-
-
-
-
-
Sponsored Ads
-
Recent Readers
Are Gifts To Bloggers Right?
It seems that there has been an interesting debate for quite some time on whether bloggers should accept gifts from vendors.
Many mainstream companies, even Microsoft have been working closely with their PR agencies in a rather aggressive attempt to target the blogosphere in order to get coverage for their up and coming products.
Are gifts to bloggers for blogosphere coverage right? Yes, in my opinion completely ok in my book and really in comparison it’s not any different than taking cash payment from a vendor for coverage. Just remember to review the product honestly regardless of what the payment is – remember there is no such thing as bad publicity.
Just today my wife received a package from Diesel’s PR company with their new his and hers fragrance. Sounds nice, huh? What could be wrong with that? Like I said nothing in my book and just a week ago we almost purchased the fragrances anyway, so in a sense it was the same as cash payment to us. Our Diesel “Fuel for Life” Review with Sexy Video.
The debate do gifts to bloggers reduce the overall trust in blogs? Essentially what the PR companies do is buy great publicity through goodwill gestures. Is this corrupting the blog medium?
Some say so but in my opinion the public will automatically think a review of a product is paid in some form even if it’s something you purchased and just wanted to share with your readers.
comments
Maybe You Missed These Posts:
- Discover Direct and Indirect Income Methods
- The Power of Getting Lucky
- Income Report December 2007
- Market Associate gets Determined
- Blogging WorkSpace Photo Contest!
- Blogging To Fame
- Get Paid with Blogging Review Services
26 Responses to “Are Gifts To Bloggers Right?”
Leave a Reply
I guess it really depends upon the blogger as to if it is ethical or not. If I do not allow myself to right an honest review because I was paid in some way then I am not being honest to my readers. If I can give a non-partial review though it is ok. The problem is that your reader has no way of telling if your review is honest or not. The best way to handle it in my opinion is to always disclose whether or not you are getting some kind of compensation.
I can only dream of being offered promotional products for review, and I don’t see a problem with it. As long as you give an honest opinion on the product you can’t be accused of ’selling out’, although many will still point the finger. If you give a poor review what’s the worst that can happen? They don’t send you any more stuff? I’m sure I’d be able to cope with that.
PS – thanks for the invite on my own blog. It’s early days but always inspirational to see people making a success of their blog!
I don’t really agree with this. I run a tech site, and it would be pretty weird if a sponsor just sent over a boatload of hardware for me, for free. I see nothing wrong with ’small’ things, like a t-shirt or a pen… stuff they give away anyway at trade shows, etc.
I think accepting products in exchange for a review (either good or bad because like you said, no publicity is bad publicity) is fine. I write for a blogging community and I often receive products not for free, but for PR which is fine. I have run into a few products that I know I’ll buy in the future, so really, by sending me a free sample they’re making business. Also, I have done reviews in which vendors have indeed made business due to my review. In my opinion, it’s a win/win.
I see nothing wrong with gifts. In fact I like gifts! It’s all part of the game. Free gifts are a good way to get people to try your product. (Think of samples) What’s the worse thing that could happen? You try the product, like it and decide to promote them. It has the possibility to be WIN – WIN!
PS – I like Free T shirts!
I don’t really think it is an issue of ethics. The blogger is reviewing a product just because he strongly feels (approves or disapproves) about it. And if he’s giving a good review to something that he’s appreciated then it’ was his discretion of sharing it with others, in the first place. He hadn’t been asked by anyone to do so. So if the company’s given something in return, then no harm done. It’s a win-win situation. After all, the blogger hadn’t done it hoping for the reward. It’s all fair, people.
All of us know promotion through blogs has been the latest fab.
The blog industry itself has inorganic growth, increasing the growth for promotion through blogs.
For it to be ethical, I dont see any reason for it to be wrong as long as honesty is maintained. We recently offered our services of web analytics for free to popular blog writers where we offered our pro version for free to them to use. We never expected any review on the product but since they liked our tool they themself created a blog talking about their experience using our tool.
So apart from promotion it is a very good medium for awareness too.
It seems to me that opinion is divided as to the central question: is it OK to accept gifts for blogs or not. While it is an absolute no-no for one person, it gets a thumbs-up from another. I think what is central to this debate is the motivation behind the giving and acceptance of gifts for posting reviews or comments. While it would be fine to offer and accept some sort of promotional or some sample items, a blandishment of any sort which is offered with a view to swaying a person’s view-point or influencing his or her actions, is not.
I understand blogging to mean that, I can frankly and freely express my opinion on the subject under discussion. If the subject happens to be a product or service that I have used, it is implicit that I am expressing my opinion on the same without expecting any reward or punishment for doing so. Under the circumstances, if it transpires that the provider of the product or the service decides to reward me post event, I see nothing wrong in accepting the reward with grace. If the reward precedes the blog as an inducement, the situation changes and I would be reluctant to accept a gift for such a blog.
