Influential bloggers are taking a harsh stance against services that offer payment to blog posters in return for product reviews, bringing the question of “blogosphere ethics” to the forefront of the blogging community.
Now ReviewMe and CreamAid are throwing their respective hats in the blogger sponsorship ring.
However, the concept of providing monetary compensation to bloggers in return for product reviews is creating a tremor in the force of the blogosphere. Prominent figures in the blogger community are starting to weigh in with their thoughts on paid blogging, mostly to the tune of negative responses.
Robert Scoble touches on the concept of integrity in his blog. He goes so far as to suggest, “If I were running a search engine I’d actually come out and say we’re gonna remove any advertiser on PayPerPost from our listings.”
Ouch.
TechCrunch isn’t taking the issue any less seriously, either. ReviewMe is financed by Text Link Ads, a longtime TechCrunch sponsor. Mike Arrington, however, made his thoughts pretty clear in an article covering the topic:
“While we applaud the fact that ReviewMe requires disclosure and prohibits advertisers from requiring a positive post, we still think the very act of paying bloggers to write about a product is a very bad idea. Frankly, we’re not happy that one of our sponsors has launched this type of service, and we’ve notified them that we will not allow promotion of ReviewMe through TechCrunch.”
Disclosure seems to be a key aspect of the ethical stance on paid blogging. PayPerPost does not demand its bloggers to disclose that they are receiving monetary compensation for their blog posts. Additionally, some sponsors will only pay for positive product reviews.
Conversely, CreamAid and ReviewMe both require bloggers to give full disclosure concerning the sponsorship status of their blog entries. Further, reviewers are under no obligation to give a favorable picture of the products that are discussed in order to receive compensation for the review.
While CreamAid and ReviewMe at least give the appearance of some impartiality, it remains to be seen what impact paid blogging will have on the blogosphere at large.
Influential bloggers have achieved prominent status due to perceived neutrality in tackling controversial subjects and providing fair product assessments to the blogging community at large.
Paid blogging, however, could erode at the blogosphere’s reputation of impartiality and drive a wedge between bloggers and the blogging community.
Integrity within the blogosphere will be a hot topic in the coming months, to be sure.
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Joe is a staff writer for Murdok. Visit Murdok for the latest ebusiness news.
