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Air Gun Home Forum Index » The BS Topic » I must be getting old...    View previous topic :: View next topic  I must be getting old...   Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2007 1:47 pm AirGunEric Site Admin Joined: 20 Jan 2007 Posts: 6908 Location: "Out There" So, I'm reading an article on Yahoo News about how some people who "blog" are making some nice pocket change through advertising on their blogs. Anyways, they mention a somewhat lucrative advertising service called PayPerPost (www.payperpost.com). I'm curious- so I go to look around and what do I find? An advertiser who essentially says "write posts promoting the product of 'advertiser X' submit it to us for approval before posting it on your blog, and we will pay you some cash". WTF is this? Schilling and whoring, absolutely, in my opinion, for a few advertising dollars. This certainly makes me question the legitimacy of any blogger doing this sort of thing. Sure, this sort of thing has tainted even mainstream journalism, but this "write a promotional article and then post it after we approve its contents as if you are some sort of neutral, authoritative source" is absurd. Guess this reminds me why I've always been a bit wary of "blogs" and "bloggers" that don't flat-out tell people they are accepting advertising revenue and what/how it runs so people can view what is posted in a more appropriate light. Scary- especially so as I understand that more and more young people take blog postings/information as accurate, informative and reasonably objective. -shudder- _________________ ` I'd say "I care." But I'd be lying. Canadian Airgun Supplier: http://www.scopesandammo.com/storefront   Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2007 2:20 pm Bhargav Veteran Member Joined: 23 Aug 2007 Posts: 213 Location: WA, USA well yes its true. There are certain websites who pay for what you do on the net. they give you code snippets which you can put in your website or blog and you get paid for every click on that link. This is called indirect advertising. Since you are writing something about their products so you have to get it approved by "them" before it comes on your blog so indirectly you are posting what they are thinking .. Simple !!   Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2007 4:58 pm broommaster2000 Moderator Joined: 10 Mar 2007 Posts: 5714 Location: City of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands Which is also why I have a hard time believing all the nice reviews on airguns on several websites, while those same guns are reviewed on other sites as terribly bad or just average. _________________ BIG GAP   Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2007 5:23 pm Bhargav Veteran Member Joined: 23 Aug 2007 Posts: 213 Location: WA, USA I practically rely only on forums and reviews, before buying anything. I did lot of research when i bought my first Airgun, the IZH-46M.   Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2007 7:54 pm Hilly DownUnder Member Joined: 17 Oct 2007 Posts: 25 Location: NSW, Australia Well now, ain't that interesting? People with no obvious link to a company getting paid to advertise stuff for that company in a manner that seems to place them as being "independent". The sneaks are getting sneakier, that is for certain. Down here we get bombarded with "infomercials" and "reviews" by "experts" in various fields and most, if not all, of these reviews never seem to mention the bad parts of anything they review. An air rifle that shoots a best group of 1.5" at 10 yards is considered to be "accurate enough for back-yard plinking". At 20 yards you wouldn't be able to consistently hit a soft-drink can! Add to this the minor problem fo the rifle's habit of shaking a scope to bits or having the scope mounts fly off the action and the person who bought the rifle based on "independent reviews" is going to be less than happy after a week or so. Who can we believe? Dashed if I know anymore. Dennis. _________________ So many cats, so few recipies.   Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2007 10:13 am AirGunEric Site Admin Joined: 20 Jan 2007 Posts: 6908 Location: "Out There" Bhargav wrote: well yes its true. There are certain websites who pay for what you do on the net. they give you code snippets which you can put in your website or blog and you get paid for every click on that link. This is called indirect advertising. That's a bit different- these advertisements are obvious and don't (at least not generally) involve any input from the blogger or webmaster. The Google ads here are the same same thing- I have no control over what ads appear, and I sure don't "promote" what does appear. These newer-style ads aren't even labeled as ads- but presented as neutral, independant opinion or review by the "blogger"- after their copy is approved by the advertiser. As Dennis pointed out- you can very easily end up with reviews and posts on products that are less than worthless- ending up being misleading and/or total fiction. And, the bonus to the advertiser is that they didn't state the fiction- so they can't be held accountable for "false or misleading" advertising as some "independant" blogger posted it (even though they approved it). _________________ ` I'd say "I care." But I'd be lying. Canadian Airgun Supplier: http://www.scopesandammo.com/storefront   Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2007 3:23 am Hilly DownUnder Member Joined: 17 Oct 2007 Posts: 25 Location: NSW, Australia And to steal a line, or part of a line, from a now almost extinct movie: "Who ya gonna trust"? Seems like almost no-one but unless some of these companies can get a whole lot of people to say the same thing I would hope that by doing lots of research you may find that there are, say, 10 comments/ reviews on an item. If 2 are good reviews and 8 can the item then the majority would seem to be saying it's crap. But....... Who is to say that the reviews that say this thing is crap havn't been put there by the opposition and the truth of the matter is that the item is really great but some other group is rubbishing it? Oh, bugger! If I wasn't confused and depressed before, I bloomin well am now!!!!! Dennis. _________________ So many cats, so few recipies.   Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2007 5:46 am broommaster2000 Moderator Joined: 10 Mar 2007 Posts: 5714 Location: City of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands Bhargav wrote: I practically rely only on forums and reviews, before buying anything. I did lot of research when i bought my first Airgun, the IZH-46M. Fora are alright, but when I read that someone finds a $50 pumpgun the best gun in the world and gives it a 9, and when I see that by more then one owner, I seriously start to doubt the integrity of the above mentioned owners. _________________ BIG GAP   Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2007 11:17 am Bhargav Veteran Member Joined: 23 Aug 2007 Posts: 213 Location: WA, USA broommaster2000 wrote: Bhargav wrote: I practically rely only on forums and reviews, before buying anything. I did lot of research when i bought my first Airgun, the IZH-46M. Fora are alright, but when I read that someone finds a $50 pumpgun the best gun in the world and gives it a 9, and when I see that by more then one owner, I seriously start to doubt the integrity of the above mentioned owners. So in order to really find out about the product, i always go through all the reviews on multiple sites and kind of take an average of what everybody is saying. Then jump on to forums and see what people say. Many forums post range reports for a particular handgun, Rifle or airgun so its easy to decide from all this information. I do feel that all blogs are not blunders, the one which i like to read is the blog on pyramydair by BB Pelletier.   Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2007 11:53 am AirGunEric Site Admin Joined: 20 Jan 2007 Posts: 6908 Location: "Out There" I'm not suggesting all blogs are suspect- but anyone who subscribes to this hidden advertorial stuff without telling their 'member' or 'friends' or whatever, perhaps 'readers' is the best term- is doing everyone, including themselves, a great disservice.   Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2007 1:27 pm Bhargav Veteran Member Joined: 23 Aug 2007 Posts: 213 Location: WA, USA AirGunEric wrote: I'm not suggesting all blogs are suspect- but anyone who subscribes to this hidden advertorial stuff without telling their 'member' or 'friends' or whatever, perhaps 'readers' is the best term- is doing everyone, including themselves, a great disservice. yes correct, i agree with you Eric. 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