Everything and Anything

I have tried not to write too much about the new rules the FTC wants to put on blogging, mostly because we are still not exactly sure what they want to do. I do love the idea of saying, “yes I write sponsored content” but as we all know a colorful company does have issues with this so I’d like to see what happens to ranking after all is said and done.

I write sponsored post. I try to be as honest as I can when I do write them if I love a product or the concept of a product (if I have not tried it myself) I rave about it, if I don’t, but there are good things about it I point both bad and good out. If I hate it, I usually do not write about it. At least not on this blog. If it’s on another blog I own I may as those are blogs that I feel more readers would check for a product review. This one is really just for me. Though I have written badly about products I have bought myself on this blog. I will not accept money here for a product that I can not say at least something good about.

I think that is where people see a problem, if you don’t understand how paid blogging works you may not know that I can turn down jobs I do not want. No one is forcing me to take the money or the trip (which I have never gotten anyway) or the item. I choose what I do on all of my blogs. I’m all for disclosure because then you know when you are reading something that it may be paid, or is paid for by a company, affiliate or someone and that you need to research a little before you buy a product. You may think that reading on a blog is research, but check out other blogs and types of sites and you should get a good idea as to how the product will fit you.

Having sponsored content on my blogs has helped me pay my bills when jobs are just not available, I will not stop writing and I will not stop being paid to write just because of these rules. I know that when I write about something I try as hard as I can to be honest. Unfortunately the same can not be said of anyone and even after these laws are implemented you will still have these problems as the FTC reach only goes so far and does not apply to other countries. Foreign bloggers will gain everything while US bloggers will be the ones to lose, either by losing pay or by having to quit altogether.

What is your view on all of this? Would you read a blog that had sponsorship notices all over it or would you shy away from it and find one that didn’t? (knowing that they could be from another country and still be getting paid)

Technorati Tags: blogging, disclosure, FTC

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