so a while back I got this email from somebody.
I'm an anime fan as well and I found your blog while looking for infos about anime studios.
I envy you so much for visiting Toei! Thanks for sharing the pictures!
Also, I happen to be assigned to a business project involving writing about
entertainment. I noticed that you haven't posted in a while, but if you're
still planning to post more, I'd like to ask you to team up with me on this
project. Let me know if we could discuss this further.So it's an email about a "business project" involving Let's Anime. I get a lot of those and delete them all. Unlike the others, however, this one is from somebody who actually read my blog, so that's a good sign. I figured "why not" and replied positively. Here's what I got next:
Thanks for getting back to me.
Regarding the project, I'm currently involved in a site that publishes
entertainment news and online gambling guides. I'd like to ask you to write
another post in your blog. It could be anything about anime from 1960s to
1990. I've been hearing quite good reviews about Hokuto no Ken so I'd like
to suggest writing about that, though I haven't seen it myself. The said
post shall include a link pointing to a related article of my client's
site. As compensation, I can send you $70 once the post is up.
May I know if you're open to such project?So, uh, what? I write a blog post, and somewhere in it I include a link to an article on their client's site, and I get $70? Okay, fine, that's $70 for basically nothing. I put lots of links in my Let's Anime columns. I replied thusly:
Well, it would depend on the subject of the link to your client's website, I would think. Certainly it would have to have some sort of relevance to my blog post.I mean, if I'm writing about cheese and the National Cheese Council wants to pay me $70 to link to the Cheese News Monthly website, that's relevant, right? Right? So the reply I got was this, just before Xmas:
Hello,
The site is CasinoTop10.net, and the article that you'll be linking to
will also depend on the topic of the post. It doesn't have to be about the
content of our article. We could just mention a sentence or two relating to
it. Also, I realized Hokuto no Ken has too many episodes and will take too
much of your time, so let me know if you're open to writing about other
shorter titles. If for some reason you won't be able to write the post, I
can prepare it for you and you can just put it up in your blog.
We've actually done a similar setup with other anime bloggers before. An
example would be this article:
http://shinigamilist.com/2012/09/19/perfect-blue-anime-review-want-to-become-a-different-character-beware-of-overdoing-it/
Also, if we could post this before the 31st, I could increase the payment
to $80. (My budget changes every month so I usually increase during the
last week)
May I know if we could proceed?So if I'm reading this right, the plan would be for me to drop what I'm doing while I'm on Christmas vacation, write a blog post about Fist Of The North Star (which is way, way down on my list of things to write about at Let's Anime), and somewhere in that post insert a link to some kind of casino entertainment news site, which is not at all relevant to Fist Of The North Star or Japanese cartoons whatsoever. And I get paid $80! Such a deal.
I realize fully that I'm a small time, fairly insignificant blogger. But I do have my pride and some kind of journalistic responsibility to my readers to not dump incoherent links on them. And if I DID decide to sell out, it would be for more than $80, I can assure you. So I just put this on hold and went on about my business. Around about Jan. 20 I got another email.
Hello Dave,
Haven't heard from you in a while. I hope you're doing fine.
I'm not sure if you received my previous email but I'm attaching it here
just in case. May I know if you're still interested in doing this project?And to that I replied:
Well, I don't think so. I've been trying to figure out a way that this isn't deceptive and unfair to my readers, and I'm not coming up with anything. If I ever do write a blog post that has anything to do with online gambling, I will certainly let you know. And so far I haven't heard anything back, so I guess I'm crossed off the list of potential link-sellers. But now I'm intrigued and a little disturbed. Is this typical practice among bloggers, selling body-copy links to advertisers? I mean, I have Google sidebar ads, but those are clearly ads, they aren't inserted INSIDE the text of whatever I write as if it had some sort of relevance to the reader (and if you're running any kind of ad-blocking software you won't see them at all). There's a line that's being crossed here. I don't wanna say I'm some kind of saint, but you are going to have to tack a few more zeros onto that number before I start being deliberately deceptive to my readers. Also, payment in advance.
LET'S ANIME. Eschewing deceptive and unethical blogging practices since 2007!