I saw something this morning that caused me to do something I loathe doing. That thing I loathe is writing a blog post about a fairly hot blog topic – even if it’s a week or so old. I hate being part of the group discussion through this space because there are plenty of forums and other blogs covering most trendy topics, and mine will be nothing but more spit in a very full barrel.
Still, I had to speak up when I saw an online article about paid blog posts. The article is over at BusinessWeek and it’s basic premise is, if you’re going to get paid by sponsors for blog posts, why not get paid for your conversation, and other bits and pieces of your life, like in a conversation you say, Whoah! That was ungrammatical! Better run it through the Microsoft Word Grammar Checker” as a paid sponsored thought.
Really? Here’s a little publishing lesson for anyone not already in on this. Magazines are funded by advertising. Articles in magazine that feature one thing, or place, or person – a great number of those were pitched to the company they are about, then the magazine was paid to write them. Half the advertisements in magazines these days are disguised to look like articles themselves.
When I was very young I used to read the film and movie reviews in Time Magazine. My grandfather, a very wise man, took an issue of that magazine and showed me that every positive review in the thing was for a product of Time / Warner. Big life lesson. Magazines write things to support those who pay the bills; it has nearly always been that way. I am sure there are examples out there of perfectly honest magazine writing about what drives their passion – but I bet they aren’t in the top 100 or available at the grocery store beside Time, Newsweek, and the SCORES of IT journals. Book and movie reviews can be paid for as well. In fact, it’s a regular practice.
My point is simple. For someone in a print magazine to point a finger at an individual being paid for writing (something I consider serious business, as a writer) and say he’s one step from sponsoring his speech and life is not only a false statement, but it’s ridiculous. When those same print magazines start reporting that their top advertiser’s product is inferior to a cheaper brand put out by someone NOT paying for an advertisement, maybe they can talk.
Here’s a thought. If you are sheep enough to be led around by the words in someone’s blog – and I don’t care whose blog it is – to make your commercial decisions without checking your facts – then you get what you deserve. If you are a free thinker who does his or her own research and makes informed decisions – it doesn’t matter who sponsors or does not sponsor a blog post, but that talented blogger made some money for his hard work. That’s not a bad thing.
There is very little writing sold that is not influenced or paid for in some way. It reminds me of my music-loving friends who are always claiming so-and-so sold out when they gain commercial success. Same with some authors. Sold out of what? Isn’t the idea of creating something – a blog, a new thought system, a social media plan or a software application to succeed?
I’ll be open and up front. If Budweiser wants me to have all my characters drink and praise their beer, I won’t do that. If Dos XX asks, let’s talk numbers. I write what I think and what I believe, and if I happen to find someone willing to chance those beliefs against the quality of their product and pay me? I’m taking the money.
Apparently you’re only a sell-out in the eyes of those who wish they’d sold first…you never see Metallica or Megadeth claiming one another as sell outs…but garage metal fanatics say it all the time.
Another point is that the “article” at BusinessWeek is more of an editorial. The author admits freely that several of those in his business group participated in the big blogstraveganza surrounding Chris Brogan’s K-mart blog post – and it’s fairly obvious in the article what side of the fence they fell on. I believe we are supposed to see that an article in a prestigious magazine has more authority and a “last word” sort of magic that a blog does not…but keep in mind. The “article” is heavily slanted.
Businessweek Sponsored it.
Advertisers sponsor BusinessWeek.
Written by David Wilson - Visit WebsiteFollow me on Twitter
Succinctly put, David. Even though it’s a topic that’s been widely discussed, you still raise valid points.
Magazines and newspapers can often be the worst culprits when it comes to “independent reviews”. It’s like saying a sports program has an unbiased view of the home and away team – no-one buys it, we all know that the slant is on the home team.
Another thing that annoys me are newspapers and magazines that claim they are against the sex industry, for example, and exploiting women – and then have 10-15 pages of ads at the back for “special massages” and “more girls than you can handle”. Riiight…
At the end of the day, I have common sense (just like anyone else) and I can pretty much guarantee that even if my favourite blogger/sports star/actor, etc, told me something was the best thing ever, I’d still be deciding for myself. It may encourage me to check out something I wouldn’t normally, but that’s as far as the influence goes.
