All the recent hype and then disappointment with BlogRush, the issues with Widgetbucks, and my personal feelings about Dealdotcom, I began to ponder a question that sprang up when JohnChow was heavily promoting Algoco. I have to admit, I’ve gone back and forth on the issue and I’m still not sure I have settled on one side or the other. So, I figured I’d open up the discussion to you, the readers. The quality of comments left on this blog are something I’m quite proud of (although I think it’s more a reflection on you than on the content I post), and I thought it would be interesting to hear what you all have to say on the issue.
The question is, does a blogger need to be careful what they promote? By promoting a product or service, are you to some extent tying your reputation to it?
For example, John Chow heavily recruited people to sign up for Algoco, which all signs suggest is a flop. Darren Rowse, Yaro Starak, Shoemoney, and John Chow all promoted BlogRush which for most people up to this point has proven to be a flop as well. 3 of those same big three promoted WidgetBucks. As Andy Beard pointed out, there are more than a few issues with this program as well. So, has your opinion of any of these bloggers changed because of their promotion of these services? If so, why? If not, why not?
Does the bloggers’ persona or personality play a roll in this? For example, John Chow is a fairly controversial figure and plays into the whole “root of all evil” image. Can he promote any and every service or program that he chooses and get away with it because he’s “evil”? Do you hold Darren (Problogger.net) to a higher standard than the panda killer? And finally, are less popular bloggers held to yet another standard or do the same principles apply?
Since I’m asking for you to voice your opinions on all of these questions I’ll go ahead and share mine in hopes of getting the conversation started.
To be honest, I’m not quite sure. I’m certainly finding myself more skeptical of the things Darren and Yaro promote now. In fact, my initial reaction to WidgetBucks was skepticism. In a matter of a couple of hours I saw it popping up on JohnChow, Problogger and in an email from Yaro, and that set alarms off and sent red flags flying. I’m not sure whether that’s fair or not, but it was my gut reaction. It could just as easily have been the best thing since sliced bread being promoted and just happened to contact the top bloggers in this niche but it made me suspicious.
I think I do hold Darren and Yaro to a higher standard than I do Mr. Chow and I’m not sure whether that’s fair either. Really John wouldn’t want to become known for promoting scams or crappy products either so I’m not sure why it seems he can “get away” with more.
I guess I view a bloggers’ reputation as his or her most valuable asset. If you can’t trust what I say, I’m doomed. You’ll stop reading, you’ll stop visiting the site, and in the end, I’ll stop making money off the site. However, I think a less popular blogger probably has more to lose, for a couple of reasons. The obvious one being less popular bloggers have fewer readers to lose, so each one is, in a sense, more valuable to the smaller blog. Another reason is that the less popular blogger doesn’t have the track record that a well known blogger has. For example, if I promote some product that ends up being complete crap, that might very well be the only impression people have of me. If Darren promoted the same product in the same manner, people might very well say “Well he missed that one but look at all this other great advice he’s give us. Look at his track record over the years.”
So, there’s my take, what’s yours? Am I wrong? Am I right? Do you have other thoughts on the issue? Let’s talk it over.
Author: Ben
Updated: May, 2012
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In my opinion, you should be held to a high standard on what you recommend. Especially when there is a benefit to you if I sign up. If you refer me to a site and you get a bonus for having told me about it, then I’m going to be more apt to think you are just scamming the masses for as many bonuses you can get with no concern over the quality of the product.
That being said, if there is no financial gain in it for you, I think the standard drops a bit and you can be a little more free with promoting whatever comes along. It’s also in how you promote. If you remain objective calling out pros and cons I think you can be more lax in the standard you are living up to. But if you are shamelessly promoting without even discussing the negative drawbacks or throwing out a “hey, I’ve not used this for more than a day, but it looks like it *could* be promising venture” then I think you are held to a higher standard.
my .02
It really all boils down to how you as a blogger feel. If you do not care then go right ahead. If you care about your readers and want to give them the best you can, then don’t. You have to decide what you feel is right. Do you want a to be a run of the mill street pharmacist just trying to turn a buck, or a Doctor and take your profession to the next level.
@ Derek,
I disagree with the simplicity of the arguement. Basically, as a blogger, you want to be on the cutting edge and wouldn’t want to be the last to post on what everyone is talking about. I think that it’s about qualifying what you are saying. This looks like it could be geat, however, only time will tell. Instead of Sign up now, it’ll change your life!
