“I love YOU, but I really hate your URL shortener. It makes me feel dirty—and not in a good way.”

The comment came via Twitter direct message from Adele McAlear in reference to Adjix, the URL shortener I use to fit long URLs into Twitter’s notoriously concise 140 character-long messages.

Adjix is an ad network that pays you to shorten links, which is essentially “a cross between Tinyurl and Google Adwords.” When a reader clicks on an Adjix-shortened link, they are redirected to the URL you input, with an Adjix-generated ad at the top of the page (example).

People who use this shortener earn $0.10 per 1,000 unique link views and $0.20 for each click-through on an ad displayed with their link.

Since I started using Adjix in August of this year, I’ve posted 90 links and made $0.70. It’s been a fun experiment for me, both in terms of tracking click-throughs, which the service does for you, and in terms of learning how to generate some extra cash on Twitter. Its main appeal for me is that I don’t have to pimp anything I wouldn’t normally put out there, I’m essentially getting something back for doing what I usually do: sharing interesting things.

What I never considered is how my followers on Twitter felt about this.

A BLOGGER’S GOTTA EAT!

Blogging can be one of the most thankless things to which a person can devote himself. Whether you’re chronicling your adventures or imparting information within your industry, you’re a person who has to eat and pay bills.

As someone who loves what I read on your blog, I feel it’s my moral obligation to support you. If that means taking 2.5 seconds to scan the ads on your blog after reading your post and commenting, I’ll do it. And I’ll click, too, if something catches my eye. It’s how I say “thank you.”

I didn’t think finding creative ways to make money blogging was a revolutionary concept until this weekend when my stream on Twitter exploded with a controversy over a sponsored post by Chris Brogan, the respected social media adviser.

FULL DISCLOSURE

Brogan writes about how businesses and bloggers can forge strong ties by creating valuable content on social networks. He’s basically the go-to guy when it comes to anything relating to new media.

He’s also on the advisory board for IZEA, a company in next-generation marketing. Per the IZEA blog, bloggers that sign on with IZEA do not receive payment, but they do have options in the company.

Working through IZEA for Kmart, Brogan received a $500 gift card to shop ’til he dropped and blog all about it, as well as another $500 gift card to offer readers who participated in a contest at Dad-o-Matic, where this sponsored post appeared.

Writing for IZEA requires disclosure, meaning that bloggers who are pimping a brand for them have to say up front that they got something out of the deal. Brogan’s piece at Dad-o-Matic (titled, “Sponsored Post-Kmart Holiday Shopping Dad Style”) opened with the following statement: “This post is a sponsored post on behalf of Kmart via Izea. The opinions are mine.”

Simple enough, right? Wrong.

LET THEM EAT CHEESECAKE!

“Bloggers should be able to make money and find synchronous opportunities that work for them. What was off-putting is that Chris benefits by writing an overall favorable review and a prominent one at that,” Damien Basile wrote in response to a post by Geoff Livingston, CEO of Livingston Communications, which puts out The Buzz Bin, a blog about marketing, buzz and PR.

Basile has long respected Brogan’s work and position in the industry, but he had beef with how Brogan handled his part for the Kmart campaign and was very vocal about it. I chased him down earlier tonight to get a handle on why he’d become such an active detractor.

“It was never about how much he profits,” Basile told me on Gtalk. “What is up for discussion is the perception that he may be in a position of conflict and that is enough for me to question it.”

Basile doesn’t feel Brogan’s initial disclosure is sufficient. He thinks Brogan’s ties to IZEA should have been mentioned right on that post, in the event readers did not know he was on their blogger advisory board and held options with IZEA.

“Maybe it was a misnomer to call him a journalist,” Basile reflected. “I do recant that later, but my point was bringing up integrity. Integrity is for everyone. Just because we’re in new media doesn’t mean there are new standards. Truth is truth. Everyone deserves to know the full truth.”

