Paid blog entries: Is it good or bad?

There are many sites now that will pay bloggers to write entries that include links to the advertisers site. These companies might require the blogger to write a positive review of the site, or some other manipulation of the facts. Are these companies evil or bad? Or are they just another way for a site to make some money and get along in this competitive world.

Google does not like them. Many sites that make most of their money from organizations such as these have found their once high page rank plummet as Google thinks they are link farms. Link farming is a site that charges for links to other sites, in order to raise the linked sites PageRank. Google considers such sites as "Bad Neighborhoods" and will ban them.

I have signed up on several of these sites and have written a few such posts. One I am really displeased with, because while I was not dishonest, I feel like the post was just a paid link and did not provide any content to my users. The other two were things I would have written about even if I was not paid.

Personally, I think that is key. If I would have written them anyway, getting paid for them is not a bad thing. I do need money after all. For me, however, the bad taste of writing an article that I felt dirty about is overpowering. I am not sure I will write another paid post. I have no problem including links to products or having advertisements on my site (nofollow, preferably), but I don't want to own link farms. I want sites that mom would be proud of. My mother raised me to be honest. She raised me to think for my self.

What about Google bashing the PageRank of those that write these articles. Google says they are paid links, therefor the site is a link farm. Both are bad in Google's eyes. Are they bad? Or are they just people trying to make a buck? And the sites that get the links? Are they trying to buck the system, or are they just trying to work in a system that makes it hard for the new site to get links? Without paying for links can Joe's Site, the newest site selling handmade zithers get a high PageRank quickly enough to make money during the Christmas season, or is he just supposed to work his way up the ranks and hope that he gets a high enough PageRank to make it for next season?