PayPerPost and Womma

There’s a lot of blogs out there’ a lot of people trying to make money out of blogging. And blogs are liked by search engines; with work, blogs can easily top the search results. Hence the rise in splogs that try and game the system, and the increase in companies that use bloggers to get the message out (see previous post as to why it can be done). PayPerPost is a company that takes these two ideas and provides a service to promote products, paying bloggers to write about them. However, the disclosure of the financial relationships has been sketchy with some people which has led to a backlash against the policy, about the ethics of taking money to promote a product without in your face disclosure. Looking at PR practices in getting magazine to write about the product, the line is blurry – why should bloggers be different. Unless you assume that no-one trusts journalists at all and peopel should trust bloggers?

However, there is a lot of concern about this practice and WOMMA has been keeping an eye on it. They are monitoring the companies and calling on them to make disclosure far clearer. Along with the FCC ruling and other guidleines/laws coming in globally, brands and agencies need to take a close look at the transparency of their marketing. Via Jason.