Yeah… I don’t get it either. Or, I do, but think this is a harebrained idea at best.

Here’s the deal, you pay RIS Media $2,000/month to write their “local” news. In return, you get priority sponsor placement on that section and all the linking power of RIS Media to your website – thereby raising your own website’s profile in the organic search engine rankings.

• You will be our weekly columnist for RISMedia.com/LocalNews/YourCityState.
• The Rismedia.com/LocalNews/YourCityState section of Rismedia.com will be sponsored by you, carry your message and link as sponsor on every page.
• You will be the source of a weekly column about local news in your area, professionally edited, syndicated and distributed by us to our entire worldwide circulation of over 335,000 and growing.

So, you pay $24k annually to be their weekly blogger and get all the link juice in return. RIS Media partnered with a company called SocialMediaSystems.com to make this work.

I’m actually not against people writing syndicated columns and raising their profile on the web. Having that publication link back to your own site in return is a great way to raise your site’s profile as well. If a popular and well-syndicated publication asks you to write a weekly or guest column, by all means do it.

However, seriously think about the value of paying $2,000/month for this service, if anything, they should be paying you. I’m not sold on the long-term viability and the promises of increased search engine visibility.

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