BLOGS A NEW WAY TO EXPRESS ONESELF

From the never-ending number of existing blogs, we chose the blog of a famous Parisian blogger to illustrate this issue: Delphine Desneiges alias Deedee[1]. She is in charge of the editorial page of the Cosmopolitan website. Thousands of people visit her blog each day and post comments. The successful blogger was kind enough to give us an answer to a short mail interview.

“Deedee”, has a good literary background and has started her blog in 2004. In the beginning, her blog was a way for her to share stuff about her wedding, her readings, night outs, exhibitions… with her friends and relatives. Bit by bit, she left the personal subjects behind, which led to the blog’s success by making it one of the most famous French blogs nowadays.

Advertisement on the blog

Very often there are some blog posts about all kinds of products. The bloggers explain why they like or dislike the product, and provide information about where to find the product and so on. In reality, brands rarely contact bloggers directly to ask them to write sponsored posts. These sponsored posts are rather the result of a buzz, communication, or marketing agencies.

Deedee accepts around 20% of the propositions she gets for writing posts about a specific product. As for accepting the tasks, her criterions are quite simple; the topic has to provide some added value in terms of information which might attract readers and it must comply with the editorial line of the blog. In return, she gets paid for writing those kinds of sponsored posts.

At the same time, brands may also ask her to test a product. In that case, she receives the product for free, but doesn’t earn any money. If the product turns out to be good, it adds value to her blog and might interest her readers; therefore, she accepts the proposition to test it and posts her opinion about it. Note that bloggers can choose whether or not they want to post something about the product. If they decide not to write anything about it, it’s their choice. Moreover, they can write positive and negative feedback concerning the products; so if she considers the product is total crap, she has the right to do so! Consequently, brands that are not ready to receive bad appreciation choose not to deal with bloggers.

Contract with agencies for bloggers

Like many successful bloggers, Deedee has contracted with an advertising agency that takes 40% of the revenues generated by the advertisements. However, Deedee has set some conditions, for instance: only ads in the left part of the blog, no big twinkling ads… She earns some money thanks to these advertisements but not enough to make a living out of it. According to Deedee, the idea that it is easy to earn lots of money with a blog is false; it’s some kind of illusion, a myth.

The consequences for marketing:

Clearly, these kind of persons are a bargain for companies. Indeed, they have a great influence on people; they give their personal point of view, which may generate more trust than traditional ads… If the customer identifies himself with the blogger, he will rely on his advice, and maybe buy the product. The companies have a considerable interest to keep their image intact in the eyes of bloggers because they have huge power in their hands.

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[1] www.deedeeparis.com/blog