“PayPerPost versus authentic blogging is like comparing prostitution with making love to someone you care for deeply. No one with any level of ethics would get involved with these clowns,” said Jason McCabe Calacanis, an entrepreneur who co-founded Weblogs Inc, a network of blogs that includes Engadget. The bloggers who take assignments from the likes of PayPerPost, ReviewMe, SponsoredReviews.com and Loud Launch call the hubbub overblown. They say the services provide a way to make a profit or keep their blogs going. Technorati, a search engine that tracks 71 million blogs, says 175,000 new ones are created daily.

Posties, as PayPerPost calls its crew of 15,500 bloggers, say their posts are sincere, sponsored or not, and that financial incentives are disclosed. “I would never make up a lie,” Caldwell said. “My sister reads my blog, and she would call me out.”

-Josh Friedman