Hell No! Bloggers Shouldn’t Have To Disclose
October 26, 2006 – 3:09 pmby Darren
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The advent of PayPerPost.com has create many rifts in the blogging community, and lately I’m hearing about “Bloggers Pledges” and the like, and I think it’s time to settle down. When, exactly, did “blogging” get so high and mighty? Would you take a look at some of the people in this argument, and the sides they’re championing?
The argument for bloggers being transparent
The idea of blogger transparency seems to want to hold “bloggers” to a higher ethical standard than elsewhere present on in the internet. Folks, MOST websites and webmaster don’t disclose DICK. In fact, many companies that ARE REQUIRED by law to make financial disclosures, fail to do so in a timely manner. So, based on the fact an individual uses a certain type of Content Management System, he/she needs to hold themselves to a much higher “journalistic” standard then other who use different types of CMS’s, or hand-code their own HTML?
When did bloggers become this full of shit?
Recently. More and more companies are investing money as rapidly as they can in the blogosphere. The attraction is obvious, you can get a great ROI if you keep blogging costs low. But these new investments are also enormous challenges to determine profitability. Most blogs, blog networks, or blogging applications will not be homeruns. Some will hit, but most will fail. The bloggers who constantly show integrity to their readers will always be a hit. The ones who clearly are promotionally blogging will have results commensurate with their activities. Let the market place decide.
The idea of the outrage being expressed over “Paid Bloggers” is quite ridiculous
The system is setup to do a bit of advertising in the blogosphere. Sure, it’s a bit spammy and lame. But in the end, it will be up to the readers (and the search engines) to figure out what to with the “paid posts”. If the posts are quality, they should stand on their own merit, regardless of whether the author intended to profit or not.
Bloggers need all the money they can get. Why attack a money making proposition that will probably outperform Adsense for most bloggers? What are your thoughts?
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7 Responses to “Hell No! Bloggers Shouldn’t Have To Disclose”
It’s like Baz Lurhmann sez ..
Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.
It’s not enough that we all want to be ‘consultants’ .. but we (as bloggers) like to think that we are “experts” or even “journalists”. Sure! I believe everybody can learn something from someone else -and Sure! Those close to information can pass along information and it will be news to someone else .. but - that doesn’t mean they are an expert or a journalist.
Personally, I do include in my footer something like “© 2006 and all years” but will never place any creative commons graphic on my sites .. and I don’t think I will post a badge like Martin would like us all to have.
I don’t see why someone just wouldn’t disclose but I certainly don’t think they have to. I get more irritated from reading blogs that modify template designs to eliminate the name or date from the post altogether.
By HART (1-800-HART) on Oct 26, 2006
IMHO, i think the idea of doing sponsored stuff should not only be targeted at bloggers.
In a sense, I feel that even affiliates should not sell programs that they have not used themselves… unless of course they are reporting only the facts.
The issue hits blogger worse because we are all used to microsites and all those long sales copies, but blogs are meant to be from the voice of the author. People trust blogs because people trust that there is a person behind the blog.
So if the blogger in a sense “misuses” that trust to get his readers to believe that he is endorsing the product from his heart, then how nice is that?
By Kian Ann on Oct 27, 2006
I think you’re right on regarding the “The argument for bloggers being transparent” point. Seriously, take a look at newspapers and magazines - do they tell the readers that they promote this or that gadget because they more or less got bribed to do so? Or do they admit to keeping an extra eye on their advertisers products, which in turn is resulting in more content?
The main difference here is that the business model for Payperpost and its peers are obvious. In traditional media it’s even more elaborate and rolls a whole lot of more money, but it’s not visible for all to see.
Ignorance is bliss.
So yeah, I agree with you. There are some good sentiments in this reaction, but they are there because the blogosphere hasn’t matured yet. In a couple of years time this wouldn’t even make a blip on the radar.
By TDH on Oct 27, 2006
At first, I did not like this idea. But after reading your this entry, I thought about it for sometimes. I hate to admit that you are right.
I come magazine background and I know that many journalists write about the products not becuase they like it but because they have to write about it for earning money. It happens in the tradiotional media all the time in my part of the world and I think that it happens in your part of the world too. Since I earn my livelihood from blogging, I should welcome every new source of earning money.
By Razib Ahmed on Oct 28, 2006
“So if the blogger in a sense “misuses” that trust to get his readers to believe that he is endorsing the product from his heart, then how nice is that?”. That is the question for which I am yet to get a convincing answer, Kian. Are some bloggers trying to defend their money making goal by calling journalists of print media equally or more guilty just as ‘a pot calling a kettle black’? Then why make those pretensions that blogging is a free expression of thoughts.
By satish on Oct 28, 2006
This isn’t a simple issue, and I don’t think I covered it adequately in this post. But I am convinced that a “movement” towards blogging ethics is mis-guided. Bloggers will end up doing what they want in the end.
That said, this “PayPerPost” place is advertising their new service as a way to “increase search rankings”, so I think they may find themselves in hot water quick.
By Darren on Oct 30, 2006
On the “hot water” comment, I don’t think so. A large part of some search engine relevance has to do with inbound links and the words used in the inbound link.
So, if you get to buy a bunch of links using the terms you want, it does provide a lot of value to the buyer, above and beyond direct traffic through those links.
Who knows? The world will either get used to crappy quality on the net, there’s certainly enough of it before this came along, or it won’t.
By Grokodile on Nov 2, 2006