And to use the idea that all speech and recommendations now come with a paid tag? No wonder Business Week isn’t the publication it used to be, or wants to be.
Thanks for the great insights.
Exactly. The whole argument of whether it’s ethical for a blogger to be sponsored is silly in any case. Chris SAID he was sponsored, how many blog posts have people already read that were sponsored without being acknowledged as such?
As a novelist I have seen this same discussion applied to the blurbs authors give one another for their books. The consensus is that almost never does such a recommendation hold any weight – because rarely does it seem like the person even really read the book.
Magazines do what they do because it keeps them alive…they are all paid, though, and they are all sponsored in one way or another. Your sex industry example is perfect.
Thanks for commenting.
David
kudos. great read and it reflects my views perfectly
I’ve been thinking about this topic a lot of late. I agree that these days magazines don’t cut against their advertising base. If you want to be a magazine writer, you’ve got to work within that context. Blogs have, so far, been different. We are not beholden to an advertising department or an editor who worries about ads.
Meanwhile there’s quite a bit of speculation going on right now about how, and if, increasing advertising dollars will move onto the web. It seems obvious to me that if blogs take sponsor dollars which control content, they undermine the critical intellectual independence for which they have, so far, been valued.
In the “old days” of print journalism, there was supposed to be an iron wall between editorial and advertising. That wall has now largely been breached, and the result is people don’t trust magazines.
In order to retain our credibility we bloggers need to maintain that line that print media used to have between advertising and content. If we don’t, readers won’t believe in us.
I don’t think anyone should pillory Chris Brogan for making his recent blogging experiment. I think most bloggers up to this time, would have done the same. However, I think the blogosphere response speaks for itself. Yellow caution lights flashing on accepting cash givaway for blogging about a store you don’t usually shop at.
Sonja
Blogs already have advertisers – top blogs – and what you are saying reminds me too much of the people crying out for the integrity of the small press as if the fact that they publish people that big markets won’t they have some added integrity because of it.
If you have Google ads, or one of the equivalents on your site, you are already blogging for advertisers…maybe not specific sponsors. And let me be plain about another opinion I have. Most blogs are crap. There is little thought behind what’s posted, little planning or intent to plan, just meandering silliness.
As a goal, that might suit some folks, and I have no problem with that, but people who consider blogging to be serious are working, and people who work need to be paid for that work eventually. No one is advocating that people sponsor products they don’t really support, but don’t you think if they did you could tell the difference? And in any case, as I said, those who are letting some blog or blogger (myself certainly included) make commercial decisions for them get what they deserve.
People (bloggers) with integrity won’t lose if it they do sponsored work. People without integrity won’t gain it by avoiding sponsored work. You are what you are, you write what you write…it is absolute silliness to huff and puff over it and say we must band together to this or that…we aren’t a band, we are a group of individuals…that’s what makes the blogs unique and interesting.
D
I don’t have a problem with display advertising on blogs. As I said in my post, the problem is something that lifestyle magazines have pretty much surrendered to, and it’s the use of editorial copy to promote advertiser’s products, either explicitly or implicity.
Google adsense pays you on clickage, not specifically to testify in promotion of products. It’s different. They can’t feed topics into your posts or directly influence what you say, with Adsense, your goal is to drive traffic to your blog with quality content and get clickage through numbers. It may not be a viable strategy of monetizing for most. It does allow a blogger to maintain a traditional concept of journalistic integrity.
Sonja
Traditional journalists write for money. Bloggers will only do that if someone pays them to blog…
What you are arguing for is a world where people create quality content – basically – for the love of it. I don’t believe that should ever be the case for those who work hard to provide clean, intelligent or interesting writing. It’s argued too often in literary and small press circles as well. You write for the markets that will pay you to write. It doesn’t mean you change your words, or slant your content, unless that’s what you want to do.
I don’t believe that because someone sponsors a blog that blog has to be considered “tainted”. As I said before in the original post. You have integrity, or you don’t.
Do you really suppose that the K-mart post was the first sponsored blog post? I’d be willing to bet there’s been plenty of it going around – “Hey Jim, we’ll send you a free such and such widget if you give it a review – wink wink” – it has to be. It’s the way the world works. I have seen it in the book world time and again. It’s small potatoes, but it’s the same thing.
