About a year ago on a totally separate blog for a totally separate topic I put up a series of posts reviewing my experiences in ordering a products from two online services. 1 It’s something innocuous, but also something that you’d hate to invest money in and then find out is worthless. I’d rather keep these sites separate, so just pretend I’m talking about aftermarket replacement laptop batteries.
In any case, I also joined their affiliate programs and posted a coupon code. That in mind, I gave a completely honest and frank review of each.2 Both were decent services and I became rather highly ranked for those search terms.
Fast forward a year and I’ve made a little3 money off the affiliate links in those posts. Well, along with my payment recently I also received an e-mail from one of the companies – asking me to write an updated review and how much it would cost.
For some reason, if felt okay to give an honest review and include an affiliate link. For some reason, being paid to review… feels different. Now, at no point did they ask me to write a glowing, favorable, or otherwise review – just asked me to write a new review and how much it would cost.
What would you do?
This moral dilemma has been brought to you by the Pet Shop Boys
I would not accept a cash payment to write a review of anything. Furthermore, if I do not trust any review of any product found on a website if I find out that the website ever published a compensated review. On the other hand, I see no problem with a company sending merchandise for a person to review, provided that the review makes it clear that they got a free copy.
In the end, I suppose it is an issue of honesty. I want to read a review by someone who I feel I can trust to tell it like it is, good or bad. Compensated reviews are bound to portray the product in a good light, if only to ensure that the paycheck actually arrives.
@ppirilla: So, does seeing an affiliate link shade your opinion? In both cases I wrote the reviews and joined their affiliate programs – all without actually discussing the content of the reviews with either company.
It’s a question of honesty. An affiliate link does say to me that you are trying to turn your words into sales for the company, but at least you are up front about it. Context comes into play there, too — if you review a number of products, do you post reviews of both good and bad? If so, do you only post links to products that you endorse? There is a line between advertising and providing a service for your readers.
Being paid by the company to write a review always screams dishonest to me. If you say explicitly that you were compensated to write a review, then it can be taken ‘I was paid to write this advertisement.’ If you do not state it, yet word gets out, the reader may question if you were honest in the rest of the review.