Comments on: Can Bloggers Withstand The Siren Call of Payola? Not When Big Media Is Calling.

By: Where’s my swag?? — Shooting at Bubbles

Where’s my swag?? — Shooting at Bubbles — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 17:09:09 +0000

[...] as Tony stated in his post on the subject Blogging is an independent activity, where your actions are governed by your own [...]

By: WinExtra - Where’s my swag??

WinExtra - Where’s my swag?? — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 20:14:40 +0000

[...] as Tony stated in his post on the subject Blogging is an independent activity, where your actions are governed by your own [...]

By: Andy Beard

Andy Beard — Fri, 25 May 2007 22:55:18 +0000

Here was me thinking I write some of my best content when someone is paying me to do a thorough job.

I have to be careful with everything I write, because I know I will rank extremely highly for any search related to the product.

Obviously the products people are asking for reviews for are new, thus not very competitive, but the reviews I write certainly rank higher than older more established blogs with higher pagerank.

Examples

ibegin source
volusion
seo consultant (not in title and competitive)
seo consulting (note this was the title)

As Robert Scoble once said here, he shouldn’t write about Lawnmowers

By: Tony Hung

Tony Hung — Fri, 25 May 2007 22:34:44 +0000

Yeah, I thought so too — unless the blogosphere (or the people who read it) get so used to it / apathetic about the situation that they never get galvanized to this phenomenon.

Sure, people will always notice blatant shucksterism, but the more subtle stuff, I think will continue to fly underneath the radar as people just get used to it.

Cheers
tony.

By: Jon Greer

Jon Greer — Fri, 25 May 2007 22:22:45 +0000

Nice post. To answer your main point, the effect on the credibility of bloggers: in the short-run, accepting blogola probably won’t affect their popularity. But over time, if these folks repeatedly tout stuff because they got blogola, and it turns out that their opinions are skewed because of the payoff, the readers will pick up on it and will start to discount the value of their opinions.

By: Stephen Fraser

Stephen Fraser — Fri, 18 May 2007 14:22:56 +0000

Very good post. Thanks for the link to my own blogged thoughts about the WSJ article. For accuracy’s sake, however, I feel compelled to note that I am the FORMER director of communications for Lulu.com, a post I left in September of 2006 to found my own consulting agency. Keep up the good work.

By: Bob Glaza

Bob Glaza — Fri, 18 May 2007 06:21:17 +0000

I still want my Vespa :) – there’s a bit of a conversation going on “here”:http://www.mpdailyfix.com/2007/05/blogging_for_booty_1.html for those interested. My gut tells me presents for posts is a bad idea. Although, at times today I’ve leaned towards Elaine’s thoughts. Gotta admit its a good question and a better conversation starter.