Ads Masquerading as Blog Posts

I got a message on this blog from someone who wants me to do a sponsored post (meaning an ad that masquerades as an article) about . . . cars. The message said:

Hi,

I’d like to inquire about doing a sponsored blog post — about 150-300 words that talks a little bit about cars and automobiles and links back to our site. We are a car dealership and thought we might be a good fit for your readers/visitors.

Here’s a list of some blog post titles we’ve done in the past:
– What To Look For When Buying A New Car
– 2012 Cars That Look Good And Saves You Gas
– Reasons Why Buying New Cars Is Better Than Used

Our budget is around $15 for the post. Is this something you’d be open to?

Also if you have some other sites just send them over and we might be interested in doing a sponsored post on there as well!

Regards.

They sure did their homework, didn’t they? A good fit for this blog? If it weren’t so obvious they hadn’t looked at a single article, the comment would be funny. And then, to top off the insult, they offer to pay me the princely sum of $15.00. Lucky me.

I was shocked when I first found out that in fact many bloggers do accept such sponsored posts — I often read articles about how much money people make pretending to be simply bloggers talking about subjects they are interested in, but such subterfuge is not for me. It’s possible their price nixed the idea. If they had offered me a new car, I would have jumped on the deal. Or not. If something is too good to be true, it probably is. And anyway, my car runs just fine, even if it is forty years old.

3 Responses to “Ads Masquerading as Blog Posts”

  1. Kathy's avatar Kathy Says:

    I know what you mean. And I recently got an email from somebody in the UK offering money for placing an ad on my web site. I delete all of these – the only ads on my site will be ads for my books…

  2. joylene's avatar joylene Says:

    It’s nice to know I’m not the only one they’ve targeted. I suppose these people think of it only as a writing job. Have to start somewhere. Ah, the wonderful freedom to spam.


Leave a reply to joylene Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.