Izea Raises the Bar; Introduces Disclosure Audits

I just finished reading Ted Murphy's announcement on the Izea blog regarding their new disclosure audit capability, and had a few thoughts on this that I wanted to share.

I wondered to myself whether Izea's adversaries, would look at this strategic move as simply “window dressing” to appease sponsored conversation critics, like Andy Sernovitz. Or, would the next-gen marketers be the only people that realize what Izea is doing is nothing short of solidifying their position in this area by setting the standards bar higher and meeting it every time?

Let's face it, if the disclosure and transparency procedures that Izea has implemented are adopted by the bloggers on their network and if compliance is strictly monitored, there is nothing that their critics can do except stomp on their sour grapes and make wine. Any other retort using the words “disclosure or transparency”, would be “so 2006.”.

I commend Izea for taking the steps necessary to be ahead of the curve and conform to the industry guidelines that have been set forth.

What say you?

(Oh, and yes.. in the interest of disclosure, like I say here, I sit on Izea's Advisory Board in good company of other futurists.)