Paid-Posts vs. Paid Representation: Is there a difference?
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Earlier this week, Wil Wheaton posted asking his readers to vote for him at the Blogger’s Choice Awards (BCA), since it was ticking him off that the barely-literate Rosie O’Donnell was trouncing him. Later in the day, he posted a criticism of the BCA and PayPerPost, saying he didn’t realize the BCA was sponsored by a company
Bloggers that are paid spokespeople may not have an EXPLICIT requirement to blog about the company, but certainly there is an IMPLICIT expectation to do so.
…which is at best deeply unethical, and at worst damn close to evil…
Of course, he links to Calacanis, who has himself suffered through accusations of unethical behavior in his enterprises.
Yeah, that raised a few hackles over at PPP headquarters and the PPP forums.
I don’t bring this up to slam Wil, as I’ve read his blog for a long time and played in a couple of his Tuesday night poker tournaments at PokerStars and found him to be friendly, down-to-earth, and engaging. Until earlier this week, Wil was a compensated spokesperson for PokerStars, and his duties included hosting the aforementioned weekly tournament that was written about periodically on his blog. Rather, I wanted to raise the issue I raised in my comments on his post:
… My view:PPP = Team Pokerstars
I was under the impression you were paid, in tourney entries if not in direct salary, for your promotional efforts. I don’t know if there was a direct requirement to write about P’stars on this blog, but you did do so regularly.
Am I mistaken?
PPP doesn’t MAKE us post for anyone, we CHOOSE to do the posts that are appropriate. Just like with you and P’Stars (sorry to hear about you leaving, btw, end of an era). The posts are written by us, in our words - in fact, we’re not allowed to use direct promotional copy from the advertiser.
So, nobody twists our arms and nobody takes over our blogs.
Some might argue that you and I are unethical/immoral/going-to-hell for promoting online poker sites. I don’t think either of us agrees with that line of thought, so please give the parallel I’ve presented here some thought. I think we both know and respect a couple poker bloggers that provide paid contextual links without disclosures, as well as many (like me) that disclose every time they post a paid article.
My Disclosure wrt this comment: I’ve never done a PPP post on my poker blog despite having it approved for several months, but have done quite a few on another blog where it the opportunities have been appropriate. My traffic and comments have never been higher on that blog…
The question I’d like to open up for discussion is, am I wrong to equate a blogger writing regularly about a company with which they have a business interest, with paid posts for companies like PPP and ReviewMe?
To be clear, I am not counting people that blog about their own business ventures. For instance, I see a big difference in what I do in writing paid posts and what Calacanis is doing in writing about Mahalo. In fact, I celebrate the use of blogs for business purposes, obviously.
What I am discussing here is the case of bloggers that are paid spokespeople or have advertising on their blogs writing about those companies that pay them? There may not be an EXPLICIT requirement to blog about the company, but certainly there is an IMPLICIT expectation to do so. While I enjoyed Wil’s performances in Stand by Me and ST:TNG, I don’t think PokerStars would have sought out a relationship with him had it not been for his wildly successful blog.
Again, I’m not criticizing Wil, except to ask “where’s the line?”
tag: Wil Wheaton, PayPerPost, Blogger’s Choice Awards, Calacanis, PokerStars, Paid Blogging, Business Blogging
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