There is a growing interest in sponsored content on blogs – Forrester’s Jeremiah Owyang has sparked a good conversation on his blog. While sponsored conversations are not going away any time soon – it is a line bloggers and brands should be treading lightly. Unlike their mainstream media counterparts, bloggers hold very personal and engaging relationships with their readers. These relationships are based on trust. The ability to influence those trusted audiences is a power bloggers should be aware of (many already are) as they investigate writing paid brand endorsements or product write-ups.

Divisions between church and state exist in other industries outside of publishing, such as finance, where endorsements by trusted entities such as an investment bank research analyst could easily trigger buy or sell transactions that contribute to the bank’s bottom line. Otherwise known as chinese walls, these divisions exist because of the potential to abuse powers without them. Think of our own government’s legislative branches and the checks in place to prevent abuse. It is perhaps something brands and bloggers should consider as well.

The big issue here for bloggers is around making money – it’s even more important in THIS economy. While transparency and disclosure for sponsored posts raise awareness to a blogger’s audience, there are other ways that a blogger can fund their writing. In the case of display advertising, the end objective (getting paid) is still achieved but without the compromise of a trusted relationship, loss of influence and becoming an advertorial blog. Many could take a note out of Vinography’s ethics playbook – Alder Yarrow, well-respected and influential wine blogger refuses to take funds from any wine-maker or conglomerates to “avoid any and all potential conflicts of interest.”

Paid sponsorships of content by brands are not going away any time soon, but the idea is still being worked through and we haven’t seen the full reaction by consumers who are reading these blogs. Our perspective is to provide bloggers with as much opportunity in the form of explicit advertisements, tools to increase their CPMs, enabling them to focus on their core competencies – writing great unbiased content for the topics they are passionate about.