Not For Rent

Allergic to Advertising

One of the things you might notice about my website is that it is completely devoid of any form of advertisements.  Granted you could consider my blogroll a form of an advertisement, but those are hand made with love for blogs I care about.  I’ve always shied away from using banner ads or even something as relatively unobtrusive as Google adwords.  The problem I have with them in general is that while I can carefully curate the links I post or the banners I create… I can’t do the same with the advertisements that might show on my website.  This blog is essentially about me, and as such it is about the things I support and care about.  If a questionable ad played on the side of my website beside my content, especially something like those heinous Evony ads…  I would feel just as responsible for it as if I were the one that created it.

Additionally my website is my hobby, and if I were to start trying to monetize it…  I almost feel like it would somehow cheapen the experience for me.  Getting up every morning and writing to you is a labor of love, and I often times pour my soul into whatever thing I happen to be writing about.  If all of that was just part of a cash transaction…  I can’t see as how I would be able to keep doing it.  I have a weird association with money, and I have been in some extremely high performing environments that paid massive bonuses at the end of the year.  I’ve learned that extra money doesn’t really motivate me to produce, but instead the intrinsic benefits of feeling like I am making even a small incremental effect on the world… that is the stuff that keeps me going.  So I took a massive pay cut for my principles to work where I work, and similarly I am willing to turn down profit in an attempt to keep my blog “pure”.

Not For Rent

All of this is why I am almost offended when I get a certain kind of email.  At least once a month, sometimes more than that I get emails from various marketing companies wanting to co-opt my blog and my readers for whatever their product happens to be.  Frustratingly they don’t ever mention who they happen to be working for.  Maybe that might make a difference, but more than likely not because the whole exchange makes me feel dirty.  Here is an example of the type of letter you get, I’ve edited out the identifying bits because really I wish the company or the person writing it no harm.  They are after all just doing a job they were paid to do.

We are interested in sending over a quality and relevant article to your site, as a contribution. Is this something you might consider?  If yes, please email me back and I’ll be happy to send over the article for your review asap.  Note that the copy will include a few references to our client. We’ll also pay you $100 per post through PayPal, for your time and effort.

Generally speaking I don’t even bother to respond to these, but for whatever reason this time I decided to be magnanimous and write back.  While I am not at all interested in “paid editorial” as they called it, I would be willing to give a fair and unbiased review of a given product, but that there would be no strings attached that I would give the product a favorable review.  I didn’t honestly figure they would be interested in this, but I figured what the heck.  I like doing product reviews, I find them enjoyable and wouldn’t mind doing more of them.  Generally I write about things I am already sold on and using, as a way of sharing with my readers the nifty things I happen to find.  For example I am using a $20 back lit keyboard I stumbled upon and really liking, so at some point I will likely write about it.

I rather promptly received back a response stating that “our clients only accept in-house content at this time”.  Meaning that they don’t actually want product reviews… they want a puppet to spread the word of their product offerings.  While I very loudly support the products I support, things like Anook for example… I do so because I believe in the product and I use it myself.  I have no interest in being a “shill” and having my blog perverted into something that it was never intended to be.  This is my blog and my personal venture, and while I might let my friends post the occasional guest post…  I refuse to give this thing that I have created over to a corporation to use as it pleases.

What I Am Open To

All of this said, like I told the marketer… I am not opposed to talking about various products on my blog.  In fact to some extent I do this already with my semi-regular  Steampowered Sunday series where I take a game from my steam library and play it for a bit, then talk about what I just played.  Initially the plan was to slowly whittle down the number of games that I have not played in my Steam collection, but then my friends started hijacking this process and sending me games specifically for the purpose of playing them.  Granted these are not companies, these are people I talk to on a daily basis.  That said I am not opposed to companies handing me games and asking me to write about them.  The catch there is they have to be willing to accept what I write about the game, and I give no promises of a favorable review.

I don’t tend to be a very “ranty” writer most of the time, and generally speaking I can find some positive in even the worst gaming experience.  However just because someone gave me access to a game doesn’t necessarily mean I feel obligated to push it forward.  I was lucky enough to get into the early phases of the ArcheAge alpha… and quite frankly I did not like everything that I saw.  I talked about it a few times and said more than my share of negative things about it.  I thought it was a great game with a horrible community, and if there were a PVE/Co-Op server environment I could play it on I would totally be doing so.  Even though I have friends at Trion, I didn’t necessarily feel obligated to spin their game in a positive direction.  I absolutely love Trove, so I am more than happy to gush about that game, and I am still a fan of Rift even though I am not playing it any longer.  But just because I have a relationship with this company didn’t make me feel like I had to support every single thing that came out of its doors.

