Question: If someone offered you something because of your blog – say a Ferrari Acer laptop valued at $2,500 – would you keep it, turn it back, donate it to charity?
That’s the current controversy over 90 top of the line laptops gifted by Microsoft to a select few bloggers:
The controversy surrounding Microsoft’s $200,000 plus gift of snazzy Acer Ferrari notebooks loaded with Vista Ultimate to 90 bloggers refuses to go away. What’s more the messages coming out of Microsoft appear to be mixed – keep it, don’t keep it, auction it for charity – what are the bloggers to do? They should do whatever they want – as long as they keep their independence.
Blogs of all stripes tend to be very porkupine-ish about their independence. Still, many blogs accept advertisements without a second thought, while others blog on certain products favorably while taking money on the side to review said products.
Then we get into the idea of “paid bloggers”, a concept so foreign six months ago that now is absolutely critical to the success of any major campaign.
What would you do with a Ferarri Acer? Is it wrong to accept the gift?