product placement

we need to have this talk because last last month i bought a cheese and very soon i will be telling you how very, very much i enjoyed it.

because the whole point of this blog is to tell you about stuff i'm thinking about or stuff i'm doing or whatever i'm interested in, sometimes that will involve products or services that are for sale.

i just need to make it clear that when i'm talking about somebody's business or their product, it's because i have something i want to say about it. i am not paid for these commentaries, not in money or in samples and quite frankly some of those companies would probably just as well i not mention them.

i need you to know that if the day ever comes that i am shilling for a product because i am receiving some sort of compensation, i will tell you right up front because i don't believe it's inherently immoral for a company to offer compensation for people to write about their products.

here are my rules (like it's ever going to be an issue, right?):

if i am reviewing a product because i have been asked to, i will say so.

if i am reviewing a product and i have received any of it without cost to me, i will say so.

if i am affiliated with the business, i will say so.

and if they out-and-out pay me to write good things about product, i will label it as paid advertising.

i do not imagine this is ever going to be an issue, but it's good to have rules right up front.

if we're going to talk about full disclosure, though, i do go on and on about how much i like riding at my local mountain bike venue, and for some years now i have paid for my membership by assorted services. mostly my job is to ride around in uniform and help people find trails they will enjoy riding. i also check to see if people have trail passes.

there's my disclosure.

later on i will talk about cheese.

you know, because it's awesome cheese.