Eventually the companies will ask those who reliably write positive things.

And when you have nothing, but followers, and all you want is followers, you don't really want to say negative things anyway.

So, it's a social game, of how to climb the ladder made of nothing, by latching on to those who are somehow higher up all the way up to the sky. This is the Kim Kardashian model.

Fortunately, it's not how I make money and I don't really care if a company sends me stuff or pays my expenses to an event or not. And at least some companies, especially if they believe they have a genuinely good product, are willing to roll the dice with people who have a genuine following and are frequently critical but fair.

Yes. But positive isn't necessarily credible. A positive review from the wrong source can be bad news from some brands / products.

But again, this could be why some many brands pay so little most of the time. They're just tossing shit at the wall, but in this case kinda hoping not too much actually sticks.

Exactly. Positive is at best publication bias, or self-censorship, or whatever you want to call it, but usually it's pretty simply just fake.

People know it, but that doesn't matter, what matters is that people like those who live the high-life. Crystal clear ocean lapping the painfully white sand beach, the sky so blue, even its reflection seems to burn out as it shimmers on the endless cerulean horizon, all there for those who "have it". And the next post is a seemingly boring street, just shops, and our hero, somewhere in Europe, and maybe a messy hair day photo thrown in, our hero rests, somewhere in a 5 star hotel, a scantly clad young female caught an impromptu point in time, yet somehow critically perfectly advantageous for her, all of it - of course - done effortlessly. The next post is just a boring "shopping" pic again. Maybe a bag, a shoe, a dress from Prada, Gucci, Dior, but the 1000-3000 USD ones, of course.

So little said, everything implied.