I’m with Livingston and Brogan in disagreeing with Basile that a blogger is a journalist. We could learn a thing or two from them, yes. I’m not a reporter any longer, but I have the Society for Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics up on my wall and it’s never too far out of mind when I blog: 1. Seek the truth and report it, 2. Minimize harm, 3. Act independently, 4. Be accountable.

A blogger may employ these tenets, but a blogger is not a journalist. Journalists have fact-checkers, ombudsmen, editors and publishers, those mighty gatekeepers of information. Journalists are expected to be unbiased. Perhaps most importantly, newsrooms and advertising departments are separated.

A blogger, on the other hand, is often a one-man show. I write the content for my blog, I fact-check, I edit, I publish. You know that saying: a writer who edits her own work has a fool for an editor. Quite right.

That’s not to say a blogger has no responsibility. A blogger has a big responsibility to his community: to provide valuable, quality content.

“How do you think Brogan should have done it?” I asked Basile. “Put up front: ‘Chris Brogan is a member of the IZEA advisory board and has options in IZEA’?”

“The word ‘via’ is very vague,” Basile responded. “It just tells me ‘its way of’ and the link to IZEA was to their main site [as opposed to information about Brogan’s association with the company].”

“How should it have been phrased?” I asked again.

Because this isn’t really about Chris Brogan or IZEA, you see, and to zero-in on that would be to make this a witch-hunt and what have witch-hunts ever gotten us? Nothing. No, this is bigger than that. This is the internet doing what it does best: self-correcting. Let’s not tear down, let’s build. Don’t like how someone does something? Tell me how to do it better.

Finally, Basile replied: “‘This post is sponsored by Kmart for IZEA. I am on the board of IZEA and receive equity options for being on it.’”

There is a valuable lesson here and it goes further than well-worded disclosures, debates about what makes one a journalist, or whether money invariably destroys a blogger’s credibility. As I said before, a blogger has a responsibility to his community. Mob mentality or not, I’m ultimately in accord with Basile: it’s about perception. The perception of your readers matters.

It doesn’t matter if your community thinks you did one thing when you really did another. It’s folly to stand by and call them stupid. They might be stupid, but perception is reality.

WHY SHOULD I CARE?

We should care because social media is about community. Brogan addressed several of the issues raised by his post in comments on blogs as well as in his own blog. That goes a long way.

It may not be enough for others who are disillusioned by the fact he is working with IZEA, but it’s responsible and in the end, all you can do is listen, address concerns as you best can and learn from the experience.

I CAN SEE RIGHT THROUGH YOU

Darren Rowse, my one-man resource when it comes to making money blogging had a series a couple of years ago about credibility and blogging. His series closed with transparency:

I don’t mind bloggers getting something for themselves out of blogging but what does bother me is when I see bloggers attempting to pull the wool over the eyes of their readers by not being honest about their true motivations. Credibility comes when people trust that what you are saying is truth and when there is a lack of truth the consequences for a blogger can be significant.

Transparency also comes into play when you make a mistake or need to apologize for something you’ve done or written. The way bloggers admit to mistakes and rectify them says a lot about their character.

In taking on Adjix, I was experimenting. But I never disclosed the details of my experiment. In fact, very little on my blog speaks about what I’m doing here and why. This needs immediate rectification, which I vow to undertake.

For now, the short of it is: I make some money via another experiment, this one with Google Adwords, but outside of that, no one pays me for any content, including the features. However, my blog does serve me indirectly in that through it I have landed gigs contributing to other web publications and ghost-blogging.

HOW MUCH IS INTEGRITY WORTH?

I found myself asking this question earlier this evening as I chatted with Adele McAlear, head of McAlear Marketing, who’d first objected to my use of Adjix.

“My real problem is not that I have to look at a banner or text ad, or that you’re making money from it,” McAlear told me over Gtalk. “It’s that the URL doesn’t show the true URL of the page you’ve sent me to and this makes linking a pain. It makes me not want to link to you at all, or re-tweet, etc.”

This was a definite downside to the use of Adjix, as retweets are the currency of Twitter. I explained to McAlear that in the Adjix banners, there’s an arrow on the far right that you can click to reveal the true URL.

