Income vs Integrity - Where to draw the line?
As I have previously mentioned, I will be looking at ways to monetize this blog in the future. No worries however, I have no plans of making it a full time effort, I simply wish to see if there is any potential income at all in this little piece of internet that I spend some time on.
One thing I have spent some time thinking about in regards to this is paid posts. Earlier I have done a couple of paid posts on this blog, and the question I’ve been pondering is whether or not I should be open to this in the future or not. Generally I have nothing against paid posts, and as long as the readers can be sure that those who buy reviews are paying for a review and not a good / friendly / positive review, there aren’t any problems at all.
What is strikingly obvious when it comes down to it however, is that for this to be the case, it requires a certain amount of trust between the writer and the reader. This would be the kind of trust that is established over months, if not even years of mutual loyalty between a writer and a base of readers. A strong and positive reputation within your target market also helps.
Andy Beard can pull it off, because all the people who read his blog know and believe his intentions and requirements for writing such a post both through his dedication to his blog as well as the community that surrounds it. I myself on the other hand only stand at the starting line when it comes to building this type of credibility, and that is why I with this post want to announce that I will no longer be writing paid posts here at my personal blog.
Like I said above, I have nothing against the idea of paid posts, but this is simply a step I want to take (and a potential source of income I will forsake) because I feel that the possible damages to my own integrity and credibility in the eyes of my readers is far more valuable to me at this point.
Now enough about me, I want to hear from you as well! Do you write paid reviews on your own blog? If so, what is your reasoning behind it? I would love to hear other people’s opinions on this subject, especially to see if I just put too much thought into the whole idea of paid posts versus integrity and perceived credibility.