One purpose for doing this is to “tell myself” what is right. So when I have that moment when I need to make the call about whether something is right, I will have something to remind me.

Sometimes you can get steamed up, and forget about manners, or slide the truth around. Its human nature. I already have a list of rules about what I write and will not write about, but adding some ethics is not time wasted.

There just isn’t enough ethics in the world. Talking about it might help.

Concerning Network World, it’s not as if they didn’t realize it was unethical to publish attacks on a well-known blogger, or that it’s a bad idea to accuse a multi-billion dollar company of committing financial fraud. They know it’s wrong; they simply don’t care. Controversy brings traffic.

Evolution has ensured every one of us has an intact moral compass. Whether we choose to follow it is another matter entirely.

I think that if you are going to accept money from a company or PR firm you definitely should mention that, and your post illustrates that you have the scruples to always do just that. So if you take money for a blog post, then I agree with your point here.

On the other hand, I definitely try to separate blogging from other work myself. If a company wants me to blog about a product, I try to turn it into a whitepaper, and they’re happy to agree usually since it’s a much better marketing vehicle for them. I think whitepaper sponsorship is widely known and understood, and it too is a fine but walkable line for a person with integrity.

Not sure of my own caliber, but yes I enjoy your blog and read it faithfully!

With that in mind, the marketing companies are being paid substantial sums to ask me to to promote a product. Spending my time evaluating and a preparing a report / blog post could easily be a billable activity.

Hence the sections on Integrity, Honesty/Fairness.

I have not been asked to write a white paper, or speak,in recent years, so I don’t know much about that area.

Finally, love this line : “Always in paid situations the old rule goes – if you donít have something nice to say, donít say it at all”. Would it be OK to put that in the list ?

PS. Thanks for taking the time to comment. I am impressed that someone of your caliber would take the time to read my blog, let alone comment.

Personally, I would drop the for-pay concept, and maybe the whole thing. I ignore all PR email I get from my blog and only write about what I care about – for free. If Microsoft or VMware or EMC or NetApp or EqualLogic or anyone gets value from what I write, I’m not going to cry that they should have paid me for it. Blogging is personal PR and nothing more.

If I want to get paid I’ll write a whitepaper or speak at a custom seminar. And although I’ll make it clear who is paying the bill, I try to be honest there, too.

Always in paid situations the old rule goes – if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say it at all. In non-paid situations, it’s all fair, but I still try not to be a stinker.

If a site is to have personal vendettas instead of pure hard facts or clean opinions on a particular subject, then it will misled the readers to nonsensical facts and just blind users from the actual truth which might be more beneficial to them (the readers).

On the marketing issue, it is only fair that we take some time off our schedule to do a review on a product when asked by a vendor only to be compensated in some form. However if the individual themselves feel that they would like to give an opinion on a product based on their free will, then it is a different story alltogether. However I can assume that many marketing firms will start to think of ploys to have famous sites backing up their products (positive chain reaction effect if you will).

Just my two cents.