“I didn’t know that about the arrow,” McAlear told me. “I don’t click on anything that looks like an ad because I never know what I’ll get and where I’m going to be taken.”

Coming from a web-savvy woman, that said a lot. How many other readers didn’t know how to get rid of the banner? Was I short-changing myself for the promise of a quick dime?

“Aside from linking, there’s perception,” McAlear went on. “I think you are a great writer, you have a great handle on social media, marketing, and how all of this works but, yet, this type of URL shortener reminds me of spam. To me, it kind of cheapens your personal brand.”

There it was. She’d said the key word: perception.

“It comes down to balance,” she said. “What your readers and followers on Twitter expect versus what Adjix gives you. I have no issues with anyone making money but there are different ways to do it.”

Integrity versus $0.70. Sure, I could make more if I devoted myself to better employing Adjix. But is it worth it?

Do you make money blogging? Is a disclosure enough to keep yourself from losing credibility? Have you ever unsubscribed from someone’s blogs because they wrote a sponsored post? Your opinion matters whether you’re a webcock or just a reader. We’re all the web. Tell me how you really feel.

UPDATE

December 16, 2007, 5:28PM: In an excellent display of what tuning in to user perspective is all about, Joe Moreno, President of Adjix contacted Adele McAlear after reading this post to let her know that based on her feedback, Adjix has changed the arrow on banners to a simple hyperlink that says, “Remove ad.”

Kudos, Adjix. This is what the web is all about.

Of possible interest:

• Earning Money Through Blogging: The Paid Posting Debate with Ted Murphy, the CEO of IZEA, Lucretia Pruitt of Walmart’s 11 Moms, Allen Stern of Centernetworks, and Chris Brogan at Social Mediasphere on Blog Talk Radio
• Understanding Izea’s Sponsored Blogging Service by Jeremiah Owyang
• What is Your Time Worth? What’s Worth Your Time? by Lucretia M. Pruitt
• The Sanctity of Social Media? by Amber Naslund
• The fallacy of pay-per-post or “o-pay-nions” at This Is Herd
• Being Human: Chris Brogan by Rich Becker
• Code of Ethics for Professional Communicators from the International Association of Business Communitcations (via @richbecker)

I have a pretty strict policy when it comes to followers on Twitter. I’d much rather have a low follower count than let spammers perpetuate their practices. If they have no content but a bunch of tweets with the same link, I unhesitatingly block them.

The magical thing about Twitter is that if enough users block an account or notify Twitter that they’re being spammed, the account in question gets suspended.

A lot of times, though, what appears to be a spammer is a well-intentioned user who is so new, that he or she doesn’t understand how the community works and whose only crime is the desire to have their site visited.

This was the case with @lollydaskal. I saw her multiple tweets with the same link in her stream and was about to hit block when I saw her newest one: “new at twitter ….not sure i am doing it right.” I shot her a direct message. “Send me your e-mail address and I’ll help you.”

She did. In the next few minutes, I threw together as many resources and thoughts about how to get a business started on Twitter (her objective) as I could think of and shot her an e-mail.

One of the most important things about using Twitter for business is learning to step out of the old marketing model where you just throw out information about your product into the masses. In today’s world of social media, the relationship between a company and consumers is no longer a one-stop information destination. Web 2.0 is all about the conversation and building a community.

I linked some classics: Chris Brogan’s Twitter for Business, Ogilvy’s Best Practices and Warren Whitlock and Deborah Micek’s Twitter Handbook.

Since she reached out to the community for suggestions on improving her approach on Halloween, @lollydaskal’s gathered a following of 232 people and I am glad to count myself among them.

TWITTER FOR DUMMIES

I remember thinking at the time how wonderful it would be to have all the how-tos in a single place, a catch-basin of quick, easy-to-digest information about how to make the best of Twitter, whether you’re a business or a casual user.

