Monday, April 2, 2007

Selling your soul or getting what's due?

At first you would see the odd pay per post article dotted here and there around the blogosphere and then slowly but surely their numbers started to increase and now it seems like every second or third blog you visit is sporting them. So now that they really are everywhere, what do you think about them? Are you sick to death of seeing them or thinking of joining them?

Are they a cancer turning bloggers into greedy money-hungry corporate zombies? Or is it a brilliant way to make some cash without covering your site in add banners as Chad W Smith tells us in his short but concise summing up of why he loves Pay Per Post? Is it a case of the corporate world paying you a pittance for telling their lies or a great way to give your honest opinion, in your own words, about the product in question?

Do you believe the policy disclosures that posties put up on their site saying that they really do believe the product they are selling is great or not?

Have you noticed a decline in the quality of non PPP posts of your favourite blogs?

Are you of the opinion that you can always just not read the PPP posts if you don’t like them and don’t see what all the fuss is about?

Are you a postie that is sick and tired of people assuming you have sold out for a quick buck?

Are you thinking of joining the postie ranks but worried it is going to affect your readership?

What do you think?


15 comments:

Not From Lapland said...

I really don't know what to make of all this PPP posting. I would love to believe that my favourite bloggers that have started doing it are really telling me about things that they believe in, just passing on helpful info like a good freind...

But, I'm not sure I would completely trust a real 'in the flesh' friend's advise if I knew they were being payed to tell me about it so why would I trust these relative strangers?

All in all, it kind of tarnishes a blog for me. Sort of ruins it a little, diminishes it somehow and makes it that little less believable.

Nah, I don't think I'm a big fan. then again, if someone where to offer me reasonable money to do it (not €5 or €10 a go)I'm not sure I would say no.

Anonymous said...

As someone who does PPP ads I have taken to perusing a lot of the blogs that belong to other people that do the same and they run the gamut from sites that seem to be 50% ads (PPP requires that they write stuff that isn't just ads) all the way to brilliantly written stuff. 90% of blogs are garbage anyway, and I include myself in that 90%, but in some cases I have seen where bloggers have improved their writing skill and their audience because of the audience. They are more worried about their use of the English language as a whole and want to keep people coming back.

DirkStar said...

H-m-m-m-m...

I think I would have had a bit more respect for your courtesy email had it occurred before you included my blog as a part of your article rather than afterwards.

You are using my entire piece without my permission to promote your publication. This is not something I am entirely satisfied with.

If you were using selected quotes that would be one thing, but you are attempting to circumvent copyright laws by using a “Link”.

If you are not going to ask permission from authors to use their work, your publication will not make many friends and will simply wind up pulled by Blogspot because of copyright infringement.

If you wish to have my authorial voice participate in this project you have only to ask.

Which you did not.

I consider this to be piracy...

Anonymous said...

Pay per post is nothing more than the sponsored company using the internet for exposure. I see nothing wrong with posted one or two a day PPP on your blog to help pay for you interent conection or computer playment. It's worth the 3 minutes it takes to place it and if you don't want to read the review move on to the next post. The companies want Search engine optimization. That is why you must link the correct anchor text in your post. When the rest of the world types in "Jersey Insurance" , and there are 1500 blogs out there that have linked to a particular website using that anchor text. Then they get a higher spot in google or yahoo or where ever. I'd almost venture to say that you could post a bunch of jibberish, so long as the anchor text was right and you had enough links pointing to their site. It's an ingenius idea for the companies, for pay per post and for the bloggers. I do see the point of some of the anti-PPP bloggers, but in reality, even a hobie costs money and if there is an easy way to help defer that cost than I support it. Excuse any spelling errors in this coment...I also support spell check :)

BillyWarhol said...

Yeah it seems to be a Numbers Game*

;))

Not From Lapland said...

Link removed as requested.

We did not wish to offend.

Anonymous said...

you should really add a Digg button to your topics so you can gain more traffic to topics that you really want people to hear about...

Anonymous said...

That's a great idea (the Digg button)

Anonymous said...

I've dugg it at http://digg.com/tech_news/Selling_Your_Soul_or_Getting_What_s_Due

Not From Lapland said...

ok, need to look into this whole digg thing. whilst I am aware that it exists I don't really know very much more. Will go and check it out when I get some time.

Not From Lapland said...

yeah, i get that it is a sponser company etc and sure if people want to earn extra money then who am I to stop them...

Richard - did you say that you have actually seen peoples writing improve after taking on PPP? that is interesting as I have only seen the opposite. Could you give us some examples to look at?

The Curmudgeon said...

PPPP? That's short for PPP Posters: I say good for them!

