Should I spruik products I don’t believe in just to get the ad dollars?

Dear Aunty B, 

I am a journalist who has thrown in the towel to start my own blog in the beauty/fashion industry after I had my first baby.

I am starting to monetise my blog by taking in advertising but I am losing out to people who are doing “paid for comment”. So an advertiser pays them to say nice things about their products in their blogs. Sometimes they declare it but mostly they don’t. I am under pressure to do the same and if I don’t do it I am going to miss out on the revenue.

I don’t want to do this as it compromises me as a professional journalist. But most of my competitors have no journalism experience at all and couldn’t see what was wrong with it in a blue moon. I have noticed that this is getting worse and I am now wondering if readers even care!

Ethical but broke,
The blogsphere

Dear Ethical,

You turn the negative into a positive and you sell on that.

Everywhere on your blog you list your credentials. You stress when talking to advertisers that your competitors are gobs for hire. They have no credibility and they should not associate their brand with people that will run paid comment.

Tell your advertisers they should certainly not be part of paid comment as it devalues their brand. And believe me. As readers become more aware that there are more blogs running complete lies (paid comment posing as independent commentary) then sites like yours will be more highly valued.

Lastly, credibility for a business is everything. Australia is a small place and anything you do that devalues your credibility for short-term gain will come back to haunt you. Stay true to your values!

Be smart,
Your Aunty B

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