So today, when Laura Fitton, head of Pistachio Consulting, announced she’d signed a contract to write Twitter for Dummies, I was thrilled. Like everything related to the micro-blogging platform, this is a community project. Fitton’s already invited her 8,494 followers to contribute their ideas.

Equally exciting is the recent launch of Twitip by Darren Rowse, of ProBlogger fame.

“TwiTip is about capturing some of the lessons that I’ve been learning about Twitter and how to use it more effectively,” Rowse writes in the blog’s about page. “It will cover Twitter Tips of all varieties including Writing for Twitter, Branding, Growing a Following, Corporate Tweeting and a lot more.”

These two are invaluable resources for the beginner—maybe even the seasoned user.

For example, one of the newer posts on Twitip, by Hugh Briss of Twitter Image, goes into detail about the importance of a Twitter background in establishing brand identity (some great examples of this are available at Mike Smith’s blog—with my friend Atherton Bartelby among them!).

It’s true that space we’re given for bios on Twitter is limited—only 160 characters!—and it’s been the practice for some time now for users to put much of their bios and contact details right on their pages by incorporating them into their background images. While many great people I follow do this, it’s not until now, reading Briss’s post on the topic, that I’ve begun to give it more serious consideration.

But it’s not all brand and business. And another recent post on Twitip touches on how to avoid making your followers feel like they’re overhearing one side of a conversation–I’m quite guilty of it and while for me Twitter is all self-expression, I don’t want to leave anyone out if I can include them in the fun.

TWITTAH PLZ: UR DOIN IT RONG

As more companies jump on the Twitter wagon, the wave of resistance from casual users grows. Not everyone is happy to see all work and no play in their Twitter streams. Just today, blogger Jay Hathaway posted about his displeasure about the wave of business users that Twitter for Dummies would bring about:

Predictably, the book on Twitter isn’t being written by someone funny or entertaining. It’s being written by someone who posts 100 times on a slow day, and talks about things like conversations and communities and branding and … I don’t know, money? This doesn’t seem sustainable to me. Marketers can market to marketers and make friends with marketers and talk about marketing all day, and it’s not particularly interesting to regular people.

So don’t read it, right? I don’t. But a whole lot of other people do, because they’re climbing on top of each other to associate themselves with the people who have the most marketers reading them, so that they can market themselves to still more marketers, and become what I can only guess is called Market King of the Market.

That’s the audience for this book. I’m sure a lot of people will buy it, and it will make some money for the publisher. Good for them! Also, possibly good for the future of Twitter as a business, so that it can continue to exist as a place where I’m allowed to have chuckles and make friends. Fair enough. It’s just sad that a lot more people will be on Twitter, working. No time for dick jokes, ladies, I can’t rest now that I’m in The Market. Got to rack up some more followers, and some of them might even have Secrets of Success!

He’s not alone in that, either. There seems to be a bit of tension between people who use Twitter to further themselves in their industry and those who use Twitter for fun. I have been told a few times by people that they like my blog and wish my tweets were a little more industry-focused: the amount of oversharing and, yes, dick jokes, just isn’t conducive to achieving their goals on Twitter.

I’m not offended–Twitter is all about pulling people around you whose ideas are useful or amusing. Tastes vary and I come with a disclaimer. Just as some choose to further their business on Twitter, some of us choose to have fun and be ourselves in explosions of 140 characters. I do have another account on Twitter (@omgomgomfg), which I, admittedly, greedily grabbed to protect my brand, and which I intend to develop as a catch-basin for more of the web stuff that interests me and many of the readers of this blog. Now and always, my Twitter stream at @avflox is where I let it all hang out.

THE RHYTHM, THE RHYME, THE CULTURE, THE TIME

Regardless of whether Twitter is play or work, it’s never too late to analyze what you’re doing and whether it fits into your goals for social networking. Could you put this magical tool to even better use?

There is always room for improvement, whether you’re looking to get your product out there or pick up a date. And with this in mind, it’s not hard to see how Twitip and even the more rudimentary Twitter for Dummies are going to be valuable resources for many.

