Thirty pieces of silver
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| Rembrandt: Judas Returns the 30 Pieces of Silver |
OK, I received two, count 'em, two offers for paid links and or posts today. By that I mean someone would pay me somewhere between $50 and $100 in exchange for a positive review in a post or even a link in my "Links I like Section."
I actually have by no means engaged on this behavior and I get approached as a minimum as soon as a day by means of someone dangling an offer. I suppose it is sleazy so I don't do it. I do not think I'm a few form of a ethical parent about it, however I just like the idea of getting my readers be able to tell what's my real opinion and what's a sponsored opinion.
Now, it's true that I accept products and I've been on more than my share of trips I didn't pay for. But I never accept anything as a quid pro quo. I have a cushy relationship with Brizo but I liked their faucets long before I met anyone associated with the brand. If they came up with a real dog I would say so. I don't feel compromised by my association with them, mostly because they don't expect me to treat them with kid gloves.
Accepting cash to propose a product I do not accept as true with in appears different to me, much less forthright. When someone sends me a e-book or a faucet and I evaluate it, I say "Taunton Press despatched me a evaluate reproduction of [fill in the blank]." Accepting something and disclosing it to my readers keeps me on the stright and slender up to now as I'm concerned.
But the factor of those paid posts is for me not to disclose that cash changed hands. The expectation is that I'll write an endorsement that comes throughout as valid and sincere.
That's the distinction in my e-book. I'm writing this because I'm curious to hear how other people handle it. I'm turning down a now not-insignificant amount of money nowadays however I worry that when I say yes the primary time it'll just get less difficult to maintain announcing yes. Once I'm on that slide downhill I'll never regain something comparable to integrity.
Of direction, there are folks that say I lost my integrity the primary time I were given on an aircraft and flew someplace to fulfill a supplier. For the document, that turned into Google in February '09.
I don't assume I've lost some thing, however it is a balancing act.
What do you men assume? How do different bloggers balance whoredom with integrity?