Should You Ban Paid Commentators?

In the last three months or so a number of programs have been exposed that will pay you to comment on a blog. Maybe not spam the blog (by definition), but simply comment in a way that adds some information while advertising someone’s product. One question I have yet to see answered is whether or not bloggers should ban people who indulge in such activities.

I say ban the idiots.

If someone wants to advertise a product on your blog then why not charge them for it? Why shouldn’t they have to pay for ad space? Heck, if some company sponsored a post on here for $5 I would love it. So why not pay the blogger instead of some nobody who spams the blog and hurts your reputation? Paid comments are pretty much the same thing as spam anyways. Most of the products advertised are of low quality, so the manufacturer has to spam to get the word out about it.

Sure, simply talking about a product doesn’t mean it is a spam advertisement, but if the same person repeatedly talks about the same product (and doesn’t add any real value to the blog), you may want to do a little bit of an investigation.

What stance do you take, ban or no ban?

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