here are some important guidelines to follow to stay true to the twitter spirit.

Here are Alicia’s top 5 ‘Do’s’ and ‘Don’t’s:

DO – Build Up Your Tweeting Credibility

The better the environment surrounding your tweet, the better response you will get.  For anyone starting out, the first step is to grow a loyal following that actually cares about your tweets and wants to listen to what you have to say.  You can build a good foundation by tweeting informative, interesting things that your audience will care about, with content that stays true to who you are and message you want to portray. Tweet well, and you gain their trust.

DON’T – Get Involved in Paid Tweets or In-stream Ads

If you really want to, you can get paid for tweeting about certain companies and products, but paid tweets and ads you can’t control can damage your credibility if they’re off topic. When you lose editorial rights, even if it’s just for one tweet, you lose your integrity, and the followers will…well…follow.

DO – Direct People to Your Blog

If you’ve written a great blog post about products with affiliate links, banner advertising or sponsorships, you can shout it out to all your Twitter followers with a link. It’s a great way to increase not only traffic to your blog; but also generate sales for the product, whilst taking your followers into an environment where they can have a longer conversation with you.

DON’T– Use Broken Links

Linking out to specific products with an affiliate link is a great idea, but the 140 character limit on Twitter doesn’t give you much space to include an entire deeplink, especially a lengthy affiliate link.  Don’t try and include the whole link – it won’t fit, and most likely get cut, resulting in a broken link. Remember to test the links before you hit enter: if your followers have trouble with your links, they’re less likely to click through again.

DO – Shorten Your affiliate link before you tweet

Always use a URL Shortener to create a shortened deeplink when recommending products on Twitter, or use a tool that monetises and shortens links in one click.  These tools are great not only because it leaves you more room to put in text to support your link, but they also come with reporting abilities so you can track the effectives of what you tweet.

You can see Alicia’s tips on YouTube and for more tips on Affiliate Marketing with Twitter, you can also check out ProBlogger’s Tips.

How are you monetising your Twitter stream?

Coming into GeeknRolla, I thought it would be like a lot of other tech events – the same people, same content… but Mother Nature switched things up.  Due to the volcano, there were people from all over the world stuck in London attending, and there were so many last minute changes to the agenda that the event felt very fresh and was full of new faces.

My first thought when I entered was “Woah! This is much much bigger than I’d anticipated!”  The crowd was surprisingly attentive and interactive, and the quality of the speeches was incredible too – they weren’t sales pitches at all, but rather really useful content from very smart experienced people. Just the way I like it.

After the morning and early afternoon flew by, it was time for my 15-minute presentation on the ‘The Trials of the US Funding Trail by European start-ups,’ or as I preferred to call it, “Why did the chicken cross the Atlantic?”

I really wanted to explore and share the philosophical and anecdotal reasons why European startups seek big-name U.S. VCs, and to see the degree to which the answer was just “To get to the other side” or whether there was more substance to the desire.  Our recent experiences taught us so much about the real value of U.S. investment, and the reasons one should seek it, which are different from the reasons we started thinking about. It was exciting to be able to share these learnings with the great crowd at GeeknRolla.

One of the highlights of the event was the highly amusing talk by Morten Lund (he was one of the founders of Skype).  He gave a very energetic and audacious talk that had the whole room in stitches with some language that wouldn’t fly in many offices, and very entertaining clips from “Californication” and “Entourage.”  Within the hysterics, he also reminded everyone of the need to focus, to do what they do best, and to appreciate that luck plays a major part in any successful business.

I also thought Andrew Scott from Rummble.com did a fantastic well-delivered talk about the top 15 do’s and don’ts in running a startup. He is a very good friend of Skimlinks so I am a bit biased, but even so, it was a well-received talk.

You can check out the presentations of me, Morten, and Andrew at TechCrunch (it’s the last video).

I was really glad to be able to meet with my good friend James Bromley, Managing Director for the Mail Online, as well.  He is easily one of the smartest people working in online content.

Overall, GeeknRolla was great as the attendants were from all ends of the spectrum: from VCs to Angels to experienced entrepreneurs to people thinking about starting a startup. I loved the diversity and energy.

What did you think of GeeknRolla?

Alicia is Skimlinks’ CEO and Co-Founder and you can find her on Twitter: @alicianavarro

I recently returned from SXSW Interactive 2010 and I am wiped… but I feel even more inspired and excited, and cannot wait to do it all over again next year. Below are the Top 3 things I learned in awesome Austin.

