Due to increasing pressure from several sponsors, we have decided to provide a site-wide disclosure. It is not that we are against such a thing, it is simply that I prefer to disclose each sponsored post on an individual basis. The reason I like this is because I do not want readers to feel deceived if they are unaware that a post is sponsored. I have personally been offended by some blogs which did not disclose that a post was sponsored until the very end.
However, with the proliferation of sponsored blogs these days, and the fact that I try to write entertaining and informative ads, I don't think it as big a problem now as it once might have been. Not to mention that I like to think most readers are intelligent enough to discern between sponsored posts and non-sponsored ones without too much trouble.
The other thing that made me acquiesce to this request is that I often post about the website, other peoples' blogs and sites, and otherwise promote things I think y'all will find interesting. These are not sponsored posts, per se - at least not to the extent that I am getting paid to write them - but they are promotional in nature, and I have thought (on more than one occasion) that I didn't really know how to handle them insofar as whether or not I should disclose to people that, even though I wasn't getting paid to write it, it was basically an advertisement for our sister sites, blogs, and features, or that of a friend's or colleague's.
To these ends, and for these reasons, we have decided to adopt a sitewide disclosure policy for all of The Weirding blogs - The Rundown, The Wording, The OddBlog, Weird Ink, The Cyberculturalist, and any other blogs which may become affiliated with The Weirding at a later date. Some posts will still be identified as sponsored on an individual basis for whatever reason(s), as we deem necessary - particularly posts which might confuse readers as to their nature - and we have decided to label at least every few sponsored posts as such in order to alert new readers to the fact that The Weirding blogs run sponsored posts and contain other forms of advertising. This policy is the same for all blogs related to The Weirding and is as follows:
This policy is valid from 12 October 2007
- This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me or by myself and others. For questions about this blog, please contact blogs@theweirding.net.
- This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.
- The compensation received may influence the advertising content, topics or posts made in this blog. That content, advertising space or post may not always be identified as paid or sponsored content.
- The owner(s) of this blog is compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. Even though the owner(s) of this blog receives compensation for our posts or advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers' own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.
- This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest; we choose which sponsors we accept and while we follow the guidelines they set forth within the agreement, we reject sponsors which ask us to lie, deceive, or change (or limit) non-sponsored content elsewhere on the blog.
To get your own policy, go to
http://www.disclosurepolicy.org
