One of my favorite bloggers sent me a note asking my opinion about a service that pays bloggers to write about client products. It's not secret, the writers disclose their contracts. Even so, I told her that as an old newsie, I thought that, unless she was desperate for money, she shouldn't go near the idea. WHY?
Understand, this is NOT selling ads on your blog or being part of a syndicate like BlogHer, my favorite entity on the planet, or Federated Media, founded by the amazing John Battelle. That's an advertiser paying for a separate, discrete place on the page.
This entity, and others far more insidious, including sub-rosa corporate and political efforts, threaten the credibility of the writer and, even more important, of the medium. I was reminded of this after reading a speech on the dangers faced by legitimate blogs and bloggers, given by the early Internet pioneer Jason Calacanis. In it he reminds us what happened to e-mail because of spammers and urges bloggers to fight such developments in our thrilling new medium. Here's what he says about what spammers did to e-mail "Many of you built this city — this trusted medium — with hard work and good intentions. Then, along come the spammers, and they piss in the well, ruining it for all of us."
Yeah I know it's a real guy image but the fact remains, there's a thin line between talking about or reviewing material and taking money to sell it. Usually, by the way, not what it would cost to reach the same people some other way. And almost inevitably, taking blogging closer to the diminished credibility so much a part of my former world of "mainstream journalism.