Blogging is a popular activity. People share their souls in Cyberspace and readers vicariously enjoy the lives of others. This week’s article looks at the ethics of blogging for money. Go to the link below and read the article. Write a reflective comment that answers my questions and expresses your views on the topic.
Is it ethical to write about products for money in a blog that people read because they think you are sharing your honest opinion? Look at one of the author’s blog posting that are linked from the article. How much would you charge to write articles like those in the author’s blog? What types of paid blog articles are acceptable for people to write? What types of articles would you refuse to write? How should people determine the limits of their moral compromise in situations like this?
Paid Blogging Article
19 comments:
I don't think that posting comments about a product and saying it’s your honest opinion because you are getting paid is ethical. I believe that the price that is already given is the right price for these posts. I don't think that any paid blog articles are acceptable unless the reader knows that the author is being paid for his opinion. I would refuse to write any blog posts for money. I would not accept to write a post for money in the first place so my line has been drawn early.
Yes, for sure it's ethical to advertise a product. Advertisement is the only way for a product or a company to attract customers. If a company tells the truth and fulfills people's wishes than it is 100% ethical. People writing blogs is advertising the person's life. If they took the time to write the information and your reading it, then he should get paid. I thought about it hard and clear, and I would be interested to write blogs like that and I would charge $5 per topic. Each topic I write would last forever, and those who pay to enter my topic can access it whenever they want in the future. Acceptable paid blog articles should be about peoples personal lives or things that the people experienced. If people pay for something, then it should be useful. The information given in blogs should be useful for others. I would find a blog that talks about someones experiences and their personal life a blog worth paying for, an ethical blog. I would refuse to write articles about my love life and my life as it is now with my family and friends. I refuse to write information about family or friends without their knowledge.
I am of the belief that subliminal advertising is extremely unethical. If the audience knows you are being paid to talk about how great your new toothbrush is, then that is one thing. Tricking people into thinking that you really do think Oral B makes great toothbrushes is a whole other issue, though. I think it is okay to have banner advertisements and things like that on your blog. It is a much more up front way to make money from your hobby. I would not sell my voice to a company, and when and if I blog, it will not be a business interaction.
I personally think that using people to advertise for their company is extremely unethical because most of the commercials companies make are completely bogus, and pay people alot of money just to say good things about it, just like several commercials where they bring doctors to talk about their products and how it is good,which is completely fake, because a lot of companies advertise their "new" medicine against caughing, and it turned out that all of the caughing medicines are useless and that they dont help at all, and this was reported on the news.
And also, alot of people advertise their products using blogs,which is also unacceptable because they are deceiving the people who read the blogs.
I believe that it is unethical for someone to post a false blog because they were paid to. If I were to make a blog that was advertising for some company, I would probably charge a few thousand dollars. Normal advertisements cost millions of dollars, so the company paying me to make a blog would still save a ton of money. I think that the blogs should only be acceptable if the people viewing them know that it is not the bloggers true opinion, but an advertisement. I probably wouldn't refuse to write a blog if I were paid to. People should determine their limits by looking at blogs that people were paid to make and see what they think.
I think it is very ethical,you can promote a product without being a total sellout,you can make an honest living informing people.
It really depends how many people would read these blogs,if alot of people read them then I would say around $20 an article.
Blogs that I think would be acceptable to write would be about events such as concerts or art shows.
I would refuse to write anything that I was against,such as promoting child labor or animal cruelty.
I think that everyone is different, and its all about that one person writing the blogs moral views.
Indeed, it is ethical to write about products for money in a blog that people read because it will make the blog famous, which will increase the price of advertisements in the blog.
So, it is a business matter than an ethical matter.
Well, since these articles somewhat attract attentions, I would say around five dollar per article. Articles like recent science discoveries or personal opinion about a situation would be acceptable. I would refuse to write about my personal journal. People should not use this as their main income, but as a part-time job.
No, it is not ethical to post for money, mainly because you wouldn’t be saying your frank judgment. I think that the prices they are offering authors is sufficient. The site has to notify the reader if the author is being paid or not, so that the reader knows that part of the blog can be not true. If it came to me I would never try doing something like this because I don’t think it’s appropriate to lie about a product just because I am being paid.
Yes, i think it is ethical for people to post blogs about their honest opinion and get paid. It's just getting paid to do something you already enjoy doing. That's what most peoples jobs are, right? I mean, teachers are teachers because they love kids. Veterinarians are veterinarians because they love animals. The people who work for PayPerPost get paid to post blogs. Besides, the people who get paid to post know that companies are using them for their personal advertisement; It's not like they have no idea.
Well, I do not think it is necessarily unethical to write a false opinion about a product. If people are so naïve as to base their decisions on the opinions of others, then that is their own mistake, not the mistake of the blogger themselves. If we can stand by and watch thousands of advertisements on television everyday, and expose our children to these advertisements without accusing these companies from being unethical, then what difference will one blogger make? It doesn't really matter that he's being paid to say something catchy to attract people to a product, it is just as ethical as any other job. When you do a job, you do not do it because it makes you feel morally good, you do it because you are being paid. However, I do not think that sending out false opinions about products for money is a crime, unless the opinion you send out is completely radical, or has to do with life saving procedures or drugs. The importance of the product you are selling is what sets the grounds for whether it is ethical to lie about the product. For example, to say that liposuction is a life saving procedure, that would be unethical, but to say that Windex can clean any stain, that isn't really challenging a persons morality. As to the money people are paid to post their opinions, I believe that people are being paid way too much just to post a cheap form of propaganda. The most I'd ever pay a person to post a blog that I'd like to hear, would be $20, anything more than that is finding people to cover a bad review or a smear campaign, business that is filled with unethical motives. You can write any blog you desire really, but when you tell people that this product will save you, or that product will kill you, you're crossing a line. When people trust you with their wallet, shame on them, but when they trust you with their life, then you are the responsible one. I wouldn't write any blog that deals with a persons health, regardless of whatever I would be paid. I would sell any other type of product for cash though, be it butter or bullets. If you want to limit yourself in this business, just ask yourself, who will listen, and how will this affect them. If you don't like the results of your advertisement in a blog, then find something else to advertise.
