Showing posts with label Bloggers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bloggers. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Blogvertising: Ethics in advertising for bloggers
Many blogs are using pay-per-click ads to generate revenue and as long as the ads don’t get in the way of the content, most readers don’t really mind. Many bloggers, however, are now providing advertising in the form of paid blog posts that are often disguised as spontaneous product reviews. For the reader, this can be misleading, particularly if the writer doesn’t provide a clear statement to indicate that they are providing a paid review.For the uninitiated, services such as Pay-Per-Post, Review Me and Sponsored Reviews offer pay to bloggers to post product reviews on their blogs. While it isn’t stated explicitly, the expectation certainly appears to be that the paid posts will be largely positive in tone. Bloggers with high traffic ratings will be paid most, as they obviously have a wider audience. The intent of advertisers is to do more than create good “word of mouth” for their products; they are also looking to drive traffic to their own websites, thereby increasing their own ranking on search engines and thus, ensuring a better hit rate at their point of sale.
So, where’s the harm? I don’t have any issue with bloggers trying to generate revenue through their sites. Blogging can be hard work and time-consuming, so a small pay-off for the time and effort seems fair. It becomes harmful when the blogger has developed a trust relationship with readers and then violates it by not being explicit about the intention of their sponsored posts.
Many bloggers use a disclosure policy and badge, such as those provided at disclosurepolicy.org to inform readers that they earn revenue from advertisers and that they may endorse products in their writing. But this kind of “blanket” disclosure policy is not sufficient if readers have no way of knowing which post is an authentic, unpaid and therefore, unbiased commentary and which is a paid, and probably biased product review.
The ethical approach for bloggers is three-fold:
1. If you are planning to introduce advertising and paid reviews to your blog, write a post about it so you inform your readers up-front. If you have been developing a following and a trusted relationship with your readers, you owe it to them to be honest.If you’re an interesting blogger with a reputation for being honest with your readers, they will tolerate the occasional paid post, as long as you’re up-front about it. If you’re not, readers will eventually get wise and move on.
2. Post a disclosure policy. If your approach to revenue generation changes, be sure to update your policy accordingly.
3. Provide a disclosure statement at the start of each and every paid post, such as “This is a paid review”. It is unethical to omit the statement and very misleading to leave it as a “gotcha!” at the end of the post.
Friday, May 25, 2007
My selections for the Thinking Blogger award
I was selected the other day by Theresa at Sleeping Kitten –Dancing Dog for a Thinking Blogger award. Theresa was recently awarded one herself for writing so eloquently on topics ranging from childhood memories to respecting one’s parents to pride and anger.The Thinking Blogger meme was started by Ilker Yoldas at The Thinking Blog, with the premise “Too many blogs, not enough thoughts!”. I’m very honoured that Theresa thought that what I’m writing here is thought-provoking, as this blog was intended as a place for me to explore ideas, document my research and hopefully engage others in discussion. I’m pleased to accept the award and pay it forward to five other bloggers because I would like to promote those who think before they write, who do some research, who explore and who ask provocative questions.
In nominating these five*, I want to make it clear that none of them are under any obligation to accept the award, link back to me or to carry on the meme; this is simply an opportunity to point others to blogs that I respect and have come to read regularly:
Adam at One-eyed View – A thought-provoking blogger, writing on everything from technology to politics to the environment to social issues to censorship and popular culture.
Johno at Graphic Design Art and Typography Blog - Explores all of these topics and more. An attractive blog that is also insightful and engaging.
Diamond VVV1 at MyBootsnMe – Exploring regional parks in and around the Vancouver, British Columbia area, with beautiful photos, thoughtful reflections and a style that brings the area to life for the reader.
David at smallSHIFT - This new blog is built around the belief that technology in the hands of passionate users can inspire change, empower individuals and make a difference. This is one to watch.
Stephen at Don’t Trip Up - Extremely well-researched and in-depth analysis of British politics and current affairs, with a centre-left perspective.
I hope you’ll drop by these blogs and see for yourself why they are deserving of the “Thinking Blogger” award.
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*Should you choose to participate, please make sure you pass this list of rules to the blogs you are tagging.
The participation rules are simple:
1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote (here is an alternative silver version if gold doesn't fit your blog).
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote (here is an alternative silver version if gold doesn't fit your blog).
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