Online Reviews: Legitimate Or A Scam?

Mari Holt — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 23:06:49 +0000

The internet is one of, if not the most, powerful media sources out there. Knowing this, companies look to bloggers, celebrities and others to help endorse their products and services through the internet. The FTC (Fair Trade Commission), is now looking to crack down on some of the behaviors of these bloggers and personalities who are endorsing products, to make sure they define the relationships with the advertisers, so consumers know they are being “paid” to say what they are saying. Knowing there are some “paid” relationships like this, consumers need to understand some reviews they read are possibly not objective. Consumers also need to be aware that on certain websites, the reviews you are reading could be the work of the employees at that company.
Leadpile has some testimonials on their website, however these are all submitted by current and past partners that have worked with at Leadpile. The bottom line with all of this is, really do some research in plenty of places to get a true idea of the product you are looking to buy or the company you are looking to work with. Don’t always believe what you read!

What Motivates Bloggers?

Mari Holt — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 14:26:05 +0000

In past years, many journalist were worried about taking too many incentives to write about something specific. These days now the FTC is bringing to everyone’s attention the fact that many bloggers could be writing about something because they were receiving kickbacks. The FTC (Fair Trade Commission) is trying to make it regulated that if you are receiving any rewards for blogging about a particular subject matter, that you fully disclose this to your readers. It seems that this attempt to regulate could move into social networking sites such as Twitter too. We have all heard about one of the most “famous” bloggers – Perez Hilton, but is he being paid by someone to blog or Tweet about certain subject matters? I would think so…
In this day someone’s time and opinion really matters, so should it be wrong to be able to accept “things” in order to talk about them? In the day of regulations with insurance companies, real estate and many other industries, governing gifts received in order to render a service is against the rules. However, should this sort of thing really apply to bloggers? Leadpile likes the opportunity that a blog allows us to talk about certain hot topics and things going on in our industry, however I don’t think any sort of potential FTC regulation will affect our little blog.

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Online Reviews: Legitimate Or A Scam?

What Motivates Bloggers?