Blogging for Cash: Ethical?
Bhumika Ghimire
October 18, 2006
The trend of companies and advertisers paying bloggers to write nice things about their product or services is fast rising. Some weeks back I wrote an article listing sites which offer paid blogging opportunity. Since then I have questioned myself many times if this practice is ethical. Blogs are not like newspapers, the line between an advertisement and bloggers opinion is very thin.
That is the reason why I decided to interview a paid blogger. His screen name is “bloggism” and he writes about blogging trends for Orble blogging community (http://www.orble.com/bloggers-tips/).
1) Do you think blogging form money is ethical? Please explain your opinion.
Sure it's ethical. Why it won't be? Blogging is a form of journalism, expressing views and ideas upon the best judgment derived from available information. Come on even the writers, reporters, priests get paid, why not blogger? They are better than traditional writer, in the sense that, community gets involved. It won't be ethical if blogger mislead his/her reader just to get money. So ethics is onto person. Maintaining ethics is sole responsibility of blogger as a person. For example- I blog in few blog network (Gadgets, laptop, software etc.) and I get paid as a contributor. So where did I break the ethics? I do what I love, and get paid since people get information from there.
2) How do you think advertising should be done in blogs?
Yes it can be done. Since running a blog site requires money. I run my own site, I know. There are other costs too. Even if it’s not for profit still you need funding. But there should be a limit and control on ads. Like what kind of ad fits with the content (no scams. If the blog network goes big, that time few small sponsor links is enough, since they pay well.
If you are saying that if I endorse any product in my writing, there should be certain restriction. I should not advertise something, I don't know well. I can recommend something that is already tested by me, and in my knowledge works well without a glitch (I should mention the negative side of the products too).
3) What do you see in the future for news and politics based blogs? Do you think in future blogs will replace the traditional newspapers?
News blogs will increase, since web 2.0 is just around the corner. And a blog is a more interactive way to communicate with readers; news is all about interaction right? Political blog- You know politics, they don’t leave until something is rotten, I fear politics will make blog dirty.
Blogs won't replace newspapers; reason is not 100% of our population use internet as their primary source for news and information. Internet isn't accessible everywhere. You can say newspaper’s soft copy is going to be blog.
That is the reason why I decided to interview a paid blogger. His screen name is “bloggism” and he writes about blogging trends for Orble blogging community (http://www.orble.com/bloggers-tips/).
1) Do you think blogging form money is ethical? Please explain your opinion.
Sure it's ethical. Why it won't be? Blogging is a form of journalism, expressing views and ideas upon the best judgment derived from available information. Come on even the writers, reporters, priests get paid, why not blogger? They are better than traditional writer, in the sense that, community gets involved. It won't be ethical if blogger mislead his/her reader just to get money. So ethics is onto person. Maintaining ethics is sole responsibility of blogger as a person. For example- I blog in few blog network (Gadgets, laptop, software etc.) and I get paid as a contributor. So where did I break the ethics? I do what I love, and get paid since people get information from there.
2) How do you think advertising should be done in blogs?
Yes it can be done. Since running a blog site requires money. I run my own site, I know. There are other costs too. Even if it’s not for profit still you need funding. But there should be a limit and control on ads. Like what kind of ad fits with the content (no scams. If the blog network goes big, that time few small sponsor links is enough, since they pay well.
If you are saying that if I endorse any product in my writing, there should be certain restriction. I should not advertise something, I don't know well. I can recommend something that is already tested by me, and in my knowledge works well without a glitch (I should mention the negative side of the products too).
3) What do you see in the future for news and politics based blogs? Do you think in future blogs will replace the traditional newspapers?
News blogs will increase, since web 2.0 is just around the corner. And a blog is a more interactive way to communicate with readers; news is all about interaction right? Political blog- You know politics, they don’t leave until something is rotten, I fear politics will make blog dirty.
Blogs won't replace newspapers; reason is not 100% of our population use internet as their primary source for news and information. Internet isn't accessible everywhere. You can say newspaper’s soft copy is going to be blog.
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