I think you should definitely consider your goals and intentions but even if you’re just out to make a buck, don’t you think continually backing scams would be a very short sighted path to take?
Also, what about Darren, Yaro, Shoe, and John. What do people think about them? Has that changed recently? Do you think BlogRush, Dealdotcom, or WidgetBucks were flops? Do you blame them for backing those sites?
Personally I tend to gloss over the pro-blogger posts that are promoting a service like the ones you’ve mentioned. So many come and go, being promoted by the big guns, but they never really get off the ground and I just can’t be bothered to read them.
Of course the big pro-bloggers can promote what they want – as you point out they’ve already got their reputations set – and the smaller guys need to be careful, but I think anyone that has used a service and can evaluate it objectively should write about it. The more information we’ve got, the better.
It depends what is meant by ‘promote’ exactly. When BlogRush came out I made a post about it pretty quickly as I wanted to get some other bloggers under me just in case it worked. However I was very clear about my reservations about it and a week later I posted a follow up post confirming those reservations and got some extra sign ups
Also another factor that I think is important is money. BlogRush, Aglogo etc are all free to sign up so nobody is losing anything. However the rules change completely when you are promoting something that people have to pay for. Here, your reputation is most definately on the line as your readers will expect that you are using the product yourself and are endorsing it because you find it useful.
I don’t think anyone can really be blamed for promoting BlogRush and there’s no harm done. If people don’t want it on their blogs they just take it off. I find all the ‘hate’ posts about BlogRush to be as idiotic as the overly hyped ones we had at the beginning.
@ Caroline, no matter if it’s free or not it always costs something. In the case of BlogRush, it costs time and space on your site. While I agree, it’s not a big price to pay, I don’t like someone making money off duping people. BlogRush touted itself as a huge source of traffic and that simply wasn’t true. And yet, they still made money because of all the attention drummed up by the big time bloggers hoping to fill their downline. Thousands of bloggers put the widget on their site and received next to nothing in return. That doesn’t sit right by me. If AdSense suddenly stopped paying everyone, publishers would rightly feel cheated. Yet it didn’t cost them anything to put the ads up on their site.
I’m not saying anyone who posted about BlogRush was wrong or bad or evil, I’m just saying there was definitely a cost and people definitely made money off it.
I didn’t really intend this to be a discussion just about BlogRush but I think that point that “it doesn’t cost anything” deserves some discussion.
It’s me again.
Our blog was included in those who were “tipped” off about widgetbuckz and had the chance to publish it right when they “officially” launched.
Basically I chose not to.
It looked a lot like dealdotcom and I wasn’t thrilled about that. I also knew john chow and the others who are money hungry would be promoting it no matter what.
I recently wrote Bloggers are the biggest copy cats regarding how just because an A lister promotes it and says its good doesnt really mean you are going to make money like they will.
I would have a hard time telling my readers they can make money with a site, etc etc before I know everything about it and I have made money with it myself. Because if I do that, then I am lying. How do you really know about a site if it isnt even launched yet? JC wrote about dealdotcom praising it in pre-launch stages.
Looking forward to reading your response
@ Blogging, I thought that article was a good one and would agree. To me it seems a lot of times bloggers, even the big names, are just publishing press releases. As you pointed out, Chow was pimping Dealdotcom (which is a HORRIBLE domain name by the way) before it even went live. There has to be some middle ground between being on the cutting edge talking about a new service just so that you build your referrer base and not promoting anything at all ever right? It’s that middle ground that I’m interested in exploring.
Well to find that middle ground I think you have to be unique. Those promoting blogrush and dealdotcom were pretty generic, and was almost exact about what everyone else was saying.
The unique articles (which were very few) were the ones that caught me. By unique I mean different, not just completely bashing the services, thats just boring.
I think if you can find unique ways to promote services etc that are realiable and good, I think you could have a winner.
I recently added sponsored ads on my page. I’ve taken the stance that I won’t take money for writing about things that I disagree with. My blog, http://www.jamesnweber.com, is about socially aware media, and writing about something that goes against my socially aware ideals really goes against the spirit of my blog.
This is just me, but if I am just posting about/promoting something (i.e. blogrush) so I can turn a buck, then how am I any different then a woman of the night, turning a trick. It doesn’t cost her anything, but if she turns the wrong trick, it could cause her to get only god knows what or even worse. So was that buck really worth it in the long run. Not that I am comparing someone like JohnChow to a hooker, but if you break it down where is the difference. I know this post might fuel the fire, but I take the stance if I would not promote it to a family member, I would not promote it to my readers, but that is just my opinion. What do I know.
