Book Blogger Confessions is a new bi-weekly meme hosted by Tiger @ All Consuming Books and Karen @ For What it's Worth Reviews.


Making money off your blog: There was a recent controversy about bloggers charging authors for reviews (You can read about it here) which leads to this week's question:
Almost all of us blog as a hobby in our spare time, usually for free but is there anything wrong with making money off your blog?

Should bloggers charge for reviews?
What about advertising on a blog?
When a blogger does allow book related advertising does it turn you off? Make you wonder about the honesty of their reviews?

Do you have a problem with purchase links (Amazon for example) that earn a blogger a small commission if a person purchases a book through that link?

I suppose it depends on how you are making money off your blog. Some ways I am more comfortable with than others. Like with affiliate links, I am ok with this because the money a person gets through the affiliates link doesn’t cost the buyer any extra, so it’s a win/win for both blogger and buyer. Advertisements is a sort of grey area with me, now the blogger is receiving payment directly to advertise an author’s/publisher’s books and other things so they aren’t just a book blog but are now leaning towards becoming a marketing site. However, advertising alone isn’t too much of concern for me but if a blogger also reviews a book they are advertising then I can’t trust their review because how can they give a negative review to a book they are being paid to promote? This also applies to being paid for reviews, I don’t think book bloggers should charge for reviews, how can their followers trust what they are saying when they have been paid for their opinion?