Hey, you're gonna love this new... Oh, and by the way, this is an ad....
Story Text:
Adage reports that "buzz marketers", those folks paid to con their friends and family into thinking some new product is hot, may well be illegal unless disclosure is made. Aaron takes it one step further and asks if some of that may applly to affiliate marketers, but Linda thinks that's a bit far fetched.
The question for me is, does a link with commercial intent have to be disclosed?
Adage reports that "buzz marketers", those folks paid to con their friends and family into thinking some new product is hot, may well be illegal unless disclosure is made. Aaron takes it one step further and asks if some of that may applly to affiliate marketers, but Linda thinks that's a bit far fetched.
The question for me is, does a link with commercial intent have to be disclosed?
- Y! MyWeb
I think the AdAge article was a linkbait...and it worked on me
Doesn't almost every link have commercial intent?
Since there are so many different ways to define value, what percent of links are placed without commercial intent?
I mean, even if you do not profit from something directly, by linking at interesting stuff and building a community you are still building value.
>>Doesn't almost every link
>Doesn't almost every link have commercial intent?
Agreed, poor wording on my part :)
I do wonder about non-disclosed affiliate links though. I can't see anything major happening here in the short term, but somewhere down the line, someone will be looking at this a lot harder i think...
altruism doesn't exist
exactly - I'm not sure where 'disclosure' should stop, sure I agree that if someone is paying you money to promote something you should be reasonably transparant about it (and certainly shouldn't deny it if someone asks you directly) but we're all paid for stuff one way or another, return links, friendship, tip-offs, free copies of stuff.
Does my recommendation that people read ThreadWatch become any less valid because Nick buys me a drink sometimes? I don't think so.
It's an integrity issue, and a large part of me thinks if you're not bright enough to realise when something's being spun by a marketer then perhaps you wouldn't realise even if there was a big flashing banner saying "I've been paid" across the article.
Good points all
What Gurtie said really hit home with me. When I said in my blog I'm an affiliate buzzer - I meant I'm always spreading the buzz about something. Sometimes it's a paid endorsement and sometimes it's not. Who would know? For example I promote the www.shareasale.com network every chance I get. You'd think I was a paid PR person or doing "Buzz Marketing" for them. I don't make a dime, just like to spread the word on solutions I think are good for the industry. Yet sometimes when I am answering a question on forums I mention a client's affiliate program and am making an honest recommendation about a program I know about and believe in. Yet I'm on monthly retainer to do PR for the company.
I market with integrity and am "reasonably transparant" like Gurtie says - but if I had to say "I'm being paid to write this" or defend myself by saying "I'm NOT being paid to write this" every time I mentioned a company it would sure suck.