It’s a big question for any blogger who accepts payment in exchange for posting about a particular website, product or service. Are they losing the trust of their readers?

Although recent comments from the FTC have brought up the topic of proper disclosure, this goes far beyond PayPerPost and other paid blogging models. The potential is there to impact affiliate marketers as well, since they get paid when someone buys a product or service they recommend. Very nearly the same thing as getting paid upfront if you think about it.

There are some really interesting articles on this topic if you search around. Flat out fake blogs, people trying to get others to flat out shill for them in reviews on sites such as Amazon and more. Where should that line be drawn?

So far as I’m concerned, in that case product placements in movies and on television should be looked at too. How many people go out and buy a product because they saw it in a movie or on T.V? Many placements are very deliberate.

As for me, yes, I do take pay for talking about various products, websites or services. However, I also keep things honest. If I don’t like a product or whatever, I’ll either say so or not review it. But I’ve learned about some really neat stuff by doing paid reviews, and in some cases got paid for reviewing things that I had been wanting to review anyhow. Pretty nice deal if you ask me.

What do you think?

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