More examples of blog cash for comment
This morning’s story about video blogger Hugh Thomas not disclosing he was being paid to talk about TV show Lie To Me is not the only Australian case of undeclared paid blog placement, Mumbrella can reveal.
Mumbrella has seen correspondence suggesting that several Australian sites were offered cash to talk about the review site Testfreaks when it launched in Australia late last year.
The offer came from a marketer called Jay Haffling, who appears to run a business in which he pays bloggers to write about his clients. His messages can be found on the comments section of many blogs.
Many of them declined, but a handful did run items.
Among the most prominent was one on the Mr Gadget site which carried a long post on October 30, which concluded: “I will personally keepin’ an eye on Testfreaks Australia as they grow and anticipating some great reviews.”
Mumbrella has seen correspondence from the man behind Mr Gadget, Arnold Aranez, who describes the process as “easy cash”. He did not return Mumbrella’s messages today.
Other sites that carried pieces at around the same time announcing the arrival of the site include itresource.com.au, which has a Google ranking of three and endorsed Testfreaks as “well worth a bookmark” and geekgirl.com.au which has a Google ranking of six. Neither piece mentions receiving any payment for the mention.
Update: Google Japan has been caught paying bloggers to write about a new tool – as a result, it’s made an example of itself, and been downgraded from page rank 9 to page rank 5. As this posting from Google makes clear, sites that pay bloggers to write about them face being penalised on the Google index.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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Great research and great post. Traditional media has often had blurry lines about what’s paid for and what’s not (hello, glossy magazines … lots of “free” editorialised comments for advertisers at agencies’ insistence … hello, trade magazines “special features”) but what are the best ways for bloggers and their more casual presentation of content to flag a sponsorship? Should it be “sponsored post” or simply refused to be carried? (And what would Alan Jones do if he was blogging?)
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I wrote a post today about what cheeto’s is doing with boing boing. It’s great, fully disclosed and entertaining.
It proves that when brands get together with a blog and the authors of said blog come to fully endorse the product, the benefit is so much greater.
Tim, all the things that you mention here, make me think so much less of these TV shows, this TestFreaks and especially this Jay Haffling.
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I confess that I was once paid $US100 to promote wooden pallets, kitchen fittings and ladies shoes. I don’t know why I was chosen to do these things, but I was.
I never declared the payment.
I have lived in shame ever since: http://cam.bluexo.net/blog/351
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Dr Cam,
I salute you. Other Mumbrella folk – follow the link to his posting. Genius.
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I don’t know who you are but I did not get any emails requesting more information.
These comments were extracted from me by so called IT journalist Ben Grubb via Twitter @bengrubb.
He asked me if I was paid to do the TestFreaks review and I plainly said yes. Mind you he never said he would be passing this on to anyone for a write up. I’ve helped him out with his fledgling Ustream show and this is what I get?
FYI, up to earlier this month I had a link to our Advertising Page which clearly says that we do PAID reviews:
http://www.mrgadget.com.au/adv.....-mrgadget/
I took the link down only because I wanted to make room for more important ones.
To help make the story more transparent I’ve added some text to say it’s a “Paid Review”.
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Arnold, dude: you don’t get it, do you?
You shouldn’t be whining about who blew the whistle on you (good on ya, Ben Grubb if it was you). You brought it on yourself through your own actions.
If you put up a post recommending a site, your readers think you’re recommending it. They are trusting you when you say it is worth looking at and bookmarking. If you’re only doing it because it’s “easy money” then you’re betraying their trust. It’s a sleazy way to behave.
Admitting it afterwards if someone asks you is not good enough. Labelling it “paid review” after the fact when you get busted isn’t good enough either.
Do you understand that?
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“so called IT journalist Ben Grubb”
For it is I, so called journalist, Ben Grubb!
“I’ve helped him out with his fledgling Ustream show and this is what I get?”
We’ve traded Blogrolls, therefore you’re not allowed to get criticised? Silence the others hey?
The point is you wrote an article without declaring it an advertisement, and by my standards that’s wrong.
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Fair enough.
To be honest, I’ve never really thought anyone would care about what I posted on Mr.Gadget because since it is an online store it’s always going to have some implied bias. So in a way, everything I post is an advertisement.
However, since it’s increased in rankings, perhaps it is a good time to think more about transparency.
Thanks guys I’ll take your feedback on board and be more sensitive to readers who may not know the context of my site.
Cheers,
Arnold
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