blogging for money

the boston globe ruffled a few feathers by naming a couple of bloggers who plug stuff for money. as the article stated, blog can also stand for 'better listing on google'. we all know that if you're not on google, you're as good as dead right? but, how would you feel if you've been misled by lying bloggers? how can you plug something you don't know? sure, there's nothing wrong with getting paid for advertising. but false advertising is something else. a little disclosure goes a long way. famous bloggers with wide audiences should get some perks. like this is ok what! give me a free stay at the fourseasons and I'll blog about it. but if you're required to give a glowing review? or even better, I'll feed you the keywords, and you can just make up the rest of the story for 5 bucks. how's that? that is just plain baloney!!! hopefully popular bloggers heed their conscience when it comes to this. just tell us you got paid for it. and give us your honest opinion. well... just don't lie!

another way to make money of your blog would be google adsense. many people label these bloggers as sell-outs!! sell-outs are those who change their message/style etc for money. putting in google ads does not make one a sell-out. getting kickbacks for promoting products on your blog is selling-out. but once in a while is ok. but no damn lies please!

the question is why shouldn't bloggers get paid? blogging takes them time. but they obviously get something out of it - fame/recognition/sense of accomplishment/relieves them of boredom etc. but what's wrong with extra perks? as long as they come clean about them, they should absolutely make use of their blog to their own advantage. blogs are powerful advertising tools! take food blogs for example. a rave about say, batman canele molds will definitely bring about better sales, because foodies read food blogs. so a foodie plug on a foodie site brings great results. but of course if you're looking for 'better listing on google', it doesn't work as well. for that, you would have to pay 5 bucks per blogger to link your schmuck on their site.

so you want to make 5 bucks by making up stories?