Comments on: Over 2000 bloggers taking cash for comment

By: Black Hat Bloggers : Graywolf’s SEO Blog

Black Hat Bloggers : Graywolf’s SEO Blog — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 14:19:53 +0000

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By: Alexander Petrenko

Alexander Petrenko — Tue, 06 Sep 2005 18:59:21 +0000

I think, it is not a big deal to hire good English-speaking guy from India and pay him some amount for full-time blogging and popularizing some idea (commodity). Anyway – blogs already of source of commercial and non-commercial information. USWeb just pays for it $-)

By: Jeff Cutler

Jeff Cutler — Sat, 03 Sep 2005 00:31:31 +0000

Yes. This is from Jeff.
Since the firestorm, I’ve revised my approach in writing blogs. Now, I don’t say anything about my personal connection to a product or person and just include a link to these things as an example.
Please realize (as most of the intelligent readers do), that blogs are NOT journalism. They are akin to a public email broadcast of my comments.
I DO have a few real journalism jobs and I write a regular column for the Boston Herald’s papers.
In these other positions, which I’ve been performing for 12 years or more, I have never had an issue about bias or ethics.
You can be sure that now that I understand how nit-picky the public is about blogs, those will be beyond reproach as well.
Happy reading.
Oh, yeah. If you’d like to read more, my book – Mountain Bike America: Boston – is on sale at Borders, Barnes and Noble and on Amazon. Just do a search for my name.
Later,
Jeff

By: John Cass

John Cass — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 03:27:19 +0000

Ed Shull, the marketing manager for USWeb posted a comment on my blog about a posting I made a few days ago. I did some research into the FTC rules, do a search on ftc endorsements and testimonials on google and review the FTC guidelines.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 15:07:53 +0000

Mo banks, gawd, you come across as so damn ignorant, it’s not even funny. The point of blogs is to get an unbiased (at least, non-commercial) opinion on things.

Blogs are great because it gives a different perspective, however if some hack decides to take cash for talking about a product he hasn’t even used, yeah, I’m gonna have a problem with that.

And since when did we ever really trust news organizations, they get things wrong too and are bound by advertising too.

By: Bondi Tram

Bondi Tram — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 15:00:11 +0000

Mo banks .. whart? people whose blogging is directed by others should tell readers that. I blog for free – yeah its crap I know – if you want to make money from a blog be upfront about it don’t pretend its a personal blog when it isn’t . its deception. And Cutler’s response – blame the readers lack of critical reading skills for not picking up the “placements”. Disciplining his writing? – yeah – hogtied to the whim of an invisible hand. Undisclosed sponsorship wouldnt be acceptable on other media.

By: site admin

site admin — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 03:34:21 +0000

I didn’t moralise about it heavily but I’ll tell you what the problem is, people who accept cash for comment without disclosing it make us all look bad. I’m not naive, I know it happens, but I don’t have to like it. Indeed I was rathered restrained, there were a number of other blogs in the Globe article as well, but admittedly they weren’t all like one big ad that it Cutlers

By: dave park

dave park — Mon, 27 Jun 2005 20:15:14 +0000

what’s the problem? it does hurt the credibility of blogs in general and as a reader of blogs I wouldn’t trust the opinion of the blog at all if i knew they were getting paid for content. making money is fine, but blogs can do that via ads. paid content is another story. should advertisers just start paying businessweek for writing up articles? there is a blurry line that exists between advertising and editorial, but paying for outright content without even a disclaimer is a new low.

By: The Blog Factory Â» Blog Archive » Blog Whores

The Blog Factory Â» Blog Archive » Blog Whores — Mon, 27 Jun 2005 19:21:50 +0000

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By: Vix

Vix — Mon, 27 Jun 2005 10:41:35 +0000

It doesn’t add any relevance to the blog. There should be kind of disclaimer that some links are paid for or are for advertising purposes.

By: Roger Benningfield

Roger Benningfield — Mon, 27 Jun 2005 05:35:17 +0000

Wow, that *is* pretty repulsive. Jeff’s actions are little more than search engine spamming… after all, no one would actually read his fluff on purpose. The only reason for anyone to pay him is to try to build up Google juice in a deceptive fashion.

Lovely. I hope someone at the Big G is watching.

By: Mo banks

Mo banks — Mon, 27 Jun 2005 05:27:14 +0000

And whats the problem? Do bloggers really feel they are News organizations? 99% of blogggers are some person just typing in the basement, not bound by the realities of fact checking and other little things like that. Please, you are being so naive to think this would not happen. And why is it bad? Because you feel it hurts the “integrity” of blogs. This is a non issue.