Is there a differnce between pimping Chitika in almost every post your write, because you get paid when new people sign up under you, and getting payed a flat rate for posting about a product? It’s a good question isn’t it?
Remember Marqui?
I was speaking to Patrick over the weekend about this, and in the process ended up explaining the whole kerfuffle with Marqui last year. The upshot being, that they paid a whole bunch of prominent bloggers to post about their CMS product — a great many people, including me, thought this was more than a little shite, but for varying reasons.
Personally, i thought it was a ludicrous affair. You had a whole bunch of folks posting silly little “im paid to blog about Marqui” badges on their blogs and doling out the most horrifyingly mind curdling crap i’ve ever had the misfortune to read.
Most others however, where hard at work debating the ethics of being paid to blog. Not something i cared about particularly, but that’s where most felt the crunch was on this topic; Whether it was ethical to be paid to blog on a product.
Enter Chitika
Now, someone explain to me the difference between what went down with that whole Marqui fiasco, and the current professional blogging trend of making every third post something lame about Chitika, just to get your affiliate id in the link, again. Hmmmm?
As with Marqui, it bothers me little personally. If i feel that my subscription to your blog is less valuable to me as a result of you churning out Chitka posts, i’ll simply unsubscribe. No problem. But it’s interesting to note, as Scoble just did, the hypocrisy that the comparison exposes.
Here’s a tip: If you’re going to flood your feed with posts about Chitika, or anything else you’re on a commision for, make sure those posts are genuinely helpful. If they’re just Feed Fodder™ then I’m outta there…