The best part is that we can build this together. No matter what our focus, we are the Twitter culture. There is value in what we know and think and this platform allows for us to share it, to reach out to people we may never otherwise have met and connect in a mutually-beneficial way.

So here’s to growth—in terms of reach, yes, but most importantly, in terms of community.

This article was redrafted at 8:15PM MST to include Hathaway’s thoughts on Twitter for Dummies and my personal thoughts on play vs. work. Million thanks to Atherton Bartelby for pointing out the importance of its inclusion in this discussion.

Less is more, they say, and Twitter takes it to heart. Twitter, the It social networking tool right now, is a micro-blog you can update 140 characters at a time, as many times as your fingers can pump out those 140-characters-or-less tidbits.

“The content that drives Twitter is a relentless stream of real-time personal status postings called tweets,” writes Scott Spanbauer in IT Business Canada. “‘Going out for more batteries,’ or ‘Feeling snacky, I think I’ll have a salad’ are the stuff of Twitter greatness–as long as tracking your friends’ ephemeral actions and mutterings is your cup of tea.”

With Twitter, you can post and receive items via the Twitter page, an application, IM, and text messages. Your tweets are archived on a personal page, they automatically show up on the pages of your friends and they can be routed to other sites like MySpace, Facebook and your blog, thereby allowing you, not only to chronicle what you’re doing, but to show the whole world what you’re up to.

If posting a blog made me feel like starting a conversation with the world, tweeting makes me feel like I’m in the middle of a huge party where everyone is having multiple conversations with everyone else at once. It’s a constant discussion of what people are doing, thinking, reading and planning that you can keep having no matter where you happen to go.

Twitter’s like the midget lovechild of a blog and a chat room. It’s simple enough that any non-techie can use it (including your mom!), it’s versatile, it’s mobile, it’s free and, apparently, in the irrational exuberance surrounding this far faster form of exhibitionism, it is also an ideal location to score n00dz from people you hardly know.*

Twitter has a page devoted to why you should care. It’s modest: “Why? Because even basic updates are meaningful to family members, friends, or colleagues—especially when they’re timely. Eating soup? Research shows that moms want to know. Running late to a meeting? Your co–workers might find that useful. Partying? Your friends may want to join you.”

But I think it’s more than that. When a storm was tearing through the Midwest and my friends lost internet, they were able to let everyone know, with a single text, that they were doing OK. Likewise, updates from organizations like Los Angeles Fire Department, the Red Cross Safe and Well, BreakingNewsOn and What’s Shaking? can be extremely useful in case of an emergency. For those on the go, Commuter Feed uses its Twitter account to collect reports about traffic and then arranges them according to area for easy perusal.

It can be incredibly fun, too. The level of entertainment you achieve on Twitter is in your hands. Some have suggested it’s only fun if all your friends are on there, like Facebook, but I don’t agree. Twitter is that missing link between friend-whoring that goes on at MySpace and the inherent elitism of Facebook. You can follow only people you know, yes, but why not reach out to people who can make you ROTFL with their daily adventures or the innovators in your industry?

There are plenty of sites to amuse you and help you find interesting people: Twittervision, Twitterverse, Twittearth, Twittertale, Twitterbuzz, Tweetmeme, Twittertroll, Twitterholic, Tweeterboard, Hoosgot, Twitstat, Tweetscan, Twitterlinkr, TweetStats, TwitDir, TwitterSearch and Terraminds.

Our species is, more and more, a nomadic, workaholic bunch, prone to moving around too much and working long hours. Twitter is redefining what it means to be “connected.” Its simplicity is what makes it so much more effective than its wordier, bulkier older siblings (MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn).

There’s no better way to cut the fat than with a 140 character limit. In fact, I think any journalism student should be forced to spend his or her first year communicating entirely on Twitter.

According to Business Week’s Stephen Baker:

Do I Twitter because I’m lazy? A few times this weekend, I’ve sat down with a laptop and thought ever so briefly about blogging. But then I wonder if the blog post is relevant, interesting enough, perhaps a tad too self-focused…. Twitter, on the other hand, is a breeze. It can be irrelevant, nakedly self-promotional…. Long story short: Blogging feels more like writing a story, and Twittering feels as free as blogging used to.

