Sunday, October 24, 2004
Marc's Voice: Transparency and sponsorship in the blogosphere
Marc's Voice: Transparency and sponsorship in the blogosphere
This is at once something to hope for and something that looks good one paper, but...
The basic idea is simple enough- If bloggers are willing to write about things that advertisers want advertised, and are willing to pay the bloggers for that good press, then everybody wins. Well, that's a very utopian view of it, but it stands a chance of not only working, but working really well. It certainly would be a plus to bloogers in general. I have no aversion to cash (or checks, or valid and legal credit cards, or...). I have no objection to someone paying bloggers to write about products or services. What I would object to is someone paying bloggers to write about a piece of crap as if it were a good product.
That's where I think that the real genius of this idea lies: if a blogger writes about a piece of crap as if it were good, then people will quickly find that out and stop reading his blog and he'll stop getting paid for his blog. Bloggers don't necessarily blog if no-one is paying any attention (except maybe me). On the other hand, if a blogger writes about things he KNOWS are good (usually by personal experience), then his blog gets noticed and people are going to read about the advertised products and the company paying the freight and the blogger are BOTH going to do well. So, it's sort of a self-policing process. And that, my friends, is a Good Thing all around :).
So, any of you manufacturers or publishers out there who want your products reviewed by a 30+ year veteran of the computer wars (Windows or Linux only, please!), then let me know. I'm sure we can work out something in the way of a reasonable rate and you'll also get valuable feedback on your product.
This is at once something to hope for and something that looks good one paper, but...
The basic idea is simple enough- If bloggers are willing to write about things that advertisers want advertised, and are willing to pay the bloggers for that good press, then everybody wins. Well, that's a very utopian view of it, but it stands a chance of not only working, but working really well. It certainly would be a plus to bloogers in general. I have no aversion to cash (or checks, or valid and legal credit cards, or...). I have no objection to someone paying bloggers to write about products or services. What I would object to is someone paying bloggers to write about a piece of crap as if it were a good product.
That's where I think that the real genius of this idea lies: if a blogger writes about a piece of crap as if it were good, then people will quickly find that out and stop reading his blog and he'll stop getting paid for his blog. Bloggers don't necessarily blog if no-one is paying any attention (except maybe me). On the other hand, if a blogger writes about things he KNOWS are good (usually by personal experience), then his blog gets noticed and people are going to read about the advertised products and the company paying the freight and the blogger are BOTH going to do well. So, it's sort of a self-policing process. And that, my friends, is a Good Thing all around :).
So, any of you manufacturers or publishers out there who want your products reviewed by a 30+ year veteran of the computer wars (Windows or Linux only, please!), then let me know. I'm sure we can work out something in the way of a reasonable rate and you'll also get valuable feedback on your product.
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