More food for thought on the whole conflict of interest debate.

http://www.inquisitr.com/3618/conflicts-of-interest-and-blogging/

"We are seeing a sea change, one where we have created jobs that didn’t exist only 5 years ago, and one where in the coming years the idea of being a full time blogger will be something to aspire to, and a far more common job than it is today. The time will come where blogging is the be all for those working full time in the space, but we still aren’t quite there."

Disclosure and independence is part of the reason for the high trust association with social media content and I know many a blogger who has actually lost traffic post transition to paid journo so it's clearly not always in a blogger's interest to embrace the move. 

Browsing the blogosphere for info on products and services, I would certainly want to be able to differentiate between a paid journalist, an ad funded blogger and a passionate non paid publisher. I know whose opinion would probably interest me the most...