Pay me to blog about you?

There's an interesting discussion just starting to surface - finally - here in the blogosphere about whether bloggers should accept payment or any other compensation for choosing to write about certain products, services, or events on their blogs. What I'm finding interesting is that the discussion I've seen is currently being framed as an ethical issue, not a practical or pragmatic discussion.

Two quick examples: In his article "Blog Junkets", Jeff Jarvis says "That quid pro quo [event tickets for blog coverage] — especially if not disclosed — can tell the public that blog coverage, if not the blogger, can be bought.", and "I hope we don’t find ourselves in a position where people give things to “get blog.”' Of course we are already seeing just that, Jeff. Stick with me, though, because I think it's good, not bad.

And in his article "Reasons for developing paid blog post ethics", Tom Raftery writes: "Blogs are a trusted medium - as we read someone’s blog, we develop a relationship with that person. We can converse with them, we come to know them, and largely, we trust them - they become friends" and "More and more we will see bloggers being used to push review products - hence the importance of the original discussion and the need to agree the ethics around ‘paid’ blog posts.".

I don't agree. At all...

Continue reading about bloggers paid for links at The Intuitive Life Business Blog.