Hi,
In my opinion, the line between blogging and paid advertisements is thinning. In the print media, even the best news papers carry ads of companies whose products may not be up to the mark of quality-conscious customers. Even old time journalists who swear by news ethics would have attended promotional campaigns where they are given ‘gifts’ in order to influence their reviews. It is therefore not surprising that bloggers are given gifts to influence their reviews. However, what is important for blog readers is to understand that what is published in a blog is just an opinion piece, not an authoritative statement about a product. Read the blog, understand the view and decide for yourself
Ethics, big word. Ethics vary from culture to culture, economics doesn’t. While Morals tell us how we should live our lives. It’s Economics that decides how we live.
In this particular context many might see, the bloggers accepting gifts and then praising the product as almost beguiling his readers who have trusted him, but the important point to be noted is so do TV, Movie stars and other celebrtities who we consider as role models.
Blogging is an expression of opinion and unlike the modern day newspapers which have developed into a formal media. Newspapers of the yore were merely to spread political propoganda. Infact all political parties have their periodic journals.
A similar question was raised in the 70s when the nexus between national dailies and political parties was made visible, while one newspaper showed an event as a calamity, the other praised it as the way to the future. Thus arose the dichotomy of the media which has made it what it is today and all of us will admit having a newspaper we prefer because it supplements our opinions.
So in the end, it’s expression of opinions and the wider the array the more choices we have.
Everyone deserves a GIFT once in a way, so it doesn’t matter who gives the blogger what. A blogger wouldn’t want to ruin his reputation by rigging a product review so he might as well be honest about it. It’s just about as simple as that…..blog philanthropy can be in good taste!!!
I’m glad to see that the majority is in agreement with my opinion on this topic and giving relative reasons as to why gifts are completely ok in the blogger world.
In my opinion blogging is to just express your thoughts not for advertisements. The thing will start as the goodwill gesture but end in avertising various products. Hence if the review to be correct then the bloggers should not expect gifts. If it continues then it will be like the reviews occur in some newspapers as advertisements.
And this will also become a business not just to express your thoughts.
In my opinion, bloggers ultimately are sharing their views about a product which they may have not seen it practically, so if the product in question is being presented as a gift then more realistic feedback can be brought in front of large number of people/bloggers visiting that site which in turn would be more useful feedback to a PR company. The gift presenter may get goodwill first time but that’s not guaranteed after the product is reviewed.
As long as i give an honest review without compromising on ethics, I see nothing wrong in accepting free gifts for reviews. In cases where vendors benefit by my review they might reward me, which is just a fringe benefit. On the other hand reviews having adverse effect on a product might not fetch me any free gifts but definitely increase the faith of my readers in me and my opinions. So i really have more to gain and very little to lose, but I would still give an honest opinion unbiased by the fact of receiving gifts.
I don’t feel that this a good idea.Blogging is generally done to express our opinions if its going to be gifted then people will start having a wrong thought and reviews might not be expressed honestly.
Of course, it is natural for the vendors to gift the bloggers if they or their buisness benefit from the blog. We can’t blame them. But on the part of bloggers, they should be true to facts . The bloggers should not unduly praise a product – what they tell about a product should be down-to-earth truths – which can be done only if they have used the products themselves. They should not say this product possesses this quality and that quality just to promote a product or just for getting a gift from the vendors/producers. Also, if they notice a negative quality that also should be reported/published, so that the defect can be rectified and the public won’t be cheated. The vendors/producers should respect a negative comment equally as a positive comment as it will only improve the quality of their product.
I think it’s fine. Just another form of “paid” advertising. And Diesel rocks!
I should really start my own blog
)))))
cant wait to get “gifts” from Diesel, Apple, IBM, BMW, Porsche, Dell etc
But honestly I dont see any problems here – blogging is just another form of mass communication and therefore part of the world wide media circus…
I think it’s fine. You’ll probably end up giving product reviews anyways in your normal ramblings about life!
And if you overdid it and started doing reviews in almost every post, your readers would stop reading, and no blogger wants that! So it’s really all up to the blogger.
Hi,
)) ???
I wonder if there are any updates about easter gifts
That would be fine as longs as it’s not some planks and a few nails
I don’t see anything wrong with it unless of course you feel obligated to write a fake review for a company simply because they gave you some nice gifts..
Gifts are fine. Especially if the gifts are really related to the products intended for reviews. In the end it is ultimately up to the blogger to give opinion.
Personally, I think there is nothing wrong in gifts when it is intended as sample for customer/reviewer to review and give feedback. In fact, a person should ask for a free package of the product to evaluate if he wants to do a meaningful review for it.