You read a blog, or a book, or a magazine, and you become familiar with the author. If it feels authentic, you go with it, if it doesn’t you move on…the beauty of blogs is there are a lot of options, and you don’t have to read what others read, write what they write – or behave as they behave.
There’s no argument here unless you are seriously arguing that bloggers shouldn’t be paid as other writers are because it would affect their integrity. I’m pretty sure that’s not it…
-DNW
I think I can answer that very briefly. If in order to get paid I have to go to bat for a product I don’t actually use, I’m an advertising copywriter, not a journalist. That’s the way it’s always been. And I don’t think the fact that a blog is “new media” changes that.
The best writing was generally not done for commercial purposes. Remember our old friend Nietzsche.
Where did you get, in anything I said, that I thought people should go to bat for products they don’t support? I said the fact people are paid doesn’t mean that they ARE doing that…and that it goes on all the time, but never condoned it. Writers need to support themselves…so do bloggers. Just because that’s true doesn’t mean they have no integrity.
And for the record, while I find ol’ Nietzsche intriguing, I’d pick Stephen King any day of the week.
D
My opinions vary widely on this, but my actions speak louder than words. I’ve not installed any advertising on my blog since its inception in 2004. I have no idea if I have enough readers to generate income, as I don’t look at stats. I find blog ads to be a bit distracting.
That being said, I can’t fault a person for putting up ads. Selling post space on their blog for infomercials is another story. “Informercials”is the correct term, I’d say. Paid, lengthy advertisement in the form of a show or article, with one sponsor, about said sponsor’s product/service.
If a blogger does this, especially without offering any transparency, then they lose trust and will lose readers. Keep publishing infomercials and your ability to attract the corporate contracts in the first place diminishes, because companies will realize that your blog ranking will drop and they won’t be interested in hiring you/your blog.
Many pleas/offers come to me for my blog’s space (almost all without any compensation attached!) I haven’t taken any of them. People in the old media paradigm seem to think blogs are the new FREE advertising, and people in new media think they are owed free space from the top blogs. All of this disrespect leaks into the blogger’s minds, and they learn to take money and produce the infomercials. The so-called “mommy blogs” got in deep doo doo for this last year.
The one misstep Chris Brogan may have taken with the Kmart thing was to spend even one dime of the $500 on himself or his family. If he did what Chris Pirillo did with his $500 from Sears (donate all new toys to a children’s charity), then no one would have blinked an eye.
I’d have a hard time donating a $500 gift card entirely to charity because for us, that’s a lot of money. But I’m not getting those offers because I’m not as well-known as Brogan, and I’m not out there looking for work like Brogan is. My reputation is important to me, but right now I have the luxury of no serious offers to tempt me. I’ve had paid blog posts for other sites, but I don’t also post them on my site, even though I’ve been asked. I tell the employers that they aren’t paying me enough to have my written work AND my reputation, too. PurpleCar isn’t for sale like that.
Of course, every blog has its price… ;)
I think, possibly, my own opinion on this has been misunderstood.
One thing though, no reason in the world you have to donate the money you make to maintain your integrity. I’m not talking about paid informercails, though a lot of tech and music blogs – top ones – are ALREADY paid infomercials. I’m talking about pay and sponsorship. All media that is “paid” is sponsored. That doesn’t mean that everything published in that media is slanted, though you have to wonder.
But a good blog, as you all know, is hard to build, to maintain, to populate with good content – it’s work, and it takes talent. Talent should never go unrewarded.
If someone just starts writing paid sponsored posts about things, you are correct – they lose credibility, they lose their audience, and then they lose their sponsor.
If someone posts, and people are willing to pay them to write about a particular subject – and they let you know up front they do this for money? I have zero problem with that. In fact, if they tell me up front, I might even be interested to know what they think.
But most blogs do this already – they have their slants, biases, and partnerships. They just don’t tell you what they are doing. is that better? I don’t think so.
I’m here to build my readership and sell books – to help people and hopefully to entertain. If someone will pay me to do those things, my e-mail is readily available on the site…
DNW