Basically if you are a small company with an interesting product, I am more than willing to talk to you.  I don’t mind the idea of doing a product review so feel free to contact me on twitter.  What I am not interested in at all is being paid to give your product a glowing review.  Hell I am not interested in being paid to write anything at all to be honest.  I am perfectly happy living in this Hobby sphere and to be honest… getting paid to write would simply complicate my life in ways I don’t really want to deal with.  I am always interested in helping folks out, and if you have something cool that I believe in then I am going to tell the world about it.  This mornings post is a bit of an odd one, and I doubt that my writing this will stop any of the marketing emails that I get.  I just felt like I wanted to say something about this practice, and draw some sort of a line in the sand that says very clearly “not interested”.

11 thoughts on “Not For Rent”

  1. I’m glad you wrote this, it’s very timely for me. I’ve been getting so many of these emails lately. I have always just deleted them, but one time I responded to say I wasn’t interested and was asked to explain why, so I’ll be going back to just deleting them.

    I have no problem with the idea of making money from blogging. Actually I’d love to make money from it, but right now all I have is a little ad way down in the footer where it’s unlikely to be seen, but still there so I can get excited when Google adds 12 cents to my account. I’ve been offered money to review a game on my site once, which I didn’t do as I didn’t think I’d like it. I have a strange sense of ethics around this. I’d take money to review a product I liked, but if I didn’t like the product I wouldn’t want to write a review or take any money. I’d never write a positive review of something I didn’t actually feel positively about, but at the same time, I’d feel bad writing a negative review if I were getting paid, so instead I’d end up saying nothing.

  2. I disagree on the first section. Being unemployed and struggling a bit, I’ve found it’s time to experiment with ads.. unobtrusive however, fully understanding most will be blocked by AdBlock, and with a close eye kept on them for anything I don’t want on my site. But in this job-based limbo I seem to be in.. it’s time to try. And I’m willing to seek out better opportunities outside of google’s adsense.

    On those emails… I don’t even OPEN them. I have zero interest in soulless, lifeless content.. heck. I used to host author guest posts on my book blog (for free) and even they felt lifeless.. and everybody felt that way. People didn’t read them. So why bother? I still get emails for my book and gaming blogs of the nature you described and I don’t even trust these companies with the most basic of my details, and I don’t want that crap on my blogs. I mean.. first.. it’s MY blog, and second, who’s going to keep returning if that’s the kind of content they can expect? I wouldn’t.

    However, when it comes to reviews, the norm is that you receive a product for free.. make up in beauty blogging, books in book blogging, you get the idea, and you give your honest opinion on the product. The companies 97% of the time understand that even negative reviews can be good for business because it’s still getting the name out there. The only thing you’d have to consider is the 3% who get antsy about the more critical reviews (but sod them.. there’s a big thing in book blogging circles about this), fans who get childish over them, and the FTC disclosures. If you review stuff, you need an FTC disclosure (have a google), particularly in the US. In Britain it’s not necessary but at the same time, the disclaimer of honesty and integrity is comforting for the readers who we really care about. 🙂

  3. U get those from time to time. It can be tempted, as I’d roll the money back into the site hopefully to the benefit of my readers. Have not actually done it yet though.

  4. Good for you! Stick to your guns. It might make a little money up front, but once readers get the idea that a blogger is posting paid reviews or content, that’s a big hit in the blogger-reader trust, IMHO. This is exactly why I read more blogs and less of the big gaming new sites now days.

  5. I think it’s more of getting unbiased information out to the public. You try to build your audience by giving an honest interpretation of your views. Suddenly, you’re propositioned to subjugate your audience with something that is not only from you but it isn’t even a view that you might align with. It’s not only disrespecting your audience by giving them something that’s from fake-you but it disrespects the prior work that you put into the website by making us question what is and isn’t a subtle biased advertisement

  6. It’s called native advertising and it’s the hot new trend that will take over everything in the next few years.

    It sucks.

    • Whatever it is called… I want no part in it even if it could make me potentially rich. Additionally when I see a company using that kind of tactic, I have a pretty severe adverse reaction towards their products in the future. Maybe that is just my inherent “root for the little guy” instincts kicking in.

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