Blogging And Disclosure

I got an email the other day from a company asking me to blog about a product they offered. In return they said they would link back to The Big Bald Blog. Of course I told them that I would do it; IF they would buy an ad on TBBB, send me samples of the product so I could write a proper product review. This made me thing of some things that I read a while ago regarding disclosure.

There is a split debate on whether or not you should disclose if you are blogging for cash. Some argue that it's no ones business but your own and you should keep your mouth shut. Other purists argue that if you don't disclose, it eventually chips away at your integrity as a blogger. If someone finds out that you are writing positively about a product because you got paid to do it, is that of any real value to your readers? I would say no.

Here is my bit of disclosure. Obviously we design websites for people as part of our marketing services. From time to time I WILL post about a customers website when we go live with it. This is just something I like to do and it gives them a little traffic to jump start the launch. They are not paying me to post on TBBB, I just enjoy it.

So what happened with the company that solicited me? I never heard back from them. Oh well I guess I won't have to be dealing with that disclosure issue.

What do you think a blogger should do? Should they disclose what articles they are getting paid to write?