You have probably heard the news that broke earlier this week. Forbes slammed PayPerPost and those of us who are posties! Their article was not only demeaning to the bloggers who post for PayPerPost, but in my mind is also an insult to intelligent consumers. While everyone is entitled to their opinions, here’s mine if anyone cares to hear. In the Forbes article written by David Gelles, he stated;
What so enrages the masses online is that the soft sell is often concealed, disguised as an independent product or service review.
Is it just me, or is that not an insult to the intelligence of a potential consumer? Are consumers so easily deceived to not recognize a post as being a potential advertisement? Or, when they click through from a link within a blog post and land on a commercial site do they not comprehend that they just clicked through a link due to an advertisement? Furthermore, many of the advertisers require that the posties place a disclosure within the post to demonstrate that it is indeed an advertisement, or at the very least display a link on our blog to our advertising disclosure policy. Although David Gelles mentioned this fact, it was placed at the end of his article as if the disclosure policies serve no purpose.
Going further into the Forbes article he also criticized Colleen, the top postie for PayPerPost where she published an ad for a credit counseling company. He stated she should have used their services prior to publishing an ad for them! His response to her post was this;
Trouble is, the blogger pushing the site had never even used the company but was getting paid to flack it.
OK, this is the one I really have a problem with. I’m not so naive nor is the rest of the world to actually believe that every advertising agency out there publishing ads has “used the company” product or service prior to generating their ad! That is absolutely obsurd!
Here’s how ridiculous that is: Let’s just say for example that the particular credit counseling company he referred to had selected a different form of advertisement such as an advertising campaign with a newspaper, magazine or other form of media. Does that entity now have their people “use the” credit counseling service before they can do an ad for the company? Hogwash! Like any other form of advertising, bloggers or posties have the right to express their opinion after reviewing a companies website demonstrating the product or service they provide.
In a nutshell, perhaps the big dogs such as Forbes are angry with the fact that as bloggers take on the task of publishing advertisements, the big dogs will lose the grip they’ve had for so many years with raking in the millions of dollars from advertising. My take on this is they see the blogosphere as a threat to their “business as usual” and fear they will lose millions themselves from the advertising revenues they normally would generate from ads.
In closing, I would say Forbes’ attack against PayPerPost and posties demonstrates their acknowledgment of the power and influence bloggers have over the world. In that the majority of us blogging are considered to be the little guy or gal, our efforts combined together as a whole resulting from our voices heard through keystrokes may actually be a threat to the big dogs in more ways than we imagine! In my opinion, that’s a good thing! 
What’s your take on Forbes slamming PayPerPost and those of us who are posties?
Let Forbes criticize all they want. I do think that if a blogger advocates something way off of the topic it threatens to undermines the credibility of the blog, but not the whole of bloggers everywhere.
The reason people read blogs is not because of the content (come on, I write about yarn) it’s because they find the voice of an individual blogger compelling. That really seems to peeve the old school media more than anything.
Let them say what they want. We’re making money. We’re doing this for fun or a living. Who are they to criticize that? They can just fall off a cliff and die.
How true. I like the analogy. Are we to assume that Forbes uses all the products they run ads for, or that it just represents a form of revenue for their publishing.
Hi Digi,
I highly doubt that Forbes or any other advertiser would say, “Oh wait! We have to use your product ourself before we will take your money to advertise this for you!” How naive do they think we bloggers are?
Exactly my point!