Wesley Crusher drops the ball on viral marketing.
Anyone who’s read The Wolf’s Howl more than once (thanks, by the way) will know from this post that it’s Wesley Crusher - Wil Wheaton in the real world - who got me into blogging. His was the first blog that I read with any great regularity and I still do; I think he’s great at making his everyday life (touched as it may be with a bit of Hollywood glamour) real for his readers. I recommend you read him.
Constant Readers will also know that a little while ago I responded to some posts by Jason Calacanis about PayPerPost. I couldn’t get past the idea that here was a man criticising bloggers for using their blogs to earn money, while at the same time using his blog to earn money. It didn’t seem quite right, but the main thing that I objected to was that he called PayPerPost evil. As I said at the time:
“Evil is Hitler. Evil is people dying of starvation in the Third World while the West gets morbidly obese. Taking money for talking about products is journalism.”
Now I’m afraid that poor Wil has joined that clan. In this post (a sequel to this one where he was trying to drum up votes for himself on Bloggers Choice Awards ), he says that PayPerPost is “at best deeply unethical, and at worst damn close to evil”. You see, there’s that e word again.
I’m sorry, but I can’t equate a bunch of bloggers taking payment to write about a product or service as evil. Let’s have a little perspective here, people, shall we.
I don’t get behind this idea that blogs are somehow sacrosanct and free of outside influence, that they are somehow pure. Let’s take Wil, for instance, he’s been using advertising on his site for a while. This post details his reasons for taking it down, but the upshot is that he is not averse to earning money from his blog. Calacanis has all sorts of links around his blog that earn him revenue, as does Mike Arrington (TechCrunch) - who just recently at MESH called PayPerPost CEO Ted Murphy “the most evil man in the room” - that e word yet again.
In the print media, advertising space is quite often sold off the back of editorial; this editorial is not always identified as being paid for. Likewise, I’m sure there’s many a product manager who’s been told “Well, we’ll run the piece if you pay us £XXX to cover colour separation charges”. It’s been going on since Man invented the printing press, so why should the Internet and blogs be any different?
“Disclosure”, I can hear you shouting from all sides. “What about disclosure?” Well, now this is a thorny issue as I have read comments by some (not necessarily PayPerPost Posties) who say that they would not disclose when - or if - their blog has sponsored content. However, in a section called Requirements of Note, PayPerPost say on their site - before you even sign up to be a Postie - that:
“You must be prepared to disclose your relationship with PayPerPost advertisers and advise your readers of any sponsored content via a disclosure policy or on a per post basis.”
They also say:
“It’s up to you to pick the Opportunities that best suit you and your blog. If it doesn’t feel right, if you don’t own the product, or if you can’t be honest we ask you to pass on the Opportunity. Dishonest or completely off-topic posts can ultimately hurt your blog’s credibility. We strongly encourage you to only take opportunities that relate to you.”
There will always be some bloggers who do not disclose all of their sponsored content, - or who will alter their opinion just to get paid - but they are by no means all part of the Postie clan and by no means all individuals without vested business interests.
I think a little perspective needs to be taken. If you’re reading about a product or service on someone’s blog there’s always the possibility that their opinion is coloured by some outside influence; they may be getting paid for the blog, sure, but there may be all sorts of other reasons why they have the opinion they do. If you’re going to base your buying decision on what you read on the Internet, then you need to make sure that you’ve read lots of opinions, including the magazines and periodicals that deal with that market sector.
Every development in technology eventually leads to a widespread business application; now it’s the turn of blogging.
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I suppose, for the sake of clarity, that I should disclose at this point that I am not a PayPerPost Postie. I do not work for PayPerPost. I know one of the guys that works there, but that’s it. This blog is not sponsored, this post is not sponsored. Any links I provide are there because I think you might find them interesting. I do have a link to the company that I work for, but I do not earn commission from anyone clicking that link. Thank you.
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