What if I told you that, starting 1 December, I will be paid US$800 per month for 3 months to write 1 blog post per week about a company called Marqui. Would you think I was “tainting” the blogosphere? Would you accuse me of being a sellout? Would you doubt my integrity? Hmm, well that’s the sort of controversy I’m walking right into the middle of. Yes, I was one of the 15 bloggers chosen to participate in the Marqui Blogosphere Program. So let me be totally upfront with you about what this is about, my reasons for doing it and how I will carry this off.
Reasons
1. The money. OK, $800 p/mth isn’t ‘give up the day job’ levels. But it’s nothing to be sneezed at either, especially when you consider it’s in US dollars and not New Zealand dollars.
2. I actually do think this is a “social experiment”, as Marc Canter has called it, and I like the idea of being part of such an experiment. This is the first time a group of bloggers has been paid upfront to write about a product. Will it work? Will the 15 bloggers who participate be run out of the blogosphere or virtually lynched in some other manner? Will it raise my profile? Will I lose readers? Will it get media coverage here in New Zealand and lead to a job offer by a progressive kiwi company looking for someone to introduce them to blogs and RSS? These are among the interesting questions that I’m curious to find the answers to. I honestly have no clue how this experiment is going to pan out. Time will tell.
3. I trust Marc Canter (the man who got us this gig). He’s got a lot of history in the computer business, he’s a very smart guy and I trust his instincts. I’ve read his blog for two years now and I spoke to him on the phone at length a couple of times back in March, when I interviewed him. So I know him to a certain degree and I’m also familiar with several of the other 14 bloggers chosen for this experiment. That social networking connection is an important part of this for me.
4. Marqui’s software is a kind of Content Management System. I know a lot about Content Management Systems, both from my day job as a Web Producer and as a regular topic in my weblog. As the byline to my blog suggests, I regard myself as a Web Analyst and I would dearly love to do it as a living. So the Marqui project is a good opportunity for me to practise my analysis skills, by analyzing Marqui’s CMS product and writing up my findings.
So what’s in store (whore)?
I will write one post per week about Marqui and those posts will be CLEARLY MARKED as advertising (actually I prefer to think of it as a sponsorship arrangement, but meh…). I will even differentiate the Marqui posts in my RSS feed, so that readers are absolutely clear that I am being paid to write about Marqui in those particular posts. You’ll also notice a Marqui image in the right side of my blog, which is a requirement of the program.
Regarding the ethical issues. None of my other posts will be paid for, so I personally don’t see how my integrity will be affected by this. But I realise these are grey areas in the blogosphere right now. So I have no problem with people debating whether the Marqui program is “tainting” the blogosphere and whether it affects bloggers integrity. It may be that this experiment helps flesh out those issues about monetizing the blogosphere. I hope it does, but please remember to play the ball, not the man.
Also remember to Think. I’m a big believer in reading things critically. I try to analyze the facts and the context of each piece of content, then make my judgement on its value or merit. What I’m saying (in a preachy way), is that I would prefer you see how the experiment pans out before you make sweeping judgements about it or about me. That’s certainly what I intend to do.
So, what more can I say. I am going to be blogging for dollars, once a week, over the course of the next three months. Is it a good idea? You can have your say if you like in the comments to this post, but for me there’s only one way to find out…
Originally published on ReadWriteWeb (archived copy)