Yesterday I was reading an article by Walt Mosberg and read his code of ethics where he says that he doesn’t accept money or products (to keep) from companies whose products he reviews. This is quite admirable and lets him say whatever he wants. I, on the other hand, will accept money or products from anyone that wants to send them my way!
This doesn’t happen all that often, but recently I was paid for an ad on my blog (it didn’t change anything I had to say) and was just offered a product to review. I’ll be writing a review once I receive the product. Will the review be swayed because I receive the product for free? Absolutely not! I can already tell that there are things that I won’t like about the product, but I’ll try to be as fair and balanced as possible.
Before I sold ReceiptWallet, my blog was running on the same server that my ReceiptWallet web site was on, so there was no added expense to have it up. Now that ReceiptWallet is no longer mine, this blog costs me money every month. The cost is offset by advertising (I do accept advertising if anyone wants to advertise, but I make no guarantees that you’ll always like my content) and affiliate links. Right now I have affiliate links for Amazon and MacUpdate Promo. If you like my blog, please use the Amazon link; just enter your search and start your shopping from here!
So the question for the day is, does advertising or free products influence a good journalist or blogger? (Did I just call myself a journalist or a good blogger? That must have been a mistake; I’m just a guy writing random thoughts.) I think the answer to the question depends on the individual. As I don’t make my living through this blog, advertising and free products won’t influence me because I write this blog even without advertising and free products. For those that make their living from writing, I could see how it could be an influence, but if you’re good at your job, it shouldn’t. While Walt says he doesn’t take free stuff from companies, would people respect him less if he did?