1. Much of the action isn’t in the actual conference, but in the serendipitous encounters in bars, the streets, and the lounges of the conference hall. It pays to say ‘Hi’ to everyone, you never know the person that could turn into an interesting lead or business contact. For instance, I met the lovely Eliane Fiolet from UberGizmo who came to watch my panel and got to attend The Flaming Lips concert with the very fun Josh Guttman from Surphace. Among many others, Evan Cohen from foursquare, SEO Whiz Tony Adam, and mediagazer’s Megan McCarthy were also a joy to meet.

2. SXSW is incredibly overwhelming as an event. I was warned, I knew it would be, but nothing prepares you for its enormity, breadth, richness…. for someone like me that likes to be in control and experience everything, it can be very distressing to attend, until you give up both these expectations, and just go into a zen-like mode of absorbing and accepting what happens to you at SXSW. The Spotify keynote would have been great to attend, although as one of my British friends said, “the one thing I took out of that talk is how little people in the US know about Spotify.”

3. Americans are much lovelier and more fun than they are perceived in Europe. I’m so grateful for the hospitality, humour, and inspiration given to me by fellow entrepreneurs in America. Sarah Prevette from Sprouter.com and Dan Martell from Flowtown.com were particularly welcoming and helpful, although they are Canadian so this doesn’t necessarily prove my point! Also thanks to the ever gregarious Lewis Howes who seems to know everyone. I am glad to have had this eye-opening experience, and look forward to more encounters with the American family!

Alicia is Skimlinks’ CEO and Co-Founder and you can find her on Twitter: @alicianavarro

It all looked like a proper conference. Walking into the Kensington Olympia Conference Centre on Monday this week, I was greeted by rows of booths; filled to the brim with marketing gimmicks, compulsory LinkedIn lanyards, iPhone twiddling yuppies and an atmosphere so thick with buzzwords you could slice it with a butterknife.

The Social Media World Forum seemed like an interesting proposition: ”Shaping the future of Social Media’. I was expecting a challenging, dynamic event filled with top SocMed minds, that would provide a sandbox for new ideas.

I was wrong, and it didn’t take long to realise why.

The first person I spoke to on my arrival at the event explained that they used Twitter only to automatically tweet their latest blog posts, and had never actually interacted with anyone through the service. There was a massive gap between our thoughts, ideas and uses of Social Media, and yet, we were both expecting to get something out of the same event.

They went off to take a flurry of notes, picking up brochures left and right, while I was left feeling a little cold. Sure, I met some great people, but the sessions fell flat, especially with the painfully obvious fact that the speakers paid for their slots.  The hard sell was no stranger; in reality, it overshadowed any value present in the sessions. But of course, I could be a little cynical.

While I felt this conference was probably most relevant to SocMed newbies, it most valuable to the ‘Social Media Experts’ that were selling to them, and I also get the feeling that the biggest take away was inspiration, and that’s not necessarily a good thing.

Smoke and mirrors had the place feeling like a funhouse, and the poor guys that left with a little inspiration will probably have a lot of trouble implementing any strategies when they get back into the office. The content of the conference was in a weird space. Not ground-breaking enough for people who already utilise Social Media, but too high level for newbies.

I’m not trying to pretend I’m an ‘expert’ – there’s already enough of those around, but here are my top resources if you want real action points to help you get started in Social Media.

How to crack into the Tweet-elite if you’re a late-starter

This post from Daily Bloggr, written by Mani Karthik is basic stuff, but the basic is not always the obvious in SocMed. Really, frank, and really helpful.

Don’t have a Facebook account for your brand? Do it right first time

From blogging wunderkind Neil Patel, these tips on QuickSprout will get motivated to kickstart your Facebook profile.

Thinking of using Social Media to further your business? Harness the power of LinkedIn

Here’s 33 ways that you can enhance your LinkedIn profile to grow your business by Meryl K Evans on WebWorkerDaily. This piece from Sharlyn Luby on Mashable is also a good resource.

How to maximise your blog traffic with Social Media

Check out this guest post by Mark Hayward on ProBlogger for small business blogs using Twitter, and this piece on using LinkedIn.

Promoting your brand across Social Media

This is a really smart and simple take on how your should use Social Media to build your brand; either your personal brand, or your company’s; the tips apply to both. It’s from Grace Smith, on Liz Hover’s blog.

Hannah is Skimlinks’ Communications Manager and you can reach her on Twitter: @hannahrohi or email hannahATskimlinksDOTcom