Writers That Bash Their Advertisers’ Products.
Lately I’ve been monitoring site statistics for a few of the major forums and it was no surprise that Bodybuilding.com’s forum is the most heavily viewed in the industry. This is most certainly why you see numerous companies marketing their products and reaching out to their consumers. However, I have also noticed quite a few writers with vested interests in “competitor” companies bashing products of the companies which advertise in the publications they write for.
Now don’t get too excited because I’m not going to “out” anyone here despite the fact nothing would give me more pleasure. However, it just absolutely disgusts me that this is tolerated. I’ve noticed one magazine in particular seems to be the only one employing these people too. Again, I’d like to name them, but it would get me in a lot of trouble which I don’t need right now. It just doesn’t make sense to me why anyone would employ people who jeopardize their advertising revenue. I guess it’s just a lack of profesional courtesy and most certainly a lot of arrogance.
I guess this is going to serve as an “eye opener” to anyone with loose canons on their payroll that base their income on ad sales. According to Quancast, Bodybuilding.com gets over 1.1 million new user views a month with their forums generating over 343 thousand new user hits a month. To put it bluntly, if your writer is on their bashing certain products or ingredients on the Bodybuilding.com forums, it is probably getting viewed more than the number of magazines you are circulating in any given month.
When it really boils down to numbers and cents, it becomes obvious that maybe advertising in a publication which allows their writer’s bash your products really isn’t worth it at all. Actually, common sense tells us that and hopefully the concept of professionalism does not become lost.
May 31, 2008 at 10:15 pm
I can see what you’re saying from a business prospective, but honestly, as a consumer, i appreciate the writers and magazines who will do this despite the risk of advertising dollars. to me, if you write for a major publication and are claiming to have evaluated a product, i would much rather read and buy the magazine that is going to give me to truth about a product instead of worrying about their ads
June 1, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Unfortunately we live in a day and age where writers are speaking out of both sides of their mouths when it comes to this industry. They have ZERO integrity and are just out to make a quick buck. I’ve even known writers who praise a supplement in a mag and then trash it on a forum. That’s a problem.