The great Blog Ad debate

5 September, 2004 11:30 PM

Douglas Rushkoff and Jeff Jarvis are having an interesting 'discussion' on whether advertisements on blogs can corrupt a blogger's work.

Douglas Rushkoff writes - 'there might be a value in ad-free blogging; that doing it for money, for ads, may not change our writing on a conscious level, but that we may be changed - yes, corrupted - by the ads we're endorsing, er, displaying....' Douglas adds another post here.

Jeff Jarvis replies - 'But if you want ads to help support yourself in this new medium -- and thus support the growth of this medium with more contributions from more voices and more perspectives with more information and conversation and value, then you can do that. Maybe you can even quit working for The Man; what could be more counterculture than that?

The beauty of this medium -- yes, the rave quality of it -- is that I can do what I want to do and you can do what you want to do and our freedom is not zero-sum. It ain't a slam dance, man.'

Ken Layne enters the debate writing - 'In the media world, rejecting Capitalism is the exclusive realm of those who have succeeded as capitalists. I'd love to be rich and not give a damn about those BlogAds or Google ad strips. I'd be real happy to have CBS and BBC and a bunch of publishers sending me checks. But they don't. I work on the Web. And telling me I shouldn't be able to make a living as you do -- not that there's any chance in hell of that happening -- is like telling starving kids in Sudan how lucky they are not to be corrupted by McDonald's.'

Whilst I've always acknowledged that blogging for dollars has the potential to compromise bloggers I tend to come down on Jeff's side of this debate. Really it comes down to choice. I agree with Douglas (and Jeff) that putting ads on one's site does lead to some interesting decisions and choices - but I'd argue that this is true for all bloggers as they navigate the medium of blogging.

You see I think a blogger can be 'compromised' simply in who they link to. How many bloggers out there link regularly to A list bloggers with the hope that it might get them noticed by that blogger? How many bloggers have left comments on other blogs with the hope of others surfing back to their blog from the link? How many bloggers write about a topic they are not really interested in with the hope of creating some controversy to generate hits?

Of course not all bloggers blog this way - but they are some of the issues/temptations that most bloggers face - especially when starting out.

I guess whether it comes to these issues - or putting ads on your site - it all comes down to character, being aware of the possibility of compromise, staying true to yourself and being transparent. I'm also a big believer in being honest in your blogging. I have no issue with the fact that this blog has a few ads and they earn me a few dollars. My other blogs earn me more and are emerging into something of a business - and I think that that is pretty clear from their set up. If however I posted about books that I'd never read or movies I'd never seen just to put ads for them up (without a disclaimer) I'd be compromising myself somewhat.

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