The Bloggers Code Of Ethics - Reviewing Products

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The first of a multi-part series on the bloggers code of ethics, this article will discuss reviewing products. I was going to start with a little article about integrity and credibility, however I found myself taking this whole article in a new direction. So in refocussing, let me cut to the chase.

In order to write reviews which people will value, you need to have built some credibility; otherwise your reviews are as good as a blank piece of cyber paper. So assuming you have some credibility, how do you maintain it?

You really have to be impartial to write a good review. And the way you write your posts, needs to sound impartial. My code of ethics doesn’t say “tell the truth, always!” and reading my code of ethics, you will quickly learn it’s not really about ethics.

A code of ethics that isn’t really about ethics?

Maybe I should re-write the title “A bloggers guide on how to pretending to follow a code of ethics” – I digress…

“My mother owns a really fantastic book store, the best books around, trust me” – Would you trust that one line review? I sure as shit wouldn’t. The vested interest is STAMPED all over that little sentence. A little rewrite would read “A great little book shop on the corner of blah St and blah Ave” – Without any vest interest, you don’t break the bloggers code for reviewing book stores.

Affiliate links are credibility suicide.

If your one and only goal is to write a reputable review, it won’t make you any large amount of money. It’s as simple as that. Congratulations, you are a great blogger, I wish there were more of you, so there will be more money left in the marketplace for me.

If you actually want to make money from blogging, which I’m guessing is why you are here in the first place; you have to monetise your reviews. Adsense etc is little money, pocket change. The only real way to make real money is affiliate links, but as is clearly highlighted above, affiliate links are credibility suicide.

There are three ways you can tackle affiliate links to minimise harm:

1. Stay poor
2. Hide Them
3. Don’t Hide Them 

Stay poor

Don’t monetise, and stay poor. No affiliate links to worry about, credibility intact. Go you ethical blogger you! Enjoy dinner at the soup kitchen.

Hide Them

Use a tinyurl or something. Send them through to a redirect. Eventually it is highly likely your visitor will notice you are affiliated with the product you are reviewing.

Don’t hide them

This is by far my favourite. Its obviously there, you really can’t hide it very well, but you can still make money and maintain your credibility. All you need to do is say “My integrity is important to me, which is why I am disclosing this to you. If you believe in this product like I do, and found my review useful, please reward my efforts and follow this link, if you would rather use a non-affiliate link, please click here.” It’s total and complete brilliance. “My integrity is important to me” may as well say “I have integrity, and you know it!” – Most people will follow your affiliate link, and consider you to be more credible at the same time. Some bastards won’t follow your affiliate link, but such is life, and your integrity is still intact.

Over the long run you are better off disclosing affiliate links.

Now the only other way to “ethically” review products is to make the reviews accurate. If you say “Windows is a fantastic operating system without any bugs” your readers won’t follow your link because you are full of shit. If you say “I give Windows five starts out of ten, because it does most things well, but some things very badly” you are more likely to get some people who want to buy windows anyway, because it does what they need. – you don’t have any choice, you can’t bullshit people smarter than yourself, and your integrity relies on your credibility. If you don’t give an accurate review, your readers will just go somewhere else and follow someone else’s affiliate link.

So please, review products accurately, disclose affiliate links and provide an alternative, non-affiliate link.