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Are Paid Posts now acceptable on blogs? (poll)

So K-Mart changed the blogosphere, haha.

Couldn't you at least spell my name right?

Thanks for the mention Duncan.

I had a good conversation with Gregorylent earlier, and for me the decision boiled down to this:

Sears asked bloggers to take their money and spend it to help other people. They didn't say how. Sears also asked them to write about their experiences. They didn't say how.

For me, having a chance to buy a bunch of cloths for kids on Sear's dime when the only downside is a week of flack from the webosphere wasn't much of a question. I did with open eyes and a smile on my face. I can bet Chris, Tamar and all the others share my sentiment.

If I had a penny for all the under the table “sponsorships” that I've heard about, and all the “not quite payola” deals that go down quietly around here everyday, I probably could buy another basket of toys from Sears. People in glass houses, etc . . .

For anyone irritated by this, might I suggest looking at the details of the campaign and figuring out whether you would give up the opportunity to help real, flesh and blood human beings in a broken economy to retain moral highground in the blogosphere's day camp.

I can't tell you what decision you should make, but I think it's worth thinking about.

Paid-for posts have always been acceptable, as long as the poster is transparent about it.

I found this inventory of bloggers very interesting

What's interesting is that brands can select the right demographics –traffic, and topic of a blogger before engaging.

People have been making money with blogging for a long time – either directly or indirectly. It gets janky when there's no transparency. I didn't like the idea of (nor did I participate in) PayPerPost, mind you. Heck, even when I buy or believe things outright, I still get accused of being a shill. *shrug* I decided to use the money on somebody else, and had fun doing it. If someone wants to hate on me because of that – it's not my problem.

I think the headline is “Major Brands Embrace Bloggers.” The price of $500 isn't the issue, it's the innovation of working with brands/ companies that are trying something new that is key here. Of course, full disclosure is imperative but compared to “You're are the 1,000,000,000 Millionth Visitor” links we've been accustomed to seeing on many blogs for years, I welcome the more relevant conversation/ engagement. The first time I saw the Chris Broagan ad on How To Split an Atom, I did something that is rare- I clicked, read the article and thought differently about the “sponsor.” Product placement works best in context, giving voice to an experience is even better.

I occasionally blog for PayPerPost and SocialSpark, and have never felt that paid blogging was wrong as long as proper disclosure is given. I only take “opportunities” that I can write honestly about and try to contribute worthwhile content. The spirit of the Sears promotion was one of granting wishes, and many of those that participated gave the majority to charity, myself included. My post goes live tomorrow. I was not told what to write, or even how to spend the gift card. I was 100% honest when writing the entry about my experience. There was no reason not to be. Just because I got a gift card doesn't mean my opinion of Sears changed one way or another. I simply gave an honest account of how I spent the card. Call me naive, but I just don't get why credibility is an issue when disclosure and honesty is involved.

It's great that marketers want to use blogs to sell their products or get their brands in front of a blog's readers. But then they should do it the same way they do for mainstream media — advertise. If someone asks you to write a paid post, they're not stroking your ego, they're insulting you. Don't mix editorial with advertising. It spoils the product, and that's all you have in the end. The marketer will just move on to the next place they can corrupt. My 2c

I understand bloggers need to make money, I would really like to see disclosure posted in the blog article. If someone is being overly promotional I have to weigh the content value of the blog to determine whether I will stop reading it.

@Brent All sponsored posts in the SocialSpark blog marketing network are required to have in-post disclosure.

I admit, when I saw Chris Pirillo had done this post for Izea, I was shocked, but as he said, he's never taken an “opp” for PayPerPost or the new Social Spark, he did one post for Kmart, and was given the gift card by Izea.
Does that make him a paid blogger? Is his post really considered a paid post?
No, it doesn't.
They gave him a gift card to spend on anything he wanted, he gave it all to charity, and in return, Izea gets a huge amount of traffic from his site.
It seems to me that Izea was the winner there, they got a huge named blogger to write for them, maybe more people will consider paid posts acceptable now, and look, people do think that.

I also wanted to point out that PayPerPost was not the first blog advertising network on the net. BlogAds started in 2002, long before PPP, Social Spark, or Izea was ever thought of. They didn't get bloggers to write sponsored content, but they run ads in adblocks on bloggers sites.
It annoys me that Izea calls themselves the first blog advertising network.
Sorry, no.

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