Blogvertorials?
from the ugh dept
The idiotification of the blog world continues. As advertisers and PR people continue to prey on bloggers, a new service has launched that claims it will connect bloggers and advertisers, by paying bloggers to write about the products the advertises want to advertise. Any journalist would immediately cringe at the conflict of interest, but the service claims that no credibility is lost because the blogger can say whatever they want. Right... As soon as you find out they're being paid to talk about something by the company selling that something, no matter how "free" they are to state their opinion, their credibility goes right out the window.
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Getting Paid for an Opinion
http://www.gizmodo.com/archives/tmobile-sidekick-ii-review-best-phone-ill-never-buy-019948.php
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Blogvertorials
Most forms of journalism (traditonal and blogging) have a potential conflict of interest inherent to the writing - it's just normally called advertising or sponsorship.
If the blogger declares that the post is being sponsored and providing the readers trust their integrity, is it such a problem?
A fine line, I agree, but it might just be managable. And far preferable to being pitched at by silly PR's about totally irrelevant products to the blog - in the interest of balance, yes, there are some great ones too :-)
Let's give it a chance, I say.
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Re: Blogvertorials
trust me, you can trust journalists. please send my 2 cents.
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No Subject Given
Mike, can you think of any brand, product or service that's done you well enough that it would deserve a public mention on your website? Do you feel that being paid as well is detrimental to the genuiness of your opinion?
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