I think a blogger needs to be careful about what they promote – however there are some things that you need to also take a punt on without fully knowing how it will perform.
When a new ad network or tool launches no one, including the developers of it, really really knows how it will perform.
As a result – I think that in posting about it a blogger needs to be careful and balanced in their review of it. My own approach is to point out what I like and don’t like and to suggest how I think/suspect it’ll be useful (this is how I approached WidgetBucks for example). I also don’t generally post about things that I’m yet to see or have a play around with (even if it’s just a short play). I think actively promoting and endorsing something that you have ‘heard about’ and not had the chance to at least look over is pretty poor form (I get asked to do this everyday).
I do think that WidgetBucks has promise for bloggers who blog about product related stuff – my own preliminary testing on one product blog shows it’s CTR is almost exactly the same as the results I get with Chitika (my second biggest earner) and better than AdSense. Time will tell if the earnings stack up as high once they get through their first auditing process.
If a blogger comes out and says ‘this product will make you rich’ then I don’t think that that is responsible blogging – but if the review shares the good and bad, the strengths and weaknesses and suggests where it will be useful (to the point that the person has been able to test it) then I think it’s reasonable. At this point it then becomes up to the reader to discern whether it’s useful for them (and the reader needs to take some responsibility too and not blindly accept everything that they read – because sometimes things work well for some but not others).
I agree with you when you say that a blogger’s reputation is very important and as a result I only link to and recommend what I think has potential (I’d say that I link to about 15% of the pitches that I get) – however if I only ever linked to things that had been tested for months and refined into great products then I’d rarely link to anything.
It’s a balancing act and not something that I personally take lightly because I know people make decisions that impact their livelihoods based upon how I blog. What worries me is that sometimes others don’t seem to take that responsibility that seriously and blindly recommend anything that has the opportunity to make them a quick buck.
Anyway – good discussion. it’s something that I think we all need to be challenged on and kept accountable to at regular intervals.
oops – didn’t subscribe to the comments – now have
Darren, thanks for joining in the discussion. I think it is VERY valuable to have the input of someone with the kind of sway you do. Was this issue something you dealt with on an increasing basis as your popularity grew or was there one event/experience that served as a lesson for you?
Also, would you be willing to share any examples of where you think you missed it (if there are any)?
I feel each of the big bloggers promote everything and anything that’s “hot” to make some money until what they’re promoting shows its true colours. Whether the program is a good or not (most of the time it’s too early to tell), you’ll see people promoting it.
I usually read john chow for the monetizing aspect and problogger for well blogging, so i dont know how darren reports such products. After ive seen it so many times i usuallly just scrolly through my rss feeds.
I do know that some make it to their niche. If its about making money they will tell you about how it will make you money etc.
Dont see many negatives when trying promote the website or product and get referrals
Ben,
I have started taking the stance that Nicola takes above. I pretty much gloss over and move on to the other posts and conversations. I am a regular reader of at least 2 of the A listers you mentioned and visit their sites as often as time permits. I even joined Yaro’s mentorship program.
While I can understand everyone wants to be the first to blog about the latest new thing that will change the blogosphere,
I feel the bloggers the rest of us look up to as mentors/leaders etc. should indeed be careful of the items they promote and how they promote them. After all, they gained our trust and admiration, and are perceived by most of us as the experts.
If our perception of these people change then so will our loyalty to them and their blogging.
I think I was a little miffed that I got an email on a Sunday morning regarding one of these items being hyped. Perhaps because I feel that I signed up for a course to receive information about the course and not hype about some new fangled item being released. I’m not sure but that didn’t sit too right with me. When the post promoting something is on the blog itself, at least I can skip over it and move on to whatever else catches my attention.
While no one likes feeling as though they are being manipulated,
ultimately, as Darren points out, the reader has to determine whether the item being pitched will work for him or her.
Ben – no problem – it’s something I constantly think about and evaluate in my blogging.
It’s something that I’ve always had to deal with – however I guess it’s something that I’ve become more and more aware of as readership and I began to see people making decisions based upon my opinions.
