I'm a big fan of SeekingAlpha. I think it provides readers with a great source of investment thought from some of the top minds in the business in a great format -- at no cost.

That's why I was greatly disappointed to see that the site is providing a venue for Beacon Equity Research, a stock promoter that issues "analyst reports" in exchange for cash and/or stock from the company or third parties.

A piece called Solar stocks stay strong despite new energy bill mentions little-known microcaps SES Solar (OTC BB: SESI), Solar Power (OTC BB: SOPW), and BioSolar (OTC BB: BSRC) (which our own Kevin Kelly has warned about here). These stocks were introduced with this wonderfully eloquent lead: "A number of small cap companies are poised to benefit from latest industry developments".

Following the "article", we get a disclosure that is very familiar to those of us who follow penny stock promotions:

Disclosure: Beacon Equity Research and its affiliates have been directly compensated a total of fifteen thousand dollars and one hundred thousand restricted rule 144 shares directly from the company for enrollment of BSRC in this research program and other marketing services.

Unfortunately, the disclosure is inadequate: It's unclear which of these companies is the client. Beacon Equity Research's website shows that BioSolar is in fact the client. But investors aren't supposed to have to Google around to find out which stock the promoter is being paid by. If you have no life, you can read Beacon's "analyst report" on the company here. But before you do that, you may want to consider the performance of a few of the company's picks from a little over a year ago:

Axis Technologies (OTC: AXTG). Target Price: $3.06. Current price: 45 cents.

Deer Valley (OTC: DVLY). Target Price: $3.05. Current Price: 95 cents.

CardioVascular BioTherapeutics (OTC BB: CVBT). Target Price: $6.82. Current Price: $1.51.

Beacon and its price targets go nicely with a forklift of salt. With a bad track record and conflicts of interest that aren't properly disclosed, Beacon Equity Research is not a company that belongs on SeekingAlpha.