I continue to believe 100% that you will not stop people from saying what they want. I’ve never questioned that. In the post you quote, I say I’m worried about bloggers wondering if they’ll get their contracts RENEWED. So, let’s say I sign up for 3 months and I lambast your client. If I know you can opt to renew my contract for another 3 months, I may find myself softening what I say. I’d be more comfortable with your proposal if there were no possibility of renewal. But, even then, I may want to please you (= the broker) so you’ll throw some business to me with your next client.

I also don’t understand why you don’t insist that bloggers mark their paid content as paid content. What possible reason could a blogger have for not doing so except to please the client? If you believe in transparency (and I know you do), you should insist on it. In fact, I still think it’d be better to box beholden posts in a separate part of the page. That way, the blogger doesn’t break trust with her readers, and your client doesn’t run the risk of a getting a black eye when the blogger is exposed.

Overall, I look at this idea and, even though it’d put money in bloggers’ pockets, it seems to me to make the blogosphere a worse place, not a better one. And, unfortunately, it undermines what I take to be the core value of blogging: The trust that people are speaking from their hearts.

So, overall, I hope you don’t do it.