There are a growing number of relationships between businesses and bloggers highlighted in this New York Times item: Approval by a Blogger May Please a Sponsor. The FCC is looking at regulating them. Given some of the relationships, that would seem unavoidable, if not necessary. I was actually surprised at the level of involvement. But then, that approach has never been my interest.
I won't say it's all bad, by any means. But it is possible to see the opportunities for exploitation, too. Take a look. See what you think.
TNT, for instance, is experimenting with a paid relationship with a popular blogger, Melanie Notkin, founder and chief executive of SavvyAuntie.com, a site that has carved out a demographic niche of professional aunts without children.
Ms. Notkin is sending out several messages to her more than 10,000 Twitter followers on Tuesday nights, when a new episode of “Saving Grace” is shown.
Ms. Notkin declined to disclose how much she is paid by TNT, only saying that she is “well compensated.” But she says she is upfront with her readers about the relationship with the network by labeling every commercial tweet with “[sp],” which stands for sponsored post.
“TNT never told me and will never tell me what to say,” Ms. Notkin stressed. “They want to associate with brands that people trust.”
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