I enjoyed your blog post and totally agree with you. I think paid blog posts are wrong for brands and tend to diminish rather than enhance brands that engage in this tactic.

I also wanted to inform you that I used a small part of your article on my blog. Because I disagree with Forrester’s stand on paid blog posts, I issued a public offer to Forrester to accept a paid blog post promoting my blog on the Groundswell blog. I was surprised when they responded via a post on their Groundswell blog. Thought you might be interested.

My blog post: http://www.experiencetheblog.com/2009/08/my-paid-blog-post-on-forrester-blog.html

Forrester’s response: http://blogs.forrester.com/groundswell/2009/08/to-augie-ray-thanks-for-the-offer-but-we-dont-take-sponsorships.html

Great, insightful blog post. Thanks!

I’m a blogger and I’ve worked in some campaigns hiring bloggers in Brazil. It’s funny to compare how these things go here and in the US and other places.

I think paid posts are somehow so new for everyone here in Brazil, that is always a big issue… some days ago, during a bloggers meeting, I could notice that people were most likely not to do paid posts, but reviews in exchange of products seemed to be cool for them.

I’ve always thought in US bloggers had already overcome these paid posts matters… but reading the story, your points and the comments, I can see that this is a subject bloggers, advertising and PR folks still need to talk about.

For my part, I did the pre-post, the post then I will do a post-post (??) in a few days that will pull together lessons learned. There are a variety of reasons why I did the Sears thing, not the least was to give IZEA a chance to redeem themselves in the eyes of the blogosphere.

Anyways…. more later. Thanks for the writeup.

I’m actually in a very different position to judge this and I’ll tell you right now – you associate your name with a retailer in the present Blogosphere mindset? You are damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

What I mean by that was the number of people who have posted since August being convinced that as one of Walmart’s Elevenmoms I must a) be getting paid, b) never shop at Walmart, c) be getting kickbacks or something and when they find out that a) nope, not paid b) yep, have shopped regularly at Walmart for years, c) nope, didn’t even get a $500 Walmart gift card from Nickelodeon who paid for the $500 contest on my site (and other 11moms’) – then the tune turns to how I’m ‘holding other bloggers back because now retailers will think that we will work for them for free!’

There’s an old adage that says a man walks up to a woman and says “would you sleep with me?” and she looks offended and says “no!” and he says “okay, would you sleep with me for $1,000,000?” and she says “well, of course!” and he replies with “now that we’ve established what kind of woman you are, let’s talk price.”

Integrity isn’t something you can buy or sell. You’ve either got it, or you don’t. Some people will never, ever believe that I could say positive things about Walmart without being paid for it. Some people would never believe you if you told them that I could be bought out by anyone. The first sort? Will always believe that paid/sponsored blogging events are wrong and evil and biased. The second sort will not.

It’s not about whether or not marketers will move into social media on this level – it’s about whether or not you believe the individual bloggers they work with have integrity or not. If you do? Then if that blogger gives a positive review, you’re more likely to check it out. If you don’t? Then the retailer is spending their money unwisely.

~GeekMommy

How would have denying participation in Walmart’s program have damned you? It wouldn’t have. But by participating you get pageviews, twitter exposure, and one lifetime reader (the winner). Sure you weren’t paid (and even worse if you were), but all of this all translates into exposure ,which translates into revenue and anyone with an account on blogger and adsense knows it. Hell, anyone on the internet today knows it. This is where sustainability with this model is going to fail. It won’t be long till every mommy blog and SME guru will be considered a schister.

link bait is dead. long live link bait.

This was a great post. I have to say I agree with pretty much everything you said. This whole mess isn’t a big deal today, but it’s a huge deal in the long term. If the big guys are actually biting at this they are going to drown and the bulletin boards, ning communities, youtube channels, micro-communities, will become that much stronger. I have yet to decide if the long term detriment with be localized (per blog) or global (a la blogosphere) but the effect will be negative. This will be fun to watch. Actually it already is.

You also must’ve missed that part about not being able to buy someone with integrity – but since you commented Anonymously, that’s not too surprising now, is it?

~GM

Sorry, just didn’t need to waste my time coming back to point that out *after* you tried and failed to understand it a second time.

It’s very apparent some of your readers didn’t like it. It’s also very apparent you’re sensitive about it. I suggest you think of reasons (or listens to others ideas) on reasons why some readers might not like the contest and adjust accordingly (both you and walmart). Now that would be some good marketing.

No one has commented that my or Nickelodeon’s contest (for a Walmart gift card) is inappropriate. It is only people who comment on other blogs, like you, my anonymous ‘friend’ who like to cast stones at anyone blogging who affiliates themselves in any manner with a retailer. Only usually, they have the guts to put their names to it.

Walmart is doing good marketing – they do it transparently, openly, and honestly. Which is more than I can say for your comments.

Good night and good luck to you.