According to Harvard Business School professor David Yoffie the Apple iPhone has already received $400m in free publicity, thanks to so many sites talking non-stop about it for about a month after the iPhones launch:
“No other company has ever received that kind of attention for a product launch,” Yoffie says. “It’s unprecedented.”
Amazing numbers, particularly when I don’t think the iPhone offered anything new to the mobile arena, other than it worked with iTunes and it was from Apple. I think it’s time to crown Apple the kings of tech PR.
Numbers like this are why I don’t feel guilty charging companies who want me to talk about their products the price of my ReviewMe fee. I’m more than happy to talk about the things I want to do for free, but if I’m approached by a company asking me to specifically look at their products I don’t think it is fair that they get valuable promotion for free, whereas other advertisers are paying to promote their products via adsense, feedburner FAN, TLA etc.
Where do you stand on the whole getting paid to post debate? If you’re against it, how do you justify promoting and integrating other types of advertisements? What types of advertising are you willing to accept, and what kind of adverts will never see the light of day on your site?
