… you have been warned…
Misleading PPP opp
I have mentioned several times that I have stopped writing sponsored posts because I realize a lot of bloggers are trying to bullsh*t me with posts on how they “would” enjoy a trip to a place they’ve never been to, and how “lucky” we are these days because we could apply for loans and mortgages so easily.
When I started writing sponsored posts, I made it very clear to myself that I would only write about things that really matter to me, about things that I would really recommend to my readers, NOT about things that “I thought I would enjoy” and definitely not about “loans that I thought you should take”.
But of course you could tell me about bloggers who, until now, have never written about products that they had never personally tried, and I would believe you. After all, it would be very unfair to trash a basket of fruits because of a few rotten apples.
But the last straw that broke the camel’s back, or so it goes, was this:
The above image is a screenshot that I captured while browsing the list of opportunities the other day. One of the posties, who is also fairly active in the forums, created this $5-something opp. OK, I do understand that “Please do not write that I am personally a PPP member” doesn’t mean “Lie about it”. It could just mean “Don’t mention it” and I am OK with that.
But to ask a blogger to “approach the topic as if you just stumbled upon my website” is akin to asking bloggers to lie because if a blogger takes the opp, he/she definitely learned about the opp from the marketplace, and did not just stumble upon it, no?
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I would say ignore those opps and just do the ones that you like. I don’t do too many Pay Per Post but I’ve come across some like that and I won’t do them.
What it all comes down to is that paid posts is just another form of advertising. With paid posts you do have control since you can choose what you want to write about.
With something like Adsense Ads you don’t have as much control and you only get paid if a person clicks. However you might be featuring a company that you don’t agree with.
For example your post written about PPP has generated an Adsense Ad about Helium and PPP. Can you control the ads that appear using Google Adsense? Somewhat (through competitive filtering) but not entirely.
If you are to judge one advertising company like that than you have to be prepared to judge them all the same way. It’s only fair. :-)
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I have never trusted any sponsored posts because, IMHO, they are all biased.
I think that bloggers who write sponsored posts lack credibility (to be be trustworthy), integrity (able to discern what is right and wrong) and civility (respect for other people).
If one wants to be a media practitioner, I’d advise one to learn more about media ethics (especially pertaining to what one should/should not do) :stress:
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But marketing is lying! Haha .. I could show you a dozen examples just by walking through any local shopping mall.
Hehe … but anyway, I dislike reading paid posts and most of all I dislike people loading ads onto their blogs (e.g. Nuffnang, Advertlets etc). I go there to read the content, not wait for the advertisements to load up. Hehe …