Apr 27 2007
A Guideline for Responsible Blogging
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With many turning to sites such as SponsoredReviews in order to earn a bit of cash it’s not surprising that many are resorting to less than ethical blogging standards in order to keep a steady flow of income rolling in. The site that allows advertisers to buy reviews is offering up this concise but helpful guideline for all bloggers to take a gander at.
Many of the guidelines are a rehash of basic ethics and responsibility, such as the hiding or cloaking of affiliate links, failure to disclose ect. But there is one that was listed that that surprised and impressed me to see published. It’s soemthing I talk about regularly on my personal blog and I’m always amazed at the amount of people that are shocked that I will have to pay taxes or that I should pay taxes on the income I’ve received from my online jobs.
Respect Tax Law: bloggers and webmasters tend to equate online money with tax-free. Under the U.S. Law any income you make is taxable. If you win money playing online poker you will need to pay taxes. If you earn money through donations on your site you will need to pay taxes. The key factor is whether your blog is a hobby or a business. There is no definitive answer for this question, but a good starting point is whether your earnings are higher than your expenses. Do not forget to take into consideration the contributing writers as well. If you pay them more than $600 yearly you will need to file a 1099 form. You can read more about the Tax Law on the IRS website.
Thank you SR for publishing this.
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you make a valid point.. its easy to disassociate online income with actual income… but the gov’t cares.. believe me!
I just wish that everyone would be honest while writing paid reviews. Shouldn’t reviews show the positives and negatives?
I think a lot of website owners and bloggers don’t realize that they should be declaring the money they make on google adsense etc … let alone paid blog posts. Glad to see Sponsored Reviews took the time to remind everyone of that fact.
Court,
Unfortunately that would depend on the guidelines set. Some advertisers only want a positive or raving review. In theory people shouldn’t take them, or at the very least, find a way to incorporate the bad with the good. Most don’t sadly because it’s easier to just repeat things like a parrot.
Take this article for example, SR had many points that I’ve heard and read everywhere before. Nothing new there and I mentioned this but I did find one highlight of their entry and I emphasized that.