I guess the first time that I saw all this blow up was a year or two back when Chitika launched. I made very good money with the product and as a result posted a review that was quite favorable to it (although as I suggested above I pointed out that it probably wouldn’t work for every blog topic, that it was early days and still in beta and also pointed out a few things I thought that they needed to improve. However some people saw my review (in which I talked a bit about how well it’d done for me) as a complete endorsement and almost a promise of a get rich quick method (despite me emphasizing numerous times that it wasn’t).
I learned a lot through that experience including:
1. that some people will hear what they want to hear when you write about something and ignore what they don’t want to hear (ie they expected too much from it simply because I said it’d worked for me)
2. that hyping up a product doesn’t help you, your readers or the product you’re promoting (I learned this more from watching how others promoted it than I did – there was an incredible frenzy around it and of course when Chitika didn’t live up to the unrealistic expectations the pendulum swung from a hyped up positive frenzy to a lynch mob. I was attacked more at this time than I’ve ever been before – despite what I thought was a reasoned and balanced review.
3. that products never ever launch perfect and always evolve. Chitika had some great things about it – but it was a new product and needed to develop. While some wrote it off as soon as they saw anything wrong with it I took the approach of making suggestions to Chitika on how they could improve (I did some of this publicly and some of it via direct emails to them). Over time they improved the product, overcome some of the mistakes they made and in the end they ended up being quite successful. It also led to me earning quite a bit of money through it because I stuck with them and helped them improve their product (while many others wrote them off and potentially missed out on the benefits).
I wrote quite a bit about this here.
I’m not sure there are any examples that come to mind of where I missed it – there were times where I probably did and made mistakes – but I generally try to fix them quickly and move on.
Amanda, I got the same email and if I recall the same type of thing went out about BlogRush as well. I guess it kind of seems to me with some of these deals lately that it almost seems like joint venture or list swapping email marketers that fill our inboxes. I mean the big bloggers are getting early notice so they can promote it and build their down line in exchange for hype and buzz. I guess really that’s not all that different than paid posts but you don’t have the disclosure in the post, you have an aff link.
I think what may be missing from a lot of these blogs is a sense of responsibility.
We get over 50 offers a week to promote affiliate programs and never accept any of them. You shouldn’t be publishing or endorsing anything unless you truly believe in the product.
When your writing influences the actions of others you have a responsibility to ensure you are acting in their best interest.
Great post!
More responsible One must be as we become more popular.
I did not get an email about widgetbucks ahead of time but I have added it to two of my sites. Neither is showing anything worth writing about.
I did get an email about tnx.net and wrote about it but did not accept payment (was offerred). After running with TNX for about a week I have already made about $50. I tried to make as honest of a review of the service as possible and you can read about it here.
I have turned down review offers in the past and I will do so in the future if I feel the product is shady.
Google, Yahoo and Microsoft all have various prior notification lists and “news embargo” until a certain time.
This allows a certain “head start” in writing content before an official press release, and I would regard this as a from of “payola”
If all you do is slam a company and give it totally negative reviews, you are unlikely to stay on that prior notification list or get invited to their launch parties. Many of the big SEO blogs have NDAs signed with each of the search engines.
Legitimate email marketers don’t swap email addresses. They cross-promote and do joint ventures. They send each other traffic and gain subscribers, and often pay a large sum of money in affiliate fees for that cross promotion. That is no different from you linking to me, and me linking to you.
The only differences are the additional search engine benefits, and the poor traffic to subscriber ratio achieved on blogs.
If I am writing about something that might be hyped, I try hard to give more in depth coverage, with different angles.
If I wrote a post “You might find this interesting [link]” I would actually get a higher referral percentage.
Andy, thanks for joining the discussion as well! I really enjoyed your post on WidgetBucks and that was part of what lead me to start this discussion.
I’d agree inside info is a form of payola and to me that puts their credibility on those issues into question somewhat. Don’t you think? I mean imagine if Search Engine Land wrote some of the things Aaron Wall has been writing lately. How long before Google would cut them out of the loop?
I guess in terms of this discussion though, if you receive prior notice to help generate the initial buzz around a product and either don’t write about it, or don’t write favorably about it, are you likely to get advance notice the next time around? Does that even matter to you? (This is a broad question not directed at only Andy)
I will share this part of the correspondence the early notification people received, actually from the landing page Jim sent people to.
“there is absolutely no requirement to write something positive.”
