I wandered over to JoelOnSoftware.com (as I have once in a while ever since his Bionic Office article, which I’ll talk about in a later post, as an IT admin I couldn’t agree more) and his article on companies that are “bribing” bloggers to get good reviews. He’s taking a stand against the companies and his fellow bloggers, because he feels that it’s unethical to take a “gift” from a company and then review that product. He points out that the most trusted name in reviewing, Consumer Reports (get yourself an online subscription, it’s $26 for the year) buys their products at retail stores, in order to get exactly what your or I would buy. CR can fairly judge the product and write about it accordingly.

Joel’s quick to point out that his hands aren’t clean. He has taken some freebies over the years, but then again, who hasn’t? Well, me, but that’s because I haven’t had the opportunity. Even with the small, but growing, success of ScalpEm.com, I was contacted to promote a Home Depot contest that involved the FSU / UF Rivalry game. I promoted it, freely, because I thought it was fun and it was local to Tallahassee. When the marketers came back wanting me to post about a contest where winners would go “Behind The Scenes With College Gameday” I declined. If they want that kind of advertising, they can buy an ad on the site. I don’t charge much!

What I don’t agree with is that disclosure doesn’t work. Maybe I’m just too brutally honest, or maybe I believe that I can be less biased on a freebie than most people, but if a review is upfront about where they got the product, then that’s enough. We can try, but blogging isn’t ever going to be as credible as the traditional media (their credibility is in question many times though) since you have 10 abandoned junk blogs for each readable one. Blog is a dirty word, it will continue to be a dirty word for the next 10 years until enough of the technology generation is running companies. The other fact that I think Joel is forgetting about is that not all of us have the luxury of going out there and purchasing a brand new laptop and reviewing Vista on it. It must be nice!

My main point in all of this is that we’re all tuned to the same radio station WIFM. What’s In it For Me? Money. Money. Money. It’s all about money. While I love writing about the Seminoles and my intention is to cover my hosting expenses with Google Ads, am I really going to complain if I ever make more than that? No. If Nike comes by and asks me to review a product that they are going to provide me, will I review it honestly? Yes, and I’ll disclose that Nike gave it to me, but I do believe readers are smart enough to figure out what is an honest review and what is not.