I haven't done PPP myself... and I don't think I would... but I want to (someday) make money from the writing itself... not from the ads I have to write on the way....

Of course, if someone wants to buy space at my blog... I'm sure I'll find a way to write around you.

Anonymous said...

I've stopped subscribing to magazines that wove too much advertising into their article content. I wouldn't do pay-per-post and I wouldn't read anyone who did too much of it. Sites that are strictly review sites are more acceptable because they are what they say they are.

I don't mind advertising on any site as long as it doesn't blink and flash at me, and I will occasionally click through stuff to support the author, but I don't like to be sold too. If I'm interested in something, I'll go looking for it.

Anonymous said...

http://www.simplekindoflife.com/
http://imcupnjava.blogspot.com/
http://www.thesassysoutherner.com/
http://skeetsstuff.skeeterbess.com/

Those are a few.

I would say myself, but mine goes up and down. I seem to be doing quantity over quality lately.

Looking back at my posts from four years ago, yes they have improved greatly. Part of that is the fact that I have been doing it for awhile, and park of it is the fact that I WANT it to get better so am making an effort.

Not From Lapland said...

cool, I am so glad you backed that up with examples. I will go and have a good read in a while.

Featured Post and Blog of the Week



You Are Here

by Amie from
MammaLoves...


You did well in school to get into college. You tried to get by well enough in college to be attractive to an employer or graduate program, and along the way you may have opened your heart a time or two. Maybe you even found true love.

With a foot in the door, the first years of work were the time to
prove your mettle once again. Promotions, raises all with the goal to secure your future will allow you to settle down, buy a house, travel, commit to a relationship, have kids or not. In what feels like a blink of an eye, your future is here.

And now what?


Read the full post...

Chance Favors Only Those Who Court Her

by Debbie from Missives from Suburbia


After a less-than-friendly divorce, I was on the market again. Seizing the opportunity, my friends scoured their address books and Palm Pilots for single men and set me up on blind date after blind date. My reaction to most of those dates was, "I call these people my FRIENDS?" One of my real friends suggested Match.com, and given how much I love the Internet, I gave it a go.

A couple months of e-dating passed by in a blink. It was fun, but so far nothing meaningful had hit my radar, and my match inventory was starting to run low. You see, Match.com "matches" you to people based on a list of your requirements, and I'd pretty much run through all my existing matches who didn't seem psycho or stoned, based on their profiles.

Then, one day, I got an email from a guy who was not a match by my standards...

Read the full post...

A Lost Opportunity

by John from Altjiranga Mitjina


Trying to break in as a writer in the comic book industry can be a bit like the one legged man in a butt kicking contest. Every step forward you make means you land on your butt after your kick forward. Comic books are a visual medium. An artist can bring a portfolio to an editor at a convention and said editor can sit there and look at it within minutes and decide if this artist is worthy of working on the newest issue of Stupendous Man or not. Trying being a hopeful writer handing over a script to this same editor at a busy comic convention. You’ll be lucky if the editor agrees to take the script and promise that they’ll look at it later. Most times the hopeful writer is told to send for their submission guidelines and mail in their proposal.

The best way for a writer is to find an aspiring artist and hook up...

Read the full post...

Jesus Toothpaste!

by Karen Rayne from Adolescent Sexuality Today with Karen Rayne, Ph.D.


This weekend I went out of town, leaving my family to fend for themselves. On Saturday, my darling husband took my two darling daughters – 6 and 3 years old – to what he heard was a fun new toy store in town. Great, right?

They walk in the door, and the 6-year-old pipes up with “Look, Daddy! Jesus toothpaste!” He takes one look, puts one hand on each girl’s shoulder, and does a 180 out of the store. It may be a fun new toy store, but it’s intended clientele does not include the under-13 set.

When I got home on Sunday, the first thing the 6-year-old says to me was, “Guess what! We saw Jesus toothpaste!” I blinked, figuring I hadn’t heard her correctly. Regrettably, I had...

Read the full post...

A biker, a green thumb, a cracked hand, and a Queen.

by Megan from Velveteen Mind, originally guest posted at Queen of Spain


A random biker on a Harley-Davidson took my picture last week. What I wanted to do was take his picture, but I hesitated. Now, instead of a photo of some random biker holding an i am bossy.com bumper sticker, all I have is a lame photo of me holding the bumper sticker and the mental picture of him riding off into the sunset, never to be seen again.

Okay, it wasn’t as romantic or dramatic as that. It was nine in the morning and there was no sunset.

This is not the first time that I have hesitated to seize an opportunity. I don’t expect it will be the last. However, I hope with each lost chance for something intriguing, I will lose a shade of that hesitation for next time...

Read the full post...