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May 25, 2007

Transparency is the New Color

I received an email from PayPerPost support team informing that my post has been rejected. The person went on to state the reason:

"PPP bloggers are required to disclose within their post, or on the same page as their post, that they are being paid. You can do this by making a site-wide disclosure policy and linking to it from your post, or by writing something along the lines of "this post is sponsored" somewhere within your post. Please make the appropriate changes and resubmit!"

It then strikes me that I've overlooked to disclose that particular review to be a sponsored post. I went on to googled "disclosure policy" and search result brought me to DisclousrePolicy.org. I've since generated my own site-wide disclosure policy using the policy generator provided.

This episode sets me thinking about the many blogs which I've visited but most of them do not display such disclosure policy on their site. As the blogosphere grown exponentially, so has the financial opportunity it represents. Now more than ever Advertisers, PR agencies, political organizations and bloggers themselves are reaching out to blog owners in an attempt to gain visibility for their products, services and causes. As a reader it has been difficult to identify which blogs are influenced by these organizations.

Disclosure Policies are designed to allow bloggers to self-identify any affiliation, payment or other conflicts of interests that may influence the content of a blog. From banner ads and paid content to free gadgets and travel, disclosure policies allow you to make your own judgement regarding the influence on content you are presented with.

Disclosure does not mean you are changing your voice, perspective, values or persona. You will always be you, and that's why you blog. It is about providing transparency to your readers about the content on your blog.

If you see a blog without a disclosure policy drop them a line and send them to disclosurepolicy.org. Demand disclosure and and help set the right tone for advertising on the Internet for years to come.





6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice post. I didn't know about disclosure either. I only know the movie starred by Sharon Stone. lol

Stine said...

I got the same rejection from PPP. Isn't stating that the post is sponsored enough, though? Within the post, I mean?

Stine said...

PS. Thanks for the visit!

Sara Ch. said...

Great resource. I disclose in individual posts, but haven't put up a policy yet. This should get me going.

Thanks,
Sara

Matt Huggins said...

DisclousrePolicy.org was actually created by and is owned by PayPerPost. Take a look at DisclosurePolicy.org's footer, and you'll see. :)

Anonymous said...

In other aspects of blogging, transparency seems to be a favorable trend though.