The Ethics of in-post Advertisements on Blogs

Okay, there has been a lot of talk lately by the bloggers that are called "A-liners" about the ethics of bloggers that post content that has been paid for by someone else. These are in-content advertisements where a person has paid the blogger to slip a link to their website, service, or product into a post on the blog. It is seen in movies and television when a star picks up NameBrandSoda and takes a sip of it, letting out a satisfied "Ahhh" to indicate their enjoyment of it. Or when the car chase zips by a massive billboard advertising ProductNameItem in bold lettering.

There are sites that connect advertisers to bloggers. These sites give the bloggers a chance to look over products that people are interested in paying for exposure over a bog. The average price for this single line of text inserted into a blog post is between $5 and $10, with low prices of around $2.50 and high prices of whatever the advertiser is willing to pay. I've personally seen offers of up to $35 or more.

There are some restrictions. At least the better advertising sites have restrictions. They are reasonable enough, things like posting non-paid posts between posts that you are paid for, having a blog that has been indexed by Google, having a blog that is over three months old and has over twenty posts on it.

Three months and twenty posts... that's roughly 4 posts a week from the time you created the blog to the point where the site connecting you to potential advertisers will approve your blog. Not very hard to maintain that if you are honestly interested in the content of your blog.

And that's what it comes down to - honestly being interested in the content of your blog.

If you care about what you are talking about, then you are going to pay attention to what you are posting. You will care enough about your blog that you won't post something that is not in tune with your subject matter and maybe, just maybe, you will post about something that you would not normally post about because it is in line with the subject of your blog. Being a reporter is a precarious balance between the ethical and the unethical reporting of the news and events of interest and bloggers have been referred to as being very similar to reporters in nature.

Imagine that you have a blog that discusses a subject, lets say music, that's fairly broad so lets refine it a little - you have a blog on violins. Maybe you play the violin, perhaps you even teach it? So you sit down at your computer at the end of the day, ready for bed, and type a few hundred words about how to buy a violin. You know violins, you've played them since you were four years old when your father, who played on the Boston Symphony, bought you your first violin. You respect your readers, and you want to make sure that you provide them with accurate information on violins, so spend a little time to carefully research the current market and look at a few sites that offer violins and music and other products. One of the sites is of interest for the depth of information they provide and you feel that they would be a reasonable starting point for your readers to begin their search for a violin. Do you post a link to that site? What if the site wanted to pay you $5 or $10 to post their link?

Now, what if the site that wanted to pay you for a link was not a very good resource? What if your years of knowledge about the violin let you see that the site had wrong information or was a plagiarized copy of a genuine site that you had past experience with? I'm guessing that you would not let them coerce you into posting a link for any price. Your reputation is worth more to you than what they can pay.

So there is the line. Your knowledge of the subject of your blog, your ethical choice on if the site is of genuine interest to the people that read your blog and your reputation in recommending the site to your readers. Do your readers care if the site paid you to post a link? I seriously doubt it. They just want to know that they can trust you to filter out what is worth their time from what is a waste of their time. They come to your site on violins because they know that you know what you're talking about, they know that they can trust you to guide them in their learning about violins and point them to places that they might find of interest. They read your blog for the insight into the daily life of a violin teacher and for the little tidbits you share about things you learned the hard way. They don't care if you make money or not, just so long as you do not lie to them, do not deceive them, and do not try to pass things off on them just for the sake of a quick buck.

One of the biggest yells I've seen this week has been about transparency in advertising. This seems to be a shield held up by a certain "A-lister" against one of the better blog advertising websites. The blogger is using his clout to cry foul on the bloggers who would offer information on something without disclosing that someone paid them to talk about that subject/product/service.

Would it lessen the belief of the blogger any in their recommendation of a product/service/website if they were to place a disclaimer on the post saying "I was paid to post this"? If they truly care about the subject of their blog then payment or lack of payment would not have any bearing on what they write about. The only place where such a disclaimer is an issue is when the reader is reading and sees a post about violins that had a disclaimer "I was paid to post this". That declaration would force the reader to stop and reconsider the post. Would scare them away from a link to a service that the blogger honestly felt they might gain something from. And why? Because the blogger was paid for the link? $5 makes the link less valid? Not on my blogs, and not on the blogs of the people that I have met through blogging.

