This past Tuesday, I posted an article about Tainted Travel Bloggers. A representative from Adbeans.com reached out to me and asked if I could post a sponsor post written not by other travel bloggers but by them for a payment of X amount. The representative also sent me a few examples of travel bloggers whom she has worked with before.
The first thing I noticed was that neither one of the travel bloggers explicitly stated anywhere in their blog post that it was a sponsored post and that they received monetary compensation for it. (I’m assuming that they did because that was what I was offered as well.) The second thing I thought was, “Did the blogger even edit this post or did they just post it exactly as it was sent to them?”
Many bloggers in the travel community expressed their thoughts and concerns about this issue. You might want to read my previous post before continuing because a few of my readers made some comments worth addressing.
Cornelius Aesop, from Monkey Brewster, raised some interesting questions.
Is AdBeans reputable, as in did they really pay these bloggers for this post or did they just gather a few posts from popular ‘insert genre here’ blogs hoping to encourage you to buy into their program with a mentality of – if they did it I should too.
If so, is the amount enough that it should be noteworthy that they were indeed paid for that post, or should that even matter?
I hadn’t thought of the idea that Adbeans.com could just be pulling out blog posts as an example without having actually worked with the travel blogger. But somehow I doubt that’s what they did. All the link examples they provided me were formatted the same way – in a list with a lot of pictures and hyperlinks.
Whether is $5 or $50, it shouldn’t matter how much bloggers are being offered in exchange for posting a sponsored post. I firmly believe that, as a blogger, the compensation you’ve received whether it’s money or a book for review should always be revealed. You don’t tell have to say exactly how much you received for the blog post but just saying that you received monetary compensation is good enough.
Keith Jenkins, from Velvet Escape, informed me of something I apparently overlooked about the FTC guidelines.
I’m not against sponsored posts but I do agree that a disclosure should be included. That said, FTC rules only apply to US-based blogs or if the company that has provided compensation is US-based so, ethics aside, there’s nothing wrong with not providing a disclosure if the blogger/client aren’t based in the US. Oh well…
Adbeans.com is a London based company but as travel bloggers, many of us can be blogging from the States one week, Africa the next and Asia the week after that. What would be considered as a US-based blog? If FTC rules only apply to US based blogs, then all travel bloggers can use this loophole to choose not to inform their readers when they have sponsored content, right?
Melissa Stanford, from The Innocent Abroad, clarified it a little for me.
It’s only required to put a disclosure policy if you’re American. If you are living abroad or your hosting is not in America, the FTC has no authority to enforce the law. However, I agree people should at least be honest. Most people are smart enough to know bloggers get paid to advertise; transparency about the subject means you trust your audience. Hiding your payment means you are afraid of them. That’s my take anyway.
If anyone is interested, here is the FTC guidelines.
After discovering what these travel bloggers have done, I cringe a little when I see their tweets. It’s not that I’m disgusted because I’m sure they are good people. It’s more of a damn-why-did-you-have-to-do-that type of feeling.
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