Rent a Blogger on eBay

The other day someone left a comment on one of my articles asking whether I thought it a good idea to hire a blogger to promote the benefits of a company. Apparently, a company called Inkspress has paid Jeremy Wright, a prolific blogger, $3350 to develop a blog for them and to write between 5-10 articles a week (over 3 months). It looks like Mr Wright had auctioned his talents off at eBay: Blogger for Hire - Start or Improve Your Blog. On further inspection I noticed that quite a few people were auctioning their blogging services on eBay.

Here's what Darren Barefoot, another blogger, has to say on his auction, Rent a Blogger - Online Marketing and Technology Expert

What do you get for winning the auction?
● If you don't have a weblog, I'll set one up for you. See below for my qualifications.
● Three months worth of blogging, with a minimum of five posts a week. These posts will typically include company news and events, tips and tricks about products and services, industry news and opinion pieces.
● Consulting services on blogging and, more importantly, monitoring the blogosphere. Learn who's talking about your company, and respond appropriately to what they're saying. I'm able to begin blogging as soon as you're ready. Feel free to email me with questions regarding the offered services or any other aspect of this auction.

In reply to the question, yes, I do think it a good idea to hire someone with expert knowledge of blogging to put the foundations in place for the development of a blog. Developing a blog can take a lot of time and effort and it's a good idea to ask soemone who's been there before how to do it.

However, in both the above examples the people will only be in place for a finite period of time and it will then be down to the company itself to take over the reins. In order for a blog to work it has to be able to produce content that resonates with the target audience and it needs to be updated quite frequently. It will be interesting to see how the bloggers get on outside their field of expertise and, as importantly, to visit the respective blogs once they have 'left the building'.