Could I make a post about a subject/product/website and not be paid for it? Yes. In fact I have made many such posts. I've got a lot of posts recommending things that I was neither asked to post about nor paid for posting. But if I am able to be paid for links to other people's sites/products/services why should I turn that down? Particularly when the links are ones that I feel are of genuine interest to my readers?

I've had my blogs for 6 years and was completely disenchanted by the whole blogging phenomenon before I even began. I spent precious time that I did not have writing about things and realizing that I could have better spent my time working on things I could sell rather than on things I was sending out there for free. Then I discovered the notion of being paid to post to my blogs. I found out that there were people out there with products, services and websites that complimented my blogs and would be of interest to my readers. People that wanted to pay me for a simple link back to their website or a mention of their product or information on the service they provide. And best of all? There were sites out there that allowed me to find those people on my terms. That allowed me to sort through the riff raff that would be of no interest to my readers and find the opportunities that I felt my readers would benefit from.

I found a site that wanted to pay me to talk about the importance of gun safety, something that at the time was very important to me since my youngest nephew had just been given his first rifle. There was someone that wanted links to a site on rustic decor, something that is highly desirable in Alaska for creating the cozy wilderness lodge feel that is so loved here. I even found someone that wanted me to discuss wheelchairs and provide a link to some online coupons they have for a major wheelchair provider. If you have read any of my blogs then you know my dad is disabled and we are as of my writing this looking to find him a powered wheel chair - and have been looking for one we can get for him for a very long time (counting in years now).

Does it pollute the blogosphere because I provided a link to a site that has online coupons for wheelchairs? Does it make me subject to a public stoning because I offered a link to a page that talked about the options for those facing the possibility of needing hip replacement surgery? As a person that has quite literally collapsed to the floor with stabbing pain in my hip when my hip went out, I think I was in the right to discuss such a thing on my blog for family caregivers. I also feel justified in discussing a site that allows you to make doll avatars on my personal blog.

This has gone on for two full pages now, so I will close it down, I just wanted to offer up to the Internet at large that simply because bloggers are paid to post, does not mean that they are less ethical in what they post to their blogs. Indeed, I have found that the ones that are paid are usually more ethical because they feel a genuine passion for their content and seek to provide the best they can to their readers. It is not a hobby to blog for them, it is not something that they just idly splatter on the Internet and don't care if it's never seen. They care, they want their readers to feel that they have been given their time worth and they want to provide information that is of use to their readers.

Is it fair that they are paid? I think it's better to ask if it's fair that they are crucified for accepting payment. Not all posts are paid for and the quality of the blog and it's worth to the reader can be judged in the span of three posts. Let the readership decide who has a blog that is worth reading, and who is polluting the Internet with junk that is better off ignored. I feel that if only one other person can find just one thing in a month's worth of posts then I have served my duty, I strive for every post to be of value to someone other than myself.

Am I paid for some of these posts? Yes. But then, pick up any magazine or newspaper and you'll likely find a product review section where the reviewer is paid for the reviews.

The 2005 Writer's Market lists the following:

Press/news Release
  Per hour - Average $74 ..... Low/High $40/$125
  Per project - Average $280 ..... Low/High $125/$500
Fact Checking
  Per hour - Average $45 ..... Low/High $15/$80
Book Reviews
   Newspaper
      Per word - Average .40/word ..... Low/High .25/.60
  Magazine / trade journal
      Per word - Average .44/word ..... Low/High .05/$1
E-Mail copywriting
  Per hour - Average $76 ..... Low/High $40/$100

That is what writers in 2005 were paid for writing about products, websites and services. Did you think they did that for free? Writers have bills to pay, single moms and dads have bills to pay, full-time caregivers have bills to pay. Is it really a crime for those of us that write in our own blog, which has to build up its own readership and earn its way in the estimated 200 million blogs in the Internet, to earn what is often less than $5 per hour for work a magazine would pay a writer an average of $45 to $76 per hour for? We are hardly going to be unethical for such a payment, we are hardly going to sell our souls for such a pittance, but maybe, just maybe, we'll show you a website that you never saw before. Maybe we'll open your eyes to a site that can not compete with the sites that have mastered the Google system and dominate the front page of any Google search. And maybe, if we're good and maintain the trust you place in our opinion, we'll earn a little money to help us pay the bills, or buy our kids another Christmas present, or afford to get the man that spent 21 years serving his country in the Army a powered wheelchair.