Paying bloggers to promote your business

Have you heard of the blogger paid $100,000 to blog about the new Dukes of Hazzard film? Did you know bloggers are being paid to promote products or services in order to raise a site’s Google ranking or search engine visibility?

This Boston.com article – For a fee, some blogs boost firms – raises some logistical and ethical concerns, though. Should bloggers talk about products or services they’re being paid to promote without divulging that relationship, for example? I say no – and I’d bet that popular opinion over time will agree with me on this.

Should you hire bloggers to promote your business? Absolutely – but be transparent about it. Require that they do the same. (Smart bloggers already know that their own reputations are a large part of what keeps people coming back, after all.) In the end, the credibility you gain from taking the high road – along with the increased visibility you win for your brand, of course – will pay off.