Not all bloggers come clean about conflicts
Bloggers seem to like the service. They can pick whether to have text or banner ads and can specify where the ad shows up on a site. Not long after Tadayuki Sugahara registered for AdButterfly he accepted an ad for a Toshiba laptop, which he had used before, on his Nibaihan blog.
"It made a lot more sense to have that ad than a lot of the others that appear on my site," said the 27-year-old Tokyo resident.
Last month, Sugahara made more than US$20 from AdButterfly, vs. about US$5 from Google's AdSense and less than US$1 from Amazon.com's book referral.
There are, of course, drawbacks to advertising on blogs, which do not have the long reach of mass media. And analysts worry that AdButterfly muddies the divide between paid-for endorsements and grassroots buzz.
Not all bloggers are likely to come clean when there is a conflict of interest. "This model is both unique and murky," says Pete Blackshaw, executive vice-president of market researcher Nielsen Online Strategic Services. "My guess is that a set of informal rules will emerge."
Some experts think companies could win points by reaching out directly to consumers for feedback on product improvements and innovations, instead of spending so much on advertising. "I fear many companies will miss out on other, and potentially richer, ways to engage with their various communities," said Walter Carl, a professor at Northeastern University in Boston and a member of the Word-of-Mouth Marketing Association advisory board.
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