On Monday, a squad of around 15 independent bloggers will begin inserting
mentions of Marqui’s hosted communications management services into their blogs for money.
The bloggers will get $800 a month to mention Marqui with a link once a week
in their blogs and post its emblem on a page. They’ll get an additional $50 per
qualified sales lead they send to Marqui.
“We hit on the idea of [connecting with] heavily read, influential bloggers
who create public discussion groups and get feedback,” said Stephen King, Marqui
CEO. “But there are no mechanisms for them to make money. So we came up with idea
of paying them.”
But transparency and integrity are the order of the day, King said. Information
about Marqui’s “Blogosphere Program” is posted on its corporate Web site, and
bloggers are urged — but not required — to disclose the relationship.
The bloggers will get weekly content drops from Marqui, including customer
success stories, which they can use if they choose. Participants in the program
were personally recruited, with an emphasis on those who might be read by potential
customers.
Marqui hired Marc Canter, a co-founder of Macromedia, as an advisor on the
program. Canter, now principal of Broadband Mechanics, a consulting service,
is a highly visible and respected figure in the blogging
community. For the past month, Canter has been spreading the word about the Blogosphere Program.
“The challenge is to get high-flow bloggers and those who represent the real
world down there,” Canter said.
The offer created some heat among independent bloggers, according to Canter.
“A lot of bloggers are idealistic about keeping the blogosphere pure,” he said.
“This is a great social experiment.” He sees the program as a good alternative to
the automated ad services offered to bloggers by many online advertising networks.
“I hate the idea of having an ad on my page. I like employing humans to think,” he said.
The company made clear that the bloggers are under no obligation to be positive —
and that they won’t get cut off if they don’t make nice. Instead, Marqui hopes to
use their feedback, along with any comments from readers, to improve the product.
“In the blogosphere, a negative remark is the beginning of an online discussion
that we can participate in and learn from,” King said.
King said the controversial marketing concept makes sense for his company,
because its customers also are exploring new methods of marketing. The Toronto-based
company re-launched on Nov. 10 after closing a $3 million investment round.
Marqui’s hosted service lets marketing communications professionals distribute and manage communications
for most devices and formats, including Web sites, e-mail, phones, PDAs and SMS.
Text or media files are input into Marqui’s online system, and then converted to
XML files which can be repurposed as needed. The subscription fee starts at $199 a month.
The key to blog advertising in general, said Andrew Anker, executive vice president
of Six Apart, a provider of blogging software and services, is to make sure human
readers get a fair deal.
“An ad is a quid pro quo relationship between media creators,
advertisers and consumers,” he said. Consumers understand the concept of ad-supported
content, he said, and will put up with the ads if the content is valuable to them.