Whether you’re getting fired or watching your wife give birth, Twitter can bring hundreds of people to the center of the action, often leaving conventional online news media in the dust, as it did when YouTube went down and London was shaken up by a quake. Even NASA missions may be tweeting soon!

In an article for The Guardian, political blogger Patrick Ruffini remarked on the instantaneous nature of Twitter, “Traditional news operated on a 24-hour cycle. Blogs shortened this to minutes and hours. Twitter shortens it further to seconds.” Its immediacy makes it worth its weight in gold. So much so that traditional news organizations have come onboard: NYT, Reuters, CNN Breaking News, BBC News and USA Today all have Twitter accounts.

Twitter can also be used to keep track of your iPhone’s location–or that of an iPhone’s owner, to improve communication and foster relationships in academia, confess your sins, and even to help you remember when to water your plants. Of course, for those of us who’re not that tech-inclined, there’s always Sandy, the electronic personal assistant, who just so happens to have a Twitter account herself where you can easily reach her.

“Some folks use Twitter like a bullhorn, and others use it like a walkie-talkie.” writes Chris Brogran, and it’s true. You can broadcast what you’re having for lunch to the world or, if you use an @ before another user’s name in a tweet, you can direct the message to them.

Of course, everything has its critics. As Andrew Lavallee wrote in the Wall Street Journal last year, “some users are starting to feel ‘too’ connected, as they grapple with check-in messages at odd hours, higher cellphone bills and the need to tell acquaintances to stop announcing what they’re having for dinner.”

The same article quotes Microsoft blogger and hypertweeter Robert Scroble: “Twitter hate is the new black. Some haters have already come around, but to tell the truth, they do have a good point. Do you really need to know that I’m eating a tuna sandwich for lunch? Probably not, although I’ve had more than one person come over and join me for lunch because I told where I was hanging out.”

Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s co-founder brushes off the critics: “Everyone says Twitter’s completely useless, I don’t want all this information. We check in later, and they’re complete addicts.”

Despite the optimism, some will never get it. Twitter’s not for everyone. When I enthusiastically told my husband I was following this really neat guy named Ryan Kuder as he was laid off from Yahoo in real time through his tweets, hubby gave an appropriately Corporate American response: 0h n0ez, more ways for employees to waste time and ZOMG, can you SAY serious information weakness?!?1!

To me, a certifiable twit in dire need of a Twittervention (is Twitter down? IS TWITTER DOWN?!), the worst part of Twitter is trying to explain its awesomeness to unimpressed non-users. Like Michelle Slatalla, who wrote a piece in the New York Times about trying to convert her three daughters and husband to Twitter, the resounding answer seems to be that I seriously need to get out more and actually, you know, talk to people.

DO NOT WANT!

I don’t care what they say, Twitter is not the social networking equivalent of crocs!

Want more info? Check out Jennifer Laycock’s step by step metamorphosis from skeptic to avid user (note that the article appears in five parts, all linked at the bottom of piece). You can play catch up with Warren Whitlock and Deborah Micek’s The Twitter Handbook or check out Sue Waters’ useful rush guide to setting up your Twitter account.

If you’re already on Twitter, check out the Twitter Fan Wiki as well as Mashable’s awesome toolbox with over 60 Twitter tools. More resources at Pink is Punk.

Oh, and PS, you’re more than welcome to add me, snooze me, or check my stats at Twitterholic, TweetStats, TwitterCounter, and Twitter.Grader!

Don’t wanna join but wanna know what’s going on? Keep an eye on what I’m talking about and what people are responding via Quotably, what people are liking on Favrd or Favotter, or scope out my tweet cloud! Already addicted? See who just unfollowed you and what the offending tweet was with Qwitter or compare trends on Twist!

* The Breasts of Twitter blog has been removed from Blogger, September 2008.