There is a lot of product launch mentality in this, in that if everyone is writing about it, it must be something interesting, and that helps drive interest and signups. I am not sure how cookies and referrals were calculated, but product launch formula promotions typically favour the people offering the best bonuses with the biggest lists. On the other hand whilst you might not get sales, with people normally searching for more information around a major product launch, it is a great way to pick up subscribers if you have a high ranking page.
A lot comes down to whether you are calling what you write a review, or an announcement. To review something you really need to give an opinion, and that could have a negative impact on signups, even if everything you write is positive.
Sometimes it really is better just to let a sales letter do its thing, and let your readers decide if the product is what they are looking for.
“The question is, does a blogger need to be careful what they promote?”
Of course. The problem above is that most people are trying to define what is acceptable when it’s different for everybody and every blog.
Unless you are trying to make some universal document of the wrongs and rights of blogging there will never be an answer to your question.
Some bloggers can meet their readers expectations by dropping affiliate links for any junk product and doing paid posts half the days of the month, some would get taken over the coals for the same.
There are consequences, good and bad, for anything you post but those are different for each blog.
I decided to write a post on my blog about Ben’s topic. This post is listed above.
I think that all bloggers need to be careful about this. If you promote too much junk, I guarantee readers will become skeptical about everything that you write.
I don’t think that bloggers should not write about these programs, however, I do think that bloggers should be careful not to hype. Each new program being launched is newsworthy, but there is no reason to go gaga over an untried service.
In many ways you are wrong Fred, if you don’t promote enough, many of your core audience will most likely read someone else who does provide the solutions they are looking for.
@ 45n5
“The question is, does a blogger need to be careful what they promote?”
You claim that this question can not be answered. I don’t believe this at all. If you are a blog about making money online then at least some of the things you propose better make some money.
On the flip side if your blog is about all the crap out there that doesn’t make money then you should be careful not to put something on there that does indeed work.
The only way I see your argument working is if your blog is all about “how to start a blog and lose readers over time” but even then… well it’s just getting silly now but I think you get the point.
It is IMO impossible to keep your blog on target and growing without being responsible about what you promote/write about.
@tim – you misinterpreted my comment.
I simply meant it can’t be argued or debated as some universal truth. It is up to each blogger to decide what is acceptable to meet their readers expectations. This varies WIDELY based on who’s blog you are reading. It can’t be put forth as some magic answer that everybody should follow.
Each blogger needs to find the answer for themselves and their own audience. There are answers, but they vary as many times as their are blogs.
@45n5
So am I understanding you to say that one can not answer how much or to what extent. But it is to say that at least some level of discernment is necessary?
@tim – “So am I understanding you to say that one can not answer how much or to what extent.”
I didn’t say that. I said “it can’t be argued or debated as some universal truth. It is up to each blogger to decide what is acceptable to meet their readers expectations.”
@ 45n5, while I agree that the line is going to be different for each and every blog, I still think there’s a lot to learn from a discussion like this. Everyone has different ideas of what is ethical but there are whole courses on that very subject. I think discussing these points or even specific examples can be very beneficial.
@ben – I agree wholeheartedly that discussing this stuff is beneficial, that’s why I participated. Hopefully I didn’t come across the wrong way, I just don’t think it’s an I’m right or you’re wrong issue as some paint it to be.
It is fine if you disclose that what you are reviewing is a lifelong favorite of yours, or something you tried out for the first time, an hour ago; if you can stick to facts that you are aware of, and add your personal opinion as an opinion, not a fact, and end the whole piece with, YMMV, then anyone can post useful valuable material about any product, regardless of their depth, or lack of knowledge.
The misleading stuff is making claims you cannot back up, and worse, promoting something without disclosing that you are going to profit from others adopting the product.
I don’t think people should take my product reviews as gospel, not because I lie or mislead for my own benefit, but because I write with my tongue in my cheek.
I think that every blogger has to look upon his reputation and therefore not to give false informations.
So if xy blogger writes that “xy and xy service is new on market and that they are offering this and that, so why not try” – thats ok.
But if that certain blogger says – “ok, this service is great, I made a bunch of money on it” – and it turns out he didn’t make any money from it, than he is giving us false information and this WILL influence his reputation.
The point with agloco, widgetbucks, blogrush and other programs are in marketing. If no one is talking about it, no one will get involve and then no one can make any profit from it (nor owners, nor users)
I’d say you have to take everything you read on this wonderful invention known as the internet with a grain of salt. Someone may be successful and making money, but it’s far from a reason to run over blindly and sign up for a service or affiliate program they talk about.
