Soon, Bloggers Must Give Full Disclosure
This is a ruling I’m glad to see. We have been on-line for 7 years, and we have seen a lot of things change. A lot of the changes have been great, but I haven’t seen an explosion in integrity. I have seen some awful things, like the websites that have been selling cheap oolong tea for weight-loss and charging ridiculous prices for it as well. The tea review sites have been awful too. Not all of them, of course, but the sites that were so obviously using reviews as a marketing tools, giving free tea to people that clearly knew very little about tea for writing a review.
I tracked tea blogs for a while to see what was happening about a year ago. The worst ones were the tea review sites. There were some sites that did a really good job at trying to be objective, but they are certainly in the minority. I watched as these people just stopped writing out of frustration. One writer that wrote a bad review of a tea from a large internet company got slammed when she showed up at their booth at the World Tea Expo.
I want to say also that I have sent tea to a few reviewers that I thought were doing a pretty good job, but after I tracked web blogs for a while, we established a policy that we would not provide tea as a general rule.
In the years we have been online we have been hacked, we have had content plagiarized, and had to deal with the wild west of the e-commerce; we just figure that it comes with the territory. We also support the open communication that the internet offers, and we don’t want to see it change. We are, however, supportive of full disclosure and transparency in marketing and advertising. We want to be part of an industry that is known for it’s integrity rather than it’s deception.
Advertising – F.T.C. to Rule Blogs Must Disclose Gifts or Pay for Reviews – NYTimes.com.
I agree with you that tea blogging is in its infancy, and has suffered from stumbles.
I hope you do not completely give up on us. To hold ourselves more accountable to each other and the tea industry, a group of us has formed the Association of Tea Bloggers: http://teabloggers.net/
Our goal is to work with each other and tea retailers to spread appreciation and love of quality tea and tea culture. We welcome your comments and contributions to sharing a stronger, more consistent voice.
Jason Walker
walkerteareview.com
jasonowalker@gmail.com
I'll be interested to see how this plays out in the international community… I'm sure it's a massive legal headache for someone
but I agree, disclosure and openness is a good thing!
As a new tea company, we have to work with bloggers to build brand recognition. There are always bloggers who will give bad reviews to teas we think are great. We just choose to keep a positive attitude that perhaps that is just not their cup of tea!
Regardless, we work hard to maintain and improve quality of our teas and hope to eventually meet fellow tea lovers who appreciate them. That is also a beautiful aspect of Chinese tea culture.
On further consideration of this article, I'm not sure I understand its intent.
What's the relationship between a blog's declaring how it received teas, and the quality of the review? Are the reviews bad because the bloggers are inexperienced, or because they have been bought with a few tea leaves?
If an online retailer's teas are good, why not work more closely with bloggers? Ask them to comment on specific aspects of a tea. Ask them how a tea compares to others. Otherwise, a company runs the risk of implying their teas are too good- beyond mere mortal's ability to appreciate.
Second, many tea bloggers fairly accurately represent the US tea drinking population. If they don't know how to appreciate your tea, it's easier to educate a handful of tea drinkers who can share that learning with a larger audience. Or, if several bloggers don't like a tea, maybe the American palate isn't ready for it. Either way, you've learned where/how to share tea info or when to withdraw a tea.
I foresee the day when online tea retailers will depend less on Google Ads for marketing and will turn toward tea reviewers. On that day, you will see the equivalent of wine personalities like Robert Parker and Gary Vaynerchuk.
Jason,
I think that the tea consumer is becoming sophisticated quickly if our customers are an indication. There are people that contact us, both online and in person, that are very savvy about tea. Seven Cups doesn't rely on marketing, either by Google Ads, or by reviews for our customer. We rely on our sourcing skills and our tea, as well as the research that we do about tea, so that we can have answers for the tea consumers with sophisticated questions. We made a decision in the beginning that we would focus on substance first and marketing second. So far it seems to be working.
This topic is near and dear to my heart as someone who has been blogging about tea since 2007.
There are certainly some shady practices going on in the world of e-commerce. I have definitely received e-mails asking how much I would charge to write about a product on my blog. There are companies who certainly send large quantities of product trying to ensure a regular space on my blog. But, as with all industries, you have integrity or you don't. I feel a responsibility to be honest with my readers. (And, it doesn't take long for readers to figure out if you are trustworthy or not. All they have to do is try the product.) I interact with plenty of other bloggers who are also very committed to their work and to their readership.
I think it's unfortunate that you have washed your hands of dealing with bloggers, but I understand that some things just don't fit within a company's priorities.
I was a bit concerned at the end of the article when it led into the comments about plagiarism and hacking. It seemed to infer that this was related to bloggers where that was the topic of the rest of the post. I think this is a very serious thing to suggest about blog writers. (I've had enough interactions with you Austin that I don't think this was your intent, but it made me uncomfortable.)
I sincerely hope that readers understand that many of us bloggers are professional writers and/or people who value the craft of writing and are doing this for little to no financial gain. We devote our time to tea blogging to share our love of tea and to help others discover it.
You are right Katrina, it was not my intent to imply that I had been hacked or plagiarized by bloggers. Those nefarious actions came from competitors. The plagiarizers didn't last long in business, and the company that hacked us is still doing well, but they are located in China selling tea on the internet from China. In my peace i should have been clearer.
Austin- good to hear the savvy are flocking to you. I have recommended several people to Seven Cups myself.
Interesting you say that people are coming to you with sophisticated questions- it would be worth exploring where they are getting their tea education before arriving at your door with those queries.
Dear Author http://www.sevencups.com !
I apologise, but, in my opinion, you are mistaken. Let's discuss it. Write to me in PM, we will communicate.
uh… amazing post!