Adotas, August 18, 2006

The Washingtonpost.com has launched a blog promotion program called Sponsored Blogroll, which aims to give B and C-list bloggers a taste of the Washingtonpost.com's 8 million monthly readers and help connect them with Washington Post advertisers. The Sponsored Blogroll project is the brainchild of Jeff Burkett, head of the WashingtonPost.Newsweek Interactive's sales development team.

According to Burkett's blog, "The idea came to me while reading 'Blogs to Riches' in New York Magazine back in February of this year. The article discussed the fact that it is very hard for bloggers to get noticed. Basically, all of the B-list and C-list bloggers (who may well be very talented) link to the A-list blogs in hope of getting noticed. All this accomplishes is making the A-listers more powerful, while the B's and C's stay where they are. It is very hard to break through the clutter."

The Blogroll process goes like this: A blogger signs their blog up as a candidate for the program. Once a blog has been accepted, a link to it is featured in the Washingtonpost.com's Sponsored Blogroll index, and a box featuring regularly updated Sponsored Blogroll links appears on the Washingtonpost.com front page. Washington Post sales reps will also contact the blogger and try to connect them with the right Washingtonpost.com advertisers. Both the blogger and the Post split any ad revenue.

Burkett and the Washingtonpost.com team are still experimenting to see what the response from bloggers will be. At launch, the Post has partnered with three sites: Creative Weblogging, BootsNAll and AllBusiness.

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