On the other hand, I think the 3 big bloggers you mentioned tend to present good info on their experiences with various products and like to give the last things a chance. It’s important to take risks in business and I think that’s alot of what we see with the promotions. As always, people need to do their homework and not just trust what they read online..
I rely on the likes of Darren and Andy to keep a finger on the pulse. For the most part I’ve found their reviews to be balanced, while still trying to emphasise the positive. Both are influential and I don’t think either abuse that role. No one has a crystal ball to know how these things will pan out. While I respect their opinions, at the end of the day it’s up to ME to decide if the product is worthwhile or suitable for my needs.
I find it interesting that you say “I think I do hold Darren and Yaro to a higher standard than I do Mr. Chow and I’m not sure whether that’s fair either”, yet you link out 3 times to John and not once to Darren or Yaro. An oversight perhaps?
I do agree that a blogger’s reputation is his or her greatest asset, but I think the harm comes with being totally one-sided, and failing to acknowledge both the positives and the negatives.
Imagine that you are leafing through your favorite magazine.
As you turn the pages, a headline pops out:
The Best Hot Sauce Ever!
Wow! Your favorite columnist is doing a piece about your favorite condiment!
After reading the article, what might you conclude about this columnist’s reputation?
Your answer to that question says more about YOU than it does about the columnist. What this simply means is that reputation is based on trust.
I believe that readers determine the blogger’s reputation, rather than the blogger.
What the blogger determines is a consistency – which is either conducive to building trust or detrimental to that effort.
Here is an example: the author of the Harry Potter series has been called “evil”. Obviously, she has supporters as well. The point is, most of us don’t even know her, yet – for the most part – we have collectively elevated her because we trusted the quality of her work. Her consistency was conducive to that process.
That’s all social networking is, ya Digg?
Cheers,
Mitch
Mitch, thanks for the thoughtful response! I think your point about consistency is a good one. However, I guess I wonder what makes people tend to conclude that they trust a blogger or website. What kind of things make you question that trust?
Ben,
Thanks for posting this stimulating conversation!
Your original question and this second question go hand-in-hand. I believe the reason that people enjoy “success” in any endeavor is NOT because of care (meaning caution), but because they fulfill a need.
We can think of many adjectives to describe the spectrum of successful people. Brash, daring, clever, hard-working, motivational, inspirational, charismatic.
If enough people are positively impacted by the actions of another, success is assured.
The gist of your second question becomes: how do people allow themselves to be impacted by blogs and websites?
I suspect that there is no one answer. Some people respond viscerally, others, intellectually.
One of my favorite subjects is body language. If we learn to read visual cues given by our audience, we have a better chance of communicating clearly. Over time, this ability creates a feedback loop, wherein the audience comes to EXPECT us to communicate in tune to their signals. That’s consistency, leading to a tendency to trust.
With blogs, if we learn to tap into what our readers want, we are more likely to achieve this same result.
This capability is not limited to how we write, since we can post images, videos and podcasts as well.
I’m sure there are some handy psychological words for all of this.
I prefer to say that some people respond to the warm and fuzzies, while others respond to a no-nonsense approach.
Finally, I would say that DEVIATING from the expected path may cause SOME people to change their trust level.
Cheers,
Mitch
In my opinion a blogger should be careful in selecting the products (well, anything) they promote. A blogger’s reputation is kind-of tied to the products, but not so much that if he/she promotes a bad product people will start boycotting them.
The effect on your reputation really depends on how famous you are. The more famous you are the lesser the impact. For smaller blogs, room for error is much lesser.
Frankly speaking, my opinion of the bloggers mentioned didn’t change at all after they promoted those products. However, one things that did change my perception of John Chow was one of the bad reviews he did about Andrew Talk. It was pretty mean of him to just pick on a small-time blogger, waste his $400 and pretty much destroy his blogging career.
As for your comment on BlogRush, I don’t this it can be classified as a flop yet. It’s not been even a month since it’s launch. Every service/product has flaws. Believe me, give it a couple of months…
And yeah by the way, thanks for giving me an idea for a post!
You do have to be careful what you promote. But when something is being launched or is new you don’t know if it’s gonna be perfect. You may still have to provide a review.
Plus if a new tool or resources has a lot of potential and you’d like to see it get a chance to fully blossom a little promotion may be just what it needs to see if it can be all you want it to be. (that the community needs it to be)
Just my 2 cents…lol
Kenney
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