Bloggers can play a major role in a startup's success. Famous bloggers can destroy or make a startup famous with just a few posts. Their blogs are a good source of information to major mainstream publications. A blog can inspire a national newspaper article and can be the start of widespread adoption of a new technology. Sales can skyrocket instanteneously.
But Bloggers need to make a living. Most of the famous bloggers blog full time, and earn their living by charging for their services. Everyone needs to make a living but I have a big problem with impartiality. When I buy a newspaper, the journalist is paid by the paper, not by any advertising company directly. If he needs to write a bad article about a company, he can. There are exceptions, a newspaper owned by a big company will never write a bad article about another sector of the same company. People can read between the lines. But bloggers, everything they write might be influenced by who is paying them. There is no way to know if they were paid or not to write the article.
As a startup, we have contacted several bloggers. Some have ignored us completely like GigaOm. But some have taken the time to write about us, for free! One of them is Andy Abramson, a very respected and popular blogger.
And I must admit, we paid a few bucks (we have a very small budget) to have our app reviewed by a two popular web sites. One of these sites:
But unlike others, they includes the following disclaimer:
A small expedite fee was paid by the developer to speed up the publication of this review.
When Submitting an app for review on the iPhone app review, they are very clear. They will decide on your rating, the only thing you can do is ask them not to publish if your rating is bad.
I think all bloggers should have the same ethics as them. Every blog should specify if they were paid to write it or not. I'm not saying paying is wrong and I'm convinced some bloggers are impartial, but readers should be informed when an article was paid for so they can judge by themselves.
Eric
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