Tuesday, October 26, 2004

To Advertise On Blogs Or Not

The issue of putting ads on your blog has raised its ugly head again. Marc Cantor proposes a new plan which Jason Calcanis is jumping all over -- negatively jumping all over, that is.

And of course, I do think that if you take money from someone, it's hard not to feel partial towards that advertiser. You may not be compelled to write good things about them, but you certainly may find yourself avoiding the urge to write bad things about them.

And at what point is your editorial integrity compromised -- by the sins of omission (of negative posts) or by the sins of advertorial enthusiasm for a product? One is as suspect as the other when you start taking their $$$. A very slippery slope.

I've thought about the issue many times and am beginning to inch towards the readership to qualify for ads via a few blog-advertising agencies ... but ... and there's a big but, or maybe I should say "a big butt" here. That is, my content is sometimes a little risque, and this could be a problem.