In a vaguely insane post-holiday attempt to catch up with all the new stuff in the RSS feeds I read regularly[1], I came across this article by Andy Beal, from Web Pro News, announcing the launch of PayPerPost.com.

The basic premise of Pay Per Post is as follows:

Advertisers pay to post details about their “opportunity,” specifying, among other things, how they want bloggers to write about, say, a new shoe, if they want photos to be included, and whether they’ll pay only for positive mentions. Bloggers who abide by the rules get paid; heavily trafficked blogs may command premium rates.

Now, I have no problems with the idea of plugging someone’s product or service on your blog. Even getting paid for it in goods or cold hard cash can be alright. What concerns me about Pay Per Post is that the blogger generally does not need to disclose that they’ve been paid.

Maybe I just need to lock myself at home and live in a little world in my own head where everyone has morals and no one can be swayed by money. Otherwise, looks like Mr. Beal and I will have to learn to cope with bloggers prostituting themselves even further.

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[1] For your own sanity, I highly recommend following my friend Mat’s advice, “Just mark them all as read when there’s too many”, because attempting to scan through every new item is causing me to go cross-eyed.