Over the next few weeks, if I’m approved, I’ll be experimenting with a new-ish service (new to me, anyway) called Blogsvertise. Here’s how it works: Blogsvertise gets paid to promote some product or service. Blogsvertise selects appropriate blogs to write about the product or service. I write a post in which I mention the product or service a certain number of times, with the link provided. I am under no obligation to endorse the product or service, simply to mention them and provide a link. I get paid a little something, which is good.
I’ve thought hard about the ethics of this, and I’ve decided that I can be comfortable with this provided I do nothing to deceive my readers (either one of you!). I will not endorse any product I do not or would not use, and will be very clear when I’m being paid to mention a product. The way I see it is like this: Blogsvertise is going to provide me with more or less regular writing prompts (prompts are assignments writers give each other to challenge themselves to come up with creative ways of dealing with a topic, or to help break through writer’s block, or simply to give themselves a challenge and practice their writing chops). That they’re going to pay me makes their prompts more attractive, but that’s it — it doesn’t create an obligation to give them or their clients any editorial control over my writing here. To their credit, Blogsvertise understands this and is very clear about the limits they must stick to.
So we’ll see how it turns out. I will still write on my own topics, when I have something to say — like I’ve been doing for 7+ years at my old site, One Man’s Opinion (static archive, at Savage Minds, and at ThinkNaughty, my research blog.
Leave a Reply