I'm starting to wonder if I'm the only Toronto blogger who didn't take the bait. A few months ago, I was contacted by a marketing company in Toronto that was going to lend Toronto and Vancouver bloggers a cell phone for a short period. It was a fine phone that took pictures and played MP3s, but the blogger had to blog about photos taken with the phone and mention in the entry which phone was used, complete with a link the phone's web site.
No money would exchange hands. I'd just get to use this phone for free and I'd have to force mention of the product onto my site. I thought it was a raw deal then and as I surf around and see so many doing exactly that, I think it's a raw deal now.
I'm not above advertising on this site, I'm just against throwing ads in regular entries without clearly indicating that it's a paid endorsement. Where's the integrity if I'm going to blog about loving a movie after being paid to give it rave reviews? Is the loss of integrity worth a phone rental? Once you go that route, you can't go back again. Every time I'd link to that damn phone I'd feel dirty.
As it stands, I remain the last guy in my age group living in this city without a mobile phone. On the bright side, if I use a product and link to it, you know it's coming from the heart and not the wallet.
Contributions always accepted. Don't forget to click an ad or two on your way out. Now where's my Olympus Stylus 600 at?