It is quite unethical to write about a product in a blog for money. Although it’s one way to promote a product, blogs are not appropriate media for ads, considering how people would feel uncomfortable. If it is guaranteed that lots of people will read, I would charge about $30 to write one of these articles. As I said none of these paid articles seem acceptable to be posted. Since I oppose the whole concept of this paid blog articles, I would refuse to write one of them.
See, it really is very situational.
I read two blogs daily. I love them and I go to them for whenever I need to know about video games. These two are extremely famous in the gaming world and whatever their views on a game are could alter sales. These guys make their living off their blogs. It's just that successful. However, it's not because they are paid by companies or anything. They are making it just on money from advertisements.
Sure, video game companies constantly send to them, free of charge, systems and games and other sorts of bribery to get their games rated by them in hopes of selling higher. However, these guys actually will laugh at them when they send it. I respect them highly for it.
Yet, if say a really large blogger like the Sartorialist. Hugely famous in the fashion world. He judges people on the streets of Paris and Milan's style. He doesn't make a living off of this. It's just a hobby. But say he were actaully paid to talk about how amazing of a brand Gucci is, then he would lose all his credibility.
That's why I think, that being paid to blog is highly ineffective and if you want to blog for a living, do it well, and honestly, and make your money off advertisements.
It is ethical to advertice a product. Advertisements are the best way to commercialize a product. I think if someone writes a blog they should get paid for it because they took the time to write it and other people are taking the time to read it. I would definitely write blogs for money.
omar G
There’s nothing wrong with wanting to advertise your product, however, the way you advertise is what determines whether it’s ethical or not. Having random people who haven’t even tried your product is totally unethical. If you have to resort to paying people to create a false reputation of your product, then that kind of shows your product isn’t so great after all. I mean it wouldn’t be as bad if the people posting the blogs had actually tried the product. I find it very misleading because someone could actually be considering buying the product and would be very mislead if they read the blog comments about the product.
Honestly, no. People these days specially on the internet are hard to trust. I wouldn't charge people to post blogs. If I wanted money I would just get a job. The types of paid blog articles that are acceptable for people to write are articles that help fundraise to help people. The types of articles that I would refuse to write are articles that seem pointless and support something that I'm against. People shouldn't post blogs, because they can never know who to trust and who not to trust.
People who surf the blog should be smart enough to realize that not all the things that are said are honest opinions. I would charge $5-$10 for each blog post, if I had to do it. People should try to write factual information-they may exaggerate the products importance a little-but not too much that it harms the consumer or leads him into false pretenses. If I had to write a blog, I would write about something that I have tried before and have had some personal experience with. This is a matter or living for some people and so they put their basic needs in front of their morals, and do what is right for them.
Businesses will do anything to promote their product and make as much profit as they can from it. Even though paying people to write blogs about a product they haven’t tried isn’t very ethical, I have to admit, its working. Money is power and with money you can get people to do a lot of things. Paying bloggers up to $10 per blog isn’t much of a loss when in return your product is gaining popularity and good reviews. As blogs about a certain product increase, companies win more links to their site which in turn increases their search-engine rankings. Through this paid blogging process, a product that hasn’t even been tried yet could instantly gain rankings and bring in a lot of profits since buyers will be mislead into thinking the product is successful and desired. It is quite unethical, but then again business is business.
It is not ethical to pay people to advertise their companies in blogging. People who write in blogs are expressing their honest opinion and looking for feedback from others and other people’s point of views. When some start getting paid to put in what is not their opinion, it’s not blogging anymore. There is a place for advertisement, and it’s not in the place of honest opinions. As a company looking for places to advertise, I can understand how this would seem like a good idea. But the bottom line is it’s unethical. The fact that it was written at the bottom of the liposuction article: “This has been a sponsored Pay Per Post entry.”, makes it better at least, but does not remove the moral dilemma from the situation. I personally would not charge people to write blogs like those for my companies because not so many people would have read them and it would be a waste of money I could be using in other legitimate advertising agencies. As a blogger who maybe needed the money I would mainly refuse to write blogs about companies I did not support, which would vary from liposuction to other companies that affected people’s health or lives. In situations like this people should decide how much they really need the money, and if they do, what types of things they are willing to write about. If it is something that will do good for people, then why not?
I dont think it's ethical because you should let people determine for themselves what products they want to buy. I won't accept to advertise through a blog, because blogs are supposed to be your honest opinions. But what if they paid you thousands and thousands (or millions =D) of dollars to put one line into your blog? i think refusing may be easier said than done. It's unethical, but people cannot refuse it. But then again, it depends on who you're advertising for, and if you really like their products. Maybe then I'd be willing to advertise.
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